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!
Zombie Divers 