My Tripadan to Sipadan aug 17-23

[jdsmith]

I flew in from Taiwan on an early morning MH flight. Got bumped to business class, which was very nice. Landed in KK, and was met by a couple of guys from Borneo Divers who gave me the printouts for the connecting flight from KK to Tawau. Once there, met then by the van driver who drove me and others to Semporna. Nice drive through the humongous palm tree plantations.

Met a family and couple at the docks and we all shipped out to Mabul. Nice ride out and informative as one of the BD staff described the islands, sea gypsy boats, seaweed farmers and islands full of wild boar. The couple was returning to mabul, aftfer she had been stung by a bluespotted ray on the foot. Mental note not to walk barefoot in the water....

Once you get to BDs they bring you in to the conference room and give you an orientation. The resort looks nice, very well kept and the staff were friendly. However, the guy says that we'll be doing our orientation dive the following day. "That's not cool," says I, as I got there on the early flight specifically so that I would be able to dive the day of arrival.

This did not turn out to be much of a problem...for me anyway. The guide told me that my name wasn't on the board and next time to make sure it was. I was paying extra for this dive though, so I didn't give it much thought.

DIVE ONE: Jumped on a boat and went out to lobster Wall for a night dive. Overweighted, but not too badly. There was no real current to speak of, and just a slow drift alongside the the wall. Eel here and these giant crabs with what looked like white towels wrapped around their heads.

The guide then boops her UW horn and I turn to my left and come face to face, literally, with a giant green sea turtle. It was truly enormous, and would have fit on my dining room table. It was also about 1 meter away from me.

Cool way to set the tone for the trip. Some other stuff, but the turtle memory kind of blocks it out. Went back, ate dinner and had a rum and coke or two and went to bed.

TBC

 

[xariatay]

nice read! keep it going...

 

[jdsmith]

So, before the trip I'd been watching a promotional dvd by Sipadan Divers and lots and lots of Blue Planet to get up to speed on what I'd be seeing. It really came in handy.

I dove with the family of Americans the following day, and we did 3 dives in Mabul, as the permit situation, we were told, could be iffy, and they tried to get everyone ok'ed before going...more on that later.

Mabul is fantastic and lacks only the big pelagics that Sipadan offers. DIVE TWO: Back to Lobster Wall and drift the opposite direction. I gear up fast and was in the water first on most dives, and this time spotted a turtle from the surface. Nice. I headed down the wall right behind the guide and spooked a blue spotted ray about a meter in front of my face. Zooooom! Out it went. The group stretched out and I got kind of lost in the middle with the folks in front and behind just out of viz range. This because I followed a turtle for a few meters, and then another one. I knew where we were going, with the current, so I wasn't much concerned. I worked out some buoyancy bugs and got a long close up look at a pair of fire gobies, and a fantastic fist sized yellow frog fish. It was like an eraser that you stick on the end of a fat pencil. I was surprised at the SIZE of the titan trigger fish. We have them in Taiwan, but damn...not like that. Nice dive.

DIVE 3: Ray Point. There are no rays at ray point in the morning. That is due to the sea gypsies hunting them down. They were drying on the roofs of their boats. However, there were turtles...everywhere. At least a dozen on the dive, coming off the reef, snoozing in the coral wall. Greens and hawk billed. A bigass bumphead parrot fish chomped coral at 35meters and I kept thinking, tomorrow, in Sipadan, I'll be seeing a lot more of those. Other niceites included a pale moray eel wrapped up inside a giant leaf coral. coool. GREAT dive!.

DIVE 4:Old HOuse Reef/Paradise1 and 2. It isn't. This is the famous "muck" dive. It shouldn't be. They train the OW students here. They can have it. The other divers were literally dragging their feet and kicking up a storm of muck. I know you're not supposed to criticize other divers, but damn...drop some weight and hover. The coral is ALL broken there and not a soft coral in sight. I did see and "herd" a couple of long horned cow fish back towards the others. yeeha. There was also a little ray that was bent up on the sand, its wing tips down and body up. I went over to check it out and saw that it had a friggin HOOK in its mouth. There was no way I could or would remove it and I just pointed it out to the guide. Then it swam away and we saw it dragging a line from the hook and a sinker. The weight plowed through the sandy bottom. SO, that was a bummer and I was thinking about my R&C and my balcony...then the guide booped and we ran into a HUGE turtle, nestled next to a thick rope net that had been overgrown with soft corals. Then another one, and then ANOTHER one. All the size of my dinner table.

When I surface, I said to the son of the American couple, "Three giant turtles are a GREAT way to save a ****ty dive!"

Day two ended nicely, but I had a roommate now, a Japanese guy who spoke about zero words of English. We smiled and that was that.

MOre later. back to work. I do this so I can do that.

 

[jdsmith]

Day Three, Tuesday:

So, I didn't sleep for crap Monday night, because I kept thinking my alarm clock, which is in Chinese, wouldn't go off. I got up every hour or so and checked it last at 2:30AM. It was set to go off at 5 and then to the boast by 5:30 for a day at Sipadan. The Japanese roomie didn't mind, as he slept through the entire night and the last thing I heard from him was a short purge from his posterior.:shocked2:

The dawn was cloudy and rainy ahead. There was a great rainbow off to the left as we closed in on Sipadan. It was gorgeous.

Then it turned to crap. They wouldn't issue permits, and to this day, after repeatedly questioning the guides and the staff, I still don't know why. This is serious problem, and in the case of the family diving, vacation ruining as they were set to leave the following day.

However, despite not being allowed to set foot on the beach, or the jetty, they did allow us to do two dives.

DIVE 5: Barracuda Point. We were bummed but once I got in the water and looked down and saw the swarmming jacks, I got unbummed very fast. I was waiting for the others to get in and said, "Can we go?" Yes. I dropped down to 15m, saw a turtle breaking through the jacks on the bottom, and then they began to tornado. Sweet. I finned over and went right up inside. That is seriously one wild experience.

I got out so someone else could have a go, and went over to the wall. A huge grey reef shark swam under at about 35m. It was as long as my sofa. Some white tips swam back and forth, and some were resting on the bottom. We cut across to the channel and the guide found us a sea moth, which was small, and very cool. Then we ran into the barracuda wall. I got up next to it, and they immediately started to circle around me.

bad feeling totally gone.

DIVE 6: Hanging Garden. After a boatbound break where we swam and killed time watching turtles break the surface of the water, we headed to HW.We drifted down with the wall on our left, and then turned around and came back. On the way, there were turtles chopping the wall, sitting inside the holes they had made, giant trevally, and right at the turnaround LOTS of WT reefies, and lots of juvenile greys. A few WTs were chasing a jack that had gotten separated from the herd.

At the end of the dive, there were at least 6 turtles swimming around. No one wanted to leave, and the American folks were noticeably upset at not being able to do their 4 "guaranteed dives."

we headed back to Mabul and did another dive at eel Garden:
DIVE 7: This place is a sleeper. It's really nice, with lots of macro goodies. I'd been pestering the guides to spot me a crocodile fish. We dropped, she booped. Croc fish done. lol

A turtle hiding in the corals, big purple frog fish, stone fish, a blue spotted ray hiding in the coral with his tail hanging out. That was cool. And the eels hanging out in the sand. It was a pleasant dive.

After hanging out in the sun waiting for the permits, and then not being able to sit in the shade between Sipadan dives, I was pooped. We complained at the desk when we returned, and my reward was that I got a room to myself for the rest of the week, and I was BACK on the Sipadan boat the next day. saweeet.

 

[xariatay]

Thanks for the report! Wish u have photos too! U must have really good memory to be able to remember all the details.
Sad to hear abt the rays...However, the sea gyspies do have the right to eat whatever they can catch. Lots of S'poreans love eating stingrays - grilled & topped with lots of sambal chilli! :-(
Just read the wikipedia, strange that they mentioned S'pore in the food section Stingray - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[jdsmith]

Thanks for the report! Wish u have photos too! U must have really good memory to be able to remember all the details.
Sad to hear abt the rays...However, the sea gyspies do have the right to eat whatever they can catch. Lots of S'poreans love eating stingrays - grilled & topped with lots of sambal chilli! :-(

I never really liked the taste of ray...too chewy. No photos, but I like to think I take good notes after.

