Gefiltesushi: Lena and Ari's Life

Melaka

We took a day trip to Malaka yesterday.  It is an old trading city whose heyday was in the 15th-19th centuries before Singapore took off.  It has been a Portuguese, Dutch and English colony.

Lena in front of old Chinese shophouses.

Melaka's Dutch sister city built a windmill in honor of the relationship.

One of the many Chinese temples in the city

Sabah Pictures

Pictures from our trip to the jungle and the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Sanctuary.

Kinabatangan River

Sunrise over the river.

A kingfisher we saw on the night safari.

A crocodile on the riverbank.

A green viper snake.

Sepilok Orangutan Center

(Pictures not so good because of dim light in the forest.)

We're back in Kuala Lumpur now, and head back to Tashkent on Wednesday.

Sandakan

Today we took a 6+ hour bus ride through the hills to Sandakan, passing vast sprawling palm plantations along the way.

Chopping coconuts on the street

Sandakan street

Sipadan!

Yesterday evening, after writing the post below, we went to pick up our laundry at a small shop near our hotel.  They also run dive trips, so before leaving we asked, 'where are you going tomorrow?'.  'Sipadan,' they answered.  'But we were told Sipadan was closed.'  'No, we just went today, and we're going tomorrow.  Three dives.  You can ask anyone who took the trip today.'  A bit skeptical that we were being scammed, we agreed to sign up anyway, since Sipadan was what we came out here for.  At our hotel a little later, we talked to some people who had been on the trip and raved about it.

So, at 8 this morning, we joined a group of about 10 on a boat trip through very rough seas out to, indeed, Sipadan.

It was one of the most incredible experiences I've had.  The site is a small tropical island surrounded by a narrow strip of beach, then a narrow strip of sand underwater, which then drops off to a wall 600 meters deep.  Usually, when you finish a dive, you go back to the shop and look through fish books to identify the interesting species you saw.  At Sipadan, there would be no point.  You just put the whole book down on the table, 'This is what we saw.' 

There was more marine life there than imaginible, and visibility was phenomenal.  On the last dive, it must have been 50 meters.  (10 is usually considered good.)  As soon as we dropped in the water on the first dive, we were immersed in a school of what must have been more than 500 jackfish. (Sorry, using others' photos, since I don't have an underwater camera.)

There were also dozens of turtles everywhere you swam.  There were the 'green' and 'hawksbill' species.  They are so swift and graceful, and you see them resting on rocks, snuggled in underwater bushes, feeding on seaweed, and just swimming out in the open.  They are very used to divers, so you can just come right up to them and say hello.   It is incredible to be underwater and swimming right alongside these creatures.

Divers always look for sharks, and though I had dived more than 20 times before, I had never seen one.  At Sipadan, we saw dozens of reef sharks, and also some bigger grey sharks.  Some were just sleeping on on a rock shelf, and you could swim right over them.  Everywhere you turned, they were there, swimming around.  These are small - probably about 1 meter long - and no threat to humans.

Our second dive was probably the best I've ever done.  It was at 'Barracuda Point', and shortly after entering the water, we swam under and into a school of more than 1000 barracuda swimming in huge circles.  Weightless above a 600-meter dropoff, and looking into a mass of these long silver fish is one of the most amazing sensations I've experienced.  We rode the current over the reef, just sitting back and letting the water carry us, and looking all around.  At times, you don't even know where to look, there are so many things to see.  Often on dives, you carefully navigate a reef, searching under rocks and into crevices to find interesting creatures.  On these dives, you simply pointed yourself in whatever direction you wanted to go, and had literally tens of thousands of fish within your sight at any time - from the tiniest flourescent Nemo-type fish to huge parrotfish, unicornfish, and grouper.

As if that wasn't enough, during our tea break on the island itself, we saw a pair of meter-long monitor lizards. 

I dove three times, and Lena snorkelled, also seeing turtles, sharks, and the rest of the managerie.  It will go down as one of the highlights of this trip.

As to why the jerks at the other dive shop lied to us about the ability to go to Sipadan and wasted our time and money, we aren't sure.  They are foreigners, and we went with a local operation that clearly had connections to the police and military based on the island (they were playing pool with them during breaks), so this might be part of the reason.  There is also big competition, so the first place might just not pay its park fees, and then discourages its divers from using other companies.  Not sure, but we are both very happy with the chance that we got to see this incredibly amazing place.

On Sipadan beach

Lena on the boat ride after our day at Sipadan

Disappointment

These things seem to happen when you travel.

Sipadan is rated one of the top dive sites in the world.  The people we met here who dived it were in awe at the amount of marine life they saw and the inspiring surroundings.

So, it just so happens that on Sept. 1, the Malaysian government changed its policy regarding the island, granting permits to only 100 divers per day, and those only to the super-expensive resorts.  As we were not diving with a super-expensive resort, the island was therefore closed to us, which we found out at 8:00 this morning when we arrived at the shop.  'Where would you like to go?' they asked.  'Um, Sipadan,' I answered.  'No one is going to Sipadan.'

A major part of the reason we took this long trip out to Borneo was to go to this island.  The new policy was news to the diveshop, too - they said it came out of the blue.  They also expected it to be short-lasting, as apparently with many government environmental protection policies here.  They thought that by next week, they'd be sending divers there again, and they had permits already for Tuesday.  So, we happened to arrive for 3 days in a roughly 5-day window in which we couldn't dive at Sipadan.  What dissapointment. 

I dove and Lena snorkelled today at another site.  Great visibility, but the marine life was pretty average, and certainly nothing worth travelling thousands of kilometers for.

Anyway, we will recover, and tomorrow, instead of diving again, we'll move on to Sandakan, from where we are planning to go on a river safari.  That is, if the river isn't closed for 3 days for 'maintenance'...

Pictures from Perhentians

Train Ride from Bangkok

Bangkok train station

Lena in the train

Ari on train

Crossing the border into Malaysia by foot

Perhentian Islands

Our first sight of the Perhentian Islands

The beach in front of our hotel

The view of the beach

Us on the beach

Our hotel room

Sunset

Daytime

Morning

At the cafe

Lena's first scuba lesson

To Borneo

Arrival at the airport in Tawau, from where we took a taxi to Semporna, where we are staying here.  Tomorrow, we'll go to Sipadan for diving and snorkelling.