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One afternoon, while I flipped through some of my old albums and spotted some of these photos taken during my unforgettable trip to Pulau Sipadan, Sabah, these photos ABOVE have been kept by me for more than a decade.
These photos bring me back to my old good times with some of my friends during our trip to this wonderful island in Sabah. We, my colleagues and West Malaysian friends working in Sabah, used to organise our trip to touristic places during our holidays in Sabah. One of our unforgettable adventures was at Pulau Sipadan, one of the world's most beautiful coral seaside on earth, an hour's ride by speedboat from Semporna. No introduction need to be made especially to scuba divers and snorkelers. However, appended below please find a brief write up from
Wikipedia for your easy reference and reading.
Sipadan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sipadan Island
Sipadan Island
Sipadan is the only oceanic island in Malaysia, rising 600 metres (2,000 ft) from the seabed. It is located in the Celebes Sea off the east coast of Sabah, East Malaysia (which is on the island of Borneo). It was formed by living corals growing on top of an extinct volcanic cone that took thousands of years to develop. Sipadan is located at the heart of the Indo-Pacific basin, the centre of one of the richest marine habitats in the world. More than 3,000 species of fish and hundreds of coral species have been classified in this ecosystem. Sipadan has been rated by many dive journals as one of the top destinations for diving in the world.[1]
Hawksbill Turtle.
Frequently seen in the waters around Sipadan: green and hawksbill turtles[2] (which mate and nest there), enormous schools of barracuda in tornado-like formations as well as large schools of big-eye trevally, and bumphead parrotfish. Pelagic species such as manta rays, eagle rays, scalloped hammerhead sharks and whale sharks also visit Sipidan.
A turtle tomb lies underneath the column of the island, formed by an underwater limestone cave with a labyrinth of tunnels and chambers that contain many skeletal remains of turtles that become lost and drown before finding the surface.[3]
History
In the past, the island was at the center of a territorial dispute between Malaysia and Indonesia. The matter was brought for adjudication before the International Court of Justice and, at the end of 2002, the Court awarded the island along with the island of Ligitan to Malaysia, on the basis of the "effective occupation" displayed by the latter's predecessor (Malaysia's former colonial power, the United Kingdom) and the absence of any other superior title. The Philippines had applied to intervene in the proceedings on the basis of its claim to Northern Borneo, but its request was turned down by the Court early in 2001. On April 23, 2000, 21 people were kidnapped by the Filipino Islamist terrorist group Abu Sayyaf. The armed terrorists arrived by boat and forced 10 tourists and 11 resort workers at gun point to board the vessels and brought the victims to Jolo. All victims were eventually released.
In his film Borneo: The Ghost of the Sea Turtle (1989)[4] Jacques Cousteau said, "I have seen other places like Sipadan, 45 years ago, but now no more. Now we have found an untouched piece of art."[5]
At that time, I was servicing IJM Bhd and posted there as the Branch Accountant, taking care of several projects in East Malaysia, such as Kinabatangan Bridge, Bintulu Power Plant Station and etc. I was quite fit at that time and played badminton regularly because there were not much night activities at Lahad Datu at that time. I still recalled that place was attacked by pirates couple of times before I landed there. I was so fortunate that there was no subsequent attack by any quarters during my stay for almost a year there.
If my memory does not fail me, we drove all the way from Lahad Datu to Tawau. Thereafter, we head to Semporna before we took the boat and got to our dream destination.
From the photo ABVOE, you can see that the speed boat was a sizeable and it was quite comfortable there and we are allowed to move around. You are also able to see us sitting in front of the dock of the boat. Strong sea breeze was blowing at us and we enjoyed every minute of our journey. I guess our expression was well reflected in the photos, Right?
We even took a group photo before the boat departure at the port. The sea water level was very shallow and I dared to go down to a distance from the sea shore to watch the colorful fishes, corals and etc under the sea. It is so colorful and I was so tempted to dive into the water and observe the fishes swimming around for hours.
At night, we had fresh and tasteful sea food. We have very good meals and fun for the days and nights when we were there. I predicted that I would not go back there in my near future as I also desire to explore other parts of the world, which I did. I shall publish all these places in this blog from time to time.
Hope you too enjoyed the scenery as I did and feel free to comment or feedback of your experience there.
