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Part 3 - Sipadan

Sipadan enjoyes a reputation as one of the world's top diving spots, with large schools of fish. Because we had booked at the last minute, we ended up diving off Semporna, a small village in mainland Borneo - as opposed to staying in Mabul or Kapalai, two islands which are closer to Sipadan. We actually preferred that, as this would give us the option of checking out some local food and life, as opposed to spending the entire time cooped up in a resort (more on that later).

We had initially called a dive centre called Scuba Junkies, who only had 1 day out of 4 available for us. Then we spoke to North Borneo Divers, who were a little more expensive but able to accommodate us for all 4 days. We took a taxi from Sukau and got into Semporna in the evening. Jerry, the owner of North Borneo, had made bookings for us at the Dragon Inn, a large hotel built on stilts over the water (Semporna Water Village, anyone?). Rooms were comfy and airconned, and within a two-minute walk of the dive centre, which was also in the same complex of buildings.

We ended up getting very lucky, as our boat has 3 divers on the first day (including the two of us), and 4 divers on the second. The last 2 days, we had the boat and Jeff, the guide, to ourselves. The Dutch couple and another acquaitance we bumped into in Semporna were diving with another operator, Scuba Junkies, and reported busier boats. So I am glad we ended up diving with North Borneo.

Trips left Semporna at 8:30am, and it was a 35 min boat ride to Sipadan - so not a big deal at all. North Borneo loaded on a large rinse tank for me to use, and we spent the surface interval between dives on Sipadan or Mabul, depending on where we were diving. And the way they planned their dives, we hardly saw any other divers while in the water. Oh yeah!

We did our first 2 days of dives in Sipadan, which totally lived up to its billing. Turtles were everywhere. I mean, literally everywhere. Reef sharks were very common as well. We encountered a large school of several hundred barracuda swam overhead at Barracuda Point. The next dive got us close and personal to many sleeping white tips and I got buzzed by a grey reef shark. I was literally in sensory overload, as a photo opportunity presented itself everywhere I looked and the hard part was figuring out where to point the camera!

The second day, one of my Inon Z240 strobes stopped working, showing condensation and water inside the flash head. That put an end to my wide angle shooting, as a single strobe was not adequate for lighting the angle of coverage of my fisheye zoom. And as luck turns out, it was on this day - when I had left the camera behind - that we encountered a big school of jacks sheltering against the wall, while 7-8 sharks circled and hunted an octopus below us. Absolutely amazing, and we spent more than half the dive just hovering in place, admiring the action.

The next two days were macro days. We dived Kapalai and Mabul on the first day, and only Mabul on the second - two areas which are fast developing a reputation as being among the top macro sites in the world, comparable to Lembeh and other destinations. From a photography point of view, this was the most productive part of the trip. Thanks to the keen eyes of our guide, I saw a lot of critters that I had never seen before - and thanks to being able to go at our own pace, I was able to spend the time & effort needed to get the photos I wanted as well.

The house reef on Kapalai was very interesting, as it included a submerged man-made system of columns and beams on top of which rested various lionfish, scorpionfish and frogfish. I also got to see my first orang-utan crabs in Mabul, as well a mind-boggling array of nudibranches, shrimps, crabs and pipefish.

For me, these were the most enjoyable dives I have done in ages. As someone who still prefers diving wrecks to reefs, I find that unless there is something special, most reef dives tend to blur together (as happened in Layang Layang, for example). However, the thrill of searching for little critters is something that does not grow old - especially when the little critters come in such an amazing array of shapes, colors and sizes.

We do get critters in the Andamans, and weve located ghost pipefish, skeleton shrimp, mantis shrimps and a lot more there. However, diving a macro paradise like Mabul was in a diffferent league altogether.

There was, however, one big blip in this whole event. While diving the platforms of the Seaventures oil rig, we came across a group of divers who were literally kicking and grabbing Gorgonian sea fans in an attempt to find pygmy seahorses, lifting up and re-arranging nudibranches, and a lot more. It was positively infuriating, and both Pritha & I were getting increasingly agitated with this group. For my part, Jeff, our guide, showed me a pygmy seahorse and I was struggling to shoot it without a focus light and doubled over a seafan, In about 10 minutes, I managed only 3 shots and used up over 80 bar (!!!), but finally got a shot that I think was worth the trouble.

Other than diving, there really was not a whole lot to do in Semporna. Dragon Inn, where we were staying had a very nice restaurant built on stilts over the water, but rather uninspiring food. So we regularly made our way over to Scuba Junkies bar to get pizza and beverages. One experiment with local dining later, we were back there for the next meal. So much for our plan of seeing local sights and trying local cuisine! Funnily, on our last day, we bumped into Mark, who had done his Open Water course at our dive centre a year and a half ago and who had become a wandering diver since, logging over 200 dives in Asia and Africa. Earlier, in Layang Layang, Pritha had bumped into the DM who she had dived with in the Similans. Talk about a small world!

Finally, it was all over and we flew back to Kuala Lumpur to meet Adi & Shamolee and stuff ourselves with excellent pasta, sausages and a fine Chianti for dinner. The next day, we were on the flight home - satisfied after an enjoyable holiday (my first diving holiday in almost 5 years) and secure in the realization that Sipadan is almost "local diving" for us. We will be back there again, for sure!

GEAR USED, CONCLUSIONS & MORE PHOTOS...