Sipadan Water Village Pulau Sipadan

... and proud looking monkey. I think he knew the cameras were a-clicking The storm came through the night and belted it down. As a group we make an executive decision to give our guides the evening off so they can relax instead of dragging sweaty tourists through the muddy jungle. We in turn opt for international games of *********. The number one card game of the traveller. Except its ****-dude in ...

... pleased with our choice and we did not see too many other boats where we went and when we (well actually they) spotted something they just puttered up slowly underneath for us to sit and watch. We were put for about three and bit hours out, until a beautiful sunset and saw otters, macaw monkeys, proboscis monkeys, silver tailed monkeys, lizards, small crocodile, a huge oriental white billed hornbill, herons. Sadly no wild orangutans or pygmy elephants ...

... the doors all open, sea lapping under the chalet and fan in the ceiling. We mostly were well rested and very excited about a full days diving around the islands. Anna has been chatting to her German instructor and negotiated a good price with Vicky to do the full padi course while she is here. What a cool way to do it her first try dive today she immediately spotted a turtle, one on one tutoring in a tropical paradise and what better way to spend her hard earned ...

... also saw a cave full of bats and lots of bugs and crawling about the place. I saw such a scary bug here too, the scariest of my few months in Asia. It was like a huge dung beetle with wings. It was massive, I mean so big I ran straight out of the toilet that I met it in into a restaurant with my trousers still undone. It was about 3" and a big fat thing with big wings, I've never seen anything close to that size fly other than a bird.

... for finding it tough but it really is just stepping up and up and up. We were lucky enough with the weather, it was a little showery in the afternoon but not bad. We took the longer route it is a bit more scenic and because it is a couple of kilometres longer the route is much quieter. We had a bit on an incident when one of the guys in our group collapsed at our lunch stop maybe something insulin related but it was a bit scary. He came ...

... only use the island as directions...we were off and it took double the time to get there. Finally when we got there...we had our first dive at BARRACUDA POINT..this was the best dive I have ever done. The visibility was amazing and so much sea life. I won't go into all the fish...but a highlight was seeing the White-tip shark. Our second dive was at DROP OFF...this was a wall dive..just as incredible. We saw more sharks and ...

... private bungalows with amazing balconies. We immediatele changed and did our check out dives around KAPALAI whcih had sunken ships, man made reef. This was very cool...my first time seeing ships underwater. We had an hour to eat, decompress and then off to another dive which was a boat dive off the resort. That night we had the most incredible dinner. There are chefs on site and we ate tons of grilled food... Off to bed early, dive boat leaves at 5:30am!!

... of Mabul Island with its own artificial reef right beneath. So within 45minutes we're in the water and seeing pygmy sea horses and pipefish as well as frog fishes. Excellent 'small muck' diving stuff but with plenty of big stuff around too. Next day its off to Sipidan Island and wow this delivered its promise of one of the best dive sites in the world. Too many turtles and (white tip reef) sharks to count as well as great walls and coral and lots of ...

... is definitely on of our favorite dive locations in the WORLD. It is tempting to stay longer. But, our wallets are getting thinner, we are exhausted and still have many more places to visit in Asia. And my ear problem has resurfaced again! So today will be our last day of diving, and we are going to move onto Sandakan tommorow to visit the Sepilok ...