Diving

Trip Start Mar 31, 2010

109

Trip End Mar 31, 2011

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Flag of Malaysia Semporna, Sabah, Malaysia
Friday, June 4, 2010

We were lucky enough to come for our first diving trip after qualifying to Sipadan Island in Borneo, which is said to be one of the best dive sites in the world. We stayed on an island nearby which was something of a perfect tropical paradise island with crystal clear water and reefs surrounding it. The tourist industry was served by a very lively and friendly shanty town of wooden huts built on stilts on the beach and going out to sea.
Sipadan Island rises directly out of the sea bed, so it has shallow coral reef surrounding it to about 50 metres off the shore, then a wall dropping straight down 600m. This makes for an amazing spectrum of every shade of blue visible as you look up and down and a very real sense of vastness looking down and out to sea. It also means there are sharks, loads of barracuda ( in a 'bait ball'), turtles, eels, tuna, parrotfish as well as the whole range of small and colourful tropical fish, all of which we saw pretty much every time we went out.

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