The Fabled Sipadan….

Since my previous posts were all based in the country Malaysia,  Ive decided to stick with that theme and finish up on my trip reports to Malaysia.

Im sure that if you are a Scuba diver, Snorkeller or even just a lover of the seas,  you would have heard of Pulau Sipadan or just simpy Sipadan.  It is in Eastern Malaysia State Sabah off the coast of Sempoerna on the Island of Borneo.  It is a sea mount the only one of its kind in Malaysia facing open water. The famed underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau Once said in his Film “I have seen other places like Sipadan, 45 years ago, but now no more. Now we have found an untouched piece of art.”

Getting there is a hassle though.  The closest international airport to Sempoerna is Kota Kinabalu the airport there has a curfew of 11pm-12am.  The other option is to fly from Kuala Lumpur.  That’s not all of it,  From KK, or KL you have to take a Domestic flight into the nearest Domestic airport which is a town called Tawau.  Once in Tawau,  its another 1.5 hours by car to Sempoerna,  and then another 30-45 minutes speedboat out to one of the islands or to the old oil rig Sea Ventures where we stayed.

I took the KL route, and had to stay over night(8 hours) to take a morning flight to Tawau and onto Seaventures,  so it took me 1 day to get there.

Let me first say,  that I did not go during the best season,  I went in October which i believe is the start of the monsoons in Malaysia.  But because of this I was pretty much guaranteed of a dive on Sipadan.  You see Sipadan has imposed daily diver limits for a fairly long time now,  and if you go during peak season,  you may only get 1 day of diving on Sipadan for a week of staying near there.

There are a few options for accommodations once getting out there.  The islands of Mabul, and Kapalai both have resorts on them,  Most of them are quite expensive,  with Sea Ventures and Scuba Junkie having the best rates.  Let me just say though,  I guess you get what you pay for.  The room we got in Seaventures was tiny,  just enough for two single beds and a bit of space to move around,  the bathroom was also tiny.  The condition of the whole place was a bit of a sham. Doors were warped and didn’t close properly,  the window also didn’t close and leaked rain water in at night,  so chilling in the rooms was definitely out of the question.  They do have a games room, tv lounge, Karaoke lounge,  but I never visited them my time was mainly spent on the main deck and diving.  Meals are included,  and is what id come to expect from a mid range Malaysian Resort. Breakfast was your usual assortment of Spam, Weiners, Fried noodles, eggs, toast. Lunch was more of the same usually Nasi or Mi goreng,  and dinner would have been mostly grilled seafood and Malaysian curry, nothing to write home about.  Honestly comparing Malaysian and Filipino resorts,  Filipino resorts tend to be of a much higher standard at a lower price too.

There is one thing thats special about Sea Ventures,  and thats the Rig Lift.  Its unlimited House reef dives(house reef is basically just under the rig itself) and to reach the house reef,  you basically take the cargo lift, which takes you right into the water,  and the same on the way out.  This is also the same lift that takes you to the dive boats for dives that are not under the rig.

So now for the most important part…the Diving!  How was it?  Lets start with Mabul and Kapalai as for most divers you will be spending most of your dives here until you get your sipadan permits!

Apparently both Mabul and Kapalai have been victims of Heavy dynamite fishing and also Cyanide fishing.  And the damage kinda shows.  I did not see any natural reef structures on Mabul,  just Sandy bottom with Artificial reef structures put there by the various resorts.  Not just any structures….but whole long houses and such that you can swim through,  so i must say it was pretty cool.  Diving on Mabul was mainly muck and Macro stuff and what I like to call Underwater Jungle Gymming.  Just playing around in the structures that have been put there and spotting things like frog fishes wedged up in crevices.  The highlight of diving on Mabul was the 2-3 meter long Giant Grouper that was hanging around.

Kapalai was a little better,  there was a little bit of coral cover, with some fish life,  but the currents we experienced were a bit crazy and we were at the mercy of the currents the whole dive,  so we pretty much flew over the dive site and had to surface.

You can expect to see LOTS and LOTS of turtles,  and BIG ones too.  On almost every dive we encountered giant Green Turtles.  On one of the dives on Kapalai we saw at least 8-10 individuals all resting on this sandy patch,  and they’re so used to divers they dun really care if you go right up to them..just remember don’t touch though!

 

Sipadan,  I only got to do 2 dives on Sipadan during the 4 days I was on the rig.   The dives I Managed to do were of course Barracuda Point and, North point.  Its safe to say that the entry point for both these dives were pretty close together just one was a right shoulder dive and the 2nd was a left shoulder dive.  Visibility was poor to say the least.  But yes everything they advertise is there! Huge schools of bumphead Parrotfish,  Huge schools of jacks,  and a wall of barracuda out in the blue water swimming in the current.  It really does show what proper conservation can do for a place,  this place was teaming with fish life, unlike mabul and kapalai which are barren compared to this place.  On the 2nd dive we managed to see a couple of oceanic threshers swim under us at about 32+ meters,  and an eagle ray on surfacing  but nothing as spectacular as Barracuda point,  and I guess i would have to agree that Barracuda point is a Bucket listable Dive site.

I personally have mixed feelings about Sipadan,  After having dived extensively in the Philippines before I visited this Malaysian Mecca of diving,  I guess I can’t say I was disappointed,  but i was expecting more I wasn’t blown Away by it,  after travelling for a day and having to fight for a diving permit and only allowed 2 dives on the island.  And paying so much for airfares and accomodations was it really worth while?  Lets put things into perspective then shall we leaving Money and Time out of it.

