Diving Mabul and Semporna (Apr. 6, 7, 8, 2015)

Apr. 6, 2015

Today I went diving to the Sipadan Barrier Reef, which was great. I won’t go into all the fish and marine life I saw, but will tell you that I was with Cinta, and Geir again, so we had a great time. Cinta and I were leaving after the third dive, to go to Semporna. Geir would meet us in Semporna the next day, as he wass going to Sipadan tomorrow, and we will already be there. 

It’s nice to dive with the same people and get to know them a bit. I found out that Geir is a banker in Norway, but I think I told you that already. I also found out that Cinta is a Tax Lawyer in Spain and is presently doing her Masters in Sociology to do Human Rights Law, hopefully for some NGO, in another part of the world, where there is good diving. I thought that was cool and applaud her for it. She calls me her little Canadian Unicorn Fish because of my funky hair do, to keep the hair out of my face, while diving. You’ve seen it, and I’ll post it again when I have good WiFi.

So after our last dive, our luggage was already down at the jetty, and we pretty much boarded the boat and left for Semporna. I had already said my goodbyes to my favourite local dive masters, and the staff that work at the resort. They were all so very sweet and made my time there incredibly memorable. 

The trip back to Semporna took about 50 minutes and I just sat on the boat contemplating the wonderful experience I just had, at the Mabul Beach Resort, and diving in Sipadan. What a fantastic time and opportunity I have had to meet such interesting people and share so many amazing underwater sights with Mother Nature. Happily, I also reflected that it’s not over yet, because I was hopeful that there would be enough people to go to some of the northern islands to dive, that are only accessed by the Semporna Dive Boats. It's still Scuba Junkie, but too far from Mabul to go to these islands on a day trip from there. 

We pulled into the harbour and took out stuff off the boat. Still in our wet diving clothes, we walked the short distance to the Scuba Junkie Lodge, which is the dorm and hotel. Yeah, air conditioning and not many people in the room. I was pleased, and so was Cinta. The first night we had four in the room, including us, then the second night, only Cinta and me. It was great.

We had an early night, as I have been doing for two straight weeks because I’m so tired at the end of each day. It was nice to eat some dinner that wasn’t the regular resort food, which after a week gets a bit tiring as they do the same thing each day of the week. We went to a local restaurant and I had a Tom Yum Soup and she had Mie Goreng which is noodles and chicken. Both were great and put a perfect end to our day.

Apr. 7, 2015

Well, luck was on my side because there were enough people to go to one of the northern islands today. An island called Mantabuan. It was untouched, and not many people have dived there so the coral is incredible and so are the fish. I was shocked at how lush the coral gardens were and how colourful. It was a great day diving with Cinta, and we saw many wonderful sights. We ate lunch on the boat, docked at the beach of this lovely island.

• Pic of Mantabuan island

On the way to the island, there were lots of uninhabited places along the way, with sandy white beaches, and crystal blue water with palm trees poking into the sky when you looked at them. Absolutely amazing and super pretty. A very different perspective than the boat rides around Mabul and Sipadan. I’m glad that I got a chance to see this. 

- pics along boat ride

There were again, lots of healthy coral gardens and lovely reefs with billions of reef fish to see. I found it so interesting that Mother Nature paints such beautiful pictures under the sea. For example, when we passed a huge coral growth that was pink, the fish that hang out there were green. Another coral was brown, and the fish hanging out there, were blue. The third one I saw was a deep red coral with purple fish hanging out in it. So beautiful and perfectly matched. There were also other fish and marine species to see, and we had no shortage of interesting sights.

After diving, Cinta and I went next door to the bar, where everyone goes after diving, to use the internet and have a drink. There were many Westerners there, and all the Dive Masters. It’s a friendly local bar, and by this time, Geir had come over from Mabul and was showering so that we could all have a last meal together.

We decided to have seafood, as this is a port town and we thought it would be fantastic. I asked Lisa, the woman at the front desk, where to go, and she told me ‘Fat Mom’s’ just overlooking the water. We walked over there and found a string of restaurants overlooking the water. However, there was only one that was packed to capacity. We had found Fat Mom’s. We got a table, but had to share it with another couple as there were many people waiting and not enough tables. That was fine, as it was a huge round table.

We ordered Sweet and Sour Prawns, Mixed Garlic Fish, and Barbecued Lamb. There was also a ginger and onion vegetable dish with seaweed, that was just fantastic. All the dishes were amazing, and we polished off everything. They include watermelon and a rice custard, for dessert, which was nice. Dinner was really fun and we all enjoyed chatting around the table on our last night together.

Geir and Cinta were catching the taxi in the morning to go to Tawau airport. They were both on the same flight back to Kuala Lumpur, and were going to share a hotel for one night before each departed to their respective destinations. Oh, I think Cinta was not going directly to Barcelona, but instead, to Koh Tao to visit her sister, who lives there. Then she was going back home.

Another early night ended this day, after I got some videos off of Geir’s Go Pro collection of several dives we all did together. He was very sweet to allow me to have them, and I was happy to go through his raw footage and choose quite a few that I wanted.

Geir and Cinta also signed my memory book before leaving for bed, as I thought we might not have time in the morning. Geir wrote his bit in Norweigan and read it to me. He was happy to have met me, and enjoyed the diving together. I am welcome in Norway anytime. Nice man.

Apr. 8, 2015

I wasn’t sure if they would have enough people to visit another of the northern islands, but as luck would have it, they did. Today we went to another island called Sibuan. I got to dive with a local guy that some of the locals had recommended to me, from Mabul. His name was Pajan, and he had eagle eyes, and a real love for diving. 

On our boat ride out to the island, we saw a huge dark cloud, with a funnel coming down from it. OK, rain, we thought, then it just teamed down, and the funnel cloud got stronger. Suddenly, we had passed it, and were out of it, though it was like a tornado, for several minutes. Truly weird and spooky, but ok, as it passed.

• pic of funnel cloud and rain storm

Again, we arrived at a beautiful, uninhabited island that we would be diving around for the day. There were many things to see, but Pajan outdid himself and found us a huge white Frog Fish, that moved, which is really cool because they rarely do. It shows off the details in their webbed feet, and how they move. This is definitely the way they got their name. Truly weird but lovely creatures. Then he found us a Ghost Pipefish, which is not very common, and usually blended in with reeds or vegetation. This one was hovering beside a rock so we could get a good look at it. Neither of these creatures I had seen before. Well, the Frog Fish, yes, but not this large, or in white. Both were really cool.

One of our dives, we saw the largest cuttlefish I have ever seen. I thought it was a diver swimming in the distance, got closer, and realized it was a cuttlefish swimming, and it was about 1 meter long, which is massive for a cuttlefish. It was really cool.

We also saw many of the regular things, but the site was so undisturbed that it was fantastic. I really enjoyed the day.

When I got back, I showered and met up with Lena, who was coming to Semporna for one overnight, on her way home. We ate dinner together with another girl, early 20’s, from Montreal, named Daria. We had the best chicken roti for dinner, which was not at all what I thought it would be, but was delicious. The three of us chatted and ate, then I walked Lena to her hotel, came back to my place, and crashed. 

Tomorrow I had hoped to do Mantaking Island, the third and final northern island, but they didn’t have enough people to go, so we are going to the Mabul area, which of course I’ve dived, but maybe we’ll go to a site I haven’t been to, or one that I really liked. It’s my last day of diving, so I don’t care where we go. One more time, then I’ll pack it in for a while. What a fantastic run of dives I’ve had. SO lucky.