So, after "missing" two dives at Sipadan, I tried my best to make Resort management aware of my fear of missing out again. There was a couple on that boat who had been denied permits 3 times during their stay! ouch Management said there wouldn't be a problem, and said that not only would I be on the Sipadan boat the next morning, but that my room, a double, would be a single for the rest of my stay. Can't beat that.

Back to Sipadan: DIVE 8: Barracuda Point
Nice big school of bumphead parrot fish at the entry, with one small white tip reefers swimming below them. After watching Blue Planet so many times, I was waiting for one the BHPF to poop out some coral sand...to no avail.

The wall drift down the canyon was kind of low key and not much going on, but we were met by a nice barracuda swarm. I got up close to them, but they weren't doing the tornado thing that day. Someone spotted a huge moray eel, and a desk sized dog toothed tuna zipped by us. Couple of small turtles and a few sharks.

Hour break on Sipadan, coffee and cake. DIVE 9 Mid Reef
Perhaps the worst dive of the whole trip; but at least it was long. One shark along the wall, and the coral forest on the top of the reef was cool, with some christmas tree worms poking out of the larger corals. Some cool looking tubes worms...and some dynamite bombing going on somewhere close by. We could feel the vibrations.

Break on the beach: DIVE 10 Hanging Garden
Second dive here and a great one. Very nice coral displays on the wall. Sharks coming off the reef and swimming back and forth below. Free swimming turtles out in the open water on the leftf and coming off the top of the reef and gliding down on the right. A big school of frozen bat fish that I thought were dead for a moment.

The best part of the dive was watching an Italian women swim right up next to a small turtle. I was about 5 meters about her. She looked at it. It looked at her. It was wonderful to see, and I looked back and saw that nearly the whole group was watching them. What she didn't know was that 4 meters to her left a white tip reef shark was keeping time with them. They all swam at the same speed for about 50 meters. VERY nice dive.

Dive sleep dive sleep dive: DIVE 11 Drop Off
Turtles on the surface. This is a great wall, dropping and sloping off at about 6070 meters. Great viz. HUGE turtles coming off the wall in a line like UFOs invading. There were two dive groups there, and we turned back. Good thing, as when we went nack around the corner, we saw more turtles there than people in our group (10).

had great buoyancy working and got super close to giant resting turtles, and the end of the dive was watching two giant turtles mating near the surface. GREAT way to end the dive.

And I was tired as hell. Heard back on Mabul that the other group had spotted a zebra shark after they left us. Cool.

<sorry this is taking so long to complete...workworkwork>

 

[Flian]

good post, thanks

 

[jdsmith]

OK, I hope I can finish this today as the trip was almost a month ago, and the minds wanders....

Thursday was my second to last day of diving, and i slept late as I knew I'd be diving Mabul. My name was NOT on the board and I did some running around to see which boat I could jump on and then more running to find the boat.

I got aboard a boat finally and we went over to Panglima Reef. This is a GREAT macro dive. LOTS of nudis, a nice big octopus hiding in a cave, a big moray in a cave that I got see upside down; a very big stonefish.

The nudis were spectacular and I didn't dive anywhere else on this trip where there were so many; I counted, or stopped counting the different kinds after 10. Some nice xmas tree worms settled into larger sponges and corals. There was a nice sleeping turtle on the wall. and loose eel that I saw from the surface at the end of the dive. I also caught site of a blue spotted ray from the top. Apparently, I'd used a lot of air being upside down...or it was general fatigue from doing so many dives all week.

There was also some new coral and anemone growth down around 30 meters and I mentioned to the guide that this site was going to be truly fantastic in a few years.

Back to the resort and more running around trying to get on a boat. I kept missing one, going back to see which boat was left, going back out to find that that one too had just left. Blurgh. I finally got on the early afternoon boat and went back out to lobster wall for the third time. More nice nuids, as LW is just down the block from Panglima reef; nice green turtle and a hawk billed turtle crunching away at the coral, knocking off nudis from the top of the small cave he was creating. That was cool.

