Malaysia

Our first excursion outside India in ten months was to Malaysia. Malaysia had never really been on my radar until we started asking other divers where they recommended going SCUBA diving in Southeast Asia. Everyone replied Sipidan. Sipidan is an island located near the town of Semporna in the state of Sabah. The Malaysian government turned the island into a Marine reserve to protect it from being fished and to keep hotels off the island.

We jumped on an overnight plane to Kuala Lampur, then had to wait seven hours to catch a flight to Tawau, where a taxi awaited to deposit us in the small fishing town of Semporna. As we flew into KL, I noticed neat rows of palm trees covering the landscape. I pointed them out to Greg and we both decided that they had to be planted. I couldn’t think why palm trees would be planted in such abundance. I re3ceived my answer from an English traveler who shared our taxi to Semporna. Malaysia has cut down 70% of its forests, most of them rainforests, to plant palm trees for palm oil. This country has such an amazing diversity of flora and fauna that is rapidly disappearing due to deforestation. The state of Sabah is known for its wild orangutans and probiscus monkeys.

In the KL airport, I was stuck by the lack of people. I kept saying this throughout our trip, “there are no people here.” I discovered on our US trip, again, that there are no people. I know that there are a lot of people in Mumbai and in India, but it took leaving the country to really understand this. I have gotten so use to crowds and lines most places that we go, that in order to understand the sheer number of one billion people, I had to spend time in Malaysia (where the total population is less than the 22million that in habit greater Mumbai) and the US (all its students combine is the same number as India’s top 1% of students). The fact that there are such fewer numbers of people made my body slow down when walking around.

The diving on the islands we went to over five days, including one day at Sipidan, was spectacular and amazing. The islands where made of white sand and the water a beautiful turquoise blue. It was overcast most of the time, which saved us from getting sun burned since all the dives we did were boat dives. Greg and I took our Advanced Open Water certifications, so that most of our dives ended up being between 75-100 feet deep. We saw big marine life: white tipped reef shark, a leopard shark, many green turtles that were up to a meter and a half long, a school of huge barracudas, Napolean Wrasse, blue-spotted rays, lots of giant moray eels, several cuttlefish, and hundreds of tropical fish species. W saw small marine life: nudibranchs, frog fish (8 of these), coral pipe fish, cleaner shrimp, scorpion leaf fish, and more nudibranchs. We did not get to see hammerhead, which can be seen at Sipidan and were seen the day after we dove there. And there was the coral. The variety and colors were unbelievable. At Sipidan, the coral was a thick blanket with schools of fish dancing around. I had never experienced such a healthy coral reef and it was breath taking. We dove two days with a couple from the UK who had their Dive Master certifications and took diving trips every year. They both had cameras, so hopefully we will receive a link to their posting so we can share what we saw. All the photos we have are on the surface.

We dove with Scuba Junkies and stayed three nights with them on Malbul Island in their bungalows. Beautiful place, friendly and fun staff, and we’d go back in a heartbeat. Even if you don’t dive, the snorkeling is spectacular and Sabah has a lot to offer on land as well. We hope to get back to explore both land and sea before we leave this side of the world.