After 40 hours of travel by car, multiple planes, bus, and boat, we arrived Wednesday afternoon on the tiny island of Mabul, east of Borneo in Malaysia. Once at the Sipidan Water Village resort, we got oriented to the facilities, checked into our room—at 585 steps the farthest away from the dining area and dive shop – had dinner, and crashed. Our only sleep since we’d left home on Monday at 8:30 am had been what we’d caught on the plane and 6 hours in a hotel in Singapore during a layover.
On Thursday morning we gathered after breakfast we headed out to the dive shop where we were told the rules, divided into boat groups, and given a tour of the briefing room, lockers, rinsing bins, equipment area. Then we went on a short check-out dive. Any reputable dive operation requires its guests to provide proof of certification and then conducts a check of basic dive skills. Usually, this check consists of jumping in the water, proving you can sink yet avoid hitting the bottom or rocketing back to the surface, plus use the breathing equipment.
At this resort, the dive master (a 20-something islander) had us gather in a semi-circle on the bottom of the house reef. He pointed to us one by one and had us demonstrate two skills, clearing excess water out of our facemasks, and taking the regulator (breathing hose) out of our mouths, blowing a bubble or two, and then replacing it. Then he had us swim away from shore.
For a checkout dive, this was fantastic! Right away we started seeing cool stuff: Panda anemone fish guarding eggs, a pair of pipe fish, and lots of what Rick and I call the “usual suspects” (butterfly fish, damsels, trigger fish, sergeant majors, parrot fish, and silversides). Then the guide made the “turtle” sign and I looked where he was pointing, but saw only a big rock. The rock moved, and I realized it was the biggest green sea turtle I’d ever seen!!! Way bigger than a person. Huge. We watched it for a while, then spotted a large 2-foot long cuttlefish. It was hovering near a pile of netted rocks and debris and seemed totally unafraid of us. In fact, after a while it extended its tentacles and started to feed. Then it turned around and swam toward one of the divers, positioning itself directly under her, like it wanted to be petted! It was so fun to be able to study the fish for a long time, look at its eyes, and see how the translucent fin that wrapped around the entire edge of its body undulated as it swam back and forth. The guide found one of its eggs and showed it to us. It was about the size fo a cow’s eye ball. Then he gentle cut into it, releasing the baby fish. Immediately, other fish swarmed around trying to eat it. The guide tried to wave them off, but one snagged the baby. Amazingly, even though it was just hatched, and prematurely at that, it had enough of a reflex to squirt a bit of ink before it was devoured. Everyone was so excited by seeing the turtle and the cuttlefish; we couldn’t believe that was only the checkout dive!
We took two more dives that day. While the checkout dive was from the shore at the resort, the majority of our dives take place at sites 5-10 minutes out by (very fast) boat. On dive #2 we saw a school of barracuda, lots of lionfish, and a few nudibranchs (colorful sea slugs). On the third dive, we saw weird looking green and white Leaf Scorpionfish. It’s funny to see how fish use shapes as camouflage just like bugs do on land. The dive masters are really helpful; they find itsy bitsy stuff we would otherwise overlook. Sometimes when they point stuff out – like the gold crowned shrimp – I am still not sure what I’m looking at and have to look it up later.
After our dives and before dinner, Richard and I went over to the island to see if there was a useable path for running. He’d checked Google Earth before we left and thought there was. Getting to the island was easy; we just followed the resort’s boardwalk to shore. Finding the path was another issue. At first, the path meandered through the village, an extremely poor, crowded, shanty town where naked little kids were playing marbles, soccer, and jump rope.
There is a large Muslim population here, so many of the women were wearing head coverings. They and others were gathered in little groups in front of “stores,” a shed-like structure with only the lower half of a front wall behind which the storekeeper sat. The meager goods were arranged on a table inside, on the wall itself, and sometimes on a rickety table in front of the store. The women generally ignored us, but most of the children said, “Hello.”
I tried not to stare at anything because I felt like we were intruding on their privacy, so only saw things in glances or out of the corners of my eyes. When I did glance up to one of the dwellings through a “window” -- just a hole cut in the plywood -- I saw little children playing in a bare room.
Anyway, the path wove around through several resorts, and then abruptly stopped, unfortunately before we got back to the boardwalk. So, we had to pick our way across a jumble of broken concrete slabs, then walk the length of a fallen log to get to the beach. At one point, there was only about 4 inches of sand between the fence and the water. I backed up to avoid getting my shoes wet, and felt a tug on my arm; like a cartoon character, I’d bumped into a cactus, and came away with a 5” long scratch, deep enough to draw blood. By the time we got back to the room, my upper arm was covered in blood; it looked dramatic, but was easy to stop. I just washed it and put Neosporin on it.
