Teaching in Semporna

After the Philippines I headed back to Semporna to get some much needed certifications and experience working as a dive instructor. Kai took a brief detour and met up with his Dad in Bali before meeting me back in Semporna.

When traveling, you tend to look for patterns—some measure of sameness amidst the constant changing of the environment and people around you. For me, Semporna has become a safety net—a wild west town stuck in the far east that is simply perfect in all it’s imperfections. Despite the less-than-stellar food and mangy dogs, Semporna has become to feel like home. It was lovely to return to our friends, who are now really more like family. Of course, it’s still Scuba Junkie, so I wasn’t surprised to step out of the airport and discover that the shuttle bus hadn’t arrived. No matter, I managed to hitch a ride on a competing dive shop’s shuttle for free. Once I actually made it to Scuba Junkie, Ric sensing my eagerness, had two courses lined up for me and I began teaching within hours of my arrival.

Taking the Instructor Development Course and actually teaching people how to dive are two very different things. Being responsible for the safety and well-being of people underwater for the very first time was completely overwhelming. Yet, I received some great help from the other instructors at Scuba Junkie—especially my dearest friend Mike—and with every course teaching became easier. Of course, when your office is comprised of white sand beaches, palm tree, bright blue sky, and warm, tropical water, it’s hard to call your life stressful. It’s not sheer hedonism though; diving has given me a new-found sense of wonder in the world, and an inner-confidence that has been lacking for some time now. Teaching diving, in particular, places you in a position of leadership. All in all, during the two months I spent back in Semporna, I certified 50 people, including two divemasters and three rescue divers.

I have to say we had a lot of fun out of the water in Semporna as well. A lot of this was due to Dan—an instructor at Scuba Junkie—and his amazing ability to throw a good party. I don’t know what it is, but the only time I’ve ever dressed up in America is for Halloween. Europeans it seems need little excuse for a dress-up party, and we had weekly “fancy dress” parties. Themes ranged from 1980’s/1990’s power ballads to night’s of terror. Semporna isn’t exactly a shopping mecca, so the theme parties pushed or creativity and ability to do more with less. It’s amazing what you one can do with nothing more than safety pins and three meters of fabric. And did you know that Rose Cordial is an amazing substitute for fake blood? My particular favorites were Kai and Mike dressed up as Slash and Axle Rose (respectively) on Power Ballads Night performing a rendition of Knocking on Heaven’s Door as well our infamous rave party. Our Night of Horror was pretty good too!

Some of the wacky costumes we made to entertain ourselves in Semporna.

What a silly bunch we are.

Kai and Mike were the best Guns n’ Roses!

Back in Bali…again

We only planned to stay a short time in Semporna, and this was made easier by our friend Mike’s invitation to join him in Bali for some R&R and diving in the famous black sands of Bali. (Yes you do need a holiday even when you are in paradise—mostly to get decent food).

Kai and Mike left for Bali a week before me as I had decided to stay on at Scuba Junkie an extra week because they were short-handed. Sticking around Semporna worked out well for me because we ended up having plenty of staff with the arrival of several new instructors, and I was able to get in some fun diving (diving without guiding other people, which is a luxury for instructors whom often spend entire days kneeling in shallow water teaching people to clear a mask). Ric, one of the owners of Scuba Junkie, took me on my deepest dive to date at 52 meters (170 fet), and on another dive I saw my first scalloped hammerhead shark.

Our underwater camera—a Canon S-80 with waterhousing—had been out of commission for a few months, but with the help of Kai’s Mom (thanks Dianne!) we finally got it back and were finally able to take some underwater pictures again.

Sipadan’s Famous Baracuda, Barracuda Point.

Besides being the location of the first Survivor TV series Mataking has an underwater postbox.

Sibuan’s resident sea slugs.

Kai found this guy on a rare day of diving together at Mataking.

Yawning Scorpionfish at Mataking.

These massive endangered fish are common at Sipadan. Some are even a meter long.

Turtles Having Sex. The girl does all the swimming while the males chase her about, increadable to see!

Black Coral bush at Sibuan

Flying Gurnard, Mabul.

I snuck into the interior and took some jungle images.

By the time I arrived in Bali, Mike and Kai had already explored the north of Bali, around the area of Lovina. They were both gloating over having found a mimic octopus in the black sands of Puri Jati, and I was eager to get back in the water. First things first, and that was a trip to Lombok and to a small set of islands off the Northwest coast called the Gilis (_gili_, in Bahahsa Indonesia, simply means “small island”). The Gilis have long been a stop on the backpacker trail, noted mainly for there laid back lifestyle and abundance of young travelers. For me, the beauty of the Gilis (there are several, we stayed on Gili Trawangan) is that there are no cars or motorbikes. Living in Asia, you almost become immune to the constant hum of motorbikes an scooters around you, and it’s not until you get away from them that you realize just how loud they really are. Even though there is diving in the Gilis, it’s not world class, and we opted to spend our days swinging in hammocks, playing cards, and eating at the many cafes dotted along the white-sand beaches.

