Anyone been to Sipadan? [Archive] - Reef Central Online Community Archives

Kengar

03/31/2002, 10:13 PM

too damned ironic! as I was logging on to check out the scuba forum, the thought just went through my mind "Hmmm, I wonder if anyone else has been to Sipidan and posted about it here." Implication of this is that yes, I've been there. Feel free to give me a call and I can give you all the lowdown on it. Bottom line is that it's phenomenal; if you're in the area, by all means go man!!!
703 905 2066 (office) or 1-800-200-3164 (use the directory to reach me, Ken Fagin). I'm there right now, in fact (10 p.m. easter evening).

for those not wanting to call, there's really not much choice of where to stay. there are four or five resorts -- did he say resorts? hahahahahahahahahahaha. dive lodges is far more like it, and that's putting the best spin possible on it! -- all bunched together at the one end of the island, which is all of 30 acres. you can stroll around the island in under 1/2 hour. where i stayed (borneo diver's lodge; go here: http://www.borneodivers.info/ and navigate around to see it) is not airconditioned (except for three of the rooms), the rooms are primitive, and you'll thiink you're going to die from the heat your first night there. trust me, though, you'll get used to it, and the diving makes it well worth it.

three "boat dives" a day. I put that in quotes because the boat trips are no more than three or four minutes to the furthest place out. unlimited shore diving, and it's the easiest damn shore diving you'll EVER do. Strap on your tank, wade into the water that is right under the dive locker at high tide or 50 or 60 feet out at low tide, and BAM! Heaven! Even right there in the shallows you will see GOOD STUFF, e.g., ornate ghost pipefish, flounder, sharks -- yes sharks in the shallows. See, the sharks come up over the edge of the wall that starts no more than 100 feet out. In fact, if you check out the web page I have referred you to and see the end of the pier built out over the water, the wall is right under it my friend!!!!!! Easy, Easy, Easy!!!!!

Like turtles? Good! If you go a dive without seeing at least ten of them, you had your eyes closed. Turtles are all over the freakin' place. They haul out at night to lay eggs, and the dive operators gather them up to hatch 'em out. Every morning, we watched as a whole bucket full of baby turtles were released out into the water to make their way in the water world.

Coral was pretty good. One location, about 10 to 15 minutes finning over to the left along the wall, was a forest of dense acropora. Very active with damsels (humbugs, dominoes) darting in and out all over the place.

You like anemones? Good. Try six feet across housing three or four whole families of damsels/clowns. LTA's, ritteri (H. magnifica), carpets (Stichodactyla spp.). They're there!

Sharks. Yea, you seen two dozen, you've seen a million. Wake me up when they STOP coming around.

Few giant Tridacnid clams here and there, manarin's over at the water village resort (twenty-five minute boat ride), along with leaf fish, crocodile fish, ribbon eels, ghost pipes, hell, what else? Tons. (Was very poor vis that day, but critter diving is known as muck diving for a reason.)

Back by Sipidan, a literal HERD of huge humphead parrotfish. you can here them coming from a mile away as they crunch their way through the coral.

I was there last 9/1 - 9/9 as part of the Underwater Malaysia Imaging Festival. Check out Underwatermalaysia.com for info on the next festival. I had never shot before, and really don't get into u/w photog., but as part of the festival, folks from Sea and Sea were there letting you use all sorts of equipment for FREE! Eight rolls of film. . . . FREE!!! Al Michaels, editor of Skin Diver, was there with us, I believe David Doubilet was over with th eother group (but could be wrong on that). Award banquet in Kota Kinabula on the mainland on the way back was very nice, where awesome prizes were given out for a number of categories.

Now the worst part of the whole thing: travel. I have no idea where Kuching is. I went from D.C. to L.A. (5.5 hours); L.A. into Taipei (12 hours); then to Kota Kinabalu (mainland Malaysian Borneo) (4 hours); across Borneo to Tawau (45 minutes); then 1.5 hour bus ride to half-floating hut city on coast (can't recall name) where you catch boat -- small boat! -- for hour ride out to the island. You get there around 8 at night, get some grub, then try to crash out in the heat, as noted above. On the way back, we went from Kota Kinabalu to Labuan (an island off the west coast of borneo) (30 minutes), to Koala Lumpur (2 hours), then up to Taipei (5 hours). SAD NOTE: Two and 1/2 hours out of Taipei, on way to L.A., we got turned around and sent back to Taipei. 9/11. What a terrible way and place to learn what was going on back here. We were stuck in a hotel in Taipei for a week, trying to figure out how the hell we were going to get ourselves home.

Another sad note in connection with Sipidan. You may have heard about the kidnapping by Philipino guerrillas there a couple years ago. I certainly had, but poo-pooed it when I went. On the island, however, where you see just how small it is and are literally fifty feet from the lodge where the people were taken from, and when your divemaster lost a friend who went over to the other lodge just to borrow a C.D., only to be taken away, it really makes an impression on you. Moreover, when I returned to the states, I learned that the guerrillas were from an "organization" call Abu Sayef. As it turns out, they are Islamic separatist guerrillas who are looking to establish an Islamic nation or region in the Phillipines, and they kidnap people to get ransom to buy guns. As it further turns out, they are affiliated -- don't know how closely -- with Al Quaeda. Although there were two guards stationed every quarter of the way around the island, if a group like that wanted to make another hit, those guards would have been very little match for them. Keep in mind that Abu Sayef is no group to be taken lightly; they kidnapped another group of people from another island in the area more recently, two of whom (American couple, missionaries from KS) are still missing and a third of which, also American, turned up decapitated.