Mabul-Sipadan dive trip

I just got back from a diving trip at Mabul-Sipadan from 4-7 Dec wt Dr Soon and gang. It was a nice and much needed break from work for me and I have been itching to dive again since the last dive trip at PomPom island. I was oncall the night before, doing runner call (ie standby for Caesars/vacuum delivery/accepting internal referrals. Left the hospital at 6am, thinking that my flight is at 8am. Luckily I received a call to let me know that the flight is actually at 7AM! Drove back home at 120km/h until my tyres burnt ahahaha... Anyways my heart was beating like mad all the way until the airport, praying that I would be in time to check it and I just made it. I was so damn glad!!! I would have been absolutely horrified if I missed this trip. Managed to catch some sleep on the plane as well as on the van on the way to Semporna. By the time we arrived at Semporna, it was raining a bit. Alah damn mesti choppy sea and bad viz la this, I thought. Anyways, managed to get to Seaventures,where we stayed for 3 nights and 4 days, safe and sound, although slightly wet.

First day:
Check dive was at the Seaventures house reef. Viz wasn't excellent and there were some currents. It was pretty chaotic as 1 DM brought the 12 of us and there were plenty of bumping into each other. However, there were plenty of crocodile fishes (more than I have ever seen) until I got pretty sick everytime the DM pointed out another crocodile fish. Among others we saw were lionfish, scorpionfish, Moray eel, Ornate ghost pipefish, giant bumphead parrotfish, a school of barracuda etc etc...

2nd dive of the day was at Paradise 1, Mabul. Viz: bad. Not much currents. Saw Giant frogfish, Ocellated flounder, turtles, cuttlefish (entah what type), quite a big scorpionfish (and ugly too), nudibranch banyak, a few types of pipefishes, trumpetfish, juvenile sweetlips, juvenile yellow boxfish dan lain lain

Rooms were...minimalist. Pretty small and I felt claustophobic in it. Spent most of the time on the main deck.

Second day:Went to Sipadan and did 3 dives there including dawn dive. The weather was nice and we were lucky as there were no strong currents. Dived at Barracuda Point, Midreef and Drop Off. Saw too many things to be listed but among others: School of Barracuda and Jacks in tornado formation (asing asing of course haha), school of giant bumphead parrotfish, back and white tip reef shark, turtles dan sebagainya.... I had my "manicure" done at the cleaning station by the cleaner shrimps. We also went to the opening of a cavern (?turtle's tomb) just around the signboard. It was a scary experience as it was pretty dark and eerie.

Then did another dive at Kapalai's Mandarin Valley in the afternoon. Bad viz. Saw the giant garoupas, pipefish, porcupinefish, batfish, trumpetfish, juvenile yellow boxfish etc...

Did night dive at Lobster Wall, Mabul. Now that was an exciting and interesting experience. Only 8 of us went because the rest were tired. Currents were a bit strong but just nice for a drift dive, but just a bit too strong when we want to stop and look at something. When we did, we would bump into each other hehehe... Anyways saw many interesting stuffs such as two-eyed lionfish, zebra lionfish, pink giant frogfish, a huge pink nudibranch the size of my palm, many hawksbill and green turtles sleeping in crevices on the wall, a tiny reddish-orange cuttlefish, lobster, coral crabs, shrimps, moray eel and many more............

When we got back, we had BBQ at the sundeck. Food at the rig throughout the stay was ok only lah. Food at Pompom better actually hehehe....

Third day:Another 3 dives at Sipadan: Barracuda Point, White Tip Avenue and South Point. It was a very cloudy day and in fact it rained when we descended for our 2nd dive. I was glad that the water was warm. Saw pretty much the same stuffs as on the same day including Pennant bannerfish, schooling bannerfish, orang utan crab, school of unicornfish etc. I had some problems equalising my right ear during my 2nd dive at about 9-12meters and so I just took my time descending while equalising continuously until I join my group at about 18meters.

Did the 4th dive at Froggy's Lair @ Old Housereef, Mabul. Saw many many nudibranch, flabellina, trumpetfishes, moray eels of various sizes, shrimpfish, juvenile sweet lips (I like this fish). Viz was bad. Is it always like this at Mabul?

The last dive of the day was at Seaventures Housereef. Now this was an unforgetable experience. Currents were very strong (but cannot compare wt Similan la) and viz was bad, probably about 5 meters around the surface, but as that great also la at the bottom. Anyways our dive was cut short to 12minutes because there was some miscommunication and the 1st group did not wait for us after they descend because of the strong currents. However, since nobody from our group was familiar wt the site, it was getting dark (suppose to be sunset dive) and because of the strong currents, we decided to surface. Despite that short dive, managed to see trumpetfishes, cornetfishes, a family of nudibranch of various size ( XL, L, M, S, XS or father, mother, brother, sister, baby)

Fourth day:Took the boat to Mabul and jalan jalan at the kampung. Didn't buy anything there because most of them were shells. Felt so sad seeing the shells and dead corals for sale.... Anyways bought 2 t-shirts and some car stickers from SWV :)

Kesimpulannya it was a good trip for me and I'm happy that my bouyancy is improving. Put my Reef Life book to good use until the binding is almost coming off already. I have decided that I want to take my Advance after I pass my Part 1 which I'm planning to take in May next year...