07.02.2004 - 03.03.2004
Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, Sipadan, Mabul, Tawau, Tioman island
Singapore
We landed in Kota Kinabalu on the Island of Borneo where we were met by a very friendly hotel owner who drove us to the hotel and introduced us to the city. We ventured out in the city and later out to one of the small islands on the coast. It was a pretty little island with lots of tourists, we went snorkelling and later had lunch, then walked around a bit and were surprised to find monitor lizards and monkeys. (the Japanese tourists were very impressed with the monkeys until they started having sex! then all you heard was "bad monkey", what a laugh)
As we had a very early morning flight we got a cloud-free look at mount Kota Kinabalu, where many visitors spend their time, it was an amazing and breathtaking sight with beautiful colours from the early morning sun. With the veiw inprinted on our memory we headed off to Tawau. From Tawau we went by bus to Sempora and then by speedboat to Sipadan (Borneo Divers). This was lucky as the the island was closed for hotel guests a while later, and only the military guys were allowed to stayed there. We had a nice room right on the beach that only leaked when it rained a lot, which it did a couple of times but we had sun as well. Let me tell you this was no ordinary diving it was spectacular, loads of turtles and sharks (black-tip and white-tip), large schools of big-eyed trevally and barracuda, humphead parrotfish, leaf fish and much, much more. As our dive guide always seemed to race off we were left to ourselves and were soon joined by several other divers who stayed with us and enjoyed the relaxed diving and the fantastic sights.
One day on Mid reef we fell well behind, as usual, and as we came off the drop off we look behind us and to our amazement there were 6 HAMMERHEADS off the point, soon they disappeared into the deep and we swam off in a dazed excitement. When we finally caught up to the others and wrote a message to the dive master he was shocked and disappointed at what they had missed. One sunny day we were called out to the waters edge for a special event, baby turtles have hatched and were ready to be set free for their own adventures in the wild, so once released they raced off into the surf hoping one day to return and lay eggs (only the female ones, of course). After dive sites like: drop off, barracuda point, south point, hanging garden, mid reef, turtle patch and much much more we were off for short ride to Mabul where we would be staying for a week. (NOTE do not lay down in the sand at Siadan as there are sand flies!)
Mabul is a bigger island with a permanent population of a few hundred people and several dive resorts, and is a very different type of diving, muck diving. Here we searched around in the rocks, in the sand and other things laying around for small things such as ghostpipe fish, frogfish, nudibranch, different types of crabs and shrimp, seahorses, humphead parrotfish, turtles. We also found Elvis, a very large giant Moray eel living in some old junk under an old oil platform (Sea Venture). This was a very nice place to stay with good food, really nice rooms and some nightly entertainment, which was very funny as the male waiters dressed up for the miss Borneo diver pageant and other activities. Even the locals watches through the windows and had a great time (this is also where my first pair of sandals went missing). Here we dived at sites like: Paradise 1& 2, Eel garden, Ray point, Sea Venture, Old house reef, and the island of Kapalai. Time went very quickly and it was time for some new sandals and to fly to Johor Bahru then on to Tioman island on the east coast of Malaysia but first a rest stop in Singapore.
When in we are in Singapore we have always tried to stay at the New 7th Story Hotel near Bugis underground station as it is very central, not too expensive and has the old world charm. Once a hotel where movie stars stayed it still has friendly and helpful staff, and is a nice place to stay a short time. We also met up with an old friend of Jorunn's and his wife. We were soon on the road again, we took the bus across the border to Jahor Bahru in Malaysia then another bus to Mersing (watch out for the monkeys along the roadside) and then by ferry to the island of Tioman. Once we found a room and settled in we went in search of B & J Divers, we had a warm friendly welcome, got our gear ready and were set for diving the next day. Tioman is a nice relaxing dive area (not as spectacular as Sipadan but nice) with lot's to see like: Loads of nudibranch, stonefish, batfish, ribbon eels, shrimps and crabs, turtles, crocodilefish and much more. We did a lot of fun diving and got to know the staff and some other divers, and we all met later in the bar or for dinner. When not diving we spent time on the beach (watch out for sand flies) and snorkelling, there were a fair bit of land animal to also like: very large monitor lizards, monkeys, and lots of birds. Some of the dive site we went to were: Chebeh island, Labas island, Renggis island, Fan Canyon, Tiger reef, Salang bay, some wrecks and more. But soon it was time to leave for yet another island after a stop on the mainland.
Pictures from Malaysia
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