There were more sharks at Apo Reef,  All dives , every dive ( Visibility was infinitely better)
Schools of barracuda and Jacks can be seen at Balicasag(Admittedly not as big a school)
Thresher Sharks – Bigger Closer At Malapascua
Big Turtles – Moalboal
Macro – Anilao, Moalboal, Anywhere in the Philippines!

you get to see everything in the one place during one trip at once on Sipadan….but I don’t know about you,  but IMHO id much rather go on Several Trips for the price of the 1…

Heres a little Footage of what to expect,

All footage from this clip was taken with a GoPro Hero1, EyeofMine Flat Lens housing, Ikelite red Colour correction filter.

And here’s a link to the rest of my pictures from that trip… Sipadan 2011

 

 

 

Tioman Take 2 and 3

Unfortunately due to the lack of activity on this blog, due to nothing but laziness from myself,  that have been a lot of trips that have been taken during this hiatus.  In order to make it more coherent for readers,  I have decided to group posts by Destination,  rather than chronologically.

So to start,  Lets continue with Pulau Tioman since it was the last place I blogged about.  Since that first trip to Tioman,  we have been back a total of 2 more times.  The first of which was 2 months after our initial trip.  This was the trip when the name Zombie Divers was Born(See Case Zer0 post)

The 2nd time round we decided to stay at ABC/Panuba Inn which is actually a privately owned “Resort” with its own little private jetty and its own little private beach.  Your’e pretty much isolated from the rest of the island,  with no option to go anywhere else to eat, unless you are willing to trek 45 minutes on jungle tracks to get to ABC village.

The food itself at Panuba Inn was Average to say the least. Breakfast was included in the price of the room, and was a simple breakfast buffet of some western items(Weiner Sausages, scambled Eggs,) and some asian staples(Fried noodles, Congee) Lunch and dinner I pretty much found a couple of safe dishes and stuck to them the whole 4 day trip I think one of my staples was spaghetti bolognaise,

Diving was with Bali Hai Divers(Which has now burned down and been replaced by AZMI Dive)

When we first jumped in the water at Coral/Chebeh Island,  we were shocked to find that a lot of the Staghorn(Acropora) corals were totally bleached.  This was due to sudden ocean warming of up to 30 degrees Celsius for up to a week.  We were much saddened to see the vibrant colors of the island turn bone white in just 2 months.

Fish life seemed a bit less healthy and there were a lot less fish around.

We partook in our fist Night dive at Soyak island,  and the one memory I have retained from this night dive was that there was a big adult barracuda that was following us the whole dive,  it was so big that our torch light would only illuminate one small part of its body at a time.  And from what I saw…that thing was HUGE…at least the diameter of my leg!

It was the first time My Canadian dive buddy Rick had heard the term TORCH used in that way,  until i told him it was a “Flashlight” North Americans… how can it be a FLASH-light if it doesn’t flash!

Last but not least,  I learned the expensive lesson of not wearing boardshorts with pockets whilst on dive trip..as I had left my then fairly new Mobile phone in my pocket and dived in the water with it… and you will now see if you ever dive with me…My board shorts/Bathers NEVER HAVE ANY POCKETS!

Now onto the accomodations, I won’t comment on the Dive operator since they have burned down now and been replaced with AZMI.  We got the cheapest Air conditioned room there was.  It was a Wooden building with wooden floors,  that had slits in the floorboards you could see daylight through.  The A/C worked well enough,   and I would say its decently clean,  but all i could remember was our war with the Ants that kept coming through the slits in the floorboard! Would I stay here again,  Probably not,  but not because of the quality of the rooms,  it’s more because of the isolation you suffer and the lack of food options!  Id much rather stay in SALANG!

Which is Exactly what we did the 3rd time around.  After a couple of years,  I decided to take another friend to Tioman to get Open Water Certified.  This time I decided to fly in from KL Skyport with Berjaya air to save the long road/ferry journey from Singapore.

Berjaya air runs daily flights to tioman in the morning from both Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.  The flights are in an Old DC 9 with Strict luggage restrictions,  so if you have a lot of dive gear,  make sure you tell the airline beforehand,  or take the ferry!

Seats were a bit cramped as youd expect on a DC9 but the flight was smooth enough and the landing was…kinda awesome coming into land on this thin airstrip with mountains on 3 sides.  Cost wise,  Ended up to be roughly the same As if I had taken a taxi from Singapore.  I took the ferry out of tioman though cos of the No Fly surface interval after diving.

This time we stayed at Salang Pusaka, in a “Family room which had 3 large beds and a full sized refrigerator.  Pusaka has been the best “Resort” we had been in on Tioman considering the price(160Ringit) a night for the 3 bed room.  The restaraunt had Shisha and awesome shakes(Banana snickers..MMMMmmm) and Salang is still the most happening village on Tioman.

We dived with the Well established BnJ dive operator.  All in all,  My friend had an excellent instructor for his OW certification,  and our dive guides were competent.  Managed to finally visit the site LABAS this time with its many swim troughs, described as a Swiss Cheese Dive site,  and finally on our 3rd time to Tioman we got to dive Golden Reef, and Tiger reef,  which had ripping currents,  but some nice fishlife because of the current,  even managed to see a couple of baby reef sharks.   All in All out of my 3 times to Tioman,  BnJ has offered me the best diving experience,  They also have a dive shop on ABC and also a modern resort with brick and mortar rooms.  Tioman has become a top candidate for me to undertake IDC program…hopefully soon!