Mola-mola and Black Sand Diving

Mike was dying to see a mola-mola (known as Sunfish in the western world), a prehistoric fish that is actually related to puffer fish except about a thousand time larger. Though not as big as manta rays, mola-mola can get up 3 meter wingspans, and swim in what looks like a sideways fashion (to my eyes, they look like at any moment they should tip over). Fortunately, Bali is one of the few places in the world where sightings are possible, and even more fortunately, it was mola-mola season. We headed to Padang Bai on the east coast of Bali to secure a trip to Nusa Penida—a small island off the east cost of bali where they are particularly prevalent. In Padang Bai we met up Che, another instructor from Scuba Junkie who also happened to be in Bali, and three of us became four. Our dives took place at Crystal Bay. The channel between Bali and Lombok is famous for what is known as the Wallace Line, a boundary that largely separates the zoogeographical regions of Asia and Australasia. In practical terms, deep beneath the channel separating Bali and Lombok is a giant confluence of continental shelves; for divers, this means some of the strongest currents in the world (on the ferry ride from Lombok to Bali, we witness actual whirlpools in the water). Crystal Bay is a relatively protected sanctity amidst the currents that lies off Nusa Pendia; the mola-mola come in to rest and be cleaned here. Mola-mola also like colder water, and the currents and thermoclines in this area provide it, with temperatures dropping to 19 degree celsius. The cold temperatures and hoods were worth it though, as we managed to see six mola-mola in two dives. It isn’t often you get to see such an ancient creature up close and perosnal—let alone six—so we were all buzzing after our dives.

From Padang Bai, we headed farther north and settled in Tulamben to do some diving at the U.S.S Liberty wreck, as well as to explore the famous black sands for weird macro creatures. In Tulamben we met up wit Katarin and Peter, two more divers from Scuba Junkie. The beauty of Tulabmen is that nearly all the diving is accessible from shore. As we were all instructors and divemasters, we were able to rent tanks for $3 a piece and do our own dives, which was a real luxury and gave us ample time (usually 70 or 80 minute dives) to explore. We found all sorts of interesting creatures—many that we’d never seen before—including myriad harlequin ghost pipefish, loads of nudibranchs, harlequin shrimp, tiger shrimp, juvenile frogfish, and many others. More than anything, it was just a blast to go diving with friends with no responsibility to customers!

Not a great shot. They were definitely better in up close!

Mike really has a knack for finding these tiny guys.

Near the liberty wreck, Bali.

These guys were some of the funniest critters I have met.

What a shot!

Horses and bicycles were the only vehicles on the Gillis.

Enjoying a Gilli sunset.

From Bali, Kai and departed ways with Mike, heading up to Singapore for a visa run. We’ve once again settled in Bali. Kai is working a few freelance web projecs, and I’ll be hunting for some freelance dive instructor gigs here in Bali for the next month or so. That’s it for now!

Fast forward a few years and once again I found myself in Hawai’i, though this time on the Big Island visiting my long-time friend Denise, who had promised to teach Kai and I how to Scuba Dive over the Thanksgiving holiday. The first few breaths I took off a regulator while underwater in the swimming pool in Denise’s backyard were the most terrified I’ve ever been while diving, and it took several times of shooting to the surface for a breath of fresh air before I could relax enough to even begin doing some of the exercises required to learn how to safely dive.

Though humble, these first experiences underwater lit an ember that has since turned into flame. I love diving. As many of you know, diving has been a central role in our travels through Asia—we have literally dived in every country we have been to except for China. We were just PADI Open Water divers when left for this trip, but over the course of the past year we completed our Advanced Open Water certification in Bali; our Rescue and Divemaster courses in Borneo; and now, I can happily say, I have just completed my PADI Open Water Instructor (OWSI) in the Philippines.

Asia Divers & iDAP College

After Dianne and Katie left Bali Kai and I looked for a place to come and take an Instructor Development Course, or IDC as it’s called in the dive industry. This is typically a 10-14 day intensive course that prepares you for the Instructor’s Exam (IE) that is administered by a representative from PADI. For those that don’t know, PADI stands for the Professional Association of Diving Instructors, and is the largest certifying dive agency in the world (PADI certifies more divers than every other dive agency combined).

Though relatively short, the IDC is an intensive course covering all aspects of diving. If one is to teach other’s to dive, a deep understanding of the dive theories and principles is paramount, as are exceptional underwater skills. To become a dive instructor, one must be well versed in physics, physiology, decompression theory, equipment, and more. As such, it is important to find a dive center with a solid IDC program.

