On our first full day at Uncle Chang's, the dive masters took us to the small island of Sipadan. Tourists are not allowed to stay on Sipadan. To go to the island you need to get permission by arranging a permit in advance through your dive company or guest house. We needed to sign the log book each day we were there before snorkelling/diving around the island.
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| The check-in office is at that hut! |
We spent 2 days snorkelling and diving around Sipadan, which equalled a total of 6 dives for John and Alex (and 6 snorkel outings for me). John and Alex just got their open water scuba certification this past year in Vietnam, so they can go down around 20 metres (I think!) below the surface with their dive master. There was a diver in our group that had advanced certifications and was able to go with his dive master even further (down to 30 metres). People snorkelling around Sipadan don't have a guide. You just jump out where the boat stops and snorkel around, and the boat stays near you. The visibility in the water there was incredible. You could see so clearly - tons of tropical fish, sea plants, coral, giant sea turtles, and even sharks! Seeing the sharks made me nervous at first, but they did not come near the surface and the dive masters told us that they don't bother people. They were mostly small-medium sized nurse sharks and reef sharks... nothing crazy like hammerheads or the giant but gentle whale sharks (but sometimes these can be seen in Sipadan - although it is very rare).
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| John diving with the island of Sipadan in the background |
Scuba divers need to take a break (at least an hour) between dives. After each dive, we would all get back on the boat and get out on the island where there were picnic tables set up. The dive masters brought food for snacks and lunch from Uncle Chang's so we could eat on the island.
Previously, the best place I had snorkelled was the Perhentian Islands (also in Malaysia). The Perhentians had tons of sea life and amazing colourful coral. While Sipadan's coral wasn't too colourful, there were many more creatures we spotted under the sea! My favourites were the giant sea turtles. They were so big, and probably ancient, but they would just float around effortlessly in the water and occasionally come up for air at the surface.
I also loved the huge schools of fish. A few times, we saw the giant school of jack fish. Jack fish are a medium-sized silver fish. There were TONS of them swimming together. There was even the occasional huge jack fish thrown into the mix which was pretty neat. When I was snorkelling, I felt like I was part of the school of fish. I swam right with them, so close to them, but they never touched me.
Also very cool was the huge school of giant barracuda. I always thought barracuda was a dangerous fish since the name sounded scary and they look like swords, but they do not actually pose a threat. The schools of barracuda would swim in a big circle. At one point, some snorkellers and divers were able to get in the middle of the circle and they just kept swimming around and around us!
Due to the amazing world under the sea, we rented an underwater camera for 1 day in Sipadan. Luckily, we were able to get some cool pics. The camera doesn't even do it justice, but here are a few photos that show some of the stuff we saw:
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| School of jack fish |
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| Shark photo taken by Alex |
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| Sea turtles! |
On our third day diving/snorkelling with the Uncle Chang's crew, we took a boat only a few minutes from the guest house to the waters around Mabul. John and Alex did 3 dives around there. Compared to Sipadan, the visibility wasn't as great and the sea life wasn't as exciting (no sharks, not as many turtles, not as many big schools of fish). The dive masters referred to it as "muck diving," but they said you can still see a lot of stuff. Unfortunately, I didn't see much of anything interesting to me since I had been spoiled with Sipadan the previous 2 days. I only did 1 snorkel outing around Mabul, but John and Alex stuck with their 3 dives and saw a lot of cool things. They saw giant moray eels, a zebra eel, box shrimp, cuttlefish, and a smaller manta ray. They didn't see this stuff in Sipadan, so it was worthwhile for them. I don't think I would have seen any of those things snorkelling since they were all seen pretty deep, far from the surface. I also thought it was a good idea to hang up the snorkel mask when a trigger fish started biting at my fins and sent me into a panic. I spent the rest of the day reading at Uncle Chang's and snapping photos in the village, which was still enjoyable!
Uncle Chang's was a fun place to spend a few days. I'd recommend it to anyone who is looking for a great diving/snorkelling experience and relaxing stay, but to obtain the permits for Sipadan you need to book ahead (several months early if possible).
After 4 nights at Uncle Chang's, we took the speed boat back to Semporna where we began the second portion of our Borneo adventure...
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