It has been 3 months since I last updated my Friendster blog. Now here I am again, to jot a couple more trips to be shared with my fellow friends. For month of July, I managed to arrange time to dive at Sipadan. This time, more people and more ‘extraordinary’ people were joining this trip. Before I start to write, I would like to express gratitude to my new friends…Cik Din, Tan, Lim (Tan’s wife), Cha’am, Sabri, T-rex, Aidie and Al-Azahary..for making this trip memorable. Of course, I shouldn’t drop Maniza from the divers list. U guys are just awesome fellows.
Well, as early as 3 am on 17th July, we (Maniza,, Aidie and I ) took a bus to LCCT from KL Sentral. Actually, our real plan was to catch a midnight bus ride but it all happened that the last bus service was at 10.30 pm. That meant, we have to wait for couple more hours at KL Sentral until 3 am. Sigghhh…but not a big deal though because KL Sentral is actually a kind of cool place to sit and chit chat. Our flight was at 7.20 so that means we have to wait for 4 hours at LCCT. There were so many people…and most of these people slept soundly on the benches, and I had to remain awake with extreme sleepiness. Around 6.30 pm, all other divers from Terengganu arrived LCCT and we checked in together.
Flight to Tawau took around 2.30 hours. We arrived Tawau airport and greeted by the SCUBAJUNKIE staff. We dumped our stuff in a car and a van. From Tawau, we have to travel to Semporna..and that took another 1 to 1.30 hours. Along the journey to Semporna, T-Rex was the one to make us remain awake with all his jokes. It’s good to know new people.
We arrived Semporna and checked in at the Scubajunkie backpacker. Later, we had our lunch and get ourselves out from our rooms. Semporna is actually a small town, so we managed to completely explore the town in a short while. It’s such a waste as we couldn’t do any dives that day. So basically, we had nothing much to do on our arrival to Semporna.
18th July 2008
Diving Sipadan is just every diver's dream. Being there for the 2nd time didn’t mean I had nothing to enjoy there. I was excited…really excited. By the way, this 2nd trip, I didn’t have to rent the equipments since I have already bought mine. It should be much better diving with own equipment. From my past experience where the BCD hose didn’t function that well, I think diving should be fun to the max without having to think about this kind of flaws.
So, to start the dive, we descend at Hanging Garden, Sipadan. It was not a pleasant feeling to see the water appeared green. According to Kay (our female divemaster), that happened due to spawning of the corals. I felt a bit uncomfortable but for the sake of enjoying the dives, I just jumped in without any fuss. There was nothing much to see as I remembered. I believed there were so many things down there but when u keep on wobbling down there, and ur BCD didn’t fit u that well…definitely u would give attention to yourself rather than the surroundings. Bottom time was around 35 minutes if not mistaken.
Second dive was at Barracuda Point. As expected, school of batfish, school of jacks and school of Barracuda were seen. Current wasn’t that strong..or perhaps, very minimal, so the barracudas didn’t form a swirl as what most divers wanted to see. Rather, they swim slowly towards south and it was like a very intense moment. Now I remember, I didn’t get the chance to see that school of barracuda on my 1st trip to Sipadan.
And 3rd dives was at Turtle Point. We went to the cave that most divers talk about. Definitely we didn’t explore the cave as we didn’t have the experts to do so. We were visiting the mouth of the cave and experience the feeling to approach the cave. It was quite a panic moment for me as I hate darks or gloomy conditions. For a couple of minutes, we went out and proceed. There was a big nudibranch, yellow and black in color but my digicam didn’t function. Really frustrating.
19th July
This day was quite a frustrating moment. I was separated from the main group. They headed to Sipadan again but I had to join other English divers to Mabul. frankly speaking, I didn’t enjoy the dives as I was expecting to dive with other group members. And the worst was, I would not be able to dive at Kapalai, by right initially I have arranged with them before to dive Kapalai. Maybe this is an indication that I have to return to Sipadan again and dive Kapalai. Next year maybe.
