Sipadan-Mabul: Where the Big Fish Are

Unfortunately, it takes me forever to update my blog and months had passed before I'm writing about this diving trip in Malaysia. Therefore, I will write about my experience in one post and try to remember as much as I possibly can with the help of my logbook. Here we go!

My mom and I arrived at the island resort some time in the early afternoon. The buildings were beautifully built with wood and were very resort-like, opposite of Sorido Bay. Not that I'm saying Sorido Bay wasn't beautiful. It was beautiful in a different, more organic way, which I like a lot more. Anyway, we stayed in a water bungalow so we didn't have to walk far for food or diving. :)

Here's a picture of what the resort looks like (photo courtesy of Google Images [I only took underwater pictures during this trip]):

After arrival, checking in, and putting the luggage away, we did our check-up dive at the house reef with Jen, a master diver. I waddled down the stairs with my equipment (thank God for warm water diving--so much lighter than diving in cold water!). And then submerged. Ah...what a feeling. Gliding underwater makes you feel so free. That was until my dive comp started beeping. I knew my tank was full of air because I checked before going down. So what could it possibly be?

The moment I looked down at my dive comp's monitor I wanted to cry. It was flashing all sorts of weird patterns like it was convulsing before death. And, surely enough, the display started to fade until I was staring at the blank face of my dead dive computer. I also knew that it was because of a leak. Before coming on this trip, I had changed the battery myself and probably did not seal the back plate properly. I was so angry and worried at that point on. But we were only in a house reef so we continued diving until done.

Diving the house reef gave me a different experience (apart from diving without any dive comp). It was basically an artificial city underwater. The resort had built wooden structures and some other monuments with different materials and placed them around the dock. It was old enough that corals were starting to grow on the wood and there were groups of fish around.

What the artificial reef looks like.

A group of fishy!

The majority of our days during the trip was dedicated to diving at Sipadan, a protected island that allows only 120 divers per day. It is deemed one of the best dive sites in the world. Sipadan is famous for its big fish, schools of fish, and sea turtles, which definitely provides a different kind of experience. But personally, I enjoy searching for and looking at small organisms on coral reefs better than seeing big fish. With that aside, it becomes instantly apparent why Sipadan became a protected site once you drop down into the depth of its water. There weren't much of a reef left, only the abundant skeletal remains of corals all over the ocean floor. I referred to this as the "coral graveyard" in my logbook. Nevertheless, the fish that thrived there are nothing less than amazing.

Some cool looking starfish.

A couple of bright blue nudibranch.
Unfortunately, there weren't that many nudibranch around.

A family of fish. The small ones were so cute!

Can you spot the white frogfish?

And this is a HUGE black frogfish.
It was bigger than my whole hand!

Here's a short video of the black frogfish swimming. Isn't it just cool and weird at the same time? It sneaked right up on me while I was diving, too.

Asian turtle gliding!!!

And I just love this picture.
The turtle came sooo close to me! I guess it was just curious.

I also snuck up to a sleeping turtle. Hehehe.

Underwater hermit.

And there's my mom. Hahaha.
I think we were surfacing at this point.

There were also sleeping sharks.
This one looked particularly mean.

Swimming through a ginormous group of jackfish wasn't too bad either.
Seriously, they were so dense that I couldn't see the other divers, top or bottom.
I had to keep an eye on the depth gauge to make sure that I wasn't going any deeper or surfacing.

And guess what? I found a pygmy seahorse! I was so excited!
They haven't seen a pygmy around this area for a while.
Sorido Bay trained me well. :))

But this was probably one of the most badass moments there.
To be among the school of huge barracudas.
Yes, it's the fish that killed Nemo's mom and kins.

I also had a video of barracudas swimming around us, but blogger couldn't upload the file for some reason. Error while uploading. Oh well. But I assure you it was super badass. ;)

However, the coolest dive of this trip was, hands down, the Turtle Tomb dive at Sipadan. As the name suggests, it is like the graveyard of sea turtles. The Turtle Tomb is basically an underwater cave with, technically, only one entrance and exit. It is completely dark and full of silt. Patrick, the guide and a very knowledgeable diver, had to make sure that our balance and control is good enough because kicking up silt and panicking could potentially lead to a dangerous scenario, especially when the dive includes a 20 meters long narrow tunnel that could only fit one person, fully geared, at a time. Did I already mention that it was pitch black? Yep, pitch black, in narrow space, underwater. But, of course, we used our dive lights. But that could only provide so much comfort.

