Mabul Island Anniversary
Trip Start
Jan 26, 2010
1
6
13
Trip End
Feb 24, 2010
Pulau Mabul, Sabah, Malaysia
Saturday, February 6, 2010
So for anyone that was following our previous blog, you will know that there was some sort of ongoing joke about kidnapping. Sipadan lies close to the lawless seas of the southern Philippines. A few years ago ( April, 2000) there was a kidnapping: A Muslim separatist group in the Philippines has said it was responsible for the kidnapping of 20 people from the remote resort island of Sipadan in eastern Malaysia. The claim was made by Abu Ahmad, a spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf group, in a telephone interview with a radio station in Zamboanga, in the southern Philippines.
The kidnappings are a diversionary tactic by the Abu Sayyaf, whose main base is being attacked by the Philippines army. The authorities became suspicious that the group might be involved after reports spoke of the kidnappers being Filipinos and of their boat being seen heading for the Phillipines. There were many more kidnappings in the Philippines linked to this group as well as 2 beheadings of kidanp victims. The 20 original victims from Sipidan were all released within 2 years.
On January 12th 2010 the Canadian Government released a travel warning for Mabul Island and Sipidan. Based on US intelligence, the government believed that there was a preeminent and new threat of kidnapping on these two islands. The travel warning that they issued was the second highest and states that you must avoid all non essential travel. Everyone should always make sure that they pay attention to travel warnings and for Canadians, this is the place to do that as well as the place that you register with your embassy abroad.http://www.voyage.gc.ca
We had decided before we left that we would not go to Mabul or Sipidan, even though this was a major reason that we choose Borneo. When we learned that our travel insurance would not cover us if we traveled to a place with a major travel warning, we were renewed in our resolve that this portion of the trip would not happen.
Sooooooo while we are in Sandakan, we meet some people who have just come from the area. We contact our diving company and ask if there have been any problems, and then we hmmmm and hawwwww. Of course we go!!
SO NOW ABOUT MABUL AND SIPIDAN ISLANDS!!!!
ACCOMMODATION
There are 2 major very expensive resorts on Mabul Island that are built out over the ocean, then there is an indigenous group of people who are neither Malay or Philipinne who are living in very harsh and basic structures that make you feel quite sad to see. Then there is Scuba Junkies Resort which is about 80RM 25.00C per night. On the other side of the island there are a whole bunch of really filmy looking "resorts" and I say that in the loosest possible terms. They are mixed in with the other half of the indigenous village and they look as bad or worse than most of the huts.
Now for Scuba Junkies Resort: Two rows of connected cabins with a garden walkway in between and a large main building with cafeteria on the main floor and a bar and lounde on the upper floor. The cabins are lovely! They are clean, spacious, with large balcony doors and lovely decks with a chair, table and hammock on each. The bathrooms are clean with hot and cold water. There is no air con, but neither do you need it. The fan is big and works well and it cools off beautifully with the fresh sea breeze. Man, I sound like an infommercial! We really liked our little cabin!
DIVING/SNORKELING
We arrive in the morning and snorkel around Mabul Island. This Island is touted to be the world's best muck dive site. We don't know what muck is and we were snorkeling, not diving, and yet....Right off the dock of the Scuba Junkies Resort is the most amazing coral that houses an outrageous variety of small fish! It is spectacular. After many years of snorkeling in SE Asia, this is truly one of the most memorable places we have seen!!!! We go out in the boat to another dive site and we see MORE and MORE amazing corals and fish. We know at this point that if we are kidnapped, we will have many hours of pretty fish and corals to keep our brains active. Lunch is good and plentiful and then it is out for another snorkel on the boat. There are so many great places around these islands that you could snorkel for weeks and different sites and see new and amazing things each time., Supper is again delicious and we find that we find our way to our delicious beds early and sleep well.SIPIDANThere are no overnight stays on Sipidan anymore and you must have a permit to dive or snorkel there. Be sure to arrange this early and well before you leave on holidays as it is VERY popular and you may not get to go. We were really happy with Scuba Junkie's. We did notice that they really cater to the diver's though and do not send out a guide with snorkelers. They just point to the shallows and say go over there somewhere. I am a fairly confident snorkelers so that was OK with me, but Darryll felt a little less secure. It would have been nice to have someone to tell us what some of the fish were though.