After doing some research on the internet, I narrowed down my choices to a dive center in Thailand and one in the Philippines. Since Kai was coming with me but was not going to be participating in the IDC, we both wanted to find a nice place to stay and one that would allow Kai to do some sight-seeing while I was in the classroom. We had already been to Thailand, so after a bit of debate, we settled on coming to the Philippines, which was a new country for the both of us and had well-reputed program. With that, we booked our tickets and set off to Puerto Galera, located on the north part of Mindoro island. It was an exhausting trip, spending yet another night in Kuala Lumpur airport (that makes three times now), and a 5 hour nausea-inducing mini-bus ride to meetup with an hour long ferry, which ultimately dropped us off on Sabang Beach. We were tired but had arrived relatively unscathed. We found accommodations—a home-stay for about $200 US per month—and I started the IDC two days later with a company called iDAP College.

Our room in Sabang.

iDAP College is an affiliate of one of the longest-standing dive centers in Puerto Galera: Asia Divers. Although iDAP College and Asia Divers are technically separate business, they share the same facilities and to the casual visitor are one-in-the-same. IDC’s are run by Course Directors—individuals certified by PADI to teach other divers how to become Instructors. Unlike most other courses through PADI, one must be accepted in order to become a Course Director, so at this level you’re generally looking at the best working Instructor’s in the business. There are several Course Directors at Asia Divers, though iDAP College is headed up by Warren Dixon, probably the best-known Course Director in the Philippines.

IDC’s are generally kept small in class-size so students can have as much time as necessary with the Course Director and Staff Instructors. I was happy to learn there was only one other student in the IDC—a strong and quick-witted 6’4” former Navy fighter pilot (as he so eloquently explained to me as I was trying to understand what he did: I’m Goose). Having Victor in the class was both a blessing and a challenge. Let’s all be honest here—I have an art degree and things like organization and delivering lectures have never been my strong point. Victor is used to giving briefings to top gun fighter pilots, so many of the practice lessons we had to give came quickly and easily to him, a little less so to me. With only two students in the classroom, Victor was the only point of comparison, which was intimidating and a challenge, but a good experience in the end.

Contrary to what most people would think, the majority of time spent in an IDC is not in the water, but in the classroom. Repeatedly reviewing physics topics such as Charle’s Law and Boyle’s Law, developing a deep understanding of the structure of the ear and how it relates to equalization, diving first-aid and more. Since I have not been in a classroom for some time and have spent the majority of the past year outdoors, having to sit still and be indoors for the majority of the day was a big change in my routine. We had long days and I was exhausted by the end. But after 3 weeks I was very prepared for the IE thanks to Warren and the two assisting Staff Instructors—Magne and Sabine—who all worked hard to make sure Victor and I passed. In addition to my OWSI, I received certification as a specialty instructor for Enriched Air Nitrox (diving with oxygen content higher than the standard 21%). Finally, I completed my certification as an Emergency First Response Instructor, which includes Primary and Secondary Care for both adults and children. In short, I’m certified to teach CPR to others.

IDC instructors and students after completion of the IE. From left: Victor, Sabine, Warren, Me, Jimmy, and Magnas

The Diving

Kai and I were both not expecting much out the diving here in Puerto Galera. Spending five months diving at one of the best dive sites in the world tends to spoil you that way. Fortunately, we’ve been pleasantly surprised. While Puerto Galera isn’t as good for big pelagics like sharks and turtles, the macro-diving is fantastic here and at least as good as Borneo. Kai has been happy to find several ornate ghost pipefish—a specie he was hunting for in Borneo but never found. Thorny seahorses are quite common here as well, and I’ve added a whole new list of nudibranchs to my collection (Sorry that we don’t have any underwater pictures but unfortunately our little camera has finally died). Most of the clientele here are experienced divers who come with expectations to see the rare species that the area is famous for. Tech diving is popular here as well, as the reefs off the island offer ample opportunity for dives deeper than is possible on plain air, as well as wrecks and caves for those who like overhead environments.

Puerto Galera is also known for getting very strong currents. I didn’t give too much thought to this as diving in Sipadan you’re exposed to currents constantly, but here it’s different. Whereas Sipadan is a lateral current that simply sweeps you along the reef in a given direction, Puerto Galera has erratic currents that at any moment can push you shooting to the surface or suck you back down deep again. The currents here are much more like a washing machine than a nice relaxing escalator ride. I had one dive here which I refer to as the Swirling Vortex of Death. Three of us went out to a site called Canyons that is known to have strong current, but also lots of big fish. After about 20 minutes of crawling along the bottom (current was to strong to kick against) and tucking ourselves in coves away from the current, the reef ended in about 32 meters of water and it was time to ascend. We let go of the floor and began ascending slowly to the surface but we were met by an intense down current that was so strong it prevented us and our bubbles from ascending. We were surrounded by our own bubbles and soon we realized they were actually being pulled down below us. I inflated my BCD held on to my buddies and kicked like hell. We fought the current for what seemed like forever, but in-fact was only a few minutes. Needless to say the diving here can be intense. The ocean can be humbling. Don’t worry Mom I wont do that dive again!