Anyway, there are three parts to the Turtle Tomb. There is the antechamber, or the entrance to the cave, where the mouth/exit could still be seen. Then there is the 20 meters long narrow tunnel connecting the antechamber with the inner cave where the skeletal remains of sea turtles are. We started diving down using a spare tank that was clipped onto our BC to save on air from our own tank for the actual cave dive. Once we got to the mouth of the tunnel, we unclipped our spare tank and started using our own tank. We followed a reference line through the tunnel until we emerged into the inner cave. Patrick set up a marker to the only entrance/exit of the inner cave by placing a light on a rock facing up into the ceiling so we can see it at all times.

What can I say about the inner cave except the fact that it was amazing and exciting?

Sadly, I didn't bring the camera. Mostly because I didn't want anything dangling around me in the dark ready to get snatched onto something I couldn't see and also because I wanted to concentrate on not kicking up silt. According to Patrick, the silt in the tunnel and cave is so fine that it takes several hours for the cloud to settle once touched. Now, you might say, then just wait. Hah! You see, limited air supply kind of makes that difficult.

The cave itself was big and deep enough to swim around comfortably. There was even an air pocket above us, possibly from a time before the cave was submerged and bubbles breathed out by divers. Still, the prospect of stale and carbon dioxide rich air is disgusting to me. We followed Patrick around to look at some of the skeletal remains and the "blue hole," this tiny opening to the outside any turtle or us divers couldn't possibly fit through. Also, according to two divers that toured the cave after us, there was a decomposing turtle carcass floating by some corner in the cave. Patrick said he saw it when he went with us but didn't point it out because he didn't want to freak us out... I wanted to see it!!!

Anyway, the whole dive took 87 minutes. The longest I've ever dove before! To be honest, I was hesitating whether or not I wanted to do the dive in the first place. Because, really, you're liable for your own life PLUS others in your group. I just wasn't sure if my buoyancy control was that great. What I ended up doing was keeping my legs high during the whole tunnel run and madly checking my perimeters once in the inner cave. I definitely do not regret going though. It's almost like one of the dive sites every diver should see before they die.

And before I end this blog post, I'd like to relay a funny/embarrassing story of mine. So... On the last day and last dive, I finally learned how to use the camera, per thanks to Patrick. Take a moment to quickly look through all the previous pictures in this post. Notice the blue scheme in all of them? Yep, I learned to adjust the aperture and whatnot. Last day, last dive. Sigh.

Here are the results:

Some poor fish with two parasites on him.
He's being eaten alive. :(

See the camouflaged seahorse?

This one's lighter in color and fatter.

There you go. My dive trip to Sipadan-Mabul. Where the cool, big fishies live. :)

Day 7: In Search of the Red Bird of Paradise

Saturday is the Sabbath day for workers on Sorido Bay. There are no guided dives unless you want to explore the house reef by yourself. But there is also an option to go on a hike on a different island to search for the red bird of paradise. Hiking being one of my favorite activities, of course I opted for it!

Normally, guests would have to leave very early (before sunrise) to catch the birds at dawn. Tertius, our English-speaking, white, South African guide (he's a cool guy), proposed an alternate schedule on a shorter trail. We left after an early breakfast and stopped by a village to pick up a local guide. A group of kids came by the dock to look at us.

It was a pretty colorful display :)

We then proceeded to the trail head, which was in this little bay accessible only by boat. Well, I guess if you really want to you can also swim there. But that's beside the point. I just like the fact that it's so secluded. Gives you a mystical/adventurous feel. You rarely get that in L.A., even in the Santa Monica mountains.

Here's the bay, with our boat and James guarding it with his life.

The trail head with a little wooden bench.
(Tertius, our guide, and my mom)

As you can see from the picture above, the trail leads right into a forest. It is a narrow trail that takes around 30 minutes to reach our destination. And man, this trail is the real deal! All the hiking trails that I've been on so far are very.....used. They're all so distinct and well trodden on with a variety of "shortcuts." Boot marks on the dirt make it seem almost like a parade just passed by. And you just can't shed the feeling that only a few miles away are communities of houses, people, and cars.