http://www.scuba-junkie.com/
The next morning we get up early and set off to Pulau Sipidan. We have 2 snorkels before lunch off Sipidan Island. The waves are quite high on the first snorkel, but we see a HUGE green turtle and follow her for a pretty good distance. Lots of different corals and a huge variety of fish and many large schools of fish. We are hoping to see sharks, but we only see some Barracuda. On the second site, it was close to shore and with the tide coming in, everything was mucky. It was hard snorkeling and hardly anything to see and so we give in and have the boat take us to the island where we will meet the rest of the divers for lunch. We were surprised to see that on shore there is an army base with soldiers on the beach with guns pointed to the water at all times.
Our last snorkel was really good. It was on the other side of the island and had a bit more protection from the waves. The visibility was much better and we stay on a ridge just above the divers for wuite some time. This is a good technique as the divers frighten the fish who come our way so that we can get a great look at them. Again, lots of corals, great fish, and after one hour, we are not happy that we are being waved back to the boat.
We rented an underwater camera for the day from one of the dive masters and discover that it is hard to figure out how to use it with the brief instructions we were givem. Darryll valiantly does his best with poor vision to figure it out, but unfortunately presses the zoom button often (it was actually the video button) . So we have a lot of video of the bottom of the ocean with very little fish. It is OK, at least we got some OK'ish pics of the green turtle that we swim with for wuite some time. Darryll has only in recent years been a willing snorkeler and this trip convinced him that water and fish are the greatest things on earth. I am happy as I now have a more than willing snorkel partner. Again, we eat supper and sleep well. This is the life!!!
We opt on the morning of the third day to take it easy. We snorkel around the docks of Mabul again looking for "George" the turtle that we have heard lives somewhere near the dock right beside ours. We set off to find "George" and sure enough, find her within a few minutes. She is not as large as the green turtle that I saw on the first day, but still, she is quite massive. I marvel that the coral is growing and healthy right up to the beach. It is very nice to see that they are looking after their water so well in this place.
After our first snorkel we decide to go explore the indigenous village. While we are getting changed we hear a helicoptor very close and we hurry out to see what is happening. Sure enough, an army helicoptor is circling the Island very slowly. Then there is another helicoptor circling and then a third. From the moment we landed, I had taken a good look around and planned our escape plan in case of emergency and so I told Darryll to get his shoes on. Luckily, my plan was to go in to the village and away from the resort as fast as I could which worked very well with the plans that we already had. So off to explore the village we go, with every cell in my body on full alert. My plan was to dive in to someones house and hide if I saw anything unusual. Unusual was what we saw, but not dangerous. Kids flying broken down kites, school being held at the side of a tin shack, Phys Ed was a couple of kids playing volleyball with no net and a deflated worn out ball, bare naked babies playing in the sand and some hawkers stalls selling shells and shark jaws for the tourists.
We circle the island and see the rundown "resorts" on the other side of the island and check out one of the 5 star resorts on our side. After a couple of hours it seems that there is no one too excited about anything and so we return to our place to ask what the helicoptors were all about. The only answer we got was "the helicoptors do that sometimes" and so we did not worry about it.
KIDNAPPING
It was only after we return to Semporna that we learn that there really had been a kidnapping the morning before of 2 seaweed farmers on an island just off of Semporna. The kidnappings were played down and not likely related to the ones from 2000. The government released a statement that they need to increase security to the area.
Comments
bgtrb
Hi there! I already getting interested to go mabul island.. haha
May I know, how much u spend ur money there? tq