Sipadan is an underwater wonderland !!! 25 June 07
Well, I know I said I wouldn't log on for 3 days, but what I saw today was just so amazing that I thought I'd correct my previous statement... our first day of snorkelling wasn't as great as I'd hoped, true, but today was just breathtaking.
To see a reef in such good condition is such a rarity these days (the impact of global warming can wipe out a whole reef in a few weeks, fishermen usually couldn't care less and anchor their boats all over them, not to mention the countless tourists who are ignorant or selfish and stand on these fragile masterpieces, etc). I took 20 photos in 1H and only because I ran out of film, otherwise, I probably would still be clicking away. So many different types of soft and hard corals, lots of huge fans, and countless fishes, thousands of them, it was like being in a massive aquarium. I was just really frustrated because I couldn't duck dive (i.e. I pretty much missed 2/3 of what the reef had to offer in terms of diversity as many fish like to stay under rocks) and Roberto never has time to teach me as such because we have quite a hectic schedule with 3 boat trips per day and then just enough time for lunch in between.
I followed some turtles around and they move so majestically... Roberto did a little movie and it was just so relaxing to watch, as if they are swimming in slow motion... I also saw a few moray eels (but didn't get too close as though they are mostly harmess, they can launch a vicious attack if they feel threatened) and sting rays. But it's the setting that did it for me, to have so many beautiful coloured corals as a back-drop was quite something... (most corals don't have colours). I was truly moved to tears - I am kidding you not - if I hadn't had my snorkel in my mouth, it would have actually dropped open. It was a jaw-dropping kind of experience. Roberto went in first and within 2 seconds of having his head under water came right up again and said 'oh my Goooood, this is AMAZING'.... He had been on a recent diving trip to the Red Sea (another hot spot for divers as it's hugely diverse too) but he reckons that Sipadan probably holds 3 times the amount of species of corals and fish that they have in Egypt/Israel. And he knows far more about fish than I do, he can name most of them; whereas to me, they just look fascinating simply because they are all such different shapes and colours. I even found myself in front of a whole wall of grey fish with yellow eyes, it was incredible... not scary at all. Even reef sharks are harmless.
Anyway, I'm surely glad I went on all 3 trips. I must say that I wasn't up to it at 9am this morning when I'd had another sleepless night (I tend to wake up at 3am on the dot, still totally jet-lagged), with another almighty storm for 4 hours too (sounded like a hurricane with torrential rain). It was certainly wild ! but it meant I was a pitiful sight when I woke up, boy... I had got sun-burnt yesterday as it was SO hot and had been up every hour putting more moisturing after-sun on my raw skin (cooked skin more likely) and drinking yet more glasses of water to re-hydrate myself inside out. I'm even sure I had a slight fever in the morning... and it was raining still, very dull day... and I thought to myself 'my bed is seriously tempting... warm, cosy, DRY'..... but then my heart argued over my head as in: 'for Godness' sake Sylvie, get a grip, this is just a mild sun stroke, you love snorkelling and you are in Sipadan, do you know how many divers would give an arm and a leg to BE here? How could you possibly miss out? Won't you kick yourself later when Roberto comes back with tales that will make you turn green'..... and so, of course, I felt I had no option left by then. My heart won - it always does.
I was half asleep on the boat going over though, it was raining still, and I wasn't even sure if I was shivering or not. At that point, I have to confess that the thought of going in the water truly didn't seem appealing AT ALL. BUT I swear the moment I put my head under the water and opened my eyes it was like... wow.... wow... wow... I felt instantly better. As if I had been healed through sheer "beauty-power"... I was so shell-shocked, for all the right reasons, that the ONLY sense I could feel was my sight... I only existed through my eyes, my whole body didn't seem to matter anymore.... I just hope that God will let us have coral gardens in Heaven, I'd miss them soooo much. I was praising Him endlessly as I was in awe... pondering, as I often do, on the length of time it had taken for all of these wonders to actually take shape... millions of years... and to think that it was MY time to witness all of this. It was just incredibly moving. Another reminder that our life span is SO tiny in the scheme of greater things.... I think that after just one day here in paradise, Roberto has already understood my philosophy completely.
