|
Where: Sipadan, Mabul, Kapalai, Malaysia
When: 06/18/2003 - 06/30/2003
By: Albatross
|
Type: Land based
Accomodations: Sipadan Water Village
Dive operator: Resort Based
Overall photography friendliness: Excellent
Camera tables/prep area: Not applicable
Camera rinse tanks: Good
Charging facilities: Not applicable
Voltage: 220-240 AC
|
Sipadan Water Village - A World Away, But Worth It
A village over water, diving three islands, and dinner with the Assistant
Minister of Defense of Malaysia - What a great week! (Pictures Included)
Sipadan Water Village - Mabul Island, Borneo, Malaysia
This trip report is not what most of you would call a "fun read." It does,
however, contain some basic information about the resort and quite a few
pictures. I hope you will find it useful.
June 18 - 30, 2003
This trip was organized through our local dive shop - 11 divers.
Travel to Borneo: Due to SARS travel warnings, our flights were
changed several times; the last change one week before departure.
Therefore, our connections were less than desirable. On our way there, we
flew from Los Angeles to Seoul and then to Kuala Lumpur where we completed
an overnight stay. One side note here, because of SARS, we had to walk
through some sort of machine in Kuala Lumpur that took our picture and at
the same time took our temperature. We were also given information
pamphlets about SARS and had to fill out a form regarding our health. Early
the next morning we flew from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu then on to Tawau
for a total flying time of 23 hours, not counting connections. Amazingly,
all of our luggage (for the whole group) arrived on time. We then boarded a
nice air-conditioned bus for an hour and a half ride to Semporna. After
arriving at Semporna, we boarded a boat for the 35 min ride to the Sipadan
Water Village (SWV) on Mabul Island... yes, Mabul Island. It is NOT located
on Sipadan.
Travel Notes:
Neck pillows are a wonderful item for long airline flights. We flew coach
and brought our own.
We checked with the CDC regarding Malaria in Malaysia. The islands are
considered Low Risk and medication is not mandatory. However, inland is a
higher risk area. Since I am a mosquito magnet, I decided to take the
medication anyway. Please do remember to take it with food otherwise your
stomach might protest!
If you happen to go through Seoul, Korea like we did (the original flights
we had scheduled for this trip were through Singapore then changed to
Taipei), there is a free internet plaza in the transitional area, an area
for people just passing through, not checking into the country. Some of the
keyboards are in Japanese though.
For our overnight in Kuala Lumpur, we stayed at the Pan Pacific Hotel
located at the airport. After you go through immigration, you collect your
bags to go through customs. There are free pushcarts available for use. We
followed the signs (available in English) to the Pan Pacific Hotel that is
accessed from the airport via a catwalk/walkway. We used our airport
pushcarts all the way into the lobby of the hotel. This is a very nice
hotel. It has a beautiful lobby and large rooms full of amenities. They
even have a robe and slippers hanging in the closet for your use. There are
a couple of restaurants in the hotel as well. TIP: To use the elevator you
must first slide your key card inside a slot in the elevator. At checkout,
there are carts available for your luggage transport needs back to the
terminal. This was a very easy and pleasurable overnight. The staff was
incredibly helpful and pleasant.
There are no diet sodas available on Mabul. Close to the SWV kiosk in
Semporna is a small shop that sells trinkets, sodas, candy, snacks etc.
There should be time to purchase any items you may need or want, as they
have to transfer your baggage to the boat. We were a group of 11 people so
it took a few minutes.
(a few of the rooms)
(dawn from inside our room)
Sipadan Water Village (SWV): The entire resort is located over the
water and connected to the island of Mabul by one pier. Your run of the
resort consists of a large restaurant, a gift shop, dive center, and
individually placed rooms, like bures, all accessed by boardwalks. The
rooms are very spacious. We had good water pressure and plenty of hot
water. Be careful though, as the hot water can be really hot! We had a
king bed, but I believe two doubles are available as well. There is a desk
and chair as well as a sitting area with a couch and coffee table. This
area opens up to your private deck via heavy wood accordion doors. Your
deck has two lounge chairs with cushions and a drying rack with clothespins
for wet stuff. Did I mention the view? Oh, well, lets just say you are
living over an ever-changing aquarium. What a terrific place to relax.
Back inside the room, you have a closet with hanging rack and shelf space, a
stocked mini refrigerator, and coffee and tea making goods. They also give
you a free bottle of water on the first day there. We used the tap water
for making coffee and brushing our teeth, but bought bottled water for
drinking purposes. There is no air-conditioning in the rooms, but a very
powerful ceiling fan instead. With the windows open and the ocean breeze,
we were very comfortable in the room with the fan going. One night we got a
bit warm and slept only under a sheet, but that was the only time it ever
bothered us (and we are air-conditioning fools). There is additional shelf
space located in the bathroom as well. They advertise that hair dryers are
in every room, and we finally found ours - it was located in the desk drawer
in the main room, not the bathroom, but no worries, as there is a mirror
over the desk. Towels located in the room are for the room only. There are
other towels located at the dive center for your use while diving. Maid
service was great everyday. We did have one small problem with the room (a
water faucet broke off). We reported it on our way to breakfast and by the
time we returned from diving that morning it had been fixed.
(our deck - one morning we saw a turtle swim by while we were enjoying our
coffee - very nice!)
Electrical is 220V/50Hz. We brought a converter that we had purchased in
the USA, but it didn't work. The resort graciously provided one for us.
They did not have many, so I wouldn't count on them providing it.
You do not need any money during your stay, as all additional items
purchased are signed for. They encourage you to check your valuables in at
the front desk. You will then be issued a key to your pouch that they will
keep for you in a safe. This worked very well for us. Examples of
additional items that would be signed for are mini bar items used from your
room, bar tabs, and gift shop purchases.
Additional security information: Security is seen but not intrusive.
There are several military boats that patrol the islands. One of the
gunboats is based at Mabul. I am told that one of the reasons there are no
ladders going from your room down to the water below, is for security
reasons. Of course, you might conclude it has something to do with the
urchins too.
The gift shop sells a variety of items including sarongs/wraps, clothing,
woodcraft, and trinkets. They also sell bottled water (also available at
the bar), snacks, and a limited supply of scuba gear accessories. More
importantly, they also sell ice cream bars ... a bit hit with our group!
(Divemaster getting ready to dock at the dive center)
Dive Center: We arrived in the late afternoon hungry and tired.
They fed us a nice lunch then gave us a resort briefing and handed us our
room keys. After our luggage arrived and we had settled in, we reported to
the dive center for a briefing before dinner. Alex, the dive center
manager, gave us a thorough briefing of how the operation runs as well as
what facilities are available for our use. (While he was giving us a
briefing, he said, "Oh, there are a few lionfish - Look." And he pointed.
We looked over the edge of the rail and sure enough, 3 lionfish are swimming
right on the surface! Yes, we really are a world away.) Included in your
stay at SWV are three boat dives daily, two morning dives and one afternoon
dive, as well as unlimited shore diving. Night diving is available for an
additional fee as is the twilight/mandarin fish dive. He began his briefing
by giving us our options of boat diving. All three islands, Mabul, Sipadan,
and Kapalai are available to dive every day. For your three boat dives, you
may do any variation you like with one exception - you are allowed a maximum
of two dives per pay at Sipadan. This is a regulation, not the SWV policy.
We did a few variations but quickly settled on two morning dives at Sipadan
and one afternoon dive at either Kapalai or Mabul. When you do two morning
dives at Sipadan, you leave a bit earlier than normal, as it is the longest
boat ride - 25-35 minutes depending on the dive site. They do not come to
the dive center between the two Sipadan dives. Instead, they bring some
snacks along and do the surface interval on a pier at the island. The pier
has plenty of shade and tables for camera care, and they provide drinks as
well. Bathroom facilities are also available. After the minimum one-hour
surface interval, the second dive is completed. When you return back to the
dive center it is time for lunch. The last boat dive is at 2:30...again,
you choose the location. Several days, we completed an additional shore
dive before dinner at 7:30. Your name will be listed on a large white
board. This will give you information about your dives for that day,
including times, location, and the Divemaster for the day. They try to
rotate the Divemasters everyday.
(This is the pier at Sipadan where you will spend your surface interval.)
The dive center is quite large and has many rooms available for your use.
During the dive center briefing, you are issued a numbered key. This key is
for your personal locker located in the locker room. Inside your locker you
will find the same numbered weight belt and the same numbered heavy-duty
hangar. There is a large hanging rack in the middle of the locker room for
wetsuits. If you need an additional hangar, just ask and they will get you
some additional regular hangers. In another room, there are numbered pegs
protruding from the wall. This room is utilized to hang your BCD and
regulator. Make sure you put your BCD/Reg on the correct peg, as this is
the system they use to set your gear up on the boats. Weights are issued in
kilos at the Weight Check In/Out window. They have a conversion chart for
pound/kilo available. There are many rinse buckets around. They are
specific in their purpose. Some are for cameras, some for BCD/Regs, and
others for wetsuits, booties etc. There are additional pegs available to
hang your booties, gloves etc, for drying. Although you have a lockable
locker, most people left their booties and such out overnight. Personally,
my key stayed in the lock the entire time. I never locked it. Put your dry
items on top of the locker stack unless you have a top locker.
There are four camera rooms available for a fee. When you rent a camera
room, you are issued a key. Several people can share a room if they like.
The nice part of a camera room is that there is a charging station available
for batteries etc., and you do not have to carry your gear back and forth
from the room everyday. One couple from our group used a camera room and
they were quite pleased.
The dive center is always staffed. They lock up the rooms after the last
night diver leaves. They have water, coffee, hot chocolate, and tea as well
as some kind of snack in a warming oven available most of the day and night.
There are towels available for check out (try not to abuse this nicety as
all their laundry is done by hand and hung dry), as well as plenty of shaded
tables and chairs. The dive center is "open air" but they have tarp walls
they can put down if it rains. They also have many, many creature ID books
in English and Japanese. They also offer several different stamps for your
logbook.
My boyfriend had a gear problem that could not be fixed there. The dive
center was quick to find us a replacement (for a rental fee), so that he
didn't miss the next dive. I don't know much about their full rental gear
as everyone in our group brought their own.
Although our group did not do this, there were several people who skipped
the boat diving altogether for a day and just did shore diving on their own
schedule.
(The circular restaurant)
Restaurant: Three meals a day are included with your stay at SWV.
The restaurant is open from 7-9 for breakfast, however if you are going to
Sipadan for the first dive of the day, they open up at 6:30 am for you. All
meals are served buffet style. Lunch is served between 12-2 and dinner
between 7:30 - 9 (? Not sure). In our briefing they spoke of a 10:30pm mini
meal available, but we never went to try it out. My best estimation is that
most of the food is Malaysian and/or Asian (Chinese, Japanese). There are
normally at least 5 main entrees and several side dishes. Main entrees
included chicken, steak, fresh fish, squid, and shrimp. Side dishes
included Asian veggies, rice, curry, stir fry, fresh fruit, tomatoes,
different cold salads, fresh bread, and desserts. A few people in our group
cannot eat foods prepared with MSG. One of the hostesses would go down the
food line and tell them what they could have (no MSG). Next thing you know,
they started bringing out plates of food, specially prepared for them with
no MSG. What an unexpected nice touch. Make sure you hit the side bar. In
the mornings, they will make omelets or fried eggs for you and in the
evening, well, you just never know what there might be! Coffee and water
are always available. There are different types of juices to drink for
breakfast and lunch. Make sure you try some of the fresh fruit like the
little apple bananas, and star fruit. Anyway, some meals were better than
others, as per the norm, but there was always plenty to choose from and
plenty to eat and drink. Oh, you know it's mealtime when they ring the
gong, or is it bang the gong... Whatever it is, it's a great sound. They
had a special BBQ night as well. They had a man rotating a pig on a spit
all day in preparation for the big event. They also offered BBQ chicken,
shrimp, chicken satay, paper wrapped chicken, paper wrapped fish, steak, and
fish fillets. What a feast! The only thing that was better than the food
was the wait staff. These people were excellent. From day one and every
meal thereafter, they set our tables together, for 11 people. They were
forever filling our glasses to satisfy our post-diving thirst and they would
regularly leave pitchers of some kind of cold beverage on our table. Dirty
plates just seem to disappear off the table. Yes, I know, you can get that
almost anywhere, but not with the kindness and smiles these people showered
on us.
Additional General Information: Pack just as you would to go to most
any informal tropical resort. Make sure you have enough sunscreen and a
good pair of sandals or flip-flops, as there is a lot of boardwalk to cover.
Mosquitoes and other biting insects did not seem to be a problem. There
were some small ants that liked to go after our coffee supplies in the room,
but no one else had this problem. It only happened twice. Guests were
regularly seen wearing bathing suits at breakfast and lunch. At dinner,
shorts and t-shirts were the standard fare along with sandals/flip-flops.
You can go on the island at any time via the pier. The dive masters said
that there was no specific dress code on the island, like women covering
their legs (Yap, Palau).
The Diving & Some Personal Experiences/Observations
The Diving: I'll start with our first dive. It was a checkout and
familiarization dive. Everyone in our group geared up on the dock and did a
giant stride entry off the pier platform. Several employees of SWV were
there to assist the divers. This was a No Camera Allowed dive. We all met
on the sandy bottom in a circle and under the direction of the Divemaster,
performed the required checkout maneuvers - mask clearing, and removing and
replacing the regulator from your mouth. This was completed in just a
couple of minutes. Also any weight changes were made at this point. Next was
our tour of Paradise 1, one of their two house dive sites. We began by
heading over to a grassy area. On our way, the DM pointed out two sandy
snake eels with only their heads protruding from the sand. When we reached
the grassy area, I experienced a "first" - my first seahorse. Actually
there were three of them. We continued our dive over the sand and met up
with a dragonet. Onward bound, we came across several tires stacked upon
each other. Upon closer inspection, we found a nice size green moray eel, a
school of stripped catfish, many cleaner shrimp, and 3 FROGFISH. Sorry,
didn?t mean to yell, but 3 frogfish on their house reef! This is great!
The largest one was yellow, the medium one was red, and the baby was black.
On our way back towards the pier, we spotted several anemones with anemone
fish, a bubble sea cucumber, and many razorfish. There were many other
types of fish, including a school of needlefish, but I don't know most of
their names. All to soon, we were back at the pier. No one seemed ready to
get out of the water so we swam under the pier a bit and found no less than
15 lionfish. Unbelievable! When all of the divers reluctantly hit the
surface, you could tell everyone just knew this was a special place, like
none that we had ever been before.
A couple of notes about this dive: the water temperature was 82 degrees, and
the visibility was maybe 30 feet. Yes, you read that correctly. Most of
the year, you will not find "Cozumel" like visibility here. What we
experienced was fairly average for there. As you may be able to tell from
our excitement level, better visibility would have been nice, but we didn't
mind what we had.
I am not going to go into detail about every dive we made, but I will give
you a quick general overview. Mabul and Kapalai are known for muck diving -
the little critters, macro haven. Sipadan is known for well, a little bit
of everything, but most significantly, the turtles, schooling jacks, and
schooling barracuda. Sipadan also has lots of macro stuff too. While we
were diving there for the week, we experienced water temperatures from 80 -
84 degrees, and visibility from 15 - 50 feet. The visibility would vary
greatly throughout the day.
There are many dive sites at each island, but per the dive masters advice
and per our request, we tended to repeat a lot of them. As the week went
on, the dive masters would ask us what we would like to see. One time the
answer was a flamboyant cuttlefish. So off we went to Kapalai House Reef.
We were told that there was one that lived in this area (as the DM is
pointing in a circle above sand and reef). We didn't find one, and
continued to work our way along the reef. Next thing you know, the DM gets
our attention and brings us back to watch our most sought after creature put
on a magnificent show. It was the only one we saw all week.
As for the critters, if we were diving Sipadan, we would regularly see
anywhere from 5 to 15 turtles per dive. There were large ones, small ones,
some of them were sleeping, others were eating, some in blue water
(silhouette), and some would come and check you out. We got so spoiled,
that by day 3, unless the turtle was in a unique pose, we would pass on a
picture. On the 4th dive of a day, a shore dive to Paradise 1, we headed
directly (we thought) for the tires to check on our frogfish family. On the
way, we came upon a Volkswagen Bug sized turtle. He was definitely on a
mission and blocked the sun as he swam by. Well, after a few u-turns we
finally found the tires, and guess who was there sleeping? yep, the huge
turtle. Obviously we should have just followed him. He knew the direct
route.
We never did see the schooling barracuda that circles Sipadan Island,
however, we did see the schooling jacks, and schooling bumphead parrotfish.
There were also lionfish, anemone fish, gray reef sharks, moray eels, clown
triggers, nudibranchs, octopi, scorpion fish, leaf scorpion fish, and many,
many more.
As for the muck diving we experienced at the dive sites around Mabul and
Kapalai, we saw crocodile fish, leaf scorpion fish, many different varieties
of nudibranchs, shrimp, lobster, squat lobster, batfish, jaw fish, dart
fish, moorish idols, dragon wrasse (only 2 though), eels, flounders,
pipefish, pipe horse, seahorse, flying gurnard, blue ribbon eels, sweet
lips, and other tropical fish I can?t name. We also saw frogfish in the
following colors: pink, red, black, purple, yellow and pale white. Oh, did I
forget to mention turtles and lionfish?
I tend to look at scuba diving as a treasure hunt. Normally, I hunt a lot
and find occasional treasure, but, over there, you hunt very little and find
lots of treasure. The group as a whole had one "perfect" dive. The
Divemaster told us that we would encounter a pink frogfish at the start of
the dive. From there, we would move along the reef, keeping the reef on our
left side. We all descended one after another keeping the person in front
of you in sight. We had 9 out of 11 divers taking pictures (still or
video). It ran so smoothly. By the time one person was done viewing the
critter or taking it's picture, they moved on to the next spot, and the
photographer already at that spot, pointed out the critter of interest, then
they moved along. We continued doing this for about 40 min, one right after
the other. Frogfish, to nudibranch, to lionfish, to crocodile fish, to sun
anemone, to scorpion fish, to pipefish, to electric clam, etc. In
actuality, there was no hunt involved, except for the Divemaster in the
front.
With as large of a group as we had, it was fairly easy to become separated
with the visibility we were diving in. We tended to accidentally form
groups of 3-4 people toward the end of the dives. Although, every briefing
said our bottom time was to be 50 min, looking at my logbook, most dives
averaged between 55-65 minutes. Very rarely did anyone ever have to end his
or her dive due to air consumption, time was normally the issue. This
became important because very rarely could you keep that large of a group
together in that kind of visibility. On one occasion we surfaced off of
Sipadan in a downpour. Surface visibility was horrible. The five of us got
separated from the rest of our group. Due to the conditions, all of the
boats were on the hunt for their respective divers. We had two dive boats
come over to us to see if we belonged to their boat. Neither one of them
was our boat, but the second one was out of SWV as well. He yelled to us
that it was the same company, pointed to the decal of the boat and told us
to board. He then took us over to our boat, where all but one of the rest
of our group had just finished boarding. We were very concerned with the
whereabouts of the last remaining diver. Next thing you know another SWV
boat came by with her on board. We all headed back to the Water Village,
while we rolled up our safety sausages. (Personal opinion here - safety
sausages and other signaling devices are not just for "emergency
situations," but they sure can prevent one.)
Overall, I had so many "first" sightings, that there are too many to list.
Most people did 3 boat dives per day. Half of us added a forth dive fairly
regularly. The unguided shore diving ends at 6:00pm. After that, the
twilight and night shore dives are guided-only dives and available for a
nominal fee. I did the night dive, and learned that I definitely need a
camera-mounted light. If you decide to shore dive... make sure you sign
yourself out and back in when you return.
The Party: One afternoon, when we returned from our room after
diving, there was a notice on our desk. The Assistant Defense Minister of
Malaysia was stopping by and the resort was preparing a special BBQ dinner
for this occasion. It also mentioned that there would be live music from
7 - 10 pm, and that they hoped it would not be inconvenient for us. Live
Music...Great! We arrived the next night for dinner and feasted on the
scrumptious BBQ (as mentioned in the previous restaurant section). I don't
know what we were expecting, but it certainly was not what we experienced.
Please remember that this is a very small isolated island. You can walk
across it in 6 minutes and around the entire perimeter in approximately one
hour. We were shocked to see a 12-piece band with an entire sound system
set up for our dining pleasure. The band was outstanding. The bandleader
was very talented as he conducted the evening in at least 3 languages. We
were the only Americans there. The rest of the resort was filled with
Japanese, Chinese, Malaysians, and a few Germans. After dinner, the band
really got rocking! The Defense Ministers' wife sang a song, and then the
Defense Minister himself sang two songs... both in English (one was My Way -
Sinatra). For a special treat, we got to experience the performance of
Traditional Malaysian Dancers. These dancers were wonderful. I had never
seen anything like it before. Such beauty and grace. A few of us were
trying to find a good place to take pictures of this performance. After
bending and crouching around the room, the Defense Minister motioned to us
to sit directly in front of his table. What a guy! Later in the evening,
the Defense Minister came over to our table and spoke with us. He wanted to
know how our experience in Malaysia had been, what we thought of Malaysia
etc. At the end of the night, he escorted us over to the bandleader and
introduced him as the Lieutenant Commander of the military unit based in
Semporna. As a matter of fact, all of the band members were in the
military. The all got in a "receiving line" with the Defense Minister
leading the way; we shook the hands of every band member down the line. It
was something else. The next morning, all of the tuxedo dressed members of
the band were now sporting their military uniforms. As speakers and
equipment were boarding on the awaiting boats, everyone around (employees
and guests) gave the Minister a wave good bye. We felt so lucky to have
experienced this wonderful unexpected gift.
The People: I have to put some personal opinion in here. One of the
most memorable aspects of our stay on Mabul Island was the people. Many of
the resort employees are Malaysian, but quite a few are from the Philippines
as well. Everyone, and I mean everyone, in our group commented on the
friendliness of these folks. Their English language skills went from
perfect to extremely limited. On the other hand, our Malaysian language
skills were nonexistent. Their smile and graciousness was heart warming.
On a typical day, while walking along the boardwalks, you would pass several
employees. They may be passing opposite direction, varnishing the
boardwalk, watering the plants, or enjoying a cigarette in the shade. You
could not even come close to them without receiving a beaming smile, a
“Hello,” Good Day,” or a “Good dive today?” The surprising part was the fact
that it was not a few select people who did this… it was everyone!
We were trying to talk to the boat captain, but his English was not very
good, albeit better than our Malaysian, so we settled on broken Spanish. We
learned a lot about this man, his family, and their way of life on the
island. It was fascinating. A few days later, he invited us to come to
their home on the island, and meet his family. We considered this a great
honor. On our way through the village, we were greeted with the same smiles
and waves that we experienced at the Water Village. The boat captain showed
us to his home built on stilts. Most of the people live well below the
American ideal of the poverty level. The village is constructed with
whatever resources can be found cardboard, metal sheets, palm branches and
leaves, screens, and tarps. Their homes are constructed the same way. We did
not see any electrical or plumbing fixtures. He and his wife, live with
their five children and his wife’s Aunt, in a very small space. We did see
one mattress on the floor. All of the children were there to say “hello” and
“good bye. ” They were very happy to be able to use their English language
skills. After we left a few goodies for the family, we walked back through
the village. The mothers were carrying their young ones on their hips as
they watched over the older ones playing. Most of the men were out fishing.
As we were walking along, we would hear “HELLO!” and look around.
Invariably, there would be more waves and smiles followed by “GOOD BYE!”
This came from the smallest of the children to the eldest matriarchs of the
family. I approached two children playing around a clothesline and pointed
to my camera, asking if I could take their picture. Next thing you know,
there are about 7 children all clamoring to be in the photo. I took the
picture, and then motioned them over to view the picture on the back of my
digital camera. Oh Wow! The finger pointing, the smiles, the giggles… I tell
ya! I couldn’t stop smiling. These folks may not have TV, or any other
modern conveniences, but it certainly does not imply that they have any less
of a quality of life.
Going Home: Our wonderful vacation had come to an end. We were
scheduled to depart the island at 8:30am to begin our trek back home. We
were sitting around the open-air lobby while they loaded our bags on the
boat. There were many employees around to assist with anything we needed.
After we boarded the boat, and began to slowly motor away, we all just had
to look back at this magical place. On the dock, were loads of people waving
good bye to us. Smiles, waves, and hollers were quickly returned by our
boat. After we had composed ourselves, one member of our group yelled and
pointed, “Look!” As we passed the off shore of the dive center, all of the
dive masters, deck hands, and tank handlers were doing the
hands-crossing-overhead wave. Again, it is just a picture I have in my head
that I will never forget.
After the boat ride and the bus ride back to Tawau, we lined up at the
Malaysian Airlines check-in counter. There was some discussion about our
bags being overweight. We explained to them that there were no weight issues
flying here, but they mentioned something about Zone 1 arrivals, verses Zone
3 departures etc. After a bit of discussion between the airport personnel
and the SWV representative, a 50% discount was given. It ended up costing us
$12 per person. The SWV representative said he had only seen this happen
once before, and was very sorry that he could not do more. The ticketing
agent said that our tickets should have had the 70 lb limit listed on it, if
it was indeed true. According to the Malaysian Airlines website, their
weight limit is 65 lbs per bag. Your mileage may vary.
All of our flights were on time. The in-flight service offered by both
Korean Air and Malaysian Air was wonderful. After a mere 42 hours (with no
overnight), we were back home. We did take a day room in Kuala Lumpur for
our 8-hour layover. The hot shower alone was worth it.
The diving was what brought us to this unique island, but the people (and
the diving, of course) are what will bring us back. Yes, our local dive shop
already has April of 2004 scheduled for a return visit to the Sipadan Water
Village, Mabul Island. And yes, we signed up!
(Additionally, all photos were taken with the Olympus 3040 digital camera.
The underwater photographs were produced with the 3040 in an Olympus Pt-007
housing, with a Sea & Sea YS90DX strobe. Assume some or all photographs
have experienced the following: Photoshop enhancements, cropping, being
cursed at, being sent to the recycling bin, being recovered from the
recycling bin, being printed out then quickly disposed of in the circular
file, and /or being accidentally deleted)
|