But I guess we had been spoiled for diving, as in the past 2 years since we had visited Tioman last, we had been diving so much in another part of Asia…The Philippines!

 

 

 

It’s Been Quite a Long time…Hasn’t it?

So… It’s been a very long time since this blog has been active…And my apologies for any followers that may have been reading prior and still are subscribed.

A recent dive trip to Malapascua Island in the Philippines has re-inspired me to start up my blogging exploits again,  all thanks to meeting an eccentric Professor,  and fellow scuba diver/underwater photographer,  Though I must say his photos are in a whole other league compared to mine lol.

So a lot has been happening since my last post,  Ive since become a PADI certified Divemaster,  have breezed past 200 dives(current on 245).  Guess the biggest new is the departure of my long time diving buddy back to his home country of Canada,  and I got married.  Which kinda puts a dampener on my once frequent Diving expeditions.
Good news is that gives me more time to blog about my experiences from diving throughout the S.E Asian Region, and share some of my best photographs and videos from each location.

The first big important post that will be upcoming is a list of Dive operators and Resorts that we approve and would visit again in the last few years with brief reviews for each one.

So Stay Tuned….

 

Choose Your Instructors Carefully!

Back In May this year,I introduced 3 friends to Scuba Diving.  They all asked me,  what is the difference between all the main scuba schools.  I told them mostly price,  as it really depends on the instructor on what type of experience you get and on what you learn. 

I didn’t know that this was about to ring true for the instructor we had chosen for their open water and for my Divemaster. But we signed up,  and  our training dives were scheduled for May Including my divemaster training.

At the end of it all, Among other things, My friends did not do a Boat entry At all,  They do not know how to do a bouyancy check,  orally inflate BCD at depth,  They didnt complete the nessecary 6 dives for certification.  All of their dives were to a max depth of 6 metres.  No log books were issued until 2 months after the course was completed.  They were not taught how to Log their dives either.  Nothing was taught on diving tables,   or Diving ethics.  

Rick also decided to finally do his advanced + Nitrox with this instructor at the same time. There was no navigation dive,  and no deep dive,  let alone the other 3 specialties.  But rick being an experienced diver already had the dives required  in his log, and it was just a formality…So we thought.

To cut a Long  story short,  it is now August 2  months since we paid,  and 3 months since our training.  Rick and Myself,  had not yet received our relative Certification cards.  Out of the 5 people  that signed up including myself,  only 1  out of the 5 managed to get a Card without Error.  1 card the Name was wrong, Rick got the Wrong certification, another friend got 2 of each certification,  and my divemaster was nowhere to be  seen at all.  We decided to try to get some answers,  but we couldnt,  he was unable to give us a clear date on when our cards would be fixed, or issued,  and he couldnt answer when I could get my Divemaster certification card.  At this point in time he decided to refund our money and cut his losses.

So it really is true,  that it doesnt matter which dive shop or which dive agency you sign up with,  its the Instructor that matters.   It could be Timbuktoo Scuba School for all I care,  just give me a professional instructor please.

Tioman The First Time Day 2 – Diving and Departure

An expensive looking resort located on Salang

We woke early for a supposed 9am pick up by our Dive boat.  Since we were leaving the island today we packed and checked out of our room.  We made our way to the Pier expecting our boat to be waiting for us for our days worth of diving, It wasn’t.  After a few phone calls to the operator,  they assured they hadnt forgotten about us,  but just that their normal boat captain had other matters to attend to and they were in the process of acquiring another speed boat to use.  They finally arrived at around 10.  Our first dive of the day was to be Soyak Island.

 

 

 

 

There was only one other diver with us today,  and a Local Malaysian Dive Guide,  whom I forget the name to.  So we quickly geared up in the limited space of the boat, and proceeded to to the site.  Soyak Island is actually very close to Salang,  if you stand on Salang beach,   there are two distinct rocky  islands the one closest to the southern end of the beach is Soyak(I Think).  We dropped off on the Salang side of the island and proceeded with a left shoulder dive around Soyak.  There was hardly any current, so it was an easy dive.  I guess the thing that struck us the most about Tioman,  was that even though it was a Popular destination for locals and had a rather large local population ,  the coral health was realy good.  There were large table top corals probably 100’s of years old and other large stony corals that take a very very long time to grow to such a size. 

 

Bump Headed Parrot Fish

What was missing though were the predators,   the larger predatory fish just seemed not to exist,  this could be due to the fact that we were diving rather shallow places and large fish like deeper waters,  or could be due to overfishing.  So around the island we went,  we managed to spot a rather Large Bump headed Parrotfish(the ones you see around Sipadan).  Once again being a sandy bottom dive,  the visibility is less than desirable.  We surfaced after a nice and pleasant 45 minute Dive.

 

 

 

Soft Corals at Rengis

Our 2nd dive of the day was Scheduled at Rengis Rock.  This is another Rocky outcrop type island on the southern end of ABC village between Tekek and ABC.  Its a very similiar type dive to Soyak.   Except there was a ripping current both above and below surface.  Rick and I were the first to drop,  and whilst we were waiting for the others,  we had drifted quite far from the boat.   Rick being a non swimmer had problems getting back to the boat,  where I(A Qualified Surf Lifesaver from High school) struggled with the current to get back to the boat,  but I made it..all be it a little tired.  Rick eventually got a tow from the boat back to where we were and down we went.  The current didnt get any better down below.  We had to fight the current all the way  until we  could round the bend and start down the other side of the island.  Because of this,  I didnt really look at anything,  the Vis was really poor less than 10 metres, so if you slowed down to look at something with the current pushing you back and your buddies swimming ahead,  you would get lost real easy.  As we rounded the corner it was better, but not over. 

