Getting ready
While waiting for my chicken thosai with curry for breakfast, I noticed the young waiter (about 15 years old) buying cigarettes from a younger boy (about 6 years old). Strange, considering he sells cigarettes at the café. I asked him about this. The café sells cigarettes at RM10 (USD3) per pack while the boy on the street sells them at RM2 (USD0.70) per pack. They must be smuggled, I thought. I inspected the packaging expecting them to be Indonesian but everything was in English so presumably it is Filipino.
The diving experience
Today it rained while we were walking to the boat; I was soaked which made the hour-long ride a little cold. But the rain cleared before we got to Sipadan.
Yes, someone else had cancelled and I got to dive Sipadan again! Yes, three days in a row! I feel like the luckiest diver around to have dived three days in a row in one of the top five sites in the world (according to some rankings).
- The first dive was at Hanging Gardens, which was a beautiful wall dive with lots of small colourful fish and largely hard coral (with some soft). Naturally, being Sipadan we saw some turtles and sharks.
- The second dive at Turtle Patch was similar but I did see something new, a couple of Variable Thorny Oysters which are colourful and snap themselves close when they sense motion (light-sensitive).
- The third was at Barracuda Point. Visibility was less today and we still saw plenty of turtles, sharks, huge school of jackfish and many other smaller fish. The humphead parrotfish were nowhere to be seen today. Likewise there were no barracudas even though we all twirled with our nipples suggestively to attract them (that’s the sure way of finding them, says the divemaster).
On the boat back to Semporna we saw a few schools of dolphins jumping through the water at various times. We were all very excited; they appeared quite small and may have been young ones. It was a very good way to finish up three days of diving in Sipadan, Sipadan and Sipadan.
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- Clownfish at Turtle Patch. Photo courtesy of Mark Gan.
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- White-tip reef shark at Barracuda Point. Photo courtesy of Mark Gan.
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- Large school of very shiny jackfish. Photo courtesy of Mark Gan.
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- Large school of jackfish. Photo courtesy of Mark Gan.
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- Turtle cleaning station, Barracuda Point. Photo courtesy of Mark Gan.
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- Turtle cleaning station, Barracuda Point. Photo courtesy of Mark Gan.
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- Turtle cleaning station, Barracuda Point. Photo courtesy of Mark Gan.
About the dive operator
I booked three days of diving with North Borneo Dive and Sea Sports (better known as www.sipadanscuba.com or www.sipadanonline.com).
I had used them some four years ago and wasn’t overly impressed by the dive masters. I had mixed feelings about using them again. They were the only ones with good online booking and guaranteed availability for Sipadan once booked and paid. As so many people have horror stories about missing out on Sipadan, it made sense to secure the trip by using this company again.
I booked a three day dive package (Sipadan, Mataking and Sibuan) with four nights compulsory accommodation at Holiday Dive Inn. The packaging with accommodation is a fairly new thing. I managed to upgrade my Mataking and Sibuan dives to Sipadan the night before due to cancellations. All it required was for me to ask and pay the MYR50 permit fee.
Needless to say, Sipadan was amazing. A bad dive at Sipadan is probably better than a good dive anywhere else!
As with any dive operator, it was the great divemaster that made it a wonderful experience. In this case, I had three days with a great divemaster called Shannon from Maine, USA. I now realise that divemasters (and not so much the dive company) make or break one’s dive experience and the company’s reputation.
Pros of diving with this operator:
- Ability to view Sipadan availability online and secure it with full payment. Many people miss out on Sipadan because some operators don’t have an advance booking and payment mechanism.
- The particular divemaster we had was excellent. And some of the other ones that the other customers had were also highly rated . But they will come and go.
Cons of diving with them:
- Full payment (non-changeable, non-cancellable, non-refundable); terrible if you get cold the week before.
- Packaged with compulsory accommodation; the hotel was OK but some people may have other preferences.
- Equipment were a bit tired looking but all functional. They have new dive gear on site for when they move to their new premises soon.