We met some rather interesting characters at our longhouse accommodation. The manager, John, was a tubby, cheerful Filipino who never complained when guests drank Tanduay, a sweet, cheap, Filipino rum, till 4 or 5 in the morning or woke him up at 2am to buy 20 beers. Seeing how many children inhabited the small island, we wondered how many of the children around the longhouse belonged to John, and were surprised when he told Vlad that he only had two. "My wife, she had some problem (having the children) Now I give her medicine (contraceptive)" and then he smiled conspiratorially, "But there is no problem" hehe~
Then there was Toby, a red-faced Brit nick-named "Mr Lonely" by John. Toby had been traveling for 21 months, and according to Adam, another Brit who sounded like Jamie Oliver (Essex accent) Toby didn't even know what country he was really in or where he was going and when. Toby had been at the longhouse the longest time, and after a few days, I figured out why. He was lonely.. and he wasn't shy about it. And, it wasn't as bad as it sounds.
So far we've registered 13 dives in our log-books. Diving is a thing, which is the more you do it, the more you like it. Our first dives were around the Mabul island. Mabul island is very good for what they call macro-diving, that is there is a lot of smaller marine life. So, we probably would've missed a large chunk of it if it wasn't for our dive-masters, who are basically experienced divers and they are like our diving group leaders. Our dive-masters would point us all the pretty little rare fish and nudibranchs. On our last dive around Mabul we rented a camera and I tried to take pictures. Some of them turned out well, but the majority was just crappy, blurry and over-exposed. I've uploaded a few pictures and will try to upload more, but it just takes ages to upload stuff here. So, we'll see..
But the best dive we've had so far was today on Sipadan island, which is deservedly known as one of the top diving spots in the world. Today we had 3 dives on locations called Mid-reef, Barracuda point and Hanging Gardens. Very romantic names, aren't they? Every dive around this island had something amazing new that we saw. On the first dive we saw huge Green Turttles and a school of Giant Travallys and Blue Fin Travallys about 50cm long each. The scale of diving in Sipadan is so much bigger than Mabul that it really is breath-taking. Aside from this bigger fish there were lots and lots of Yellow Dash Fusiliers. From afar they look like freshwater neon fish sparkling with their yellow lines along the body. On the second dive at Barracuda point, as you may guess we saw several huge schools of Chevron Barracudas, hundreds of them, and we also saw huge Grey Reef Shark and smaller White Tip Sharks, several blue spotted squids and of course more Turttles. Finally, during the third and the last dive on Sipadan, along with sharks, turttles, travallys and barracudas, we saw a very big Dog-Tooth Tuna. It was massive about a hundred kilos. It swam by us three times back and forth, and one time close enough that I could see its teeth. There's a reason why they call it Dog-tooth Tuna.
Although diving was quite expensive and we spent here more than we planned, we both agree that it was absolutely worth all of its money. One day we certainly will be back here for more diving. :)
Tomorrow we leave Semporna and going to Sepilok, the orangutang sanctuary, allegedely the biggest in the world. After watching the orangutangs we will go on the jungle and river trekking not far from there. Should be very exciting. Wait for good shots. :)
Me before going under water.
The Leafy File-fish.Fat Sea-cucumber.
Katy signalling that everything's OK.
Me under water
Us on the boat.
When the boat docks at the jetty, all local kids swarm around like bees on honey. They patiently wait for us to finish our lunch and then whatever is left going in the plastic bags that magically appear in their hands.
Just a look in the water from the jetty.
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