Sipadan - Day 2

Whenever I mentioned the word Sipadan, many would give me the ‘where is this place’ look.

Taken the following off a brochure: Sipadan is actually located Southern Asia Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, and five degrees north of the equator in the Sulawesi Sea (Celebes Sea). It is an oceanic island and was formed by living corals growing on top of an extinct undersea volcano, which rises 600m from the seabed.

The place I stay at is Kapalai Island, a sand bar sitting on top of the reef known as the Ligitan reefs, a very extensive stretch bordering the deep and vast Celebes sea. Sipadan - Kapalai dive resort is actually a water village style resort built above the water.

For the amount you pay for this place, there must be good stuffs, isn’t it? Given 3 boat dives to either Sipadan/Mabul/Kapalai each day & unlimited shore dives. The ‘garang’ me want to do as much dives as I can!

But time was rather rushed today, so I did only 4 dives…

The 1st dive, which was the checkout dive, was a little messed up? Can you just imagine 16 divers charging to the same area at the same time? It was rather chaotic as all of us are of different standards. Water visibility wasn’t that fantastic either as not only many hit the sandy bottom, which created sand storm and also the tides were coming in. And so I decided that I would probably go to the back of the group so I can see more & spend more times taking pictures.

2nd dive was good too as it was almost effortless as all of us were just drifting with the flow of current! Nah…I still required lotsa strength in order to fight against the mild currents, wanting to take pics!!!

3rd dive was at Kapalai – mid reef & there were plenty to see…

4th dive was at Kapalai’s House reef, the Mandarin Valley… which I thought, was the best accomplishment so far! I went for a night dive with 4 other gal divers without my instructor! Well, I do keep in mind what Lawrence had taught me and really use the knowledge taught into good use (not that I don’t for my other dives..hehe!) But it’s different! I’ve got to make sure all of us stay within sight, make sure tat they are ok at all times and yet trying to spot stuffs in the dark! Not only that, all the safety stuffs got to come in, all the safety stuffs got to come in…such as beware of dangerous marine life, the duration in the waters, depth, etc. Dang, it's a good training to be a Dive Master isn't it? HAHA!

The funny thing was that I felt cold in the waters and wanted to sneeze. You people would have known that I’m famous for multiple sneezes and sneezing in the waters??? Challenging!!! But nah... I was holding it and using mind power not to sneeze.

P.S: Pictures & more information on the dives come later as I did not bring my camera cable & marine life identification book.

Cheers! We’ll head to dive at Sipadan Island tomorrow! Yippee!

Thinking of you…