The Philippines

Sabang Beach, Puerto Galera, Philippines

The Philippines is lovely, although I have seen only a very small portion due to the busy schedule of all of my training. Having a large Christian population means the food is packed with pork and other non-Halal foods that we were sorely missing in Semporna. I also love the Spanish influence on the culture. However the prices in the Philippines are significantly more than another places we have been in Asia. I think part of this is because Puerto Galera is by all accounts a resort area and partly because the Philippines, being an archipelago, is more isolated than other parts of Asia.

Puerto Galera is an established weekend getaway for many Manila residents and expats. In all honesty, there isn’t much to do here besides eat, sleep, dive, and enjoy some of the most stunning sunsets I’ve seen yet. Sabang—the beach that we stay at—has a small downtown area with a few grocery stores selling Western food, as well as a few bakeries with fresh bread and decent coffee. Ironically, there isn’t an ATM anywhere to be found in Puerto Galera—despite it being primarily a resort destination—so Kai has had to make several trips back to the mainland to bring more cash to cover our daily expenses. The one thing that is in abundance here is bars—many feature salty divers who have clearly stayed several decades too long, while still others feature underage girls dancing late into the nights—the most popular bars feature both.

Sabang Discos

I have erased a long feminist rant on these bars, but I do feel a short one is necessary. Throughout our travels in Asia I’ve seen too many young Asian women draped along the side of middle-age, overweight western men. Clearly, the men the get a rush out of the fact that, here in Asia, they can be big fish, and enjoy the power that comes with the territory. The truth is, young women—and boys—are exploited here, and nowhere have I see this more than in the Philippines (though Thailand is certainly close). What is tough for me is the fact that this simply seems to be accepted. If anything, you get the impression that many young women are hoping for this to happen; if they fulfill some carnal desire, they’ll be taken care of, and possibly even their families. I know at some level this is just the way it is—and always has been—but it’s still a sad reality to witness first-hand. It would be one thing if these girls had chosen this lifestyle, but they are far too young to fully realize the choices they are making, and it’s sad to see so much unrealized potential—like a caterpillar that never quite became a butterfly.

On that note I do have to mention what is hands down my favorite thing about the Philippines: Jeepneys. At the end of WWII a giant surplus of US military jeeps were left in the Philippines. WWII had completely destroyed the public transportation infrastructure in the Philippines, so enterprising locals stripped down the old jeeps and converted them into public transportation vehicles. Today, Jeepney’s are one of the most common modes of public transport in the country. Of course, few are made from original military jeeps anymore, but all of them begin with a jeep or similar front-end, and then have as much chrome bolted on as is possible and finally outfitted with ridiculous horns, loud paint jobs, and blaring speakers. Jeepney owners take a lot of pride in the look of their vehicle and it’s little surprise that the most outrageous ones are often the most popular on any given route. It’s safe to say that Jeepneys are worth a trip to the Philippines alone.

Jeepney

It’s funny that Malaysia, a country neither of us knew much about—or were particularly interested in—has become the country we’ve spent the most amount of time in thus far. I personally have a love-hate relationship with the country; in a very real sense, we have had some of our best and some of our worst experiences here. Our visit to the Borneo Highlands remains a highlight on our trip, and our time at Scuba Junkie will undoubtedly go down as one of the best times of our life. And yet, it’s been in Malaysia that both of our robberies on this trip have occurred, the latest involving me being struck with a metal pipe by a drunk man on Chinese New Year’s and our laptop being stolen. You can write this off to coincidence, but there seems to be an underlying tension to Malaysia that I’ve not felt in other countries in Southeast Asia. I’ve struggled to come to terms with Malaysia and the more that I’ve thought about it, the more I realize Malaysia is struggling to to come to terms with itself.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the social fabric, and here I must point the finger at religion. Islam is the official religion of Malaysia, but it certainly hasn’t always been. While Islamic facets have existed since at least the 10th century, it was not until the 1950s—when the Constitution of Malaysia was enacted—that Islam became the official religion. This was done largely because Islam promotes large families and the powers that were reforming the country felt they needed to balance the economic power held by the Chinese with a larger population (voter base) of Malays. Most significantly, it was written into the constitution that Malays must be Muslim, regardless of their ethnic heritage; otherwise, legally, they are not Malay. Thus, while there is freedom of religion in Malaysia, muslims are the only ones that enjoy full rights and receive numerous benefits such as priority in academic enrollment and discounts on real estate. Hence, in the past 50 years a large majority of Malaysians have dropped previous belief systems—from Animism to Buddhism to Christianity—in order to be recognized as full citizens. Thus, the problem that I see is that while Islam is the official religion of Malaysia, it is not necessarily the culture of Malaysia.