Here, you know there is no one around. The trail is covered with leaves and moss, sometimes I didn't even know which way to turn and even where the trail was until Tertius pointed it out to me. It felt almost as if fulfilling my old dream of becoming an explorer.

My mom on the trail in front of me.
See, I wasn't kidding when I said the trail is covered by moss!

The walking tree.
A very slow walking tree.

The trail was steep at times, but nothing too major. My mom was having a hard time though because she's not a regular hiker. But she was definitely pushing herself. Despite saying that the trail wasn't too hard, we were all sweating like crazy. I think it's because of the humidity and tropical weather.

We finally came to the little bird watching shack that our guide apparently built himself. It was a waiting game after that. The shack faces this little clearing where the red birds of paradise usually frequent to "dance" in their mating ritual. We were warned that they might not come out to this spot because it was a little windy and was about to rain.

Our little bird watching hideout.

These are holes to look through once the bird comes.
Looks almost like peepholes, hahaha!

Despite our guide's best effort at ca-cawing in the bird's native tongue, which, by the way, sounds very real and convincing to me, it did not come to grace us with its presence. Although, I must say, the time spent sitting, waiting, and whispering in the hideout was no less interesting and educational.

Tertius told us that this bird watching program is part of a conservation effort in preserving the population of the birds. Locals have been known to illegally catch and sell the red birds of paradise to foreigners who, in turn, sell them in the black markets of their country. One bird will sell for about $50.

This program aims at educating the locals that selling the birds is not sustainable for both the environment and their own well being. From the sale of a bird, they will only receive a one time profit and further decimate the bird's population. There is only a limited resources in terms of the number of birds around. But with a guided bird watching tour every week, there will be a continuous flow of sufficient income, which will last through the generations with careful preservation of the environment.

So here's a picture of the red bird of paradise (not taken by me):

Photo credit: National Geographic.

The rest of the day was spent packing and sulking over having to leave this amazing paradise with wonderful people and wonderful natural artifacts. I bought a couple shirts to commemorate my stay, and my mom bought a couple books on the Raja Ampat region.

On the next day, we were scheduled to leave very early because of our flight time. But before parting, I got to watch the black tip shark feeding session from the jetty. No wonder they're so plump and fat on our dives, hahaha!

It has been an overall unforgettable experience! Raja Ampat holds a special place in my heart, and I definitely found a home in the Sorido Bay family. I definitely plan on coming back here many more times. :)

Day 6: No Current, No Fish

I can't believe today is my last day diving here! :'( Time goes by too fast when you're having fun, especially when you're diving. It feels almost like meditating underwater, which just makes time slip by even faster. So now I'm convinced: diving is definitely a form of therapy.

I'm still feeling a bit stuffy, but whatever. Not gonna pass up the last day for anything!

Initially, we went to a dive site called Chicken Bay. One really convenient thing that the guides do is they would jump in the water right when we get to the dive site and determine the current condition before letting us in. If the current is too strong they will suggest a different site. From experience, this is very helpful because most of the time the guides don't even know which way the current is going, let alone whether it is strong or not.

With Chicken Bay, Eddy popped his head up from looking down and said, "no current, no fish."

No current is good. It's always nice not to have to fight it to look at something. But no fish simply means that the scenery is incomplete. I would have been fine with looking around at the corals. But Eddy decided to take us somewhere else instead. So we went to Surgeon's Slope.

There were plenty of fish and corals here. And then I figured out why Eddy wanted fish in the first place. He brought down a black plastic bag with him, and throughout the dive he started feeding the fish fish. That's total cannibalism! Well, I mean, when you think about it fish do eat each other for survival. So it's not as bad as it sounds I guess. But the scent of raw fish meat definitely drew in lots of sharks. Surprisingly they didn't come to join in the feeding when Eddy would pull out a couple pieces. They were just lurking around. Mostly black tip reef sharks. They were probably scared of us.

Our second dive is the must-dive dive of the trip. Everyone who came to Raja Ampat insist on doing The Passage. It's supposed to be one of those if-you-didn't-do-it-you-weren't-really-here kind of thing. So, of course, we couldn't miss it!

