It had been a busy spring in at The Voice Tv Finland when me and my
colleague finally had the chance to get out of the country and do some
serious diving!
colleague finally had the chance to get out of the country and do some
serious diving!
We decided to start our trip in Malaysia, where we arrived on June 26th. Kuala
Lumpur being a bit too busy a city for us we decided to try and get out of
there as soon as possible. Since we were traveling without any plans or
reservations we were able to get the first plane that took us to the island
of Sabah. After a couple of hour driving we ended up in a town called
Semporna which really wasn't that special a place considering where we we're
about to go the next morning.
Lumpur being a bit too busy a city for us we decided to try and get out of
there as soon as possible. Since we were traveling without any plans or
reservations we were able to get the first plane that took us to the island
of Sabah. After a couple of hour driving we ended up in a town called
Semporna which really wasn't that special a place considering where we we're
about to go the next morning.
As the sun rose up next morning in the south-east of Malaysia, we hopped on
a boat that would take us to the island of Mabul. The few first days we
spent on Mabul were absolutely great! Even though the dives around Mabul
were pretty shallow and not so rich in coral, I saw a variety of underwater
life, I've never seen before: a couple of Clown fish, Frog-fish, Crocodile
fish and a Leopard shark, just to mention a few.
a boat that would take us to the island of Mabul. The few first days we
spent on Mabul were absolutely great! Even though the dives around Mabul
were pretty shallow and not so rich in coral, I saw a variety of underwater
life, I've never seen before: a couple of Clown fish, Frog-fish, Crocodile
fish and a Leopard shark, just to mention a few.
The dives in Mabul were also ideal to test a new wireless transmitter with
my Suunto D9 diving computer. The wireless transmitter connected to my regulator's
first stage kept me constantly aware of how much time would i have left
underwater with my current breathing rates. Seeing that the transmitter and
my Suunto D9 worked perfectly, I was ready for the deeper dives in Sipadan!
After diving in Mabul we finally got to our main destination, Sipadan
National Park. Since one is not allowed to stay at Sipadan Island, we had to
do day trips there. It took a little over an hour to get to Sipadan by a
boat but it was well worth it! On the very first dive there I saw a massive
school of at least one thousand Barracudas circling around me. I was so excited that I tossed
my underwater camera to my friend Sami in order to get a picture of me
swimming with the barracudas.
my Suunto D9 diving computer. The wireless transmitter connected to my regulator's
first stage kept me constantly aware of how much time would i have left
underwater with my current breathing rates. Seeing that the transmitter and
my Suunto D9 worked perfectly, I was ready for the deeper dives in Sipadan!
After diving in Mabul we finally got to our main destination, Sipadan
National Park. Since one is not allowed to stay at Sipadan Island, we had to
do day trips there. It took a little over an hour to get to Sipadan by a
boat but it was well worth it! On the very first dive there I saw a massive
school of at least one thousand Barracudas circling around me. I was so excited that I tossed
my underwater camera to my friend Sami in order to get a picture of me
swimming with the barracudas.
After chasing the school of Barracudas, the next dives at Sipadan proved to
be as miraculous as the first one. With massive turtles swimming around in
the midst of reef sharks, I couldn't help but take pictures all the time!
After the trip I realized I had taken somewhere around 1500 pictures
underwater. Luckily a few of them turned out to be pretty nice as well.
After diving a week on Mabul and Sipadan, we decided to follow a new friend
of ours , American girl Holly to Philippines, where her friend had a diving
school on island of Malapascua.
be as miraculous as the first one. With massive turtles swimming around in
the midst of reef sharks, I couldn't help but take pictures all the time!
After the trip I realized I had taken somewhere around 1500 pictures
underwater. Luckily a few of them turned out to be pretty nice as well.
After diving a week on Mabul and Sipadan, we decided to follow a new friend
of ours , American girl Holly to Philippines, where her friend had a diving
school on island of Malapascua.
After spending an evening in Kota Kinapalu (which I never want to do again,
thanks to all of the Karaoke bars there), we got a plane to Cebu,
Philippines from where we would continue our trip by multi-cab to a boat
that would take us to Malapascua.
The originally planned few days there turned out to be a little over a week,
since the island was beautiful and serene, with a lots of great sites to
dive. Since there was a chance to catch a glimpse of Thresher sharks, we
woke up around 5.30 to do the morning dives. I really couldn't imagine
anything else I would wake up for 5.30 in the morning! Sadly none of our
early wake-ups brought the desired result and we totally missed the
Threshers. Naturally the very morning we decided to continue our naps, a
group of divers saw a few of these elusive sharks on their morning dive!
Fortunately the shallow dives near the island proved to be very successful
as we saw a whole bunch of different Nudibranch, Squid, Stingrays and even
a mimic Octopus! But as much as I enjoyed the variety of small stuff that we
saw on the muck dives, it was the big stuff that really got me ecstatic!
On a couple of afternoon manta dives we got really close to gigantic
Manta Rays that just out of curiosity came hovering above us and then as
silently as they had arrived glided back to the deep blue. The profiles of
the manta dives were actually quite boring with everybody just waiting in
the bottom of a "cleaning station" in 25 meters on their knees for the
mantas to arrive. But seeing a creature like that really makes your day!
I've always loved diving but it's definitely the moments like these that
really make you humble. The four-five meter wingspan of a Manta is just
something you can't get your eyes off.
After a great week and a half we still had a bit of time to spend in the
Philippines before we would have to make our way back to Kuala Lumpur and
home. So after all this serious diving we headed to island of Bohol to relax
and do a few fun dives.
After a few days it was time to start heading back home. As we made our way
back to Cebu and from there to Manila, I realized that once back home, we
had taken 13 different flights all together to get to the sites we wanted.
And while not spending time in airplanes or waiting for our Nitrogen levels
to lower, we pretty much spent the whole trip underwater. -I really can't
think of a better way to spend a holiday!
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