Legendary Pulau Sipadan, Malaysia

Old Story. In May 2010 one of my dream came true as a diver. I had a diving day on legendary Sipadan island. Sipadan is 30min by boat from Pulau Mabul in East Borneo, Malaysia. Nowadays only 120 divers can dive at Sipadan per day. There has been also possibility to stay over night on Sipapan before, but not anymore for long time. All the places had to close the doors permanently last day of December 2004. Now divers can do only day trips to Sipadan.
Sipadan is only oceanic island in Malaysia. It means island is not connected to mainland at all. Sipadan rise directly from the ocean. Walls continue all the way from the surface to 500m. Most of the dives are wall dives.
Visibility unfortunately was not the best possible. Storms and rains had mixed the water and visibility. Immediately on the first dive I anyway realized why Sipadan is so famous. There are turtles everywhere.
And more.
Sometimes I was taking a picture from one turtle. When I continued forward I could see 2-3 new turtle in the same time just turning my head. During the 3 dives I saw tens of turtles. Here divemaster with two turtles and jacks.
Biggest one was huge. Look at the fins and tail of this guy! It's almost like Volkswagen Beetle.
Lunch break on the island.
Barracudas.
Clown triggerfish.
Huge puffer with big belly.
Whitetip reefsharks are also very common in Sipadan. Especially on the third dive we saw many sharks.
This one was laying on the bottom and I went very carefully just next to her. Remora is also with the shark.
Whitetip reefshark swimming around me.

Very interesting diving day. Even though the visibility was not so good on my diving day, Sipadan is great diving place!

Cheers,
Mika

Pulau Mabul in Borneo, Malaysia

Old Story. Marine life in East Borneo is something amazing. The area has several world class dive spots. Tropical island Pulau Mabul is one of the places. Easiest way to go to the area is first fly for intance from Kota Kinabalu to Tawau. Next step from Tawau airport is to go to Semporna. Last step by boat to Pulau Mabul island. There are many kind of accommodation available on the island. Cheapest are diving communes and best are luxury resorts. Island itself is beautiful and relax place to stay.
I was two nights on the island and I had a three diving days in May 2010. Diving in Mabul is superb. Lots of interesting species. Here is something what I saw there during three diving days.

Cowfish.
Turtles.
Snowflake moray.
Lionfishes.
Batfishes.
Bluespotted stingray.
Banded seasnake.
Different kind of frogfishes. Bigger frogfish in the picture is DM Nick.
Pink scorpion leaf fish.
Mantis shrimp.
Eye of the crocodile fish.
Old bottles.
There is also one very special place. It's the oil rig which is now dive center. There are rooms, restaurant, etc. Place name is Seaventures.
Playground is under the Seaventures.
Couple of spotted eagle rays.
Jacks in tornado.
Jack above me.
There is also wreck.
Turtle diving with me in Mabul.

This is only something what you can see in Mabul. It's really worth to visit!!

Cheers,

Mika

Maris Rock and Crossing, Puerto Princesa

Finally new dives after 10 and half months break. I came to Palawan four days ago so it was time to go diving. Today I had a two dives in Puerto Princesa area.

Dive #: 218
Date: 13.3.2012
Place: Philippines, Palawan, Puerto Princesa, Maris Rock
Depth: 23,7m Average: 14,3m
Dive time: 57min
Visibility: 7-10m
Sea Temperature: +30C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air) Wetsuit: No wetsuit, shorts + t-shirt Weight: 5Kg

Dive Center: Moana Dive Center
Price: 3300PHP/55€ (2 dives)

Here is something what we saw today. Small moray eel.
Jawfish with eggs in the mouth.
Big yellow frogfish.
Huge fan coral.
Nudibranch.

Dive #: 219
Date: 13.3.2012
Place: Philippines, Palawan, Puerto Princesa, Crossing
Depth: 20,1m Average 16,1m
Dive time: 43min
Visibility: 25-30m
Sea Temperature: +30C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air) Wetsuit: No wetsuit, shorts + t-shirt Weight: 6Kg

Time to descend.
Leopard moray eel ready to attack.
Reef fishes.
Nudibranch.
It was great to dive after long break. In the first place, Maris Rock, visibility was today quite bad. Maybe 7-10m. It's interesting place to dive anyway. You can see always some fishes which are not so common. In Crossing visibility was very good. There was lots of different reef fishes. Especially red tooth triggerfishes.

This was also my first diving day when I used my "new" Suunto Stinger dive computer. It worked perfectly. I had also my old Suunto Mosquito in my other hand, but it doesn't work anymore. It can reboot itself during the dive and in the boot it change the date, time, lose the data from ongoing dive etc. So bye bye Mosquito and welcome Stinger.

Puerto Princesa,
Mika