James takes on the world!

It has been a while since my last update and that is because I have spent most of that time under the water.

I flew from Cebu in the Philippines to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Malaysian Borneo, where I stopped off over night and then continued on to Semporna on the east coast.

The day after I arrived I started my PADI Open Water course with a company called Scuba Junkie. I was also staying at their hostel which was nearby along with lots of other travelers who all share the same interest of Scuba Diving.

The first day consisted of sitting in a classroom watching theory videos which started at 8am and finished at 5pm. At the end of the day I had to complete a final exam which I scored a total of 92%, so I was pretty happy.

The following morning I put everything I had learnt into practice by diving with my instructor. It mainly involved remembering various acronyms such as (B)CD, (W)eights, (R)eleases, (A)ir, (F)inal Okay, which I remembered by saying British Women Really Are Foxy and recited just before I started a dive to make sure everything was safe and correct. We were diving at an island called Sibuan which is the most perfect picture postcard island that I have ever seen. It is essentially a sand bar in the middle of some crystal clear water topped with a few palm trees and huts which are home to some sea gypsy’s.

The final day involved less practice and more general ‘fun diving’ which was great. We went to an island called Mabul and we did 3 separate dives. I passed all of the criteria and I am now fully Open Water certified which means I can dive with a Dive Master to a depth of 18 Meters.

I took a day off on the following day as my ears had been giving me problems by not equalising when descending on a dive. This happens when the pressure in your ear is not equal to the pressure of the water and it can be very painful and annoying as it prevents you from going deeper until they equalise.

A few days earlier I tried to book myself on a dive trip to an island called Sipadan. This is probably the most famous island in Borneo. It is the tip of a limestone pinnacle that rises 600m from the seabed and is regarded as one of the very best places to dive in the world. When I attempted to make the booking I discovered that there was a 1 month waiting list to dive there as diving is limited by permit to only a small number per day. I asked around and luckily found another dive center nearby that had one available spot in 2 days time, I grabbed at the opportunity even though it was more expensive.

The next day I did 3 more fun dives for the first time since passing my Open Water. It was a great day and we saw 3 Spotted Eagle Rays which are extremely rare along with lots of Turtles, Frog Fish, Lion Fish, Moray and Ribbon Eels and large Crocodile Fish.

Yesterday was the big day of the dive to Sipadan. I had spooken to lots of people who had done hundreds of dives and even they were saying how incredible it was so my expectations were quite high. I can now safely say that Iwas not dissapointed. We arrived at this stunning island which is protected by the Malaysian Military and signed for our permits. We then began the day by diving at a site at Sipadan called White Tip Avenue, so called because of all of the White Tip Sharks which can be found there. We were greeted by yet more Green Sea Turtles which were around 1.5 meters in length, a Napoleon Wrasse of around 2 meters, various brightly colored Puffa Fish, White Tip and Black Tip Sharks and Yellowtail Barracuda. It was obvious that the fish were all doing very well here, I had seen lots of these marine animals at other sites but none of them were anywhere near as large as they were here. As an Open Water Diver I am only supposed to dive to a depth of 18 meters and if I was to do my Advanced Open Water I could go on to dive at 30 Meters. On this dive however my Dive Master who was suppoosed to be keeping an eye on me accidentally allowed me to dive to 35.5 meters. This is classed as a dangerous depth as often many people can suffer from Nitrogen Narcosis at around 30 meters where they feel as if they are drunk and suffer from loss of decision-making ability and focus, and impaired judgment and coordination. Luckily I can say I was fine, however, I won’t be diving that deep again.

The second dive of the day was at a site called Barracuda Point, again the name gives away what you are likely to see here. We saw a swimming Giant Moray Eel, more sharks and turtles and a huge battery of hundreds of Barracuda which swam slowly around us as we sat and watched on the sandy bottom. We had been warned not to wear any shiny jewelery as sometime Barracudas can mistake this for prey and nip a finger or two off of your hand.

The visibility in Sipadan was as much as 30meters and our final dive at a spot called Hanging Garden allowed us to take in the truly mesmerising magnitude of the vertical, natural limestone, coral covered wall which plummets straight down into the deeps below. We sat in the current and drifted along the wall watching all of the beautiful fish and marine life. It reminded me in a strange way of the Generation Game as all of the fish and marine life slowly passes by in front of you as you drift parallel in the current and then at the end of the dive you would have to try and remember everything that you saw. The wonderful thing about Scuba Diving is that you seem completely weightless so often I would watch all of the fish upside down or lying on my back, it really was great fun.

Today is my last day here and I am trying to work out where to head next. I am either going to go south in Kalimantan which is Indonesian Borneo or North to the Jungle to do a river trip remaining in Malaysian Borneo. My next update will inform you of my decision.

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI