First there were twelve. Then there were five.
Lucky for me, Big John didn't mind. hehe... we're heading back to Big John. this year we did not do Sipadan. Instead I took the chance to explore one of the islands in Tun Sakaran Marine Park, Sibuan Island. I've heard nothing but great things about the newly opened island, so this year I decided we should give it a visit. The island has been closed for 10 years, only been opened to public again in 2010. Unlike other trips, we went to Mabul for only 5 days instead of our usual 6 day trip. 6 days always seemed like too long when applying for leave, so we chose to go 5 days this year. I also opened the trip to everyone this year. only to have 4 divers responded to my ad. Tak kisah, big John said.. Pelan-pelan hehe :)
Since my last trip to Mabul in July, I haven't dived anywhere. So this would be my first dive trip in 6 months. It's also my first dive trip after my myomectomy in July 2010. So I was freaking nervous! What if the stitches open up while i was underwater.. what if a shark was there when it happens? there were too many what ifs.. so I thought to myself, I'll just take it easy this time around. No diving unless I feel absolutely fine. To make things worse, I had a really bad flu a week before I went to Mabul. But then what else is new la kan? heheh...
Day 1 - 6 March 2011
I didn't get any sleep the night before. Probably an hour of sleep.. I was trying to stuff everything in my big dive bag and still manage the 25kg limit. I took the train from Putrajaya Sentral and hopped on the bus at Salak Tinggi. My flight was 7:15 am. And I arrived at Salak Tinggi at well.. 6:30. I totally forgotten about the 1hr before flight check in thingy.. ermm :( until Lenn called asking me to help them check in. Then I realized it's already 6:40 am! Ack!!! I can't miss the plane! Alhamdulillah, my prayers were answered. when I arrived at about 6:50 am, the counter was still opened and full of people. THere were 2 lines still, and I managed to get on the plane on time. So did Lenn and Bad, Jon and Wawa...
WE arrived a bit later than scheduled. The flight was delayed. I had nothing to do with it I swear! They took too long a time refueling, and so we took off 1/2 hour later than scheduled. I slept through the flight. Only to wake up to have my nasi lemak. hehe :)
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| inflight reading materials.. mm.. i think i was on page 5 when i dozed off.. sleepy huhu :( |
When we arrived, we're greeted by a man holding a sign "Marina".. i felt special hahaha.. aci tak?
On our way to Big John's office, we made a quick stop at our favorite store, Century. I swear this mart looks like a car battery! hehehe...
They've been waiting for us at Big John's office. We immediately boarded the boat and headed to Mabul. Lunch has been served. Makan! hehe... we were so hungry despite having a good portion of Nasi Lemak Pak Nasser on board our flight. So when Osman told us to gear up for our first dive, we were all so stuffed that no one was willing to move :p so Osman told us maybe we could have one dive on our first day in Mabul, instead of the usual 2. and have 4 dives on our second day. without any further thought we agreed... Nasir who's already dived with Big John for a couple of days went ahead without us. when we came back from our dive, he's already gone back to Mabul.
Our first dive for the trip was to Mabul House Reef. As most of us except Bad haven't dived for quite some time, Osman took us to shallow waters. I also had to test my camera. Bought a new camera a week before my trip. Mabul House Reef would be a perfect place to test the camera. :)
since the objective of this dive was to test my camera. it was not a fun dive for me :( i think we saw a lot of things.. macro stuff.. but i couldn't change any settings on my camera. had to use auto setting through out the dive. well not until the last 10 minutes of the dive .. i couldn't use the macro setting, can't change anything :( was so disappointed. these are the only shots that came out nice.. :(
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| table coral... |
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| dah shallow baru boleh set WB :( |
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| colors of mabul |
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| berlambak benda nih |
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| my dive buddy jon.. heheh :) |
that night we retired early.. all of us were tired. it was a long day..
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| hilang rock si Jol.. hehehe :p |
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| it's so beautiful in Mabul.. |
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| our official tidbits :) |
Day 2 - 7 March 2011
Typically I'd wake up at 5 am when I'm in Mabul.. I guess I was so tired from the dive and traveling .. I woke up at 7! As we're heading to Siammil on Day 2, we had to leave by 7:30 am. haha that was close!
after breakfast, I assembled my camera... only to find that I had 2 bars left on the battery signal :( I should have charged the battery the night before lah :( and we had 4 dives planned today :(
big john has already arranged a bbq for us at siamil.. yippee!!!