Ultimately, it’s difficult to summarize Malaysia, at least in terms of way I have experienced it. It’s a growing tourist destination with a wealth of natural attractions including some of the best diving to be had, one of the largest cave systems in the world, and the jungles of Borneo—though dwindling—remain the very definition of what one envisions when one thinks exotic. And yet, what can you say about Malaysia? Compared with other places we’ve visited—Bali, land of celebrations; Tibet, shrouded in mysticism; China, and it’s history; Thailand, it’s food and culture—Malaysia somehow feels lacking.

But for all this talk of Malaysia, we came for the diving and stayed for the people. And the people we’ve met at Scuba Junkie have become friends for life: Sarah, the best divemaster in Borneo; Dr. Dave, the dirty Scottish dive instructor; Bjorn, Captain of Team Sweden and royal video game ass-kicker; Flemming, always ready for sun cream; Che from South Africa who gives one hell of a stress test and a comforting shoulder when needed along with his girlfriend Sandrine; Ric, who somehow manages to keep the shop running on a daily basis and sees hammerheads every time he goes diving; Tino, the German (“zeeee German!”) who routinely finds rare marine life no larger than a gnat; and, of course, our dear friend and certifying instructor, Mike, who we shared many nights of Karaoke with, singing endless renditions of Lemon Tree and Words.

Karaoke

Snorkel Test

Before leaving Malaysia, we completed our Divemaster certification, which we celebrated by undergoing the famed “snorkel test”. Completely unsanctioned by all diving organizations, but a long-standing tradition within the dive industry, a snorkel test consists of a recently certified Divemaster (or Dive Instructor) donning a snorkel and mask and having upwards of a liter of alcohol poured into the snorkel and henceforth forced down one’s throat. It’s a barbaric, fraternizing act, and rare is the snorkel test that does not end in vomiting. Humiliation—along with a night of good, drunken fun among friends—is the real point of the snorkel test; an initiation rite of sorts, made all the better by the fact that everyone standing around cheering and laughing has undergone the same treatment at some point in the past.

Snorkel Test

Post Snorkel Test

One final thing to mention before wrapping up our chapter on Malaysia is that our good friend Christian, from back home in the Bay Area, came to Semporna to visit us for a few days. Christian was on a holiday to Thailand and flew down to see us and learn to dive. It was wonderful seeing a friendly face from home, and the look on his face after coming up from his first dive at Sipadan with sharks and turtles was priceless (Christian also partook in an epic evening of Karaoke as well! And yes, we hold the evidence…).

Us and Christian on the dive boat during his visit.

As a final word, we want to thank everyone at Scuba Junkie for opening their home to us and making our time in Borneo so much fun and for being there when things got a little rough. We’ll see you soon.

The Scuba Junkie crew at our going-away party.

Bali

We returned to the place this trip really began in order to meet some more faces from home, namely our friend Katie from Santa Cruz and my Mom who endured the long flight to see us. We largely retraced our steps from the last time we were here, though admittedly on a shortened timeline. We spent a few days surfing near Uluwatu (sorry about the reef cuts, you did great Katie!), before heading over to the east coast to revisit our friends Jan and Brian, as well as spend some time hanging out by the beach, snorkeling and reveling in long-conversations and sunsets. We also visited the traditional Balinese village of Tenganan, which both Katie and my Mom seemed to like (especially if you’re counting their sarong purchases). We spent a bit of time in Ubud as well, taking some wonderful drives out to see the rice fields, visiting the recently completed Ubud Botanical Gardens, shopping, eating in our favorite restaurant the Dragonfly cafe, and an odd story of Julie bargaining with a farmer north of Kuta for a wooden cowbell. It was a blast getting to show them parts of the island that so enchanted us on our first visit. Both of their visits were not long enough, and it was tough saying goodbye, but seeing them was a treat.

Julie and Katie in Bali

Mom and I.

Katie surfing at Medewi

Forward

And so after our hiatus in Malaysia and our stop-over in Bali, we’re finally hitting the road again. And it feels great to have the open road ahead of us once more. Our priorities have shifted since we first left on this trip—pure wanderlust no longer moves us forward so much as a determination to find a sustainable lifestyle that doesn’t involve sitting behind a desk and commuting long hours. To that aim, we’re heading to the Philippines, where Julie will be doing her PADI Dive Instructor certification. As for me, I’ve picked up a few small contract jobs again, which will keep me busy at least part of the time. Of course, the wanderlust hasn’t completely left my system, so I’ll be doing a bit of that too.

