Sipadan!

Our last few days in Borneo saw us heading to Sipadan, one of the best dive spots in the world. We had been excited about this for a long time and so it had a lot to live up to. After 5 hours travelling to Semporna (mainland jump-off point for the islands), a stay overnight and a morning boat, we were finally on Mabul island. Mabul is the island where most people diving Sipadan stay, as it is no longer allowed for people to stay on Sipadan island itself. First impressions of Mabul were pretty good - most of the buildings are on stilts over the sea (like the water village in Sandakan) and the island is pretty busy with locals and dive schools side by side. All our meals were included with our room at the dive school and we were greeted with lots of coffee. We weren't diving on our first day there so after settling in, taking a walk and having some (very tasty) lunch, we took a walk over to beach for some snorkelling. This turned out to be the best snorkelling we had done since the start of our trip - crystal clear water, a great, colourful reef teeming with fish and really warm water. Once I had spent about an hour on the reef, I decided it was Kev's turn with snorkel, and swam with it back towards the beach (I had gone straight to the reef via a jetty). I nearly had a heart attack when, just swimming over sea grass with no fish to see, I came across the biggest turtle I had ever seen. He was munching away on the grass in water shallow enough for me to stand up in, and he was around the same length as me. Amazing. I got Kev over and we took turns with the snorkel watching him. Finally, I decided to hand over the snorkel to Kev and do some sunbathing on the beach. Turns out I didn't need to get quite so excited about the turtle as Kev saw 3 more on his first trip out towards the reef and I saw another 3 when I went back out. It seems you don't have to be diving at Sipadan to see all the turtles we had heard about!
We got an early night in preparation for the next day, and in the morning got sorted with our equipment and a quick lesson in how to use the underwater camera we had decided to hire. Then it was off on the 15 minute trip to Sipadan, settling up our equipment on the way. Once we had signed in on the island (there are only 120 permits a day issued to dive there) we went to our first dive sight - turtle point. First thing we saw was a huge shoal of barracuda - one of the things Sipadan is famous for. We saw so many turtles I lost count, and had a brief view of a white tip shark. My favourite siting was a big shoal of bumphead parrot fish - very big, very strange looking fish. We had seen one of these on a previous, but this was so impressive.
After an hour's stop and some coffee, it was time for our second dive, this time at white-tip avenue. And yes, we saw white-tip sharks. At least 4 of them, although it could have been more. We also saw a few more turtles. The diving at Sipadan really is impressive, really clear and with so much to see - in any other dive seeing 1 turtle would have been exciting! After lunch, our third dive of the day took us to Barracuda point - sadly we didn't see any barracuda again, but instead spend a good deal of the dive following (and swimming with) an enormous shoal of jack fish - very cool. And yes, another shark and lots more turtles! I really enjoyed using the camera as well. This hobby could become expensive!
We really wished we could have spent more days there, it was an amazing experience, but sadly we had to get back to Kota Kinabalu on the night bus that night, so after a couple of beers in Semporna with our dive master, we took the coldest, most uncomfortable bus EVER overnight back to the capital. The less said about that ride the better. Our time in Borneo finished with meeting up with Jono and Fordy for a few birthday beers for Jono before flying the next morning to KL. Which is where we now are, waiting to fly tomorrow to Thailand for the final part of our trip. We have managed to fit in a Hindu festival here, involving self-mutilation. Photos will follow!