Diving at Siquijor Island, Philippines

I had a weekend trip from Manila to Siquijor Island near Dumaguete City. I did one relex dive in Siquijor.

Dive #: 223
Date: 18.5.2012
Place: Philippines, Siquijor Island, Cedrics Wall
Depth: 25,9m Average: 15,5m
Dive time: 53min
Visibility: 15-20m
Sea Temperature: +30C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air) Wetsuit: 3mm long wetsuit Weight: 5Kg

Dive Center: Kiwi Dive Resort
Price: 1300PHP/22,08€ including equipment rental

There was a lot of different kind of nudibranches.
Bigger red one.
Scorpionfish try to hide.
DM Raul and the corals.
Mantis shrimps are colorful and looks beautiful.
Very small and almost transparent blue class shrimps.
Pipefish.
Bigger striped pipefish.
I did only one dive in Siquijor, but it is good place for diving. There was diving only me and DM Raul so there was a lots of time to take photos and watch what I wanted.

Salamat Raul!

Diving day in Anilao, Philippines

Closest diving destination from Manila is Anilao near Batangas. Ride from Manila to Anilao takes about 2 and half hours to 3 hours depending the trafic. This was my first time in Anilao.

Dive #: 220
Date: 29.4.2012
Place: Philippines, Luzon, Anilao, Ligpo
Depth: 25m Average: 10,4m
Dive time: 48min
Visibility: 8-12m
Sea Temperature: +30C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air) Wetsuit: 3mm long wetsuit Weight: 6Kg

Dive Center: Pier Uno
Price: 3100PHP/55€ (3 dives)

School of striped catfishes.
Ready to fly? What is this spicies?
Big table corals.
Dive #: 221
Date: 29.4.2012
Place: Philippines, Luzon, Anilao, Dive and Trek
Depth: 27,4m Average: 15,2m
Dive time: 48min
Visibility: 15m
Sea Temperature: +30C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air) Wetsuit: 3mm long wetsuit Weight: 6Kg

Statue in Dive and Trek.
Small cave and small fishes.
Nudibranch.Fish feeder with the friends.
There was a lots of giant clams.
Dive #: 222
Date: 29.4.2012
Place: Philippines, Luzon, Anilao, Pier Uno House Reef
Depth: 17,3m Average: 6,7m
Dive time: 46min
Visibility: 15m
Sea Temperature: +30C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air) Wetsuit: 3mm long wetsuit Weight: 6Kg

Anemone fishes. "Nemoooo".
Close up of hard coral.
Ribbon eel.
Henrik, Juho and the cross.
Huge nudibranch. Maybe the biggest I have ever seen.
Who is this guy?
Beautiful pipefish.
It was great to realize it's possible to do diving day trips from Manila. We left from Makati about 6am and we were back in Makati about 8pm. Long day, but three relax dives and good company. I can't complain. I have to dive in Anilao some day again.

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