Sipadan-Kapalai Dive Resort

Well it has lived up to the hype. The Sipadan-Kapalai resort is a series of huts, built on stilts over a reef in the middle of the water. Very cool. While there is land around you that you can see, the most settled town is about an hour away by boat. To add to the mystique of place about 5 or 7 years ago, pirates came and attacked a resort, taking the western tourists for a few months. While I am glad that I have not been taken by pirates yet, it would be quiet an adventure. This resort was built to resist the pirates, since the water around us is shallow (due to the reef), the big ships can't make it in to kidnap us!

The diving has been pretty remarkable. While the water is not as clear as the Carribean or Belize, and is a little cooler as well, I have seen thousands and thousands of fish. We have seen a ton of massive turtles...huge turtles who are chilling out. They are like the giraffes in South Africa, the first time you see one you are all excited and spend some quality time watching it. As the dives go on, you see a turtle and you are like "oh, another big turtle." That said, it is pretty remarkable to see these huge animals! We have also been able to see quite a few sharks. A couple varieties and they are decent size (3 feet or more). I am not sure they would want to eat us, but it is cool to see them.

The thing that I have like most was this morning. We left the resort at 5:30 am to head out to Sipadan Island. We dove early ( I guess certian fish are only by the reefs at the break of dawn?!). We were able to see tons of fish, big huge schools of fish....not just one variety but many. The highlight of the morning for me was the school of Barracuda. We swam through and then sat under a huge school of barracuda who were just looking at us and swimming around...thousands of them. Very very cool.

Nemo was here as well...I did spy a couple of orange clown fish hanging out by some coral/anenomes like they do in the movie...just keep swimming, just keep swimming.

We have four dives left and then the day's journey to get back to Bangkok. It was truly a mission to get here: Flight 1-2 hours, flight 2-3 hours, bus ride-1.5 hours, boat ride-1 hour. Add in there wait time and loading, unloading, and you have yourself a mission! The good news was that I was able to finish Harry Potter!