 

 

Fire Coral!

There was still a mild current.  From what I remembered of Rengiss was that it was  a very nice site,  similiar to Chebeh,  and that I had to come back for another more relaxing dive. Total dive time 36 minutes,  due to the damned current. Even the Divemaster didnt come up Unscathed.  The current had caused him to smack pretty hard into a Fire Coral We headed back to the shop for some lunch and see if we had time for a third dive that  day. To our surprise,  the dive boat went out without us whilst we were having lunch.  When we got back to the shop to enquire,  they said they had another group of divers that had 1 dive today. And the boat would be back before we had to leave for one more dive.  It then Started to rain.

 

Waiting for the Diveboats Return

We sat around the dive shop for what seemed like forever as the Rain came and went, and came again.  This happened throughout the rest of the afternoon.  We enquired about the lateness of the return of the Dive boat.   The response we got was grim.  The outboard motor on the little boat had suffered some issues, and was failing to operator properly,  only giving power in spits and spats.  The other dive group are having troubles getting back,  Our 3rd dive was looking bleak.  Our ferry was scheduled to depart the island between the hours of 6:30pm to 7pm depending on the tides and how long for the ferry to get there.  It was about 4pm when we decided to make the most of it,  and get a shore dive at ABC, since the Salang shore dive was surprisingly good.  We walked in off the shore next to the shop and swam towards the pier.  It was nowhere near as grand as Salang,  it was much narrower, and  the vis was really quite poor.  We were taken to see the resident Lion fish who were quite large.  We just swam around what seemed like aimlessly for about 35 minutes,  then we heard a Large diesel ferry engine roar above.  We started to swim back to shore and Surfaced to see the ferry leave the ABC pier. Had we just missed the ferry? A quick phone call was made by the divemaster to enquire bout the ferry,  and he assured us that the ferry is yet to come and he reminded the ferryman, that there were 2 to be picked up at ABC pier.  It was about 5pm at this time,  the ferry didnt end up coming til about 6.

Pair of Resident LIonfish at ABC

Upon Arriving back at Mersing Pier at about 9pm,  there were no more busses that we could see heading back to Singapore,  or Johor Baru well not right away.  So we decided to give our friend a call the one who arranged for our ferry tickets the day before.  We managed to score us a cab for 200MYR to take us all the way to the Border Checkpoint on the Johor Side.  The ride took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes,  it wasnt too bad.  We got out of the cab and proceeded to make our way back across to Singapore as I had to flight to catch in about 8 hours.  Even though our Dive operator wasted a lot of our time, and our accomodation was less than stellar not to mention overpriced,   we were so enchanted with the Tioman, that we were already making plans on a revisit in 2 months.  But next time we would do things a different way.  Stay tuned for Tioman : The Sequel

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Pulau Tioman – Beauty and the Beast or The Diving, and the Accomodation! -17th April 2010

View from Salang Pier Looking Right as you step off the Pier

So,  we disembark from the ferry, onto the pier at Kampung Salang,  we looked around forour dive boat.  Off in the distance we noticed a small wooden fishing boat, we paid it no thought.  As we strolled in the direction of the beach,  we noticed the banner draped over the side of the boat,  ECO-Divers,  It was our boat.  We were greeted by an english fellow named Glenn would would be our divemaster that day.  We apologised for being late,  and said we’d be right back after we dump our bags in our room. 

We were booked at Sayang Salang, which roughly translates to Love Salang.  The rate was not cheap,  at 150MYR for an A/C room.  We were pointed to the quiet end of the beach up a narrow sandy path to the reception.  We paid and got the key.  The room was locted in the back half of the property,  it was a wooden Stilted cabin, with a shared verandah area with the cabin next door.  As we opened the door,  a silence fell upon us both.  We we surveyed the surroundings,  we  could see light through the floorboards and just make out the dirt floor 5 metres below.  Through these little slits,  were little ants that were coming from below and up into our room.  The bathroom was fairly dirty,  I dont recall there being a TV,  or a fridge for that matter, just 1 double bed and 1 single bed.  The A/C unit was an old In wall unit that was loud and rattly.  At 150MYR a night,  we were not impressed. 

But,  there was diving to be done,   we quickly dumped our bags and changed,  we didnt have much gear back then.  I had just a Mask and Fins,   Rick had Mask and an old Ixus camera, and off we trotted down the path back towards the pier.  It was actually a fair walk, probably between 5-7 minutes, so the “Resort”  isnt exactly a beach property neither. 

We got back to the boat,  and jumped in.  Already on board were two Divers from the Netherlands,  a few local divers and us two.  Glenn tells us that they would be doing a Day trip today to Coral island,  which will be a 2 dive trip with a packed lunch and would cost an extra 35MYR,  and would it be ok with us.  Not like we had much choice,  now that we had already jumped on the boat and we were heading towards coral island, all be it at a snails pace compared to the other speedboats zooming around us. 

On Our way to Coral Island!