PS to watch its video, please click at the link below and see the beauty of it yourself.
http://liftyouup.blogspot.com/2011/09/amazing-scuba-diving-at-pulau-sipadan.html
James Oh
Skype me at james.oh18
One afternoon, while I flipped through some of my old albums and spotted some of these photos taken during my unforgettable trip to Pulau Sipadan, Sabah, these photos ABOVE have been kept by me for more than a decade.
These photos bring me back to my old good times with some of my friends during our trip to this wonderful island in Sabah. We, my colleagues and West Malaysian friends working in Sabah, used to organise our trip to touristic places during our holidays in Sabah. One of our unforgettable adventures was at Pulau Sipadan, one of the world's most beautiful coral seaside on earth, an hour's ride by speedboat from Semporna. No introduction need to be made especially to scuba divers and snorkelers. However, appended below please find a brief write up from
Wikipedia for your easy reference and reading.
Sipadan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sipadan Island
Sipadan Island
Sipadan is the only oceanic island in Malaysia, rising 600 metres (2,000 ft) from the seabed. It is located in the Celebes Sea off the east coast of Sabah, East Malaysia (which is on the island of Borneo). It was formed by living corals growing on top of an extinct volcanic cone that took thousands of years to develop. Sipadan is located at the heart of the Indo-Pacific basin, the centre of one of the richest marine habitats in the world. More than 3,000 species of fish and hundreds of coral species have been classified in this ecosystem. Sipadan has been rated by many dive journals as one of the top destinations for diving in the world.[1]
Frequently seen in the waters around Sipadan: green and hawksbill turtles[2] (which mate and nest there), enormous schools of barracuda in tornado-like formations as well as large schools of big-eye trevally, and bumphead parrotfish. Pelagic species such as manta rays, eagle rays, scalloped hammerhead sharks and whale sharks also visit Sipidan.
A turtle tomb lies underneath the column of the island, formed by an underwater limestone cave with a labyrinth of tunnels and chambers that contain many skeletal remains of turtles that become lost and drown before finding the surface.[3]
History
In the past, the island was at the center of a territorial dispute between Malaysia and Indonesia. The matter was brought for adjudication before the International Court of Justice and, at the end of 2002, the Court awarded the island along with the island of Ligitan to Malaysia, on the basis of the "effective occupation" displayed by the latter's predecessor (Malaysia's former colonial power, the United Kingdom) and the absence of any other superior title. The Philippines had applied to intervene in the proceedings on the basis of its claim to Northern Borneo, but its request was turned down by the Court early in 2001. On April 23, 2000, 21 people were kidnapped by the Filipino Islamist terrorist group Abu Sayyaf. The armed terrorists arrived by boat and forced 10 tourists and 11 resort workers at gun point to board the vessels and brought the victims to Jolo. All victims were eventually released.
In his film Borneo: The Ghost of the Sea Turtle (1989)[4] Jacques Cousteau said, "I have seen other places like Sipadan, 45 years ago, but now no more. Now we have found an untouched piece of art."[5]
At that time, I was servicing IJM Bhd and posted there as the Branch Accountant, taking care of several projects in East Malaysia, such as Kinabatangan Bridge, Bintulu Power Plant Station and etc. I was quite fit at that time and played badminton regularly because there were not much night activities at Lahad Datu at that time. I still recalled that place was attacked by pirates couple of times before I landed there. I was so fortunate that there was no subsequent attack by any quarters during my stay for almost a year there.
If my memory does not fail me, we drove all the way from Lahad Datu to Tawau. Thereafter, we head to Semporna before we took the boat and got to our dream destination.
From the photo ABVOE, you can see that the speed boat was a sizeable and it was quite comfortable there and we are allowed to move around. You are also able to see us sitting in front of the dock of the boat. Strong sea breeze was blowing at us and we enjoyed every minute of our journey. I guess our expression was well reflected in the photos, Right?
We even took a group photo before the boat departure at the port. The sea water level was very shallow and I dared to go down to a distance from the sea shore to watch the colorful fishes, corals and etc under the sea. It is so colorful and I was so tempted to dive into the water and observe the fishes swimming around for hours.
At night, we had fresh and tasteful sea food. We have very good meals and fun for the days and nights when we were there. I predicted that I would not go back there in my near future as I also desire to explore other parts of the world, which I did. I shall publish all these places in this blog from time to time.
Hope you too enjoyed the scenery as I did and feel free to comment or feedback of your experience there.
PS to watch its video, please click at the link below and see the beauty of it yourself.
http://liftyouup.blogspot.com/2011/09/amazing-scuba-diving-at-pulau-sipadan.html
James Oh
Skype me at james.oh18
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