He made me smile because we usually go over on a secluded island to have a coffee break and he spotted a tree with huge roots sticking out and he was like 'look, look, look, what's that?', I said 'Oh, it's just a mangove tree'... and he was like 'How incredible is that ??! Please take a photo of me in front of it, it's so beautiful and unusual'... and in a way it kind of reminded how I felt when I saw my very first mangove tree... and I have told him that the day after tomorrow, when we enter the rainforest he will see SO many types of trees he's never seen before, it will take his breath away, that if he liked that one tree so much, he will totally fall in love with rainforests and their incredibly rich habitat. Our biggest common denominator is that we both adore nature and respect it and get re-energised by it.
Like this morning, we were on our balcony and though it was cloudy and spitting with rain the ocean still looked perfectly still and still had its soft green tone, as if we were standing over an emerald mirror. And he said, quite rightly 'isn't it luminous?'.... and it was. As if we were above a pool that was lit from the inside. It had such a remarkable quality to it. A case of, 'you have to see it to believe it'.
Oh, he's also cool when he comes to insects, thank God... because last night a huge cockroach climbed on his hair in the middle of the night. And he was so calm, like 'Sylvie, are you awake? Do you have your torch ? something has just crawled on me'... and when we turned on the light, it was a coachroach as big as my thumb. He said 'oh yeah, I saw it in the bathroom earlier but I didn't want to kill it... I don't like to kill things'. But since the said coachroach was not keen to stay in the bathroom we had to kill him as I worried he might end up in our suitcase !
Last night we tried out my tripode and took some great shots of the lodge at night, with all the side lamp-shades and various lights. They came out quite nicely.
Anyway, we've got one more full day here = 3 more snorkelling / diving trips in Mabul and Sipadan, then we'll be leaving at 7am the day after, to head for the Rainforest Lodge, which, according to our book on Borneo is 'highly recommended'.... and it'll take us 2h30 over track roads to get there... which hopefully means that the journey will be as beautiful as the destination.
So, another case of 'watch this space'... Lastly: thanks for all your emails, much appreciated :)
Well, I know I said I wouldn't log on for 3 days, but what I saw today was just so amazing that I thought I'd correct my previous statement... our first day of snorkelling wasn't as great as I'd hoped, true, but today was just breathtaking.
To see a reef in such good condition is such a rarity these days (the impact of global warming can wipe out a whole reef in a few weeks, fishermen usually couldn't care less and anchor their boats all over them, not to mention the countless tourists who are ignorant or selfish and stand on these fragile masterpieces, etc). I took 20 photos in 1H and only because I ran out of film, otherwise, I probably would still be clicking away. So many different types of soft and hard corals, lots of huge fans, and countless fishes, thousands of them, it was like being in a massive aquarium. I was just really frustrated because I couldn't duck dive (i.e. I pretty much missed 2/3 of what the reef had to offer in terms of diversity as many fish like to stay under rocks) and Roberto never has time to teach me as such because we have quite a hectic schedule with 3 boat trips per day and then just enough time for lunch in between.
I followed some turtles around and they move so majestically... Roberto did a little movie and it was just so relaxing to watch, as if they are swimming in slow motion... I also saw a few moray eels (but didn't get too close as though they are mostly harmess, they can launch a vicious attack if they feel threatened) and sting rays. But it's the setting that did it for me, to have so many beautiful coloured corals as a back-drop was quite something... (most corals don't have colours). I was truly moved to tears - I am kidding you not - if I hadn't had my snorkel in my mouth, it would have actually dropped open. It was a jaw-dropping kind of experience. Roberto went in first and within 2 seconds of having his head under water came right up again and said 'oh my Goooood, this is AMAZING'.... He had been on a recent diving trip to the Red Sea (another hot spot for divers as it's hugely diverse too) but he reckons that Sipadan probably holds 3 times the amount of species of corals and fish that they have in Egypt/Israel. And he knows far more about fish than I do, he can name most of them; whereas to me, they just look fascinating simply because they are all such different shapes and colours. I even found myself in front of a whole wall of grey fish with yellow eyes, it was incredible... not scary at all. Even reef sharks are harmless.