45 minutes later we arrived at our first Dive Spot Chebeh island off the coast of Coral island.  We were quickly briefed by Glenn,  and told that we would be able to do a swim through under the actual island which is more like a big pile of truck sized boulders.  The fishing boat is not exactly the perfect platform for scuba diving,  it rocked quite a bit,  had narrow walking spaces,  you had to climb up onto the side board before being able to make your Giant Stride Entry,   so yeah it wasnt nice, but we Managed.  Down we went.

The Dive group as we start our dive

Chebeh,  is a lovely dive site,  with large soft coral covered boulders scatterd all around the main lump of rock that is the island,  there are deep cuts or so it seems in some of the boulders making for some pretty dramatic underwater scenery.  Most softcorals,  with some sea fans  and other large corals dotting the landscape. 

The Swim Through

After swimming around for about 20 minutes,  Glenn signalled for us to follow him under this rock,  this was the swim through he told us about.  It was a pretty fun experience,   not for the claustrophobic,  as there is a part where you actually swim down and are pretty much under the rocks,  and the passage way where you must cross is probably no morethan 3 metres tall by about 3.5 metres wide,  this was the first swim through i had ever done in my short diving life,  This being only my 9th dive ever so far.  After about 40 minutes we had to surface,  I was still a bit bad with my air consumption.

Climbing Back on board, we had to wait about an hour or so for our Surface interval. This was when our lunch was handed out. A deep fried piece of meat which I assumed to be chicken, some fried rice, and some tomato sauce. Snorkelling at Coral island is also excellent, with plenty of corals and fish life in the shallow areas of the island. After lunch and an hour of waiting, we were off to our second dive of the day Batu Malang, Or Malang Rocks.

Off to spend my Surface Interval

Malang is a much shallower site we hit a max depth of about 12 metres.  It has more of a sandy bottom and has more of a Muck Diving feel.  There are less pronounced rock formations.  There was a current this time round.  Being a Shallower dive site,  it recieves a lot more sunlight.  Thus this site was covered in colourful hard corals.   Staghorns,  tabletops,  potato corals,  you name it,  you would probably find it.  We encountered our first ever turtle at this dive site,  and managed to spot a weird walking fish which the divemasters told us was called an Indian Walkman,  couldnt get any photoes of it as the current was quite strong by this time and we were struggling  to keep steady.  Being a shallower dive, my air lasted a full 45 minutes,  and off we went back towards the main island of Tioman.

 

Between the pillars of the Salang Pier

We decided that since we were there for only 1 night,  to make the most of our time there,  and sign up for a shore dive at Salang Beach with AZMI Dive.  It would cost us 75MYR each per dive.  We geared up and off we went again.  We entered in front of the dive shop and swam to our right ending up under the pier where we had came in on the ferry.  This was surprisingly a nice part of the dive,  with the columns of the pier looming over us on either side.  There was a large school of Pisang Fish(Banana Fish)  and what I think were some sort of Baitfish just schooling around overhead.  As we swam some more we ran into a school of juvenile barracuda,  no teeth to bare just yet.  The coral growth on the pillars consisted of mainly softies.  As we swam more to the right,  we came upon a Giant fire coral patch shimmering in the afternoon sunlight,  It really did look like the seafloor was on Fire.   The pier was the main highlight of the dive,   the visibility gradualy got worse as we got deeper and more sand started to come up on us.  We swam back towards the left,   and back towards ths dive shop and surfaced. 

Baby Barracudas Staring into the lens

 

We retired back to our “room” showered and trekked out into the main village of Salang. All the restaraunts were starting to open up now,  with people bringing out plastic chairs and tables onto the beach for night time dining.  Music was starting to play,  and the larger of the hotels/resorts were starting to present their nightly buffet for their guests.  We visited a couple of the larger dive operations on Salang,  Such as BnJ divers,   which seemed to have a very modern operation compared to what we had experienced so far with both Eco Divers and AZMI.  BnJ also wanted to force  upon us a Scuba Refresher course before we could dive with them,  they operated one of the largest boats on the island.

We found a place for dinner and got eaten by sand flies,  went through our fotoes, and found a place that was playing Bob Marley,  and served a Banana + Snickers Milkshake I fell in love with Tioman all over again. After the shake,  and going through some photoes,  we retired to our room to sleep and to do it all over again tommorow.

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Pulau Tioman- Getting There, Our First Time- 16/17 April 2010

After our KK trip,  Rick and Myself basically felt that the 4 dives I got and the 2 dives we got, were basically not enough.  Immediately we started looking for options for a cheap weekend dive trip away somewhere..but where???

A friend of mine had recently told me that he had opened up a dive operation on an island off the coast of peninsular Malaysia called Tioman, or Pulau Tioman in the local dialect, Pulau meaning Island.  Unfortunately his newly opened dive shop was unable to accomodate us on such short notice, but he did help us find accomodation, more on that later. 

Rick had a business trip to Singapore coming up, and one of the ways to get to Tioman, is via The Lion City.  So we decided that we would go for a quick weekend to Tioman. 

We decided to take the bus from Singapore Direct to the Port town of Mersing on the 16th of April, spending a night in the town of Mersing and then taking the first ferry out to Tioman the next morning.  The bus fare is approx 25sing dollars I cant exactly recall the exact price as it was Rick who purchased the tickets.   It departs at 10pm and supposedly arrives at Mersing in 2-3 hours.  As we approached the Woodlands border crossing, we were caught in an traffic jam.  The Jam lasted the better half of 45 minutes.  The border crossing is also a bit of a hassle,  having to take our luggage off the bus, up a series of escalators,  through immigration and customs,  then down back onto your bus.  Thats the first half,  The bus then proceeds across the causeway,  also at a snails pace due to consruction going on at the time,  then you reach the Malaysia Border.  Pretty much repeat what you did on the Singapore side.  We arrive in at the Johor Bus Terminal at around 11:45.  The bus waits until about 12:15 before making a move again,  its a single lane, long winding highway without  street lights, compared to the Mainland China busses I have ridden on before,  this was a cakewalk,  but I still couldnt bring myself to sleep,  Rick was out like a light.