One more thing…

As many have alluded to—and as most people know by now—Julie and I did finally get engaged after nearly 9 years of being a couple. Why it took so long to ask her is difficult to explain, so I’ll just say that I am beyond lucky to have met her and I can’t thank her enough for her patience in waiting for me. We don’t have any plans for a wedding yet, but marriage is definitely in the near future. But first, we’ve still got a bit of traveling to do…

The Ring

• 6AM wake up
• 7AM load the dive boats with gear
• 7:30AM eat breakfast and drink tea
• 8AM boat leaves for the day
• 9:30AM first dive of day
• Noon second dive of day
• 1:30PM eat lunch (friend rice and fried noodles, everyday)
• 2:30PM third and final dive
• 5PM return to dive shop
• 5:30PM veg on couch, drink tea, watch Simpsons re-runs
• 7PM equipment check-in for divers diving following day
• 7:30PM logbooks
• 8PM dinner (chicken curry with french fries or pizza)
• 9PM beers (Tiger or Carlsberg)
• 10PM bed

Rinse and repeat…

All of this being said, we’re each averaging three hours of diving a day, submerged in the beautiful Celebes Sea, surrounded by sharks, turtles, barracuda, manta rays, nudibranchs, frog fish, and more. Most of our dives involve guiding customers, which doesn’t give us much time for photography, but we’re gaining more diving experience than we could have ever hoped for.

Since there’s not much more to report, we though it’d be fun to give everyone a description of the different islands we visit daily. So, without further ado…

Sibuan

Besides Sipidan, we spend more time at Sibuan than any other island. Sibuan is your classic tropical island paradise with white sand, palm tree, and warm tropical water. Philippine Sea Gypsies inhabit the island, so most of the day we have little naked children running about and if you ask nice enough, they will climb the palm trees and give you coconuts. . Sibuan is ideal for teaching people to dive as it has nice clear water and good patches of sand for Open Water students to practice their skills in. Since we have Open Water courses nearly everyday, we spend a good amount of time here.

Ilva, Mike and Kai at Christmas.

Sea Gypsies houses.

Paradise of Sibuan.

My favorite dive off Sibuan is called Left Shoulder. It’s a shore dive, since we usually park the boat on the beach. I start in one metre of water and visit a pair of porcelain crabs, then some squat shrimp. Next, I visit Shaniquia, the resident Giatn Frogfish, black in color. Shaniquia is very sweet and sometime she lets me hold her hand if I put my finger under her webbed foot/hand. If you haven’t held hands with a frogfish, it’s like having a baby wrap their hand around your finger. There is also a tan frogfish and a rust one, but for some reason they blend too well with the surrounding environment and I can’t always spot them, but Kai finds them almost every time. (Guess he was good at playing Where’s Waldo). The dive ends with a hunt in the sand for Devil Scorpion Fish and Snake Eels, but some times we get lucky and find baby frog fish, which are even cuter than the adults, if that’s possile.

There are other dive sites at Sibuan, Froggie’s Boulevard, with it’s beautiful hard and soft coral, and a chance to see eagle rays, ghost shrimp living on fire coral, not to mention huge cuddlefish which look like the aliens have landed. The Drop Off is where I had my deepest dive to 41.1 meters, and also where I saw my biggest nudibranch at 6 inches. We usually see a Hawksbill turtle or two happily scratching their tummies on the sand or on coral at all the dive sites. At Mandarin Bay and Mandarin Point we look for Mandarin fish. The live in the black Sea Urchins and are quite shy which makes them hard to spot. If you do find them, they look like candy, with cutely pursed lips like they are blowing you kisses.

Yes Sibuan is Paradise.

Mabul

Mabul is my second favorite island, because everytime I go there I see something that I have never seen before. The visibility is usually bad—10-15 meters—but that’s ok when you’re muck diving because you swim along with your nose close to the rocks anyway. There have been a few times where I was looking at nudibranchs and almost put my hand down on a stonefish or a turtle, because I was too busy focusing on some cute little bugger . Fortunately I do always look before I touch anything, and have managed to avoid sleeping turtles and poisonous fish. My two favorite dive sites at Mabul are Artificial Reef and Lobster Wall. The Artificial Reef has many sunken structures from 10 to 22 meters that have the feeling of a playground for divers. A huge school of Jackfish circles the sponge and soft coral structures which are home to a wide variety of animals including frogfish (yes there is a theme here) Scorpion Fish, Stone fish, Lion Fish, Banded Pipefish, a plethora of Nudibranches and Flatworms, Flying Gurnards, not to mention all of the common reef fish that make Mabul home.