Anyway, I'm surely glad I went on all 3 trips. I must say that I wasn't up to it at 9am this morning when I'd had another sleepless night (I tend to wake up at 3am on the dot, still totally jet-lagged), with another almighty storm for 4 hours too (sounded like a hurricane with torrential rain). It was certainly wild ! but it meant I was a pitiful sight when I woke up, boy... I had got sun-burnt yesterday as it was SO hot and had been up every hour putting more moisturing after-sun on my raw skin (cooked skin more likely) and drinking yet more glasses of water to re-hydrate myself inside out. I'm even sure I had a slight fever in the morning... and it was raining still, very dull day... and I thought to myself 'my bed is seriously tempting... warm, cosy, DRY'..... but then my heart argued over my head as in: 'for Godness' sake Sylvie, get a grip, this is just a mild sun stroke, you love snorkelling and you are in Sipadan, do you know how many divers would give an arm and a leg to BE here? How could you possibly miss out? Won't you kick yourself later when Roberto comes back with tales that will make you turn green'..... and so, of course, I felt I had no option left by then. My heart won - it always does.
I was half asleep on the boat going over though, it was raining still, and I wasn't even sure if I was shivering or not. At that point, I have to confess that the thought of going in the water truly didn't seem appealing AT ALL. BUT I swear the moment I put my head under the water and opened my eyes it was like... wow.... wow... wow... I felt instantly better. As if I had been healed through sheer "beauty-power"... I was so shell-shocked, for all the right reasons, that the ONLY sense I could feel was my sight... I only existed through my eyes, my whole body didn't seem to matter anymore.... I just hope that God will let us have coral gardens in Heaven, I'd miss them soooo much. I was praising Him endlessly as I was in awe... pondering, as I often do, on the length of time it had taken for all of these wonders to actually take shape... millions of years... and to think that it was MY time to witness all of this. It was just incredibly moving. Another reminder that our life span is SO tiny in the scheme of greater things.... I think that after just one day here in paradise, Roberto has already understood my philosophy completely.
He made me smile because we usually go over on a secluded island to have a coffee break and he spotted a tree with huge roots sticking out and he was like 'look, look, look, what's that?', I said 'Oh, it's just a mangove tree'... and he was like 'How incredible is that ??! Please take a photo of me in front of it, it's so beautiful and unusual'... and in a way it kind of reminded how I felt when I saw my very first mangove tree... and I have told him that the day after tomorrow, when we enter the rainforest he will see SO many types of trees he's never seen before, it will take his breath away, that if he liked that one tree so much, he will totally fall in love with rainforests and their incredibly rich habitat. Our biggest common denominator is that we both adore nature and respect it and get re-energised by it.
Like this morning, we were on our balcony and though it was cloudy and spitting with rain the ocean still looked perfectly still and still had its soft green tone, as if we were standing over an emerald mirror. And he said, quite rightly 'isn't it luminous?'.... and it was. As if we were above a pool that was lit from the inside. It had such a remarkable quality to it. A case of, 'you have to see it to believe it'.
Oh, he's also cool when he comes to insects, thank God... because last night a huge cockroach climbed on his hair in the middle of the night. And he was so calm, like 'Sylvie, are you awake? Do you have your torch ? something has just crawled on me'... and when we turned on the light, it was a coachroach as big as my thumb. He said 'oh yeah, I saw it in the bathroom earlier but I didn't want to kill it... I don't like to kill things'. But since the said coachroach was not keen to stay in the bathroom we had to kill him as I worried he might end up in our suitcase !
Last night we tried out my tripode and took some great shots of the lodge at night, with all the side lamp-shades and various lights. They came out quite nicely.
Anyway, we've got one more full day here = 3 more snorkelling / diving trips in Mabul and Sipadan, then we'll be leaving at 7am the day after, to head for the Rainforest Lodge, which, according to our book on Borneo is 'highly recommended'.... and it'll take us 2h30 over track roads to get there... which hopefully means that the journey will be as beautiful as the destination.
So, another case of 'watch this space'... Lastly: thanks for all your emails, much appreciated :)
posted by Sylvie at 9:59 AM
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