We finally arrive outside of Mersing town, at around 2am.  Everything is closed,  we were pretty hungry,  and tired,  but decided to see if we could find the Pier before we crashed for the night,  so we wouldnt miss the first ferry.   We were pointed in the general direction,  and we proceeded to walk.   We went the wrong way…and pretty much had to double back for 20 minutes with our luggage to get to the ferry pier.  I blame it on Rick.  Anyhoo,  after finding the pier we needed to find a place to sleep,  we asked at a couple of joints,  but some had no response and some only had fan rooms,  we finally managed to check into the Mersing Inn for 90 ringit for the rest of the night for an A/C room. 

The room was horrible,  the A/C wasnt really cool enough and was way back in a corner, the room was so hot,  that the A/C had trouble cooling it in the first place.  it felt like a jailcell.  I couldnt get much sleep,  Rick was out like a light, he complained the next morning about the loudness of my watch, but im sure he snored,  even though I use earplugs while sleeping.  Waking up at 6am the next morning we proceeded down to the ferry pier we found the previous night.

Rick had made arrangements with a local operator for ferry tickets.   So off we went to try to find the guy,  the guy found US.  Quickly shoved his business card into our hands and introduced himself as Nick(I think) and handed us our tickets while asking for money at the same time.  He then led us to book our return tickets and pay and collect them.  The guy was nice enough,  he offered a taxi service on the way back so we said we’d think abotu it and call him on the way back if we needed a cab. 

The ferry was cold,  the A/C was a little too cold,  The ferry was packed,  so in went the ear plugs on went the eye mask and i tried to get some sleep,  it was going to be at least 1.5 hours before we got to the island. 

The island itself,  Consists of many villages,  The main village with the airport is called Tekek,  and its our first port of call,  It takes about 30 minutes between Tekek and Salang(where we were staying) by boat so the island it of a decent size.  Other Villages you can stay at are ABC, Genting, and a couple of others.  Salang and ABC are the more budget orientated options of the 4 and thats where we were booked.  My friend also said thats probably the best place for First timers to get a general feel of the island as it has decent nightlife. 

Because it was a weekend and being April which is considered Peak Diving Season in Malaysia,  it was hard to get a dive booking.  I always like to book ahead cos I would hate to get to a destination and finding all the dive shops are full up on divers.  The other reason is that a lot of the smaller dive operators we found out on the island dont have Websites or up to date websites.  I managed to book with the Operator named Eco-Divers at ABC village and they offered to pick us up from Salang for our dives. 

We arrived..LATE..as we got ready to get out of the boat I looked out the window and saw the perfectly Tourqouise water.  I turned to Rick and said ” Check out that water man,  theres gotta be cement or something under that…paved” he took a look and nodded in agreement.  We found out later that it was sand and the colour was natural,  from that moment on,  I fell in love with Tioman.

Before The Horde…Kota Kinabalu – The First Time

Before the creation of the Zombie Diver concept as mentioned in the Case 0 post, the two founding members had in fact been on a few trips together.  Rick had in fact been to theRed Sea also,  but since this is my blog, I wont talk about his travels alone. 

So the first trip ever that was taken by my regular diving buddy Rick, was to Sabah Malaysia, Kota Kinabalu. 

Rick’s missus is a teacher in Hong Kong and can only get away during public holidays or school holidays,  so in order to make it a couples trip,  we planned for Easter of 2010.  I volunteered to organise and arrange everything cos Rick is well kinda… lazy, and he is always “BUSY”.  So anyhow,  this was my first experience acting as a travel agent of sorts for Scuba Divers. 

We flew in via Air Asia Directly from Macau,  a flight that no longer operates  On the night of our departure the flight was delayed due to fog,  and then delayed again due to the Airport Curfew in Kota Kinabalu so we basically lost a day on our vacation and diving schedule.   But they did compensate us with about 1000HKD worth of Credit each for the delays.

I managed to secure us a serviced apartment about 15 minutes from the city of KK, Likas Square Condotel was the name of the place,  and the room rates were fairly reasonable,  We paid 220MYR per night,  so between 4 of us thats only 45MYR a night.  The rooms were respectable, I say rooms lightly as the establishment is basically a converted Block of condos.  The lobby, the alleyways, and even the service was lacking,  well poor really,  but for the price we paid,  we didnt complain,  why?  well,  first of all the interiors of the apartments were really modern and well renovated,  there was a total of 3 bedrooms in the apartment.  One with ensuite, and 2 with a shared bathroom.  This apartment could comfrotably sleep 6 people probably more if 2 crashed in the lounge.  There is also a fully equipped modern kitchen and bar area,  and the lounge was huge. 

Couple of drawbacks,  As mentioned before, everything outside of the room is pretty mediocre,  I never visited the pool,  but it looked pretty nice from the window.  There are also permanent residents that actually live in the building,  more than a few times we encountered old men in slippers and singlets.  The Wifi was a bit patchy,  and you had to pay for it every day I think it was 10 MYR for 24 hours.  The area in which the hotel is is also quite pleasant with a nice view of the bay and what I assume to be the state mosque and is definately less crowded and cleaner than the city centre where I have stayed before. 

