Pulau Sipidan, Malaysian Borneo

One of the deciding factors for our entire trip out to Malaysian Borneo was the diving at Palau Sipidan. Sipadan Island and it's surrounding marine parks are consistently rated as one of the top dive sites in the world. We heard rave reviews from dive master's on Koh Tao, and travelers we met all over Asia.

Having said that... diving Sipadan was not easy. Let us rephrase, diving Sipadan on a tight budget was not easy. With money to spend, it is easy to find 'floating' resorts on private islands all around Sipadan Island, but as a backpacker, however, we had to station ourselves in the small town of Semporna, a 45 minute boat ride from Sipadan. The town itself was small with dirty water and no beaches. Also, the vacationer with money would plan the trip months in advance, whereas the backpacker mentality of 'figure it out as you go' almost got us in a lot of trouble here. After a plane ride and hours of bus travel, we got to Semporna, immediately went to a dive shop, and were told that the 'waitlist' to dive Sipadan currently extends into late August. Ouch.

Without losing all hope, however, we checked with a bunch of dive shops all over town until we found one company, Borneo Speedy Divers, that informed us that they had just had two divers cancel for July 27th (a two-day wait). The only stipulation: because the other two divers were already registered with the national park to dive that day, we had to assume their identities and use their names for the day, which wouldn't have been too bad if their names weren't Jergen Scheider of Germany, and Grincia Alesia of Italy. We couldn't help but burst out laughing every time we were addressed. However, with a little bit of acting, we pulled it off and we were able to dive Sipadan.

After all the hype, the travel to get there, the expense of the trip, and the excruciatingly boring 2-day wait in Semporna our expectations were impossibly high. However, the three dives at Sipadan not only met or expectations, but highly exceeded them. Not only was the experience one of the best we have had in Asia, we both agree it was one of the best experiences we have ever had. From the breathtaking landscapes to the abundance of exotic marine life, nothing about Sipadan dissapointed. So without further introduction, here are the pictures!

(Side note: Though these pictures are great, they do not do the experience justice. Sipadan is a place everyone should experience for themselves.)

 

Sipadan Island is located off of the South Eastern corner of Malaysian Borneo

The island itself barely protrudes from the Celebes Sea, however, the island is just the tip of a 1,800 foot volcanic pinnacle that rises from the ocean floor. Though the island used to house a resort, it is now a national park that allows just 120 visitors per day.

The ride out to Sipadan was full of anticipation -- our expectations we extremely high!

National Park Headquarters. This is where we had to sign in and identify ourselves as Jergen and Grincia.

We dove Turtle Patch, Barracuda Point, and Drop Off

Jergen shows off his scuba skills

A puffer fish

Up close and personal with the Puffer

 'Ciao!' - Grincia Alesia

An Anemone Fish guards his home

Another giant Anemone and its inhabitants

Sea Feathers

Hi Grincia!

A Sea Turtle swims above the reef

Jergen greets a sleeping turle

The beautiful reef

Jergen lets everyone know that he is 'Okay' (a hand placed on the head is the international dive sign for 'okay' above water)

Turtles above, turtles below. So many turtles we couldn't keep track!

Yet another turtle friend!

A turtle and a reef shark silhouetted above

Barracuda Point was appropriately named - there were schools with hundreds, if not thousands, of giant barracuda

Barracuda Point -- awesome.

The Grey Reef Sharks were obviously not afraid of us. These six-foot-long monsters swam right along side us.

We found Nemo!

The beautiful, though extremely poisonous, Lion Fish

A school of Jack Fish at the entrance to Turtle Tomb Cave, during the 'Drop Off' dive site. 

Jessica/Grincia at the entrance to Turtle Tomb Cave.

Soft Coral

This shows the scale of things pretty well; 75 ft under water, with only 1,725 ft below us...

Most of our dive group.

So many sleepy turtles.

Smile, turtle!

A school of Batfish above.

Apparently turtles don't just swim and sleep, they walk as well.

