Going diving to Sipidan I managed to get a direct flight into Tawau, where I stayed overnight in the small Chinese Soon Yee hotel that is friendly, cheap, and simple and came to my surprise with an ensuite bathroom. Yet, at first sight Tawau was disappointing, as there was a bit too much of unwanted attention in the forms of people laughing when they see you walking into a supermarket, or guys whistling and commenting when you walk down the street. Add to the list the amount of poverty that I have not seen in Malaysia before. There are many beggars and street kids, or children that look as if they were either orphans living in the street, or to a large part neglected children from super poor families. This is something you see in the many Filipino slums, but not normally in Malaysia. I was especially taken back when I watched three of such kids kicking and pushing a new hawker stall that was locked up for the night, and nobody made any effort to stop or reprimanded them. And what made it harder to get a good feeling about the place was the challenge to find a place that sells food that I can eat, aka meat free, in combination with beer. Normally all Chinese coffeeshops sell beer, so imagine my surprise when I walked past 5 Chinese coffeeshops and all of them had none! Finally I decided to sit down for dinner in the Kedai Kopi Ingot for a rather good claypot and and awesome avocado shake instead. On my return to Tawau after the diving trip I found a few more suitable food places for both breakfast and dinner, which made life in Tawau a lot more comfortable.

The next morning saw the minibus driver arriving punctually at 6:30 at my doorstep and off we went to Semporna, with only a 1.5h stop at the airport waiting for the three Japanese divers who were to share the Celebes Explorer liveaboard with me. Actually most of the day seemed to consist of waiting; first for the Japanese, then for the four Italians and three French who arrived only in the afternoon. Thus the four of us who had been on the boat since morning went for a late morning dive to the nearby Sibangkat Island, which was not exactly a fantastic dive, other than me finally seeing a crocodile fish, but in sad circumstances – we found it dying in a large piece of tangled finishing net that had been stuck on the corals and remained there. Our efforts to save the fish were futile, as it was much weakened and consequently died after its release. The afternoon saw us sailing to Mabul Island, where the boat stays at night. The dive there was most marked by strong current that send us drifting past the wall at rapid pace, too fast to see many small things, but I was lucky to spot two Banded Pipefish in a little cave.

Of all these events I have no images, and neither do I have any images of any of my dives, as I was recently told that against previous expectations there was never a housing built for my new digital camera, the Canon ixux 970, so I had to come to one of the best dive sites in the world without a camera. Yet, in a way, this seemed to be a blessing. I had the feeling that the fish know that I have no camera, because at numerous occasions individuals or even entire schools swam right into me, staying only a few centimetres away from me. In short I had some amazing wildlife encounters with all sizes of fish that are firmly set in my memory, which seems a lot more valuable than the pictures that I might have taken. Still there are many more pictures of the trip on my photoblog.

The second day on the Celebes brought us to Sipadan Island. One of the major advantages to dive from the Celebes is that it guarantees 4 Sipidan dives per week, and as I stay only for 4D4N I will get to dive in Sipidan two full days, which is brilliant. The first day of diving at Barracuda Point, White Tip Avenue, Hanging Garden, and the Drop Off was spectacular. The landscape is amazing, and the place is teeming with schools of Trevally, Round Batfish, and Humphead Parrotfish, as well as large fish such as tuna, Napoleon Wrasse, Yellow-eyed Snapper, and Whitetip Reefshark, not to forget the uncountable number of large Green Turtles, which I was fortunate enough to record mating from the upper deck of our boat. On the other end of the scale I was fascinated by the Purple Firegoby, who have to be one of my most favourite fish in the world.

When we dropped into the ocean Barracuda Point for our second day diving at Sipidan Island we virtually jumped into a arge school of thousands of Yellow Banded Barracuda. And as is this was not enough the sight was followed by a huge group of maybe 100 Humphead Parrotfish right after. The overall effect was quite astounding. The rest of the dive saw us counting about 15 Whitetip Reefsharks and numerous Green and Hawkbill Turtles. Three drives at Lobster Lair, Staghorn Crest, and West Ridge followed which was crowned by three sightings of Grey Reefsharks. The grand finale of the day was the dusk dive at Mabul Paradie 1, where we saw five Crocodile Flatheadfish, a free roaming Banded Murray, and the ever so elusive White Ribbon Moray. I also spend a lot of time watching Mandarin Fish as they are yet another of my top loved species. And this time I not only saw two adults mate, but also a 1cm long juvenile. And as if all these were not enough we spotted a tiny Papuan Cuttlefish and a Ornate Ghostpipefish just before surfacing at the onset of night.

The next day was to be my last day on the Celebes, and it saw us diving in Siamil Island. On arrival at the island the sea was teeming with tiny fishing boats from the fishing community on the neighbouring Danawan Island. Under the surface the reef had suffered equally from El Nino as from illegal dynamite fishing. Surprisingly enough there was still a lot to see. The sandy slope intercepted by some rocks, sponges and coral appears to be a fishy kindergarden; we saw juvenile Harekin and Spotted Sweetlips, Shaded Batfish, Flamboyant Moray, and Longhorn Cowfish. On the adult and non-fishy side of things there was no less than a few Orang-Utan Crabs, Peacock Mantis Shrimp, Giant Frogfish, Reef Octopus, Broadclub Cuttlefish, Leaf Scorpionfish, and – taking care of the next generation - a Jawfish with eggs in its mouth. All in all not bad for a badly damaged reef, that, if protected might slowly grow back to its original beauty. Returning for the night to Mabul we went for another dusk dive which brought us face to face with a gigantic and potentially deadly Esturine Stonefish as well as the tiniest baby Crocodile Flatheadfish, and a free swimming White-eyed Moray, and a large school of Yellow Tail Barracuda.

Thursday morning I had to pack and leave the Celebes Explorer. One of the smaller boats brought the two of us that were leaving to Semporna while the others went diving to Kapalai. I had about 3 hours to kill in Semporna before my trip back to Tawau and I found the small town rather friendly and pleasant to hang out in. As I could not fly after all the Wednesday dives I had booked my flight on to Kota Kinabalu on Friday. For some reason there were no direct flights back to Singapore available, so I had to fly first to KK and then on Sunday from there back to Singapore, and arrangement which allowed me to plan for some shopping and a good deal of avocado shakes :)

And KK was pleasant as usual; the town has not the charm of Kuching as it is lacking any form of old buildings, but it is great for just hanging out, sipping drinks in a coffeeshop, squeezing through the crafts market and the many night markets, or sitting at the food stalls at the harbour front watching the sun set behind the fisherman boats.I just had wished that Hakim could be here with me, because lounging around in coffeeshops and hawker stalls is just not quite the same alone. My guesthouse, the Borneo Adventure Centre, was the cheapest I could find with an ensuite bathroom. The room was great, but the place is a bit noisy with a main road behind the building and a mosque across the road. So after I had stocked up on all my essentials in Malaysia, it was time for me to return to good old Singapore.

S A B A H 2 in 1


before the actual beginning; my personal basic introduction into to the region for the non-south-east-asian-experts: geographically sabah is the north-eastern part of the malaysian part of borneo, a rather large island to the east of singapore which is split into four parts: sabah and sarawak as parts of east malaysia, brunei, and kalimantan, which is the indonesian part of the island. ethnically and sociologically the people in sabah could not be more different from the west malaysian malays if they tried to win a competition for extremes. while in most parts of west malaysia a guest in a resort or hotel is mostly seen as a notorious nuisance disturbing the staffs otherwise blissful paid day of couch-potatoing behind a counter or on any suitable object resembling a seat, the locals in sabah outdo most of the asians famed for their smiles and friendliness, and this without even trying. they simply are really really nice people, eager to help and very rarely, if ever, trying to rip you off. sabah resort my faith in malayasia as a travel country, if only the western part so far ;)

now to stage one - the descent into the mighty ocean: flying to layang layang, a tongue twisting man made island somewhere in the vast stretch of sea between borneo and the philippines. actually island is nearly a lie, strictly speaking layang layang is an atoll, with a man-made island in one part of it, created to lay claim to this stretch of the ocean and all its possible oil and gas resources. luckily enough someone had the smart idea that the island is big enough not only to host the navy but also a few divers. hence we all ought to thank them for building a dive resort there, as the atoll is surrounded by a immediate 600m drop off, followed by another 1500m drop shortly after, which as all divers know means a lot of big fish ;) :) and for the big fish i came, the hammerhead shark to be specific, and as fate had it, i saw one, a solitary greater hammerhead shark in 26m during my very last dive, and that right after i came up close and personal with a grey reef shark at 40m... can you believe that??? two rare sharks in one dive... wow!!! the most amazing thing about this was that actually only my buddy and i saw the hammerhead and i was the only one taking photos, and to make it even more bizarre; we were the only ones in a group of 12 who were on our last dive, hihihihihi.
yet, to give that dive an even more incredible closure we were escorted by an entire pod of dolphins on the way back to the resort, six or seven of which swimming right in front of the boat; sitting on the prow with my feet dangling just centimetres above the water the dolphins with their movements synchronised to the level of coordinated breathing while staying glued to the boat at whatever speed seemed like un-harnessed horses pulling the boat in ever changing fluid formations... a truly memorable spectacle...

but before that, the days i spend diving at layang layang where marked by many beautiful and amazing encounters. there where the many black and white-tip reef sharks sleeping on the sandy ledges, the hawkbill and green turtles that crossed our way so often, the beautiful underwater landscape as a backdrop for thousands of colourful fish. but there were many other large fish around, we spotted three mobula sailing past in the distance, had schools of barracuda swim right past us, found a huge potato grouper in a cave, and then my favourite, his cousin, the yet unidentified large black and white grouper - it would be great if anybody can tell me what the real name of this one is, otherwise i shall call it the white breasted grouper and be done with it ;) hihihi - and then there were the small wonders at various depths, the many pairs of red and … yes yes yes purple firegobies in the dusky depths of 43m, the crevice filled with ornamental crayfish, the reef octopus, ornate ghostpipe fish, scorpion fish, longnose hawkfish and pygmy seahorse trying very hard, and each in their own way not to be seen... and all that amongst the most pristine coral i have seen so far, it was a wonderful trip indeed.


















and finally to stage two – the ascent to the highest peak in south east asia: you might have heard it said that the very mount kinabalu is boring and overrated, but it is still the highest peak in south east asia. and after my wallet emptied itself rather quickly with the purchase of two return tickets to germany, necessary to witness two major family events this year, namely the wedding of my sister and the 90th birthday of my granny, i decided that it might be wise to abandon my previous exorbitant idea of trekking through png, and replace it with an similarly thrilling yet less impoverishing idea. this alternative became even more attractive when my friend uli decided to fly over from germany to join me. in short, we met in kota kinabalu, book our accommodation for the base, mountain, and poring hot spring resort after and jumped on the bus to the kinabalu national park. starting the trek from the mersilau resort rather than the national park office proved to be a fantastic idea. even though the ascent from here is 2km longer than the main path, is hundred times less crowded, and a million times more beautiful; actually it is the nicest bit of rainforest i walked through ever, going past enchanted cliffs with gushing waterfalls, giant pitcher plants, down wet narrow valleys, across a cloud enshrouded pass, till it finally meets up with the rather overcrowded main "path" in parts resembling orchard road in terms of business ;)

starting from 2000m we first climbed up a fair bit, only do then go it all back down and then climb it up all over again, and more, and more and more till after 8km of walking i arrived at laban rata, the accommodation at 3300m at 4:45. uli came in a bit later, could not sleep a minute in out dorm which we shared with ignorant malay prison wardens-only we can have so much luck-and hence decided that 2am is not a good time to get up to climb another 800m altitude to the peak in the dark and freezing cold. i have to asdmit there were a few times during my 2 1/2h climb to the top in which i thought him a very wise man, but when, at pretty much exactly 5am, under a star filled sky i scambled as the second person this moring on top of low's peak, with its 4095m the highest of the many peaks of kinabalu, i was awfully happy - and i have to say that seeing the sun rise up there was, despite what anybody might say, truly very special, especially when you know how rarely that actually happens, as a 4000m mountain creates a lot of weather, bad weather of course - i was so happy that i even endured the hour long wait for the sunrise in the freezing cold and wind, with my fingers stuck in soaking wet gloves, before i descended the 800m altitude i had climbed in the dark. now i walked under a slowly rising sun past the phallic west peak, the pointy south peak, and many other enticing cliffs and points towards my well earned breakfast, or so i thought, which constituted nevertheless only a brief interception before the gruelling descent for another 1500m altitude to the park head quarters at 1800m. if you have done your math you realise that i walked more than 3000m altitude this day, and anybody who has ever climbed any mountains knows what this means. uli did a great job on the mountain, unlike our group member from singapore who turned up the first day with light shoes and office pants, a plastic bag in one hand and a video camera in the other... needless to say how well he did...

hihihi well anyway, the reward was a long hot bath in the sulphurous hotsprings at poring, before we dragged our rather painful muscles back to kk the next day...