2009 Day 2: Sipadan

We boated out to Sipadan Island around 0800.  It was sunny and calm as we took the journey to the Sipadan area, about an hour away.

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The Dive Master surprised me when he said that we were at Barracuda Point … where I had specially come to, but not knowing whether I’d be able to dive here due to my lack of experience.

Once in the water, we saw large schools of fish here and there but I wasn’t able to enjoy myself fully … I had been consuming more air than the others yesterday and I was afraid I’d have to cut short my dive before seeing the barracudas.  Fortunately, close to the end, we saw a tornado of them circling.  Kim went up to them, wondering if it would be safe to cut across their path! Barracuda Point, said our Danish dive master, is the third best divespot in the world, according to some ranking (but many rankings have different opinion).

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We took our surface intervals at Sipadan island where there was a military post.  The island was where the year 2000 kidnappings took place.  The resort has now been dismantled and an army post has been setup.  Some media accuse the Government and dive operators of downplaying the piracy and terrorism risk.  You often see stealthy grey inflatable police speedboats staffed by men in black hoods cruising between the islands and the mainland.

The island’s sounds like “border” in Malay.  That’s quite prophetic as it was the subject of a border dispute … the British and Dutch colonial masters didn’t appear to have tidied up the border and the ambiguity carried through into recent times.

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We did two more dives at Sipadan, at South Point and then Hanging Gardens.  Both were along the wall (drop-off) and we saw many lifeforms including big turtles.

The Sipadan area has many excellent dive sites … customer demand is very high and numbers are strictly restricted by the authorities to conserve the area.  As a result, it isn’t possible to dive Sipadan on its own.  One can only dive Sipadan with a multi-day dive package  –  one day is allowed at Sipadan on a 3-day package while two days with a 4-day package.

PS:  Others who went to Sipadan a day later also saw lots of sharks.  But the light and clarity wasn’t as good due to dull weather.