Sipadan Dive Log 2007

Me and Jerm went back to Sipadan again...this time diving more luxuriously at Sipadan Kapalai water resort. This place is truely beautiful...in fact very beautiful because it consists of many water bungalows built over the clear blue waters of Kapalai. Everyday, when you wake up, bathe, eat, shit and pee, you are facing the vast blue seas, while at night you fall asleep under the dark skies lit up by countless stars, surrounded by cool sea breezes blowing in through the open balcony doors. The tranquility and serenity of being in the middle of the calm open sea, letting the soft sound of waves and occasional splashes of the garfish hunting lure you into sleep, is indeed one amazing experience. It feels like all this too good to be true...too hard to beleive its real, too hard to believe I'm really here.







An abstract from my diary...Day 1 (16 June 2007):

When I first arrived at this beautiful water resort built in stilts, standing on the crystal clear waters of Kapalai island, i was mesmerized by the sheer beauty of this place. 50 water bungalows extending out from the jetty, and each bungalow built of rosewood, on tranquil blue waters so clear you can see garfishes, starfish, batfish, angelfish, stingrays, the resident map puffer, and many other small schools of fish who seek shelter below your very own bungalow. when I stepped into the bungalow, I screeched in excitement! It was soooo big and spacious and very beautiful. AND the TOILET! It was really nice, with a bath-tub just beside a big open window over-looking the sea. So when I shit, pee and bathe, I practically look out into the vast open sea, enjoying the scenery at the same time..hahaha. tha balcony has 2 sun chairs for us to sun bathe, or to just sit and relax while gazing into the blue skies. At night, we sat talking on the sun chairs, enjoying the beautiful night sky filled with dazzling stars. It feels like a dream! The food is good, the service is good, the people there are nice, but its a little crowded with many people coming in each day...well its has earned a name for itself worldwide.






















Sunset at Kapalai


Diving: Every day, we try to make it for the dawn dive at 5.30am in the morning to Sipadan, hoping to catch the schools of hammerheads. Then proceeded by 11am and 2pm dive. One day about 3 boat dives, and after that we can either request to go for one more boat dive of YOUR CHOICE DESTINATION (Mabul/Kapalai), or we can do a buddy house reef dive just below the resort--the famous Kapalai house reef.

kapalai House reef:

Kapalai house reef is amazing la...can get to see mantis shrimps, a black frogfish...and once when we made a sunset dive, one DM offered to come with us to show us mandarin fish mating! We went down, and waited there for like 30 mins and the sky was slowly getting dark and the waters becoming very dark and cold. Then we caught sight of the mandarin fishes peeping out thru the coral rubble, and finally the male and female locating each other and emerging out of the coral rubble to mate. This is the best chance to take a photo of them becasue they're usually very shy creatures and you can seldom catch sight of them. Now right in front of ur face, they swim right up tog, and then split up almost immediately and go back into hiding. After seeing this, we were satisfied for the day, but then as we swam towards the wrecks, we saw a purple and a grey frogfish mating on the wooden structure, not far beside two lionfish were also mating. Wow...this is the mating season??? Before we ascended to the jetty, we saw a huge barracuda brush past us to settle under the jetty itself. Cause it was pitch-black in the waters now, the sudden appreance of the huge barracuda gave us a scare. We also saw a school of napolean wrasses. That day, we were indeed satisfied.

Mandarin fish
Mating lionfish
Mating naudibranch



Mabul (Eel garden):

At Mabul, the famous eel garden is called as such because on the sandy bottoms lay a massive garden of shy garden eels poking their heads out of the sand to feed. they look like a patch of sea grass wavering with the current. Then we spotted two mating pharoah cuttlefish, accompanied by two little baby ones...are they a family? As usual, we saw the usual stuff, 3 green turtles, some moray eels and a purple frogfish.

Pharoah cuttlefish

South point (Sipadan):

Well, one of the most famous sites in Sipadan, where nearly every dive we're like surrounded by schools of white-tips, black-tips, grey reef sharks and turtles. Heard that the tresher sharks and hammerheads can only be seen (by chance) and (in deeper waters like 45m), so we did not get to see them. But we met our fren Soren there, and he said he saw the hammerheads at 55m (Argh, some place i can never reach unless I'm a tech diver!).

black tip
gray reef shark
leopard shark
white tip







Barracuda Point (Sipadan):

The next best dive site to go, we finally saw the barracuda ball!!!! Its a huge swirling group of barracudas that goes thru the ocean like a tornado and masks the light coming from above. We saw the yellow-finned and black-finned barracudas, and all of us were liek awe-struck and so just hovered there and refused to leave, taking pictures and enjoying the beautiful and magnificent sight. then came a HUGE school of batfish swimming graciously past us. Later, we were rewarded by spotting the huge leopard shark, who was awoken by us and swam away. Not only did we see barracuda ball, we also saw a swirling ball of silver trevallys, extending from the top of the water column to the deeper sections. I was like swimming among them when I saw the grey reef sharks coming nearer to check us out. It was a little unnerving because they seem to be out hunting in schools, and I may happen to be in their source of food...haha...The water was chilling cold and the sky started to lighten. Dawn and dusk dives are the best because of the transition of many animals to feed or emerge for their activities.

School of batfish


Seaventures (Mabul):

Ok, this place is sweet. We found the pygmy sea horse..pink, tiny and really cute (size of your fingernails), and we were all excited because we came to this place for the sole purpose of finding that little guy. The DM brought us to the pink sea fan, and I spotted it!! hehehe...after much squinting and more squinting. It was a very rewarding dive as I never thought i would ever see the pygmy because it was just so small..

Pygmy seahorse

Mid-reef (Kapalai):

We came here for the peacock mantis shrimps, and found a female grey one and a very colourful bright green male. For those who really appreciates the beauty of the mantis shrimps, you're in for a treat. Also, there are huge green turtles resting on the corals, and acting ignorant of us such that I went so close to it I could even touch it.

Grey mantis shrimp
Peacock mantis shrimp

Kapalai resort:

When we snorkelled in the waters of Kapalai resort during our free time, we spotted the juvenile sweetlips doing its little mexican dance, very pretty and colourful creature... then we also saw the shrimp and its partner, the yellow shrimp goby in action. In Kapalai, there are always huge garfishes hunting, so they're certainly everywhere we turn to.

Mabul Housereef:

Found a very small and cute juvenile yellow frogfish which looks more pretty than the rest, and huge groupers.




Drop-off (Sipadan):

At dawn, luck was on our side...we saw a huge school of bumphead parrotfish just below us as we descended. They probably just woke up and taking their morning stroll to breakfast tog. Then the sharks came out, tog with 2 huge barrracudas.

Some interesting critters and naudibranches...




see the cross on the rock? we saw this while diving...




The resident sausage dog

We got many footages in video, so when I figure out how to post a video, i'll post it here...Video footages on the barracuda balls and sharks and mating mandarin fish and many more.