Taxi fares into the city proper usually cost from 10-15 ringit depending on time of day and how you called the cab,  many of the cabs dun use meters,  and you basically haggle for a price,  usually 10 ringit gets you most places within 10 minutes of the city. 

Since My girlfriend had failed to complete her full open water course whilst in Perth,  I don’t blame her,  water conditions werent exactly invitiing(21-23degree water, and less than 1 metre of vis)  so I booked her with a Local Operator Scuba Paradise for a Scuba Referral course so that she could complete her open water Certification in the warm clear waters of Malaysia.  The dive operator actually operated on a Small Island of Mantanani.  To get there involves a 2.5 hour drive north through mountains and fields to a small port,  and then another 45 mins to an hour speed boat ride out to the tiny island. 

The island is Ideallic,  with powdery white sands,  no tourists,  tourqouise Blue water and not even many locals.  Ricks girlfriend was sick that day and could not join us on the dives.  Being our first diving trip outside of Australia, or anywhere,  we were naturally quite excited and taken aback by the conditions presented to us.   

My girlfriend had to complete her final 2 open water dives in order for her to be certified so off we went.  We dived at a site called Rizals Garden first.  Maximum depth of about 12 metres.  A coral garden,  nice place for beginners and the like,  saw a few large stingrays,  and the corals we saw were quite healthy.  But little did we know that the scattered coral bombies were not natures doing. 

Mantanani, had been the site of dynamite fishing for many years,  as with many reefs in S.E Asia.  Although many locals now realise the damage it does to the reef system,  its amazing to see that how hardy the reefs grow back given the right conditions to recover.    A fews years prior to our visit,  it was not rare to see Manatees/Dugongs in the waters off Mantanani Island,  but speaking to our operator in depth,  they finally grudgingly admitted that our chances of ever seeing a Manatee in the waters of Mantanani are basically 0.

The 2nd site we dived was called Police Gate,  thus named because it is off the coast directly off the police outpost on the island.   This site had nicer coral coverage,  both hard and soft,  and an abundance of small fish life.  There was however a lack of larger fish.  I guess due to the relative shallow depth,  and of course,  the damage caused by dynamite fishing. 

Unfortunately due to our lack of experience underwater,  being only my 5th dive,  and my girlfriends 3rd dive ever,  our air consumption was not too impressive,  I only managed to stay down for about 27 minutes on my first dive which is shocking to say none the least,  and my 2nd dive lasted about 35 minutes.  So by the end of our short trip to Mantanani,  We told ourselves we would definately be back and would spend a night there, to save the long transit to and from the island.

Unfortunately I did not possess a camera with housing at this time,  so I have no photoes to show for it.  The Operator we dived with,  had an english instructor who took care of my Girlfriends final lessons,  and although the operator wasnt the best weve had in fact its probably one of the worse operators ive dived with ever,  the instructor was the best part of the whole operation.  My full trust was with the instructor and not the rest of the crew.  We had many faulty equipment pieces,  mouthpieces broken,  leaking BCDS,  and really old fins,  so the experience could have been made a lot better if the operator was more professional.

So thats Mantanani.  We also had a day scheduled diving off the coast of KK proper with another operator Borneo Dream.  They would meet us at 8am at the Jesselton Pier with a catamaran boat and the gear for our day trip out to a Site named Mayne Rock and surrounding areas.  It was a bad choice for beginers, and that was partially my fault,  but also the operators for not checking out our experience before agreeing to take us out to Mayne rock.  Other than that,  the equipment and the boat was much better than the previous operator and the divemasters spoke good english.  

Upon reaching the site,  the seas were rough,  and currents were pretty strong.  We dived a site called Mayne Rock,(Gons Boulders).  The site was nice,  but once again due to the bad conditions,  both our girlfriends(Rick’s and Mine) were nervous the whole dive,  and drained a lot of our energy.  The site consisted of many large barrel sponges of all colours and Large coral boulders that seemed to appear out of nowhere.  maximum depth 18 metres and is a white sand dive.  Once again,  lots of small fish,  but nowhere near the number we have now seen in places like the Philippines.  The water was full of stinging jellyfish,  small pink things with long tentacles.  wreaked horror for the guys as had to bear the brunt of most of it while our girlfriends cowered behind out bare arms. 

The 2nd site was even worse,  We were supposed to drop into another part of Mayne Rock,  but the currents by that time were really tight.  A shot line was dropped with a bouy and our instructions were to Stride into water and make a straight swim to the line, then wait at the line.  Rick and I went first,  Rick by the way is a self admitted non swimmer(more on that later) we swam pretty hard,  and everytime we lifted our head we seemed just out of reach.  the current wasnt just pushing us back,  but also across.  It was pretty bad,  at one point we almost had the line,  we reached out,  and the surge just pushed it out of reach.  We gave up,  signalled to the boat and at that time the operator decided to pull the plug on this site and we moved on.  Rick on the other hand,  was feeling a little pale and green.  He pretty much hugged the toilet for a while,  until we realisd it was overexertion and gave him some Mentos to recharge his blood sugar levels.  Colour returned not long after without hurling.  Ever since then,  Mentos or some sort of candy has been part of our bring on board dive kit in case of such emergencies. 

