Sea Turtle

Our journey took us to the East of Borneo, in the fishing village of Semporna. Off the coast Sempornas are some of the best diving in the world. The most famous of which is Sipadan.
By bus it took 5 hours to reach Semporna, where we arrived in the afternoon. Since note that Philippine Islands are not far away, live here many illegal Filipino immigrants. As soon as you stop at a gas station we made our first, Unfortunately, very sad, Encounter with some Filipino children, begging. They looked very neglected and it did a soul suffering in the, to see the children so. Even after our arrival at the bus station in Semporna are mixed feelings were widespread in us. The atmosphere of the city was pretty depressing and visible poverty. In Malaysia, we have not even been doing this experience. It was very dirty, rubbish lying around everywhere. We saw elderly people and children again, begging. It's hard to ignore them and unfortunately we can not give everyone something.
Our path to the guest house led past a large mosque and a market with stalls full of fruit Mountains. Together with Debbie and Yves we quartered ourselves in the Scuba Junkie Dive Lodge and made us right after check-in to the same dive shop on to inform us about the diving. Actually we wanted to stay at Mabul Island, but all rooms were already booked. Unfortunately, no more places for diving Sipadan were free for. Sipadan is very popular with divers, but the number of visitors is limited to 120 people per day. Although we would still be able to book with another diving school, But as the price for a day diving at Sipadan was almost three times as high as the diving at the other dive sites we then decided against it. Thus, we booked for the next two days, a total of 6 dives and were looking forward to the Underwater World.
In the evening we went in search of a supermarket again through the village. It was just prayer time and in and around the mosque (you could look into the sides) were very many men to see the prayer. After dinner, there was still a beer and we listened to a little bit of tape, played the junkie in the Scuba Bar.

The next morning we finally went back to diving. With the boat we drove one hour out of the sea to the island before Mataking. Who was the first dive site “Mataking Postbox” and as the name suggests,, it acted, this is a letter box. This is located on a small ship wreck on the seabed. Together with our local divemaster Aziz and William from Scotland we started the first dive. With superb vision in turquoise crystal clear water we could discover a lot of big and small marine animals: z.B. a tiny orangutan crab, a trumpet fish, Scorpio- and lionfish, the beautiful Harlequin Süßlippenfisch and a few large green sea turtles. Aziz really has a good eye, particularly for the smallest creatures under water.
On the second dive we saw u.a. a huge barracuda, a pipefish, a porcelain cancer and a pipefish. For lunch we went to the beach the paradise island Mataking. The third and last dive that day we were a total of 15 large marine turtles include. It is very fascinating to encounter these animals underwater. In addition, we saw a yellow, black spotted boxfish. The diving was amazing and with many colorful pictures in the head, we drove back to Semporna.

The next day went by boat to Mabul Island. Here the difference is between rich and poor particularly hard in the eye. The left of the boat dock located on the beach makeshift huts, that look as if they could withstand any breeze. Tourists are right on loungers on the beach front of the hotel resort and sunbathe. This is a very strange picture and we were glad, that we did get a room here. It is hard to imagine, to lie down here on the beach, where people live right next door obviously in very great poverty. Try our diving school scuba junkie, to support the villagers something, in which they them e.g.. Provide rubbish bins and take them to empty with the mainland. This, of course, the underwater world is protected, because pretty much garbage ends up on and in the water.
On the second day we were diving with a dive three times and had even with all his strength to fight against the strong currents. It was exhausting. This time we saw some large schools of fish, Stingrays and even an octopus.

On our last day in Semporna Borneo and we rented together with Debbie and Yves a small boat and went for a snorkel trip to the island Sibuan. Our driver but had yet to organize the snorkeling equipment for the two Belgians and so we went first to a small village on stilts on the water. A few kids were watching us all the time and waved shyly over to us, while we waited for the boat driver. Arrived at the island we immediately got into the water. The view was great and there were plenty of beautiful coral. The highlight was a couple of sea turtles, were just a few feet away from us. Thanks underwater camera Dopey could make some great shots of them.

After breakfast the next morning it was called then “Good bye” from the natural paradise of Borneo. The island has provided us with their dense green jungle, the beautiful National Park and the fascinating wildlife like super. With the minivan we were taken to Tawau airport and boarded the plane back to Kuala Lumpur…