Diving off Mabul and Sipadan

Well, just briefly a summary of the city-life before we went to the Semporna archipelago in Borneo… Singapore was about working (Iris), meeting Michelle *smiley smiling* , having some nice food, buying the usual Singapore souvenir (a dress for Iris) and special this time: Getting some proper cough stopping medicine (also for Iris)… KL was again about working (actually for both of us), recovering from the cold and opening an account at a jewelery supply wholesaler (both later tasks only for Iris) *smiley winking*

Then, finally, we took the plane to Tawau where two cool guys with extra stylish sunglasses took us through endless palm oil plantations towards Semporna, the gateway to divers paradise.

The boat ride was bumpy but no sea-sickness issues at all *relieved smile*. After lunch one of the diverholics instructors explained us with lots of enthusiasm which type of fish, nudibranches, crabs etc. we will most likely find (if we are lucky). Then we jumped in and found a divers paradise with lots of small and colorful stuff. It is really interesting how another color of nudibranch or another extra tiny but not really common crab excited the instructors (all non-Malay guys who do the job in this place for a few months to dive there every day and then move on). We also got a bit of the fever and did 3 dives a day *smiley smiling*

In Mabul and Kapalai there are large lagoons where we found really nice corals (however not as colorful as in the red sea) with lots of colorful fish (including puffer, crocodile, stone, sweetlip, fire and lots of different anemone fish), tiny crabs, nudibranches and lots of turtles. Sometimes quite strong current so we saw everything in kind of express mode and when I saw something I really wanted to take a picture of I had to swim against the current which took quite some air… so be aware that those pictures were really tough to take *smiley winking*

In Sipadan however, the under water world looks different. Yes, you can also find the small stuff, but as Sipadan is situated in the deep see (has almost vertical drops of 500 meter and more) there is biiiiig fish as well and huge schools of fish, e.g. schools of barracudas, napoleon fish, also turtles and lots of sharks. Yes, lots of them: we saw around 20 (we stopped counting even during the first dive)… The structure of Sipadan is amazing with those extreme drop offs, however way too many divers although the access is regulated and you need to get one of the limited day permits to be allowed to dive there…

Luckily my cough was almost gone and with some mint and the regulator in the mouth I managed not to waste too much air with coughing… so we got our full hour dives and the days were quite busy with it… Once we went into the fisher village at Mabul and supported the local economy with increasing the demand in coconut and pineapple *smiley smiling*

Enjoy a very tiny selection of our island pictures…