After that adventure, I decided I wouldn’t be running this week. While that’s not good, we are walking a half-mile every time we want to get food or go to the dive center, so hopefully, it will add up and I won’t be too out of shape when I get back. Richard, on the other hand, did go running today and thought it was fine.
The food: I’m trying to be adventurous. Last night I ate stir-fried sea snails. I will not repeat that.
At each (buffet style) lunch or dinner meal we’re offered a variety of salads, tropical fruits, stir-fried vegetables and meats, plus grilled items, and almost tasty desserts. For breakfast we choose from a few dry cereals, rolls, toast, hot rice gruel (not too bad, if you put pineapple jam in it), eggs, spicy noodles, stir-fried vegetables, meats, and fruits.
One funny thing about the dining room. We have to take off our footwear and go barefooted. Same in the gift shop.
Sleeping: it’s a challenge. First of all, we probably haven’t totally adjusted to the 16-hour time difference. Also, it’s very warm here. We have an air conditioner, but it doesn’t work. So we crank the ceiling fan up to high and open the doors and shutters so a breeze can blow through. It is nice to hear the waves crashing on the posts that hold our room up. We both got a lot of mosquito bites last night. Guess tonight we’d better slather on some repellent.
Day Two Dives: The objective of all three dives today was to find “small things.” One of my favorite little discoveries today was a tiny frogfish about the size of a honey bee. I would never have spotted it except it swam right in front of my face. I couldn’t figure out what it was until it landed on the reef and I could study it. Another creature I found was a teensy tiny bristly sea slug; it was probably only an inch long. One of the coolest big discoveries was a Flat Face Alligator fish. When I pointed it out to Richard, he couldn’t see it; the fish’s camouflage was that good! I also found several large moray eels, and a variety of nudibranchs.
We both love seeing schools of bannerfish, batfish, and other big fish. And every time we see a copper banded or long nose butterfly fish or a porcupine puffer fish, I think about the fish we had in our aquarium (Charley, Barney, and E.T.) Richard’s out on a night dive now. My ears give me a bit of trouble on the dives, so 3 a day is about my max. Besides, I’m not really crazy about swimming in the dark. We’ll see if he spotted anything exciting.
There are lots of people at the resort; 13 of us, and I think we’re the only Americans. The others (judging by the sounds of their speech) are mostly from Japan, Russia, Brazil, and Italy. Today on our boat there were 4 from our dive group plus two girls from Tokyo and two guys I think are from Thailand. Fortunately, everyone speaks at least a little English, and is very friendly. It’s pretty noisy when all the boats come in at once and everyone is changing out of their wetsuits and hanging their stuff up in the locker rooms.
Taking photos: I’ve only taken a few photos near the resort so far and won’t start taking the camera underwater until tomorrow. Wish I’d had it for some of the critters we’ve seen, but I’m glad for the chance to get re-accustomed to diving before I add that complication. (I was going to post a couple here, but it took 20 minutes to get this page to load, so will have to wait.)
Well, it’s dinner time (after 7 pm), and I’m really hungry, so I’ll stop this narrative and head out. I’ve covered a lot of topics, but if there’s something you’d like to hear about that I haven’t touched on, just ask for it!
What an adventure! You are so lucky to be able to "go and do" things like this. Can't wait to see your pictures. Be safe - see you when you get home. Love you both.
Posted by: Joan Pine | February 24, 2012 at 08:55 AM
That sounds like so much fun! I can't wait to go out on adventures like this with Jeremy when all our kids are grown. Only about 20 years to go, but we're having a different kind of fun and adventure in the meantime. Can't wait to hear more about your trip!
Posted by: Heather | February 24, 2012 at 11:40 AM
Sounds like you're enjoying yourselves... I'm glad. The rice gruel sounds not so good, but the dives sound awesome. Wish I could check it out along with you.
Posted by: Jeremy | February 24, 2012 at 08:54 PM
Aside from the fish, what kind of critters are there? It sounds like an amazing place. Have fun!
Posted by: Jessica | February 25, 2012 at 02:45 PM
Great narrative. Looking forward to the photo-essay! Watch out what you touch, or what touches you.
Posted by: Kathleen & Stephen | February 26, 2012 at 07:13 PM