New year under the surface

After Philippines I met up with Devin & Falco in KK a few days before new year. Good to see old friends and they also turned out to be fantastic travel buddies. Well honestly I didn't expect anything else. One night in KK, some beers & loads of sea food and back to the airport the next day. It was time to head to Mabul!

We had booked everything in advance with Billabong Scuba, which turned out to be an excellent choice. They have a cool small backpacker style resort over the water on the shores of Mabul. I had the cheapest room option, and I was also warned, that if the place gets full, I have to share my room with another female. Luckily that didn't happen. Room was okay, location not really. I had a rooster as a neighbor who I wanted to shoot every morning at 4 am. My room was also next to the toilets which were used by the guests and the staff so there was quite a lot of running in the mornings. But well, you get what you pay for.

The reason to head to Mabul was of course to dive at Sipadan. The permits are limited to 120 a day so we had booked 2 days well in time in advance and also some dives in Mabul & Kapalai. Directly after arrival in Mabul we headed out to the first dives. The dive in Mabul was just okay, nothing special and quite poor visibility. But the Kapalai house reef in the other hand was great! There are constructions like small houses under water and a few wrecks which are full of fish of different shapes & colors. Just beautiful! 

So this was new years eve & the pre-planned party day. Well, Mabul is for sure not a party island but we still found some action on the beach. Luckily we brought some brews from Semporna with us as the island was running out of liquids. 

Jan 1st=traditional hang over day. Reading&eating. And then it was time to dive at Sipadan!!! What a place. Barracuda point!!! What to say. I knew that diving in Sipadan would be fantastic, but c'mon seriously, that was just ridiculous. Tornados of huge barracudas, sharks everywhere, turtles, lion fish tornados, octopus etc etc etc. That was a zoo! Amazing! I need to go back there, rather sooner than later. Words can't describe so I'll let the photos do the work! Thanks to Allen Chan for the shots!