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| leaf fish.. in blue waters heheh :P |
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| biru betul air at siamil huhu |
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| can u see the nemo? |
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| my favorite subject. coz he doesn't move much. the orang utan crab |
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| also not a mover.. the scorpion fish. original color ok :p |
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| i saw a lot of blue stuff at siamil |
as the guys were bbq-ing the cuttlefish and tuna.. jon and i explored the beautiful island. it's not a big island. but it was a nice setting for our yearly birah photos hahaha :P
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| we make the perfect models for siamil hahahahha :p |
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| yummy... |
we had 3 dives at siamil. on the third dive, we saw more creatures than the first two dives combined! we saw the sea snake, sea moth, and a bunch of other stuff. but i didn't have the photos as my batteries ran out on the third dive! :(
our fourth dive at mabul. damn it was tiring. perhaps because the surface interval was too long and it was a boat ride back from siamil. so all that traveling.. made us tired and stuff? huhu :( we dived at paradise 1. and jon and i surfaced earlier because the water was cold, and we didn't put our wetsuits on. dah shrink la ..
miss rita celebrates her 21st birthday
before we left for tawau, i already made arrangements with big john to get jon a big cake :) we asked for strawberry flavored cake but i guess semporna's cake house doesn't make strawberry flavored cake. so we asked for the next best thing.. vanilla with loads of icing. i swear the butter cream icing tastes so much better after exposure to the seawater .. yummy. since it's a surprise birthday party, i asked jon to act surprise lah kan? heheh :) well gilberto was surprised huhu..
we had a few visitors that came to celebrate with us, johnny, lando (remember him? *drool*), ben (lando's brother.. cuter.. and younger you.. (; ) and of course otto.. sorry otto, ryn tak dak.. salwa ada :)
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| not in photo: Gilbert doing the birthday dance for miss rita heehehehe |
Day 3 - 8 March 2011: Yummy & Delicious
3 dives in Mabul/Kapalai - Lobster Wall, Kapalai and Seaventures. We saw a lot of stuff.. I got better at handling my camera as well.. only i think the camera had a mind of its own that day. it turns off the flash whenever it felt like it. darn it! we managed to catch a glimpse of the remaining mr. denise. i so wanted to see the bargibanti. i think i've never seen any in mabul before. seen only denise whenever i dived in mabul. kapalai was also superb. we were searching for the mimic octopus. osman saw it about a week before we arrived and we were hoping we'd get the same luck as well. alas... the mimic octopus was probably gone on vacation or something..
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| alamak am so proud of this photo hehehehehe... cantek.. |
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| i wish i had taken a better photo.. now the pygmy has gone :( |
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| our official pose hehehehehe |
surface interval, after kapalai. that's when we noticed mr. yummy. with his six packs, tanned skin..
god knows what he looked like under those pants. but his body just won our hearts.. yang dah lama gersang nih gagaggagga.. then we thought why isn't he diving with us? well someone's prayers have been answered, and he dived with us at seaventures. our last dive for the day.
of course, jon and i would be tagging him from start to end. and when jon told me that she only had 50 bar left on her gauge, i realized i was too. so we went up together. jon surfaced first to the strong current. i joined her a few seconds later. with my regs still in my mouth, i tried swimming to the boat. damn it was far! when i reached the boat, then they decided to throw the ropes to us. hampeh. i quickly made it into the boat. wawa got in second. jon was so beat that mr yummy had to help her take off her clothes take off her equipment and get her into the boat... i was jealous relieved that she was safe. after the little ordeal at seaventures.. jon banned seaventures. vowing never to dive there again hehehehe but jon.. you have to admit. it was pretty cool, having him to undo everything for you kan? *wink*
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| mr yummy took this photo .. i wanted to take his. segan pulak |
that night, we had a bit of a photo session. since we're leaving for semporna early morning...
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| the geng with amansha @ king kong |
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| i love this photo of me.. that jon took :) |
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| bakri and jol |
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| us and mr. yummy. look at his body! |
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| jon and king kong |
day 4 - 9 March 2011: Sibuan Island & Semporna
i woke up to see my mr. yummy sleeping outside my room. alahai..... anyway, today we're leaving mabul. we're diving semporna and sibuan today so big john said it'd be better if we stay at semporna for the night instead of heading back to mabul. so we agreed. after saying bye bye to everyone, we realized that we didn't have any group photos.. cannot la kan?
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all twelve five of us. |
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| with happy birthday, gilberto ... haram mamat ni tak pakai seluar dale.. |
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| mr yummy sebelah ai... |
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| maaf ye.. wa amik kesempatan. dada dia irresistable kekekke |
we left mabul and gilbert and mr. yummy.. and headed to semporna. one dive at tampi-tampi and our last two dives at sibuan island.
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| the main attraction of semporna diving - electric clam |
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| first time tengok menatang ni |
we had to cut short our dive at semporna because wawa was missing. she said she just didn't know what to do when she suddenly ascended. i think she was a bit narced. but that's just speculation. she was fine.
we headed to sibuan, after a quick break at big john's office. transferred our luggage and made reservations at sipadan inn. cheap, air conditioned, free wifi and tv. :) nice.
once we've arrived at sibuan, we saw why mrs. big john was so excited when she first went there. it was beautiful! white sand, clear blue sky. amazing! diving wise not so much. but it's kinda nice looking at baby corals just blooming at one of the dive sites.. it felt as if going to a nursery and looking at all the little plants. 10 years no visitors would certainly do that to corals. they get healthier.. i hope they manage to reach old age. :-/
it's time to say goodbye. it's hard to leave everytime we're here. the fun we had, the people we meet, the mishaps, the laughter, the food we shared. i enjoyed them all. thanks guys for making it happen :) may there be another one :) cheers!
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spec 5 hengget. say goodbye ladies!
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| we'll be back! |
more photos here:
flickr: inayusoff
interested to join me at mabul? contact me at marina.yusoff@gmail.com. I have a trip planned for June 2011
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