Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Pangkor Island.....another popular island resort in Perak not far away from Ipoh......with golden beaches and clear water......majority inhabited by fisherfolks here......

Collected some specimens for our aquariums..... easily to spot some small fishes and marine invertebrates especially during low tide.....found various kind of crabs, sexy shrimps with the carpet anemones as their hosts, octupos trying to hide from me, a beautiful and attractive red purple anemone, seacucmber, cowries, small grouper caught in the net but release it after that, tiny neon gobies, different types of blennies, striped cardinalfish, damsels, and a juvenile copperband butterflyfish......

At night, we tried to fish some squids.....in the end, only one squid and octupos caught by my friends...... spent merely bout 15 mins cause after that raining......make us to stop fishing......

After collecting some specimens.....hanging around on the beach......encounter something new to us....curious to try out.....a rope hanging on the big tree......with a knot at the end of the rope...... everyone of us take turns to try out......climb up and just swing! swing!......it's definitely fun.....like a Tarzan swinging in the jungle......

After return from Pangkor on the following day, we had our lunch......seafood in Pantai Remis.....fresh and nice! nice!.....before we headed back to Ipoh.....

Photographer : Johnny

Monday, January 29, 2007

Sipadan Trip '07

Part 5

Day 5

1st dive in Sipadan : Staghorn Crest

2nd dive in Sipadan : South Point




Early in the morning......cold water......predicted the apperance of hammerhead sharks below the surface......planned to look for them......search into open water......failed and dissappointed after 25mins.....our divemaster and Hillary saw an eagle ray......dissappeared into blue before the rest of us looked at it.....back to the reef......enjoyed ourselves there for the rest of the dive.....

Spotted moorish idols, different species of butterflyfish, angelfish and groupers, grey common snappers, tilefish, hawkfish and etc.....

On our second dive, our divemaster search the garden eels for us at the bottom bout 18m underwater......four types of them.....have to be slow motion and waited for them to come out from their burrows......just have to be patience......spent half an hour just for those eels.....besides that, several whitetip sharks resting and hanging around there......after we spotted the garden eels......we went to the shallower reef.....spent our last dive there as long as we can .......if possible finished all the air in the tank......

That's the end of our scuba diving trip in Sipadan......unforgettable memories....had so much fun and we definitely dive hard and played hard.....it's over.....becomes a great history for me.....Had our lunch......packed our stuffs and ready return to the semporna's jetty......then we headed to Tawau to spend an overnight there.....

Fresh and delicious seafood for our dinner......yummy!.....spent the night in the games arcade and had a drink in the local shop.....everyone was tired, exhausted and of course we were happy and satisfied with our trip this time.....and we left Tawau on the next morning after our breakfast.....

~THE END~

Photographer : Johnny

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Sipadan Trip '07

Part 4

Condom and Jumping Stories

On the very first day in Semporna, Edward bought a pack of condom....Alec bought some balloons.....and that's what happened on the first day in Sipadan......with the cameralady for a great shot......we descent till bout 15m below the surface......needed to find a flat bottom.....so we went and search......finally found a small cave with a flat bottom so that we can knee down.....and started our little plan there......before that, one huge starry pufferfish resting inside the cave......just ignored the fish.....everyone hold a balloon and blew it a bit......not easy cause we breathe underwater.......took off our regulators......tried to get some air into the balloons.......after that, Alec and Edward blew the condoms as well......so disgusting!.....the cameralady busy shooting some good shots on us.....our divemaster also busy taking pics on how we blew those balloons and condoms......at last, we released them underwater.....hoping those stuffs can expand while ascending and showed up on the surface......seeking some attentions from other divers ......unfortunately it doesn't worked properly as we planned for......however we got this unbelieveable actions in our Sipadan video......

To make our video more interesting, we did some insane jumping into seawater with a sudden height.......when we reached the resort, we stoppped the lif halfway from the basement......so you can imagine that.....it's very high.....scary.....we jumped from there into seawater with pleasure...... yelled....shouted..... scream.....one by one we jumped......I had no doubt to do that.....just jump......witnesses by all the resort's staffs there.....recorded into our Sipadan video as well......what a crazy action that I ever did......

Day 4

Still have to wake up early in the morning today.......had breakfast and get ready for today's dives.....

1st dive in Sipadan : Mid Reef to White Tip Avenue

2nd dive in Sipadan : Turtle Patch




On our 1st dive of the day, we saw a school of humphead parrotsfishes just below 8m underwater (pic 1st row on the left)........they are huge and tame......for others they just some big ugly fishes.....but for us, they are unique and so much fun to watch them swimming around.....we pray hard for that......and here they are!

Quite a lot of turtles today.....swim aimlessly around us or just hide somewhere else where big enough for them to fit in......

Saw a lot of marine creatures such as sharpnose puffers, dogface puffers, common moray eels, thicklip wrasses, majestic angelfish, emperor snappers, queen angelfish, brown tang, titan triggerfish and etc.....

Kapalai.....after several dives in Sipadan......we headed to this so called an island......it actually not an island but a private high class resort built above the water.....

Sunny day and humid......muck dive......one of my favourite dive sites here.....not more than 10m underwater......what a fantastic view......encountered lots of marine life I ever seen before so far.......



Our divemaster showed us the orang utan crab.....red in color......it really looked like an orang utan.....it's small, hairy and so cute......the way it act totally just looked like a mini orang utan......can't believe this.....also found some nudibranchs and faltworms as well......lots of gars just few metres below the surface......I guess they were mating.....maybe.....after that, spotted one of the rare batfish species......only one on the spot.......trying to hide from me.....the orange color line surrounding its whole body attracted me and it helped me to determine its actual shape......so.....so beautiful and attractive......

And now, back to the resort for lunch.......later another dive in the seaventures platform......

Discovered one of the rarest eel species not far away from entry point.....ribbon eels......looks so gorgeous.....one more suprise.....another great marinelife very near from this point.....the smallest seahorse species in the world......the pgymy seahorse.......white color with red polka dots......camourflage on the big red seafan.....have to admit that it really small till we might not notice its appearance......its face looked so cute and innocent......hahaha......what a great unforgettable moment!

Split into two groups when headed back to the entry point.....unfortunately my group went to the wrong exit point which was opposite to the exact exit point.....at first felt dissappointed......however we were happier and glad that we in the wrong direction......because found some great marinelife there along the reference line......two types of hawkfish, at least five different species of crabs and shrimps, and etc.....

In the evening, Edward brought us to Mabul island itself......took a short tour there and bought some souvenirs back to hometown.......visited the Mabul-Sipadan water village resort......another high class resort in this area.....

At night, our activity as usual......nothing much.....view all the pics of the day.......and then went to sleep.....ready for tomorrow last two dives in Sipadan......

Photographer : Johnny

Monday, January 22, 2007

Sipadan Trip '07

Part 3

Day 3

Early in the morning.....bout 6am......had our breakfast and went to Sipadan dive sites without wasting any time.....went to the island first to pass the entrance permits to the guards there......then...here we go!

1st dive in Sipadan : Coral Garden to Barracuda Point

2nd dive in Sipadan : Drop Off

Our cameralady, Shock, will shoot the video in Sipadan today for us.....of course we were the main characters in the video for the very first time......

A school of batfish hanging around at 5m underwater.....few dozens of them swimming gracefully together.....maybe searching for food but for sure, they won't care bout their surroundings unless being attacked....

Besides that, a school of jackfish can be found at 5m underwater in the other site.......so amazing.....lots of them forming a circle below sunshine......I swim towards the fish and ended up in the middle of their 'circle'...... incredible.....surrounding by the fish......wow!.....just like a part of them.....

Any dive sites there.....or everywhere once we dive into underwater, we definitely will see lots of anthias......different colors.....different sizes of anthias......swimming against the current in swallow water.....

Another angelfish which might no opportunity to encounter in other places.....hanging around there in singly or sometimes pairs.....

Saw two leopard sharks during the 1st dive......one of them which was a giantic size swim gracefully along the reef wall up and down and then dissappeared into deep blue sea.....it just happened in front of me......

Nudibranch......different shapes......different colors......so beautiful!.....need to focus a lot to search those small or maybe tiny marine creatures.....


Diving has higher chances to encounter some moray eels .....such as yellow eels and whited-eye eels.....just have to wait for them to come from their hidden places, open their mouth and showed their sharp teeth in front of you.....


Few types of hawkfishes have been discovered throughout the dives today in Sipadan......such as longnose hawkish, freckled hawkfish, dwarf hawkfish n etc.....


Besides that, just around 5m underwater in Sipadan can easily spotted different shoal of diffrent kind of sweetlips like sub-adult polkadot sweetlips and many-lined sweetlips.....

Awesome! Awesome! the sceneries in Sipadan make us speechless......what a amazing underwaterworld.....with different kinds of hard and sift corals......such as staghorn, table corals and etc.....accompanied by marine fishes......for example.....damsels, anthias, chromis, wrasses and etc.....along with colorful seafans and seafeathers......

For your info, after every dive in Sipadan.....we will take a break in the island.....having sandwiches, cakes, coffee, tea and etc....before we continue the next dive......

After that, we went to seaventures platform again for another great dive......found moray eels, nudibranch, giant trevallies, fusiliers and etc......

Another sunset dive....another dive site in Mabul.......Froggy Lair....mucky dive...and of course the visibility was quite bad.....wooden artificial reef.....divemaster brought us to see one giant grouper hanging at the top of the wooden artificial reef.....

Encounter some very beautiful and colorful nudibranch camourflage in the corals......busy taking pics of those nudibranch.....left behind by the group.....so decided dive alone for another couple of minutes and ascent.....after that followed by the rest of the divers not further away who stayed longer underwater without me.....everyone dissapointed cause failed to find any frogfish or anglerfish there....

Not panic when left behind.....and I did my own dive by myself.....taking my own sweet time.....taking pics..... hahaha.....sounds crazy......

After dinner, some of us went for night dive bout 9pm at the house reef under the resort.....spotted some invertebrates walking here and there.....searching for food while the fish sleeping......parrotfish sleeping at the side of hard corals....blenny hide itself inside the hole but not its head.....hermitcrabs hanging around in the dark....crabs and shrimps coming out for feeding.....seaworm waiting for food throughout the day.....

All the dives that we had for today......so much fun and enjoyed ourselves so much.....we also watched our very own Sipadan video that night and view some pics in the notebook before......let's call it a day!

Photographer : Johnny