Today was the first of three days diving we had booked online with Sipadan Scuba. We left Semporna about 0830 towards Sibuan Island on a narrow locally-built speedboard … it started off somewhat as a race between us and this 10 year old girl who was in sole charge of a motorised sampan carrying her younger sibling! People grow up quickly in these surroundings.
On the surface, Sibuan appears to be paradise. But it is home to illegal immigrants who live in simple dwellings. Their children while born in Malaysia (barely), are undocumented and stateless.
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- Sibuan appears to be a paradise but …
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- Sibuan appears to be a paradise but …
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- … but it is home to many illegal immigrants who are stateless.
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- Beautiful turqouise sea.
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- Local boat.
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- Kids on Sibuan.
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- Our dive boat on Sibuan during our surface interval.
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- Locals playing on the beach.
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- Locals harvesting shellfish.
We did three dives … two at the drop-off near Sibuan Island and another on the reef. The last one on the reef was the most colourful with its coral and sealife. We saw one barracuda, a couple of giant turtles and a big worm-like creature (about 1 metre long). It was also memorable because we heard an underwater explosion due to people using dynamites to fish! A bit scary as I thought I had some kind of catastrophic equipment failure until I checked that I was still breathing.
We’re pleased to have built a bit more confidence in our diving, but we have some way to go … Kim and I use our arms too much (and legs too) … the others generally dive with their arms folded and the dive master hardly kicks at all.
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- Fish on coral. Photo courtesy of Christian Albert.
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- Kim and I underwater. Photo courtesy of Christian Albert.
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- Sea urchins. Photo courtesy of Christian Albert.
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- Blue starfish. Photo courtesy of Christian Albert.
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- Nemo & Co. Photo courtesy of Christian Albert.
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- Turtle. Photo courtesy of Christian Albert.
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- Turtle. Photo courtesy of Christian Albert.
Talking about our dive master Vincent, he was kidnapped with his party of 21 in year 2000 and held captive for 3 months by the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group. They were fed and watered … with the same simple food that their captors had. Fortunately there were no fatalities.