The Passage is literally a narrow passage between two islands (around 20 meters wide). Naturally, with the geography being what it is, water flows through the area more rapidly. We were briefed on expecting some currents and to stay away from the center where it will be strongest. To be honest, my sense of direction once underwater is just chicken sh*t. Really! I either follow someone or the wall. If I were left in an open space I would definitely get lost. Good thing I'm not the kind of person that gets scared of that. Or maybe I'm just too confident with myself. :/

Anyway, because of the direction of the current, we started the dive with the cave. It's really this small cave that's not totally enclosed, so it's not dangerous and extreme or anything. Steve called us over to look at the infamous "disco clam" on the wall, which was this clam with bright neon and glow-in-the-dark(?) lips. It was incredible! I guess that's how it attracts food to its mouth, sly bastard! Close by was a huge pufferfish chillaxing in the corner. I think we inconsiderately disturbed his napping time.

Entering the cave! It was actually kind of dark inside.

The little fishies residing in the cave.

On the upper left side of the cave, there's this tiny little hole that leads into a cavern. I initially thought that when the guys were motioning to it, they just wanted us to look through it or something. I didn't know we were going to actually swim through it. I didn't even know there was a cavern! Oh, I'm such a good listener. I'm pretty sure they covered it in the briefing somewhere. So you can imagine my hesitation when one of the guides went in first while the other motioned for me to follow.

It was just so small! Like barely enough for a person and a tank on their back. I was worried my tank or one of the hoses will get snagged. Seriously, it's like that little hole Ariel peeped out of while singing about wanting to walk on land from her secret cave of "gadgets and gizmos" in "The Little Mermaid." I wanna be where the people are... not.

We made it through with a little help from the guides. I saw them surfacing (the dive wasn't deep in the first place), and I thought that something was wrong. You don't usually surface unless something happened. I was kind of confused, but I finally surfaced after a bit. Turns out they just wanted to show us the secret cavern. There was no exit so I quickly came to realize that it can't be accessed other than from underwater.  It was actually a very beautiful little hideaway.

Picture time!
(Me, Eddy, my mom, Imail)

The hidden cavern with its vegetation.
Like a little place of serenity.

After a while we descended back down, exited through a different (and bigger) opening, and proceeded further into the passage. I was extremely fascinated by the harmony between the world out of water and the submerged one. Looking along the walls, there was an abundance of corals. Looking up, I was surrounded and protected by a forest of mangroves. That dynamic gave a totally different experience, almost like you're floating in between the possible and impossible.

We came up to this point where the guides signaled to be buddy-buddy with us. Ismail was with my mom and Eddy was with me. I saw Ismail took hold of my mom's hand, and then Eddy took mine. I was thinking, okay, this is not necessarily a good sign. Just moments later we were fighting through this blasting current across the floor of the passage. Thankfully my mask didn't start leaking like last time when I was in the Maldives. I swear, if my hand were to have slipped or Eddy were to let go, I would have flown away in an instant.

It's interesting how you're in these situations where it's prime time to panic, but you know you can't because you'll use up too much air, so you just pretend to be calm. And it works! I mean, you're basically forcing yourself to be calm and just literally go with the flow. Except this time we were going against the flow. Eddy was holding on to the rocky bottom and propelling us forward. I held on like there's no tomorrow!

The cool part of this was when we would fly past blocks of coral or just some kind of wall in general. Once we're behind the block/wall, there would be little to no current. But once we past it the blasting water would hit us again. A pretty interesting dynamic to the dive. To be honest, I didn't look around much because I was so focused on taking long, deep breaths, hahaha!

Ismail and my mom.

Eddy and I.

We finally came to a calmer part where I could finally look around without losing my cool. Huge mangrove roots stood strong, ascending skyward. We stopped to look at the gobies' lair. Most of the ones here are yellow, though there were also some striped brown and white ones. It was really cute how all of the holes would have a shrimp in it constantly bringing out sand from the den. They supposedly live symbiotically. It's really a wonder how they find each other in the first place. I mean, every goby has his own shrimp.

The yellow gobies with their shrimp.
Aren't they cute? Looks like they have freckles!

