Sipadan
We had one more day of diving after getting certified. Everyone in our class of 5 did so well that our fourth day was a free dive. We did two boat dives, where we enter the water Jacque Coustoue style. It poured down rain the night before and was still raining when we got there so the water was a little murky. We had camped on the island the first night in a rented tent. If i hadn’t been so tired because of being in the water all day i would have rated it as one of my worst nights sleep. I was terribly uncomfortable and it was easily 150 degrees in the tent. Johnny and Malika were going to stay a second night while i was going back into town, Just as we were about to head on the last boat off the island the sky unleashed its wrath and flooded the tent so we all went back to town. That last day we also did a beach dive without a guide. We made Johnny our guide since he was the only one with a watch.
That night we our graduating class went out to dinner and to a local bar which gives a large discount on Pitchers of Tiger beer to those who get certified. The next morning the two Britts that were in our class took off early in the morning. Johnny and i flew up to Sandakan and Malika took the bus. Sandakan did not have a whole lot to offer, but our guesthouse had AC, a t.v. with a DVD player and loads of movies to choose from. After arriving and getting something to eat Johnny and i sat in the room watching movies. Malika came in that night and we pretty much did the same. We had planned on coming to Sandakan to check out Turtle Island. This is where turtles come at night to lay their eggs. You can stay overnight on the island, but after a little research we learned that it is like $400 for a two day one night stay, well over our budget. We did take a cab over to the Orang-Atang Sanctuary. The try and rehabilitate orphaned Orang-Tangs and get them acclimated to go back into the wild. We were running a few minutes late. They do a 10am feeding and again at 3pm. We bought our tickets and headed down the trail. We had no map and there were no well marked signs as to where this feeding took place. We were walking down the trail rather quiet, because we didn’t want to scare anything away. At a major fork in the trail we were being tailed by a family of very load Malays. The two kids were practically screaming. We opted to take the muddier route towards the watering hole. A prime spot for seeing Orang-tangs, monkeys got to drink right. I can’t believe there was a DO NOT ENTER this trail sign. It did not take us too long to realize we shouldn’t be on this trail. It was at about the time we started crossing the collapsed bridge. As we turned to head back i felt a bug bite me and when i reached back to my calf to itch it i felt something slimy. LEACH!! .......GET IT OFF!! Malika had a lighter and i burned the little guy off my leg. This really freaked Malika out and she kind of got the Heebee jeebee’s and headed back up the trail very fast. Johnny was wearing CROCs and when he pulled his foot out he too had picked up a hitch hiker. I helped burn his little guy off, but instead burned his toe. We finally made it over to where the feeding takes place just in time to watch everyone leaving as there were only Macaque monkeys left. We sat there for a bit, when i felt another bug bite and spotted my second leach up on my thigh. There was a guide there who informed me that it was a Tiger Leach and that they were harmless and if i wanted to wait ten minutes it would triple in size and finally just drop off. What the heck we had five more hours to kill until the next feeding time. I soon became a big hit with all the tourists as we watched the little guy fill up. It felt like a bug bite at first, but other than that i could hardly tell he was even on there. Johnny spotted another little guy on his ankle, so he let him stay there too. We went back to the main area and watched a monkey movie, I was afraid my guy was going to drop off in the theater and be stuck there living on the Airconditioned carpet the rest of his life. The movie was an hour long, he was still there when it was over. 10minutes? All in all he and i hung out for almost two hours, finally another guide came up and flicked him off with a small twig. Then my leg bled for another 30 minutes. There was a nice nurse there from England who helped me out with a couple of sterile wipes that she had in her purse. He left a really strange bite mark with what looks like a little triangle in the middle. I named him Ted.
Johnny and i are now in Semporna, we took off from Sandakan two days ago on the morning bus, a few miles down the road we noticed that Johnny did not have his passport. this was my fault, i had used it to make dive reservations online. I had left it on top of Malikas guide book in the room. I quickly ran to the front of the bus and got the driver to pull over and let us out. I think at one point the driver asked if i wanted him to pull over and wait while my friend ran back to get his passport. Oh no no, we will just try again tomorrow. Then the co-driver or at least the guy sitting next to the driver got off the bus with us. The bus took off and he walked us to the local bus stop and sent us on our way. They are so nice here. We did nothing much yesterday and made the bus to Semporna today.
We are staying in a really cool hotel that sits right over the bay. It is hard to understand the lady but i think we booked a trip out to Sipadan Island tomorrow morning for three dives, a night in the guest house, all our meals and gear, and a ride back the next day. Sipidan is said to be one of the top ten places in the world to dive?? And, i’m probably jinxing it, but they say we have a 75% chance of seeing Sea Turtles, should be cool. I love it under water and i am sure that my future travels plans will be questioned with “Well what is the diving like there”
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