1st dive began at Artificial Reef of Mabul which is near the Mabul Resort (not sure the exact name). Well, as Mabul famous for it’s muck divings, I was quite amazed with this site. Visibility wasn’t that good but as long as I can see the unique creatures, that’s good enough. There was scorpion leaffish, 2 lionfish resting side by side, giant cuttlefish and others. No nudibranch spotted. And guess what, the shelf-life of my digicam finally came to it’s end. Well, actually, I was the one cut short it’s shelf-life. Ahakss…I was so mad that I couldn’t snap the pictures, and with anger, I unclip the safety clip annnnddd…there it goes. I FLOODED MY DIGICAM. It was a disaster and I lost my mood to enjoy the dive. Sigghhh…..Bottom time was 45 minutes
2nd dive spot was at Seaventures. As compared to the previous trip, this time I saw many other creatures especially the giant froggies, giant morray eel, stonefish and the sweetlips. I was looking for the seafan where the Pygmy Seahorse was said to reside at it, but the seafan was no longer there. Tried to spot some nudibranch but all I saw was the common nudibranch. And even if I saw one, it was useless because my digicam was dead. So it’s better not to see any.
And finally, the 3rd dive was at Froggie Lair. Visibility sucks. Nothing much to see and such a waste of time. To conclude, I was disappointed because things turn out bad and under expectation. Lesson to learn, never put too put much expectation, and control my emotion when going underwater.Hehehe…
20th July
Time to say goodbye with a broken heart…kehkehkeh
 |
| Me |
 |
| The team |
 |
| At the mouth of Turtle Cave |
We arrived Semporna and checked in at the Scubajunkie backpacker. Later, we had our lunch and get ourselves out from our rooms. Semporna is actually a small town, so we managed to completely explore the town in a short while. It’s such a waste as we couldn’t do any dives that day. So basically, we had nothing much to do on our arrival to Semporna.
 |
| School of Barracudda |
18th July 2008
Diving Sipadan is just every diver's dream. Being there for the 2nd time didn’t mean I had nothing to enjoy there. I was excited…really excited. By the way, this 2nd trip, I didn’t have to rent the equipments since I have already bought mine. It should be much better diving with own equipment. From my past experience where the BCD hose didn’t function that well, I think diving should be fun to the max without having to think about this kind of flaws.
 |
| School of Batfish |
Second dive was at Barracuda Point. As expected, school of batfish, school of jacks and school of Barracuda were seen. Current wasn’t that strong..or perhaps, very minimal, so the barracudas didn’t form a swirl as what most divers wanted to see. Rather, they swim slowly towards south and it was like a very intense moment. Now I remember, I didn’t get the chance to see that school of barracuda on my 1st trip to Sipadan.
 |
| The naughty one |
19th July
This day was quite a frustrating moment. I was separated from the main group. They headed to Sipadan again but I had to join other English divers to Mabul. frankly speaking, I didn’t enjoy the dives as I was expecting to dive with other group members. And the worst was, I would not be able to dive at Kapalai, by right initially I have arranged with them before to dive Kapalai. Maybe this is an indication that I have to return to Sipadan again and dive Kapalai. Next year maybe.
1st dive began at Artificial Reef of Mabul which is near the Mabul Resort (not sure the exact name). Well, as Mabul famous for it’s muck divings, I was quite amazed with this site. Visibility wasn’t that good but as long as I can see the unique creatures, that’s good enough. There was scorpion leaffish, 2 lionfish resting side by side, giant cuttlefish and others. No nudibranch spotted. And guess what, the shelf-life of my digicam finally came to it’s end. Well, actually, I was the one cut short it’s shelf-life. Ahakss…I was so mad that I couldn’t snap the pictures, and with anger, I unclip the safety clip annnnddd…there it goes. I FLOODED MY DIGICAM. It was a disaster and I lost my mood to enjoy the dive. Sigghhh…..Bottom time was 45 minutes
2nd dive spot was at Seaventures. As compared to the previous trip, this time I saw many other creatures especially the giant froggies, giant morray eel, stonefish and the sweetlips. I was looking for the seafan where the Pygmy Seahorse was said to reside at it, but the seafan was no longer there. Tried to spot some nudibranch but all I saw was the common nudibranch. And even if I saw one, it was useless because my digicam was dead. So it’s better not to see any.
And finally, the 3rd dive was at Froggie Lair. Visibility sucks. Nothing much to see and such a waste of time. To conclude, I was disappointed because things turn out bad and under expectation. Lesson to learn, never put too put much expectation, and control my emotion when going underwater.Hehehe…
20th July
Time to say goodbye with a broken heart…kehkehkeh