You can stay on the island with accommodation ranging from 50 RM to 1900RM for a deluxe resort. Hopefully we will stay there someday, but for now Ping Ping’s is perfect.

Mantabuan

Known for it’s black coral forest that looks like white fairy bushes, Mantabuan is one of the few small islands that doesn’t have extensive damage from past and present dynamite fishing. As such, Mantabuan has some of the most beautiful hard and soft coral in the area.

Dynamite fish was once pretty common here. Sadly, it’s still practiced by some, but the situation is improving. The difficulty is in teaching the locals about sustainable fishing practice. A fisherman can go out to sea, work all day, and maybe bring home a half-dozen to a dozen fish with traditional fishing practice and barely make enough money in the market to feed his family. Or, he can go out, drop some dynamite off the side of his boat, and watch as dozens of stunned fish float up to the surface. If you didn’t know better, which method would you use? It’s quite shocking to be diving and hear a dynamite explosion underwater. Since sound travels 4 time faster underwater than in air, you never know which direction the dynamite is coming from. Hearing dynamite underwater reminds us there is still much work to be done towards protecting these beautiful reefs.

Sipadan

We can’t rave about Sipidan enough. When the visibility is good it simply dwarfs every other dive site we’ve been too. Imagine diving at Yosemite Valley, and having all of El Capitan to explore underwater. Once you drop over the ledge, you are simply overwhelmed by sheer size of the wall and the amount of sealife that makes it their home. The beauty of Sipidan is that you can see everything, and lot’s of it. At other dive sites, you can see a few barracudas. At Sipidan, you can see a few thousand on a single dive, as well as giant schools of jackfish, bumphead parrotfish, napolean wrasse, batfish, yellowback fusiliers, and more. Of course, you have sharks, ranging from smallish white tip reef sharks to full blown hammerheads. The right of year it’s not uncommon to see a few Manta Rays. A few weeks ago we saw six four meter long grey reef sharks, a leopard shark, two manta rays, and a school of barracuda…all at the same time.

On my first time guiding at a dive site called the Drop Off, we went inside Turtle Cave, a giant cave that goes straight through the island and let’s out on the other side. The cave is quite dangerous to dive in it’s entirety as it’s easy to become lost. Some of the first people to dive the cave found turtle skeletons resting on the silty bottom. The romantic version of the story says that Turtle Cave is where turtles go when it’s their time to die. The real version of the story is that turtles have become lost in the cave and drowned before finding their way out. On our dives, we only enter 5-10 meters into the cave, and then turn around to admire the panoramic view. Anyhow, on my first time there as a guide we swam in a bit and I turned around to see a two meter white tip shark circling around us inside the cave. It’s a strange feeling to be in an enclosed space with a shark, and I had to keep telling myself that they prefer to eat fish than divers. Needless to say we didn’t stay long, but it was a thrilling experience! Nearly everyday at Sipidan something remarkable like that happens.

First, Semporna is on the island of Borneo, the side owned by Malaysia. This means that, as Americans, we get a free three month visa on arrival, which can be renewed or extended quite easily (not that we plan on being here for a full three months.). Second, there is relatively high-speed wireless internet freely available, provided by Scuba Junkie, the dive shop we dove with last time we were here and who we’ll be doing the Divemaster course through this time around. Third, prices are cheap, extremely cheap, though more on that later. There are really only two downsides to Semporna: the town is about as appealing as a planter wart and the food is about as tasty.

To be fair, Semporna isn’t all that bad, it’s just that it’s not all that good either. As alluded to earlier, it has a few problems, none the least of which are begging children who make you feel like scum for coming to a third-world town only to spend your greenbacks on self-indulgent endeavors like diving rather than putting your money towards ending starvation or saving the rainforests. One day of diving here costs 300RM, which is roughly the average monthly wage here. The dogs are particularly rampant and particularly mangy. The monitor lizards—well, the monitor lizards can actually be quite comical.

In all actuality, there isn’t much to Semporna. A few main streets with the usual Asian shops selling miscellaneous gadgets, cell phones, clothes, hardware, and restaurants with all more or less the same menu: fried rice, fried noodles, curry, etc. Besides the main street, there is one largish outside market selling various fruits and vegetables, as well as a wet-portion that regrettably sells blue-spotted stingrays and blacktip sharks along with the usual cod-like fish. There’s one mosque in town, lest we forget that Malaysia is a decidedly Muslim country.

Divemaster Course

The one and only reason we are back in Semporna is because of the diving. To put it simply: One bad day of diving here is better than all the diving I have done in Bali, Thailand, Hawaii, and California.

Pulau Sipadan is the most noteworthy and well known, offering some of the most dramatic and awe-inspiring diving in the world. Sipadan is a volcanic island in the middle of the Celebes sea. It’s top is the only part of the volcano sticking out of the ocean. Indeed, you can walk the entirety of the island in less than fifteen minutes. Step off it’s shores however, kick out a few meters and look down, and you’ll realize the walls of the volcano drop six hundred meters straight down below you. Currents push in from all sides of Sipadan bringing in plankton, which act as the the fertilizer for an overwhelming diversity of sealife, going all the way up the food chain: hard and soft corals; nudibranchs; crabs and shrimp; reef fish of every variety; tornadoes of thousands of barracuda; large schools of bumphead parrotfish; trevally and tuna; blacktip and whitetip sharks; grey reef sharks; leopard sharks; hammerheads lurking at 40 meters and deeper; whale sharks in January and February. Did I mention Sipadan is a turtle nesting ground? Green and Hawksbill turtles come here in thousands to lay eggs. On our first dive back in Sipadan, the Divemaster, Sarah, promised the entire dive group a round of beers if we didn’t see at least twenty turtles on each dive. There’s little reason to wonder why Sipadan makes it on nearly every top-ten-places-to-dive-in-the-world list.

As if Sipadan weren’t enough, there are other islands slightly less dramatic in topography but equally fascinating in sealife: Mabul, where the term “muck” diving was invented by Jacques Cousteau Sibuan, where you can find dozens of nudibranchs and almost always spot rare frogfish; Kapalai where small sunken boats have created an artificial reef teaming with weird things like crocodile fish and scorpion fish; Mantabuan with it’s black coral. The list goes on but the point is simple: the diving at Sipadan is as good as it gets…

...which is exactly what I wanted in choosing a place to do my Divemaster course. If I’m going to bother, why bother with anything but the best?

Choosing a dive shop was easy; I went straight back to Scuba Junkie. We talked about Scuba Junkie before, but to reiterate the main points, Scuba Junkie is the only PADI licensed and insured dive operator in Semporna. The company was started by Ric, who is from Scotland, and Tino, who is from Germany. Both Ric and Tino are PADI certified instructors and extremely experienced divers—Tino has more than 3,500 logged dives here alone—despite the fact that they are both only in their 20s. In addition to Ric and Tino, there are several other instructors, all of whom we will be learning under, as well as a handful of Divemasters and other Divemaster students such as ourselves.

The Divemaster course at Scuba Junkie is what is called an internship program. Basically, they cut the rate of the course to 1,800RM ($500US, compared to more than $1000US most other places) in exchange for help in running the shop. This includes helping customers get fitted for equipment, setting up the boats in the morning and, the best part, guiding customers on dives once you’ve been properly trained. The beauty of the Scuba Junkie course is that for one price, you can quite literally dive as long and as often as you like, whereas many other places put a time limit on the course. Most people doing the course at Scuba Junkie take 1-3 months to complete it, racking up 200 or more dives in the process.

Kai couldn’t stand the thought of hanging in Semporna while I did my Divemaster course, so even though he hadn’t planned on doing it originally, he has gone ahead and joined me in the class. Now, everyday, we wake up together at 6AM, arrive at the dive shop by 7AM, get the boats setup by 8AM, and then set off for one of the many islands for a day of diving. We don’t get to guide at Sipadan yet—the shop only allows more experienced Divemaster there due to the dangerous currents—but we’ve been doing a lot of diving at the other islands. We’ve already done more than twenty dives a piece and we’ve only been here for a week. That will pretty much be our life for the next month or so.

Our New House

Ric from Scuba Junkie helped set us up with a bit longer term housing for our stay in Semporna. He introduced us to a lovely woman from the Philippines named Ping Ping, who has a house within walking distance to the dive shop. The house is beautiful with tile and hardwood floors and grounds containing fruit trees ripe for the picking, beautiful orchids, and any number of other tropical plants. Ping Ping is extremely sweet, always cooking for us and sending us off each morning with fresh fruit for the boat. She even does our laundry. We’ve got our own room in the house—air-conditioned—and share a bathroom with one guy, an instructor from South Africa who also works at Scuba Junkie. Oh. The price? 300RM per month, or about $80US.

Ping Ping’s Garden

Kai in our room

Best of all for me is the fact that I now have access to a kitchen. One of the things I have missed most while traveling is cooking. Now I have access to a market with all kinds of fruit and vegetables, as well as a kitchen to play in. I’ve already made ceviche as well as some home-style pasta. That ought to help a bit with the food situation. Since July, Scuba Junkie has opened a restaurant with surprisingly good pizza and they do a chicken-roast every Sunday night for those missing home.

Ping Ping’s Kitchen

More later….