Greetings from the Sulu Sea!
After a few weeks in Kuala Lumpur
full of Rotary activities and, gasp...applying for jobs so I have something to
do upon my return to America, I set off for another quick adventure with my two
Japanese roommates.
We flew to Tawau, Sabah and
hopped a ride to the coastal town of Semporna which was our base for two days
of wonderful scuba diving. Sabah is in
East Malaysia, know more to the rest of the world as Boreno. In Malaysia they refer to this area as East
Malaysia because the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak only comprise less
than half of the island of Borneo. The
bottom half of Borneo is the Indonesian state of Kalimantan and the small country
of Brunei is also tucked in.
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We spotted a Rotary billboard in Tawau!
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| About to enjoy a seafood dinner on a nice evening in Semporna |
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S
ipadan is a small island off the
coast from Semporna and is touted as one of the top dive sites in the
world. The island formation rises 600 meters
from the sea floor and was created by living corals growing on top of an
extinct volcanic cone. Shaped like a
mushroom with a small island forming the dome, vertical sea cliffs drop off
dramatically just meters from shore.
This beautiful island and underwater world was highlighted by Jacques
Cousteau’s film Ghost of the Sea Turtles.
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| I can see why Jacques Cousteau liked Sipadan Island |
This island has a very unique
history; there used to be five resorts on the island but in the year 2000 21
people (10 dive tourists and 11 resort staff) were kidnapped by Filipino
pirates. They were held for more than a
year and slowly ransomed off for millions of dollars. Our dive master told us he was working on the
island during that time but happened to be leading a night dive when the
kidnapping occurred. He and his group
surfaced when they finished their dive but heard people yelling “pirates!” from
the shore so they quietly re-submerged and hid in a shallow area of the reef
for two more hours before resurfacing to safety. The island was also part of a territorial
land dispute between Indonesia and Malaysia for many years until it was
officially declared part of Malaysia by the International Court of Justice in
2002.
In 2004, under pressure from
conservation groups and others, the Malaysian government ordered all on-site
dive operators to remove their structures from the island and operate from someplace
else. I assume that after the
kidnappings, there probably weren’t many visitors that came for more than day
trips anyways. To further reduce impacts
on the marine environment, only 120 permits per day are issued to visit the
island which includes divers, snorkelers, and guides. This means you definitely need to plan ahead
if you want to dive there, and pay the price.
Many backpack type travelers show up only to be disappointed that
permits may be booked out for weeks or months.
Although I have only been diving
in a few other areas before Sipadan (namely Koh Tao, Thailand and Roatan, Honduras),
I believe the diving here lived up to its hype.
The diversity and abundance of plants and animals was amazing, and the
underwater geography was mind blowing.
Literally vertical sea wall cliffs dropping off for hundreds of meters,
never ending as you looked up and down!
We encountered sea turtles, reef sharks, and HUGE schools of fish
including barracudas. It was crazy being
faced with and surrounded by walls of fish.
Diving at this location was definitely a memorable
experience and worth the journey and logistics to get there. My roommate Tomomi had an underwater housing for her camera so I can't help but share many of the great shots:
