Bryan Tee@布莱恩 Kilikulu

Kapalai Sipadan Dive Resort 4th - 7th August 2011

2011-12-30T02:29:00.000-08:00

Good bye 2011 and welcome 2012!!!

My last post for 2011 is definitely going to be my last dive trip for 2011, this bring me back all the way to August 2011, destination Sipadan Kapalai Dive Resort.

Sipadan Kapalai Dive Resort (Kapalai in short) sit on the shallow sandbanks of the Ligitan Reef and just few minutes boat to reach Sipadan Island !!! consider one of the accommodation nearest to Sipadan.

Kapalai consist of 59 airy wooden water chalet offering either twin or triple sharing equip with attached batch room, hot shower, bath tub and a cleverly through-out balcony which offer total sought of privacy for lover of sunbathing and sun tanning.

As for dining Kapalai provide sumptuous meal serve in buffer style on a big wooden western sundeck which allow guest to enjoy tropical sunset while enjoying meal and drink. Resort facilities include diving, snorkeling and kayaking with gear and equipment for rental.

This trip we have a total of 7 divers some I have dive before and some are new to me. Access Kapalai resort from Kuala Lumpur is almost similar with my previous trip to Mataking Island you can click here to see my previous blog which require to take flight from KL to Tawau airport which you can travel with Air Asia or Malaysia airline (MAS) we took air asia due to it cheaper fair and require approximately 3 hours from KL International airport (LCCT) to reach Tawau airport, from Tawau there will be land transport arrange by Kapalai resort which took us one and a half hours to reach Semporna Jetty from there to the resort is about 45minute on speed boat.

Kapalai resort was build on top of a shallow sandy bay on lingitan reef so virtually there is no land; however there is some sandy bay that you can walk around during low tide. Overall the resort is very nice, windy, very comfortable but do not expect luxury, staff are friendly, food are nice and diving crew and dive facility are 5 star.

After a short briefing from hotel staff we went straight for our check out dive at Kapalai house reef, I have to mention specifically the house reef as you will have high chances of seeing flamboyant cuttlefish a small tiny colorful and rarely seeing cuttlefish you can read some write up here this is the first time I ever seen this kind of cuttlefish and is just awesome !!!

The highlight of the whole trip definitely is diving in SIPADAN…. This is my 2^nd time dive in Sipadan and I’m as excited as before. However this trip is a little bit tuff due to bad weather and very choppy water that cause some of our member having bad sea sick and the visibility was also not great thanks to the weather.

As usual when you dive in Sipadan you have check with you gauge a little more and strongly suggest dive with a dive computer. Sipadan is like huge mushrooms grow out of the sea and is virtually a bottom less dive only few site you can see a sandy bottom as a result you lost your reference point on how deep you are. During the 2^nd dive on Sipadan I went into decompression dive as show from my dive computer due to this I need a 12 minute safety stop instead of a usual 3minute the good news is I still have plenty of air for my stop the bad news is other that went up to the boat have to wait for me. I think some of the divers also hit decompression dive because they do not have a computer the only did 3 minute of safety stop which is not very good. Usual dive side you will dive in Sipadan is south point, barracuda point, drop off, coral garden and etc. I personally like South point and barracuda point a lot, thing to see include numbers of white tips shark, green turtle, school of Jack fish, school of resident barracuda and etc (check out my picture).

In this post I posted some of the fee I spend during my trip as a reference for anyone that is interested in Diving in Kapalai. However the fee is only for reference basis and it can varies depend on the season and also which country you from I guess……

Total Stay : 4days 3 night

Total Dive: 9 dive (can be more as house reef is unlimited)

F&B: Full board (exclude alcoholic drink)

Flight: from KUL (LCCT) terminal to Tawau (returned flight)

Total Spending: Accommodation: RM2150++,Flight: RM400 (it depend on when you book the flight, if you book earlier it will be cheaper)

Here are some picture from this dive trip.

Sweet Lips

Eagle Ray during our dinner

Ghost Pipe Fish

Stone Fish

Frog Fish

Mantis Shrimp

Giant mantis Shrimp

Kapalai Resort

School of Baracuda

My Favorite Picture

Robust Pipe Fish

Flat Worm Nice !!!

Turtle - The 7 Wonder Of the World - Part 1

2011-08-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

Just came back from a trip to Kapalai Resort but I'm going to talk about the trip in this post instead it will in my next posting.

This posting I wand to share with you all some information about sea turtle, information that I read from magazine and some research online. There are may divers out there however how many of us know how many species of turtle there is in the world? What is their life expectancy? Where can we found them? and etc.

There are 7 Marine Turtle species worldwide and 6 of which are endangered. The 7 wonder are:

Green Turtle
Olive Ridley Sea Turtle
Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle
Loggerhead Sea Turtle
Hawksbill Sea turtle
Leatherback Sea Turtle
Flatback Sea Turtle

Green Turtle
Conversation Status: Endangered
Maximum Size: 1.5 Meter
Maximum Weight: 200kg
Maximum Life Expectancies In The Wild: 80 Years

Chelonia mydas(scientific name of green turtle) found worldwide throughout the tropics and some in subtropical oceans. It has a dark brown heart shaped carapace that can grow up to 1.5 meters long. It was name as green turtle because of its green color fat that was once used to make soup.

Green turtle eat jellyfish, crustaceans and sponges when juveniles and become a vegetarian when older eating only seagrass and seaweeds. Green turtle can weigh up to 200kg and can age up to 80years old.

Green turtle is one of the most economically valuable and are killed for their skins, meat and shell. Green turtle migrate some 2,000 kilometers in open ocen to feed and nest with pinpoint accurate navigation.

Some photo of green turtle

Shoot during my recent sipadan trip

Next Olive Ridley Sea Turtle
To be Continue........

Mataking Island and Sipadan Dive Trip (28th November - 1st December 2009)

2011-06-19T10:28:00.000-07:00

Mataking Island - Located latitude119 degrees and longitude 4 degrees and 35 minute. Is about 40minute boat ride from the main land of Semporna, province of Sabah Malaysia.

The Island is about 40 arces and lies on the edge of continental shelf surrounded by fringing reef of hard and soft coral, In this island there is only one resort "The Reef Dive" Resort of Mataking. (http://www.mataking.com/)

This is a trip that I anticipate for a long long time..... This trip suppose to happened some time around year 2008, however due to my wife pregnant we have to postpone the trip till she delivered and ready for dive.

To reach Mataking Island you can take airasia, MAS or any airline that reach Tawau airport, from the airport there will be land transfer arrange by the resort to take you from Tawau to Semporna which take about 1.5 hours, from Semporna is just another 40 minute boat ride to reach the island.

We are staying chalet room which are consider a better one, overall the staying is great, comfortable and a very friendly staff around. However the price is a bit on the high side considering the food, dive and accommodation.

As for diving...... Mataking is well know as a macro haven, you can find lots of nudibranch, shirmp, lobster, sea turtle and even pipe fish. But please do not expect something big like manta, whale shark, school of baracuda, jack and etc.

During the night there will be some cultural dance to keep you entertain and you will be amaze with the dancer, why? not because they are superb, just because you can see those dancer are the waiter, waitress and even dive master.....lol....

The highlight of the trip is our 1 day trip to Sipadan island which took about 80minute with fast speed boat from the resort.

Diving in Sipadan is absolutely amazing, the amount of shark, turtle and other sea life you see is just amaze you. Till this trip I have clock around 40++ so far the best is Manta Ray in Thailand, but Sipadan just a different world after all.

Due to the formation of Sipadan most of the dive is a wall dive because Sipadan is basically bottomless (about 600meter deep). Sipadan is the place I will definitely going again because this trip I only able to make 3 dive in Sipadan, In fact I just make my booking to stay in Kapalai Water Village from 4th August to 8th August 2011.

Back to Mataking....... Like what I said before price in Mataking is a bit on the high side, however Mataking is much more suitable for romantic couple or family that looking for exclusive holiday with some diving and family getting together. For hardcore dives I think with the amount of money paid I would suggest Sipadan, as for me this is much like a annual honeymoon trip so is still not too bad. In total we spend about RM 7k for 2 person all inclusive, in term of exclusiveness still no way near our honeymoon to Maldive but the amount of money paid is also different.

Here are some photo

Redang Island 28th April 2008

2011-03-08T05:56:00.001-08:00

Redang Island is one of the largest island off the east coast of Malaysia. Together with nine other island they form the marine park. White sandy beach, crystal clear water and brilliant underwater world make Redang a major tourist attraction during the month of March till October, thousand of visitor from local and oversea flooded Redang during its peak season.

This is the 2nd time I travel to this island and the first time as a scuba diver, we travel in a group of 10 with 5 scuba divers, 1 about to turn himself to be diver and 4 other non-divers. To reach Redang you either take a bus from Kuala Lumpur main bus station or flight to Kuala Terengganu Airport and you need to take a boat from Merang Jetty which approximately 45 minute in order to reach the island.

This round we will stay in Redang Kalong Resort one of the five start dive center in Redang (Redang Kalong) some of the nice scenery

In total we do 6 dive which cover dive site like South Tip Pulau Lima, Chek Isa, Terumbo Kili, Mat Cantik, Black Coral Garden and house reef of Kalong Resort (night Dive). You can get the info of all dive site in Redang from Redang Dive Site.

Travelling package in Redang usually consist of Full Board meal and usually Saturday night with BBQ dinner, diving in Redang is consider inexpensive and reasonable price. If you want to party at night you can either choose to stay in Long Beach which most of the resort located, or Redang Kalong which is 10minute walking distance away from long beach. There will be party and drinking all night in long beach.

Personally I prefer somewhere quite to get out of hectic city like in Kuala Lumpur. If you need any information regarding diving in Malaysia you can contact me via my email

Some underwater photo

Krabi - Thailand

2011-02-15T08:11:00.000-08:00

8th February 2008 - Fly from Malaysia to Krabi Thailand, my annual honeymoon + dive trip. This is the first time I'm travelling to Krabi, In Malaysia Krabi is not as famous as Phuket although they are only 1 hours away from each other.

Krabi (http://www.krabi.com/) located on Southern of Thailand at the shore of Andaman Sea, the most notable are the solitary limestone hills both on the land and on the sea as island it attract thousands of rock climber from all over the world for rock climbing activities. However rock climbing is never my type of activities maybe is against gravity, my main agenda of this trip is an annual honeymoon and 2 dive in 2 world famous dive side Hin Daeng and Hin Muang. Things to see....... The mighty Manta Ray and Whale Shark.

9th February 2008 - We gather in hotel lobby waiting for dive center staff to pick us up to their boat the weather is nice but the water is a bit choppy, to reach the 2 dive side we need to travel from Krabi with speed boat for 2 hours and 30min again..... is a very difficult journey due to the water condition.

Once we reach the first dive site Hin Daeng, we gear up and jump in the water and start our first dive to look for Manta ray...... according to dive master we should able to spot the Manta as the ratio of seeing one is 7 out of 12 dive. There is nothing much special under the water because everyone only focus on one thing the MANTA......

After almost 40minute we didn't even see the shadow of manta and is very disappointed and we decide to end the dive since nothing much to see. The dive master signal for our routine 3min safety stop with 80bar of air in my tank, suddenly I heard the dive master banging his tank repeatedly and pointed to the reef.......... There she came....The MANTA RAY !!! My wife start taking video and we decent to 10 meter with no time. It was huge and a beauty....Is beyond our speech and is an AWESOME experience and unbelievable how magnificent is this creatures.

First dive ended with lots of happiness and our hope is high for the whale shark..... However 2nd dive end with nothing..... no whale shark and no manta ray as well.... anyway is a very good experience and an unforgettable one. The balance few days in Krabi we didn't dive anymore, we decide to enjoy in the hotel, visit some local market and enjoy the food.

Check out the video and photo of this trip below.

Krabi Sunset

Limestone

Dive Shop Ower, Dive Master and Friend from Singapore we meet during the trip

Me and My Wife

Hotel We Stay

Dayang Island Malaysia My First Dive Trip

2011-02-10T06:19:00.000-08:00

Dayang Island located on the northern east cost of state of Johor approximately 65km off Mersing Jetty, Dayang Island is West Malaysia's furthest and most unique paradise out in South China Sea, Surrounded by crytal clear blue water and white sandy beach. Read more about the island at http://www.dayangisland.com/

Diving is always something I wanted to do since student, however due to the cost of this hobby and many other factor it has been delay till October 2007. This is my first dive trip, during this trip I will also do my PADI Open Water Certification and also PADI Advance Open Water Certification.

To access to Dayang from Kuala Lumpur (Capital of Malaysia) you can either take a Bus from KL main station which will took approximately 6 hours to reach Mersing or drive to Mersing which will took approximately 4-5 hours. This trip we decide to drive since car is available and plenty of dive gear to carry.

Me, my wife, 2 of our friend (1 non diver) and dive instructor Encik Nizam, 5 of us split into 2 cars start our journey at 6pm local time on 4rd of October to start our 4Days/4Night trip.

We reach Mersing Jetty around 12am Midnight and depart from jetty by a fishing boat around 1am check out the picture below

Normally most people will travel with a big ferry (150 people ferry), we used a fishing boat because we are going in the island 1 day earlier then the rest......... The consequences ...... a suffering night due to a small boat and very choppy water, anyway we arrived safely after 6 hours of boat ride.

Is a worth suffering 6 hours, what waiting for us is a calm and crystal clear water of Dayang Island !. Is amazing I never even heard about this island on my 30 years staying in Malaysia.

Some of beautiful photo of Dayang Island

View from top

White Sandy Beach

Crystal Clear Blue Water

After check in to the simple and clear resort we take some light breakfast and get ready for my maiden dive !!!.

In this dive trip I completed a total of 12 dives and qualified as an PADI open water divers and Advance Open water divers certificate. All in all is an awesome experience and a very good start of a series of dive trip.

Dive site in Dayang Island: Pulau Lang, Pulau Pinang, Captain Point, Aur Reef, Batu Rakit, Dayang Jetty and many more.

The one I like the most is Batu Rakit due to is beatiful sea scaping, big rock and deep dive (max I done for this trip 28 Meter).

To anyone that thinking of taking up this hobby.....STOP Thinking and START doing it. Below is some photo taken during this dive trip, I will share more of my experience and places I dive before .... do check out my next post. Bye Bye

Cutter Fish

Crown Fish

Nudibranch

Moray Eel

Me and My wife

Welcome To My Blog!!!

2008-10-07T22:32:00.000-07:00

Hm........Well....... Welcome to my blog!!! After reading many many blog I decide to create one. This blog will be very much about myself, my family and some interesting article to read.

Just in case some old friend or long lost friend or friends friend want to know me more can read it here instead of asking..... asking..... asking....... and I have introducing.... introducing....explaining.... explaining......@#$!@#$

Hopefully my blog will have more and more and more........

So Happy blogging!!