Sipadan Mabul Kapalai Dive Holiday
Seaventures - our home in Mabul
Where: Sipadan Island, Mabul, Kapalai – Sabah, Borneo Malaysia
When: April 15-20, 2oo9
What: Diving Holiday with Adventure Bound Friends!
Chapter 1 – Getting There…
After much planning and waiting, we were finally on our way to Seaventures in Semporna, Sabah Malaysia. Seaventures is an oil rig station of sorts turned into a modest lodging for underwater frolickers like me. But before I get into that, let’s talk about how to get there.
There are many ways to get to Kota Kinabalu. Easiest is Cebu Pacific as it flies out from Manila. If you’re lucky and you get the Zero-fare seats, you can get roundtrip tickets for as low as Php 6K. Another usual and no need for luck to get cheao seats way is to head to Clark Airbase in Pampanga (1.5 hours) and get on an AirAsia flight to Kota Kinabalu (2 hours.) From there you get a connecting flight to Tawau (less than an hour) then drive to Semporna (1 hour) and then ferry on to Seaventures (1 hour.)
So off we go to Clark. In one van we had: Joepi, Leslie, Tricia, Jessa, BicBic, Mark, Dino, Chris and Jay. In another van we had Joepi’s, Leslie’s, Tricia’s, Jessa’s, Bicbic’s, Mark’s, Dino’s, Chris’ and Jay’s gear. That 2nd van was more valuable than the first I tell ya. X-D
As we got to Clark, we went through the usuals of checking in: weighing, balancing and moving around gear between two bags (one was to be declared as a sports bag so you can pay a flat rate instead of by Kilo) I had to hand over one fin to a friend. I didn’t realize how heavy my booties were (ey! no pun intended!) So got throug that, paid around Php 560, paid travel tax (why do we even have this?) paid terminal fees (why do we even have this too?!) and went through immigration. As we went through all that, we saw the rest of the group who was going to join us for the trip. I only found out that week that there were actually going to be 47 divers in the group – all Filipinos except for 4 Americans. It was like dive camp. Interesting concept eh?
Anyway, we had to stay overnight in KK – which was ok as it gave us a chance to walk around the city. I don’t usually mind overnight stop overs like that as it gives you a chance to breathe and relax between flights. But I think because of the excitement of wanting to get in the water (multiply this by 47 divers in the group!) we were all getting a little antsy I think to just get on with the trip and head to Semporna! So we drowned the buzz with another buzz and downed San Miguel Beers that were as big as your face! I was also very happy to see the dive folks from BorneoDream Team ( http://www.borneodream.com/ ) even for just a short while. After our Beer and Fish and Chips, we headed back the the Best Western Hotel where we were to stay overnight. It was clean and well kept although, a little cramped with corridor space and elevators but good enough room space and a good strong shower. Before going to bed we decided to hav a little night cap. I had Iced Teh Tarik (Milk Tea) while my friend Leslie, Chris and Jay downed 2 more mugs. We were good girls and boys though as that buzz didn’t kill us and we were all awake and ready for some malaysian/continental breakfast (hello anchovies aka dilis!), the plane to Tawau and the bus ride to Semporna.
It was another 40 Ringgit to pay for my sportsbag as it wasn’t a connecting flight to Tawau. Keep that in mind when you’re traveling and find out if your flights are totally separate or not even if you are flying the same carrier. It was a really quick plane ride and then we finally got to Tawau. There we boarded our bus and headed to Semporna.
IT WAS HOT. The aircon wasn’t working and I think that didn’t do my friend who was getting sick any good. Good thing they provided water all the way or I would have fainted in the heat… well I fell asleep and woke up a sticky wonder. I was glad for that stop we made to buy chips and water and beer. There were stuff available in the rig, but hey you know us Pinoys! Gotta have our snacks in between dives ;-D After every one finished panic buying, we got back on the bus and got to the ferry in a matter of minutes. Then it was an hour (?) ride by speed boat to Seaventures.
Then the diving adventure begins….
To be continued…