Got up close to a anemone and a clown fish came out to harass me. I noticed a VERY large clown fish that was red, dark red with the strips in the right places. Weird, and much more aggressive than the little one.

Back to the resort and I found that I was too tired to dive and couldn't sleep, so I sat on the balcony and read my book. I walked around the island again. There is a serious feral cat problem they need to deal with...and the dogs will become a problem too if they can't control it.

Friday came, the last diving day, and back to Sipadan again for four more dives. I was really tired by this time, but the adrenaline rush kept me going. I BEGGED the guide not to take us to Mid Reef...I believe I promised him my soul...ooops.

And we went to South POint. I got in fast and caught a turtle to my right and a white tip swimming over the edge of the reef down below. Ho hum... I was with a group of divers from Beijing this time, and when we cruised over the first turtle sitting pretty on the reef, they approached like a full frontal assault, poking it with their GD rods, petting its head and shell. I swam up to the guide to call his attention to them. I did not want to kill my own buzz by watching them accost anything else, so I got far ahead and stayed there. A great turtle UFO from above flyby and a couple of white tips. Not a lot of action, but a nice dive.

The guide reminded every again on the boat about NOT touching the turtles, and warned one guy about hanging out at 40meters for 15 minutes.

back to Sipadan beach. I slept. I woke up and dove.

Barracuda Point. Turtles on entry and several open water swimming turtles. A huge file fish was busy eating a jellyfish, and I watched that close up for a while. There were not barracuda this time. Not a one. Some small WTreefies sitting at 30 meters. I followed a small WT reefer and wasn't paying attention to what was ahead and ran into 5 white tips all sitting at the bottom. I pulled up short and sat crossed legged in the water five meters above them for 10 minutes while they swam around and circled. It was absolutely fantastic.The Beijingers were having fun as well, and all of them banging away at their tanks with their pokersticks.

I ran into and followed a HUGE pufferfish. It would have fit in the backseat of my car. More sharks circling at the end of the dive. Awesome dive.


back to the beach. Eat. Sleep. Wake. Dive

"I wouldn't mind doing Barracuda Point again!" I suggested. And so we did.

Big school of jacks on entry, unicorn and juvenile unicorns at the surface; big barracuda swimming by and small schools of them. Down around 25 meters a very big grey reef shark swam by. WOW. The biggest one of the trip. A nice train of white tips went back and forth along the drop off. Lots of turtles taking off and landing. A big school of bump head parrot fish, chomping coral and pooping sand all over the place; and a small white tip sleeping on the bottom. I got right up close to his face and watched him respire. Then I saw his teeth glinting in the sunlight and got the willies and cleared out. The dive ended when I saw the biggest turtle of the trip swim off the reef out to sea.

5 star dive. I was speechless on the boat.

Beach. Sleep. Wake. Dive

Hanging Garden. The last dive. I was already so high from the dives we'd done that day I wasn't expecting much. dropped in and saw 1, no, 2,no, 3, nope, 4 turtles for the surface, one only meters away from me.

This was a very long drift the opposite direction I went last time. My buoyancy was perfect and I stood in the water at 20 meters or so, and didn't think. I was up in the front and the current pulled me around a corner and into a small cavernish type thing in the wall, a bend I guess, and small WT reefer was circling around inside. Had that view all to myself. BIg smile. WT reef sharks went back and forth undnerneath us, some beautiful juvenile greys, turtles on the wall, scorpion fish, a big dog toothed tuna.

The guide was blowing air rings in the water ahead of me. Seems like he thought it was nice too.

6 star dive.

So, all in all, I did 17 dives in a week. IMHO the place stands up to its reputation. There is talk that it's too commercialized now, but hey, what do you expect? I met and chatted and had a great time with folks from France, the US, South Africa, China, and Italy, not to mention hanging out with the staff of Borneo DR and chatting with the general manager.

The diving was not exactly tough, and I felt the diving in Taiwan is actually more physically challenging and demanding of one's skills, but as a vacation place, and a place to take the kids when they start diving...it's great.

I hope to go back.

 

[OnTheSpot]

Wow, what a great report. Thanks for sharing