why wy?

Just got back from a great dive trip in Sipadan, and while everyone is complaining of being wet in Singapore, at least we were wet underwater.

We decided to spoil ourselves at Sipadan Water Village and the room was massive, to say the least. It looks way better than on the website, so will put some pictures up even though I may lose some friends.

For non-divers, Sipadan is pretty amazing, but you won't appreciate it until you've been to places like Tioman and Phuket, where you have to search for ages to see anything decent. It is very easy to get jaded because there is just so much to see in one dive site on Sipadan. So in point form...

best sighting - 2 devil rays sweeping past us. In the deep, big fish check you out, not the other way around.

the one that got away - a hammerhead shark the other group saw. Also a pygmy seahorse that only joe saw, because I was too sick with food poisoning to dive.
Murphy's Law man. The one thing I want to see, he sees.

see until bored - turtles. At one site I counted 8 turtles, turning my head from left to right. You pretty much see turtles on every dive, even at the house reef on our check-out dive. There was one turtle being followed by a procession of 3 batfish, very cute. Italian divers have a thing for turtles, apparently.

grumpies - the big fish tend to look angry, for example the tuna, the lone barracuda, the mantis shrimp, the big groupers and napoleon wrasses. Even the turtles. Now that everyone dives with a camera, it feels like swimming with the paparazzi - this poor fish is going what the f***, piss off.

the small stuff - leaf fish, lovely ghost pipes just under the jetty, cleaner shrimp, crab eye goby. We made friends with some KL divers, so will link to them when their pictures are up.

win some lose some - I actually got down to my dream weight, thanks to the above mentioned food poisoning incident. I have since put it all back rapidly, and more, thanks to my Tawau cousins who insist on feeding me every two hours.
"You must try this, Singapore don't have."
"No, don't eat from that stall, standard gone down. I take you to a better place."

Now I know how foreigners in Singapore feel.

Tomorrow, I haul my hefty ass to Kota Kinabalu, where I am planning to conquer a bowl of bak kut teh. We have decided to follow good advice and not attempt mount KK because it will hurt - a lot. Part of me still wishes we were going up, although it is too late to book huts and make the necessary arrangements. Instead, we are going to do a couple of short treks around the foothills.