Two weird looking nudibranches, laying eggs, I think.

My third and last dive here in Raja Ampat was at Otdima. My mom had already done this site on the day that I was sick. She said it was so beautiful she wanted me to see it. I was having a slight headache while I was under, possibly because I was overexerting myself combined with a little dehydration. But that didn't stop me from seeing all the beauty around me! The colors and reef at Otdima was just impossibly vibrant. So full of life.

We found a couple more pygmy seahorses (I'm seriously considering buying a magnifying glass for those little dudes), more nudibranches, and a school of baby barracudas. And no, I don't think the barracudas look any less intimidating when they're smaller. Apparently, this site is also famous for its crowd of sweet lips in this one particular spot. Every photographer who comes here would take pictures of the fish here. Here's a couple snapshots to give you a better picture: (Ha! That's like a little pun!)

Sweet Lips!

Look at them all huddled together!

Look at how rich the corals around here are!
Every surface is covered with life! It was beautiful!

At the end of the dive I got another surprise from mother nature. As we were ascending, we came across this huge cuttlefish. He started out whitish, and slowly turns darker before swimming away from us in what looked like an angry manner.

You can see the color progression as you scroll down...

A little browner.

And a little darker.

And totally brown and going away!

Do you see the richness of the corals in the background of this picture? It's just amazing isn't it? I was suddenly appreciative of the efforts Sorido Bay is making in order to protect the waters in this area. And you can totally see that it's working!

Day 5: Sick But Still Diving!

I didn't feel too well today. Got a runny nose and was just under the weather. I think I caught Steve's cold, who caught it from Jutta, hahaha. My immune system has been incredibly weakened from the trip here. I blame that ridiculously cold refrigerator of a cabin in Sriwijaya Air. And the flight attendant's lack of insight in adjusting the temperature.

I decided not to go diving because I was basically scared out of doing it. First, it was Steve who warned me about getting a reverse block, which was like, okay, whatever. Then, it was Max who relayed his painful story of once getting a reverse block that I decided to skip the first two dives. I waited to see if I would feel any better in the afternoon.

For the first dive I tagged along on the boat just for good measures. I mean, I just woke up and drank coffee so I couldn't go back to sleep anyway. Before going in, Jutta told me I could go back if I wanted because the sea was a bit choppy. But I was determined to push through with it. Pfft! Choppy sea? I've been on boats too many times to care about that! The sea is in my blood! Argh!

Once we dropped my mom, Jutta, and Eddy in the water (literally less than a minute away from land), James, the boat driver, took me around this small island right in front of the resort. A free little boat tour, which was really nice.

The homestay on the island.

A homestay is a cheaper and more eco-friendly way to stay here. It's a totally different experience. There is no electricity or running water in the house. It is basically this freestanding hut on the water. I was surprised when I figured this out. How are you supposed to go to the bathroom? Well, you pee into the ocean, of course. That's a no-brainer. Everyone does it, even though it has been ingrained into our brains not to pee in the water, especially in the swimming pool.

But what about number two? I mean, I would feel bad if I had to do that to the fish! Apparently you can do it in the woods or dig a hole or something. I'm still not totally sure what's supposed to happen. I guess if nature calls then you gotta do what you gotta do. :S

Anyway, the cool part is that you get food delivered to you by local villagers when they pass by the homestay. But really, I think that's the only cool part. The rest, well... maybe it just all seems too much like I'm being stranded.

It's so cool how the trees are right on the edge of the cliff.

The island is surrounded by blue water and little caverns on its cliff face.

After touring the little island, James took the boat back to Kri and around to this little cove. He said he was going to show me a traditional Papuan game.

Fedrick going to find the material for the game.

The "material" turned out to be this green, round fruit picked from the trees along the shore. You peel the fruit, which has a thick outer skin similar to that of an orange, to reveal a peach colored ball inside. It looks almost like a smooth version of a small brain because of the many fissures going around it. Surprisingly, it falls apart quite easily once it is peeled. But that is the point. You're supposed to let it separate into different chunks, mix the pieces up, and try to put it back together. That's the game. A simple, puzzle game.

Here are the chunks of one of the fruits.

James putting the pieces back together.
He's really good!