Preston after Drop Off, Sipadan in the background.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Our next stop on the Malaysia list is none other than Kuala Lumpur (or KL, as those 'in the know' like to call it). The Perhentians were amazing, but we were nonetheless looking forward to a change of pace in this giant of a city (7.2 million people). We headed out of the Perhentians early in the morning by boat, caught a plane from Kota Bharu, and landed safely in the KL airport later that afternoon. We reached the outskirts of the city by bus, and then our final destination, Chinatown, for 1 Ringit (32 cents) via a high-tech and extremely accessible train/monorail system. Thank god for mass transit. Chinatown is the epicenter of the KL backpacker world, and the center of the center is Petaling Street, an all-day, all-night monster of a street market. Thinking that this would be a great place to base ourselves, we found a nice little hotel aptly named the "Petaling Street Hotel" and made ourselves at home.

 The view from our hotel's cafe balcony.

 Waiting for the train.

 The train in always convenient, but sometimes overcrowded.

Our first full day in KL we went to some of the tourist hot-spots, including Masijd Negara (the National Mosque, one of the largest in SE Asia), the Old Railway Station, the National History Museum, and Lake Gardens. After getting sufficently lost trying to find Lake Gardens, we wound up instead at the National Mosque, so we figured it would be our first stop of the day. We knew we had to dress modestly in order to enter the mosque (and we thought we did), but at the entrance they handed us lavender floor-length robes-- apparently our calves were a bit to risque for this particular mosque.  So donned in incredibly non-breathing polyester robes, we walked inside. This mosque was interesting for a few reasons; the first of which is that it is beautiful, with a green glass 18-pointed star roof (representing the 13 states of Malaysia and the 5 pillars of Islam), and secondly because we had an interesting conversation about Islam with an very nice old man who worked in the mosque. He basically described to us (very factually) about what the Islam religion is based on and what they believe. The most interesting part of this conversation was our realization that Christianity and Islam are nearly one and the same (we amazingly didn't know this before); the only difference is that muslims believe Jesus was not the literal son of god, but instead one of thousands of prophets since the time of Adam and Eve.

 The 18-pointed star roof.

Jessica modeling our new garb.

The courtyard outside the mosque.

We left the mosque feeling a bit better informed, and headed to the elusive Lake Gardens (read: we got lost again. ha.) On our way, however, we passed the Old Railway Station which is an early 20th century example of the blending of Eastern and Western architecture.

The Old Railway Station

Still trying to find Lake Gardens (which, by the way is a gigantic park, and as such should be easy to find), we came upon the National History Museum. This museum was great for two reasons: Air conditioning, and a look at the history of Malaysia from prehistoric times until the present. But mostly the Air-con. It's 100 degrees outside, can you blame us?

Malaysian flags flying outside the National Museum.

We FINALLY found Lake Gardens after the museum, and although we had spent all morning looking for it, it turns out that the main attraction, a giant open air bird park, was way over-priced, and thus out of our budget. What a bust. Oh well.

Our next day found us at the modern architectural symbol fo Malaysia, the Petronas Towers, which were formerly the tallest buildings in the world. This is another beautiful architectural example of East meets West.
After our visit to the Petronas towers we wandered our way through the city to Merdeka square, the place upon which Malaysia announced their independece from Britain in 1957.  This is another area of the city that boasts beautiful architecture. After that, we wandered around the city and came across the "shopping district", which made us feel like we were in New York; lots of lights, traffic, and giant malls.

Jessica and the Petronas Towers.

The beautiful Sultan Abdul Samad Building.

Random street in KL.

 The shopping district at night. The malls here were MASSIVE and very high-end. Among some of the stores were Gucci, Miu Miu, Chanel, and Salvatore Ferragamo.

On our last day in KL we decided to test out the "Space Needle of Malaysia", the KL Tower. Unlike the Space Needle, this building actually functions as a TeleCom building, but it is just as touristy (and expensive) as the Needle. Still, the views were beautiful from 905 ft in the air.

The KL Tower from a distance.

View from the observation deck of the tower.

Petronas Towers from above.

Kuala Lumpur was great, but we're both excited for the next leg of our adventure: Malaysian Borneo!