We then moved to a site called Slime rock,  so named cos..well i dunno,  its a pretty uninviting name to be honest,  and i dont remember much of the site,  except it was a shade of green,  and the visibility was really poor. 

Rick really hates the operator with a vengeance after that experience,  I on the other hand,  went back for another outing with both these operators a couple of months after, which i will write about later. 

Borneo dream had nice equipment and the divemasters seemed to be way more professional than the other operator on manatanani.  BUT they paired 4 fresh open water divers with 4 divers that were going for their advanced cert.  I believe they mismatched the divers skills(US) with the level of the site.  Which could have led to a disaster. 

The cost of both days of diving were as follows

Mantanani – Scuba Paradise – 400MYR – Per Pax Includes Transfers, Lunch, 2 dives.  Depart 6am return 6pm – I rate this operator 2.5 stars out of 5

Mayne Rock – Borneo dream – 395 MYR – Per Pax includes 2 dives and lunch. – I rate this operator 3 stars out of 5.

Kota Kinabalu is probably not the best dive destination for that price.  If you have a family or non diving friends,  it would be a better option since there is a city near by and lots of other non diving activities.  How about for Hardcore Divers?  There are many dive sites scattered around KK but most of them involve a day trip or more to reach, Such as mantanani, and Pulau Tiga(survivor borneo island)  and it tends to get costly since there is a Large city right there.  The operators on islands inside Tunku Abdul Raman Marine Park (TARP) wanted to charge us 150MYr for a walk in shore dive,  now thats just crazy.  You cant just wake up and walk into a dive shop with your gear and sign up for dives,  so no It’s not the best destination for Hard core divers but might be a good consideration more for a family holiday!

 

Stinging Hydroids….

On our  recent trip to Bohol,  I say our, as it was kind of the first ever Zombie Divers group diving trip ever planned and executed(full report later), many fellow zombies suffered from mysterious itchy sores after diving at the many dive sites of the beautiful Balicasag Island.  Many of us were puzzled and turned to the divemaster who was also hit once, since none of us saw jelly fish in the water,  the divemaster put it down to small jelly fish type animals which are transparent. 

Going through my photoes though,  I noticed that one of the Nudibranch I photographed was sitting on a familiar looking  thing.   Immediately I flipped through one of my reference books on reef animals and found the culprit.  Stinging Hydroids(more info can be found here http://na.oceana.org/en/explore/creatures/stinging-hydroid)  these damn things got me pretty damn good on my legs on my knees.  One fellow zombie was hit all over her arm,  most likely brushing against one trying to take a macro shot on the wall dives. 

So anyway,  be aware people,  dont always blame jelly fish…it might be your own fault diving too close to the reef and brushing up against what you thought was a harmless coral!

Zombie Diver – CASE Zer0

Before I get started on the actual topic,  I guess ill introduce myself a little bit.   I am in my early 30’s and have been diving for not very long(since 2010) And I am currently based out of Macau/Hong Kong.  I grew up in Australia,  and the Ocean has always been part of my life,  although I must say for the most of my life, I spent observing sharks from the shore, and not from underwater.  I got certified in Australia in less than perfect Conditions,  Fairly cold water and bad visibility,  it was so bad in fact that my Girlfriend could not complete her course right away.   Since then,  I have managed to rack up 101 Dives,  and have worked my way through several certification agencies PADI, SSI, and SDI all the way up to Divemaster Certification.

So….Case Zer0,  funnily enough Case Zero didnt happen on my first scuba outing with my frequent  diving buddy Rick.  It was our  third outing in 2010 on the Island of  Tioman on the peninsular side of Malaysia(I will write about our experiences  there in detail with photoes in another Blog entry at a later date).  Rick and I had about 15 dives together so far at that point, with both totalling about 20 dives,  so we werent exactly the MOST experienced divers but we knew our limits and was there to build on what we knew and to practice everything we had learnt. 

It was our  2nd dive at a local site named Rengiss,  and there were a couple of Discover Scuba Divers(DSD) with us on the boat,  and we thought nothing of it, we chatted, and told them of our great experiences so far diving, and wished them a good dive… down we went….

towards the end of the dive… we met up with the DSD’s… and I couldnt help but notice, that with the divemaster holding their tank valves and swimming for them, the two DSDs had their arms outstretched moving in slow motion…. I immediately turned to Rick my buddy and made a long Moaning/Groaning ZOMBIE like noise through my regulator whilst pointing at the pair of DSD.  Ricks mask flooded with a blast of bubbles as he came as close to bursting out with laughter underwater as you could.  I told him to take a photo and video if he could,  and ill try to post that later I need to sort through my archives. 

Ever since that day,  we have dreamed of doing something with the name Zombie Diver,  as not only do a lot of newb divers(including Rick and I) probably looked like Zombies flailing about underwater,  Diving is the only thing on our minds most of the time… much like a Zombie who thinks only about brains…We think only about being underwater.

That much being said, whats this blog going to be about.  Well Scuba mainly,   I hope to write trip reports on all trips that I go on, and I will also put up trip reports on trips I’ve already been on Prior to the creation of this blog.  I hope to help others get into the sport of scuba diving on a budget as we are always on a shoestring budget.   

 Rick and Myself are also Enthusiastic Amateur Underwater Photographers, and I am starting to get into Videography and editing with my new toy the GoPro HD and Eye of Mine housing so stay tuned for Photos and VIdeos!

So thats about it, Stay tuned for more posts and photos of Dives from Previous Trips.