Sabah: Sipidan and the Paradise Isles

Groundhog day, only this time we are going to Tawau on the way to Palau Sipadan, the centre of diving in the known world and of Malaysia. The plane is full of business types wending their merry way to Tawau, a port on the south east side of Sabah for trading and crossing over to the Indonesian province of Kalimantan or onwards to the Phillipines via Zamboanga. The bumpy road trip from Tawau to Semporna passes through acre upon acre of Palm oil plantations and scattered villages. Palm oil is the main business in these parts, harvesting and processing is a gruelling job in tropical heat for little money, except for the plantation companies etc
Wooden shacks and shops on stilts line the lively waterfront of Semporna and we boarded our speedy transport across the Celebes sea (a certain W. Dampier has sailed here before) to the cluster of small dive islands 36km off shore. Our paradise castaway island for the week was Mabul where we stayed on the everso smart SMART resort, populated and staffed with an eclectic mixture of Malaysian, Philippine, Indonesian, Japanese and European folk. There was enough food on continuous loop to supply the Russian army and a few seemingly recent conscripts of the same consuming as much of it as possible along with their erm, nubile female companions!
The island is run like a very slick thing and the diving is in waves all day so there is no let up for the fish and turtles. Boat after boat leaves the dock until the late afternoon and night dives are also available if you haven't had enough by then. The sun sinks over the island and the heat rises momentarily before settling back down to very hot. There is the Mabul Sipidan resort that we are on and just across the island is the Water Bungalows which is very posh and involves some diving, a lot of massage, honey treatments and lying on ergo chairs looking out to sea from your private balcony. The resort on Sipidan itself was closed down in 2003 to try and effect some rest for the island. It is now populated by probably the luckiest army in the world that keeps an eye out for illegal fishermen, dive boats and other types...in between a little diving themelves and lolling on pristine beaches in full fatigues! Although it has many dive sites it is much smaller than a lot of the islands and a lot of people visit these sites from above and below the water. All the people involved in the diving are the 'Big smile brigade' and clearly enjoy their role of toru guides and boat marshallers in this azure paradise. They are all very potective of this jewel they have and proud of the area and of the traditions that have seen people living and harvesting from the long boats in the Sulu and Celebes Sea for generations past and hopefully into the future. There are fishing boats around and you see them stalking the horizon but this is true of all fishing grounds everywhere.
It takes all sorts to enjoy and appreciate the wonders of the deep blue sea and one of the great things about visiting the splendid dive spots in the world is the weird and wonderful flora and fauna you encounter– and that includes homo sapien! You can always rely on sharing a tiger shark experience or manta sighting with nervous novices, excitable risk-takers, irascible mid Europeans and the folk with all the gadgets. At supper after 3 dives a day you can find yourself sitting next to the dive geek whose topic of conversation concerns how many bar was left in his tank after his Noxis ran out, or a heated debate on present euro politics, football, obesity, or how many of the world class sites you have dived from the Cousteau top ten. Whatever the discussion, nationality, politics or wealth you can only wonder at the sight of a zillion colours and sizes of fish lazily dancing in the azure shimmer of the reef and experience the wonderful curtain of calm and tranquillity as you float and ripple among them.
We see many sharks and there is an over abundance of turtles but this is a small island and there are many turtle hatcheries.
The great shoals of reef fish seem to have disappeared but this is also seasonal so it may be just that. Still the diving is very special along with the resort and the island people.
We leave Sipidan and make our way back via a smart hotel and another flight to Kota Kinabalu. The band doesn't come out to the airport for a second time and there is no Rolls again. It is nice to be home in the Jesselton and we have a grand night with Ivor, a local fellow, who takes us for dinner, to the fish market and the Phillipino night market which is ablaze with colour in fish, vegetable, spice and a thousand other stalls and small hawkers stations cooking the food fresh on barbies. Kota Kinabalu and Bahia is a treasure and one could get lost here and enjoy every moment but Manila calls, with a very throaty cough!