I am back on the road again and back in SE Asia - which is now my favorite destination on earth. Sorry Caribbean, but despite your proximity to the east coast and some wonderful diving, the phenomenal reefs, awesome food and wonderful friendly people in this corner of the world completely blow you away.
I had not been diving since just before New Year's and was really starting to feel it in my bones. My hands needed to get pruny. I am so happy to be on this dive trip with my my good dive buddies Theresa, Wellington and the brand newly certified Katja!! My hair is salty, my neck is sunburned, I've got mask-marks on my face, and I am loving being back underwater - it feels like I'm home again.
I get wet a little sooner than planned when I arrived in Bangkok last week - turns out it was Songkran festival time. I had no idea what that was either, but it is Thai New Year's and they celebrate with a nationwide water fight. Everyone from 4 to 84 has a super soaker or a bag full of water balloons and they love to douse the farangs (foreigners,) as often as possible. Once I wised up and got my camera into a ziploc bag, I enjoyed myself and tried to make it fun for my attackers, pretending to be upset and then breaking into a broad smile. With some I pretended to wrestle for their watergun a little and one time wet-hugged a grandma who had just sprayed me - sharing the soaking back - she laughed and laughed! I walked past one open square where about a thousand people were having an all-out liquid melee and watched a while until attention turned my way and then skedaddled! What a great time - I wish I'd known ahead and gotten a soaker and managed to ditch anything I needed to stay dry so I could really go all out...
After a day in Bangkok, I hopped a flight to Kuala Lumpur the next morning on the way to a diving and jungle adventure in Borneo. I ran into my to German friends in the airport and we shared flights the whole way. Wellington showed up in KL looking a little bit harried - every flight along the way had been late and he had to rush every single connection for thirty hours or so - gotta love modern air travel... Someone once said the key to foreign travel is earplugs and a blindfold and after the screaming baby on my flight from KL to Tawau, I would add that an iPod is just as wonderful!
We landed after dark on the island of Borneo and hopped a taxi to Semporna, a small town on the coast where we would be based for our first several days. Most of the town is on stilts over the water and, though our hostel was pretty nice, the smell of the port and its inhabitants can be a little strong when the wind and tide are the wrong way.
Ever since I started diving, one of the destinations always mentioned in a respectful hushed voice is Sipadan. Coral, walls, sharks, exotic macro - it is all supposed to be here in abundance and the fabled huge variety stretched my imagination. Turns out it is completely true. I simply cannot believe the dozen or so dive sites around this tiny island can have so much going on of everything divers fantasize about. Towering vertical walls, massive schools of fish, darting colorful tropicals, exotic little creatures, big pelagics cruising through looking for a meal, bright healthy coral covering almost every square inch of space. It's all here. I should have known I'd be happy when I heard our first dive site was named "Turtle Patch!" Oh and did I mention I've seen turtles on every single dive so far (10 and counting...) and saw a dozen greens and one loggerhead on just one dive yesterday!! I am in heaven! I have literally swam around a coral head and bumped into the beautiful shell of a sleeping green turtle, who could barely be bothered to move away... Oh and on top of all the sharks (white-tips, black-tips, and hammerheads,) I also dove through a school of about three thousand five foot long barracudas. Wow wow and again wow. And did I mention the nudibranchs? Yes, they are here too, in an explosion of wild colors and styles - we even got to watch some hot nudi on nudi action today... I am now spoiled forever, but will just have to survive. T, Wellngton and I have come up from dives just laughing in amazement at everything we have seen - there is just nothing to say!
Katja has been plugging away on her open water since we arrived and T and I jumped in to help a bit today for her final two cert dives. She is now PADI's newest Open Water Diver and ready to take it all in.
So we are leaving tomorrow to go do some jungle trekking. Go figure. We are booked for a three day river rafting and jungle adventure. Between my fear of centipedes and Wellington's terror of leeches and the prospect of crapping in a bucket for the rest of the week, you gotta wonder, "Why are they leaving?" And honestly, I am wondering the same thing.
Wish me luck!
Ciao and it's great to be back with you!
Clement