You might think this is an easy game, a fourth grader could do it. Think again! You have nothing to work with except the different faces on each of the pieces. It's like a jigsaw puzzle but harder because it's 360 degrees with no distinguishing picture on it. And remember how I said the sea is in my blood? The sea is clearly not in my blood while I was playing this game. Having to concentrate on figuring out which piece is next to which while the boat constantly drifts up and down killed me! My head was turning, and I was miserable. I had to look up at the horizon more than a couple times. But, of course, I feigned everything was fine. ;)

After the divers surfaced, I went back to take a nap while they went on to the second dive. Like all midday naps, I woke up feeling groggier than before with a whoozy sensation in my head. Despite all this and my left ear still feeling a bit muted, I decided to join the third dive of the day. Hey, it's not every day you live in a tropical paradise with one of the most ecologically diverse diving experience ever! There was no way I was gonna let a little cold stop me from going in!

For this dive, we went to Sorido Wall. The visibility of this site wasn't as good as the others that we've been to, but it was still beautiful. There was a little current so I just drifted with it. The attraction of this dive, I think, would have to be the big group of blue triggerfish in the area. By the way, I didn't even realize they were a kind of triggerfish until I did some research later. I referred to them in my log book as "those blue fishes with what looks like fangs," hahaha! They really do have these little protruding fangs from their mouths! I actually thought they were really pretty, especially when there are a whole bunch of them swimming around. Almost like blue butterflies of the sea.

We also saw more pygmy seahorses in the fan corals. The ones we saw today are a bit bigger than the ones we have been seeing so far, so that helps with identifying them a lot. Then, while we were ascending, there was a big wobbegong sleeping under a block of coral. His face was hiding inside so we only saw his tail. Thankfully, I didn't have a problem equalizing, thus, no reverse block. I made sure to go really slowly though. I guess it also helps that the reefs aren't too deep either.

Can you see the pygmy seahorse in the yellow circle?

Here's an enlarged picture. I think he's pregnant, too!

Another nudibranch!

I still felt out of it going to dinner. I think I was glazed over most of the time that we were talking, so I couldn't really remember what the topic was. I just remember pushing myself to concentrate on listening and responding at the right moment. Hahaha! That's just sad. But I do remember still being thoroughly entertained. Alas, the night was not wasted by my drunken sickness. :)

Talk about getting sick, I recall an earlier conversation with Jutta when we first arrived about how people nowadays are overly hygienic. People are so hygienic to the point where it's counterproductive. I seriously believe that all this cleanliness is creating a generation of people with weak immune system. You don't even have to search far. Look at all the people with their weird and common allergies! The most ridiculous, in my opinion, is when someone is allergic to peanuts (not to say that I think it's their fault or anything), and they're living in Thailand (most are foreigners; I don't think I ever came across a Thai who's allergic to peanuts).

It's like we live and breathe peanuts! Are you kidding me!

I remember the school prohibiting us from bringing any food/snack with peanuts as part of the ingredients because just a whiff of the thing can actually cause an allergic reaction. Seriously? At that point, I think it's just psychological. It's like saying I'm allergic to ibuprofen, and by seeing Advil I will start to swell up. But hey, I'm not the scientist, so I could be wrong.

Anyway, back on topic. I think most citizens of the first world countries are so concerned with diseases that they don't let their or their kids' immune system build up and get stronger. And guess how the immune system gets stronger? By being exposed to the nasties of the world! Wow, what a concept! Well, it is a concept. It's basically Kelly Clarkson's "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" concept. Your immune system works the same way.

It also doesn't help that the majority of kids nowadays are spending more time indoors than outside playing. Where are the good old days of swing sets, slides, and playing around in the mud? Now it's all just Ben 10, Angry Birds, and Bejeweled without even as much as a glance out the window, let alone a whiff of fresh air. So that's the problem, isn't it? Technology. It's just sucking the life out of people, literally. And what an ironic world we live in, seeing how I am conveying this message through the use of an electronic medium. I guess it's one of those paradoxes where you can't live with or without it.

So please stop saying some country's food isn't clean, causing you to contract food poisoning. The rest of the population doesn't seem to have your problem. Kindly blame your inadequate and snobby first-world immune system. Thank you!