Aug 2007

This was our last day out on the rig. We decided to forgo our last dives because by this point we were both dived out. Plus Andrew's ears were still sore and he had to finish some paperwork for his course. We woke up and ate some breakfast before talking to Joseph (the divemaster) for a while. He checked Andrew's workbook and said that he passed. Andrew felt like his course was sort of an afterthought for the instructor.

We packed our bags shortly thereafter, then ate lunch and hung out until our boat came along.

Nobody really told us what was going on; we just got on the boat our bags were on, so wherever we ended up, our stuff would be with us. Our ride back was a lot smoother than our ride over.

The bus met us at the dock to take us back to the office to square up the bill. Then they took us to the "bus" station to catch a bus to Lahad Datu. Well, it was a mini bas, which is a extended van, essentially, and they leave whenever they are full. Luckily we didn't have to wait long, because we were enough to fill it up (there were about 12 people in there already). As you go, you can get dropped off and picked up anywhere along the route, as long as there is space, so there is a fair bit of stopping. The ride was about 2.5 hours, but for some reason Andrew though it was only one hour. At one point a family got in with a huge durian, and boy was it smelly. We drove though huge areas of nothing but palm oil trees. As far as you could see, unless the hill was too steep, and sometimes even then .

We should be used to driving in foreign countries by now, but I don't think we're totally comfortable with it yet. There's always a lot of passing on single lane roads. About 10 minutes in, Andrew grabbed my pencil and writes "the speedometer doesn't work" in my sudoku puzzle book. We just looked at each other and shrugged and smiled. What are you going to do? After driving for about an hour, we passed an accident scene (one truck's hood was totally crumpled, and the other car was in the ditch). I think our driver slowed down for a few minutes after that, but only for a few minutes. We eventually made it to Lahad Datu, but by this point all the other passengers save one had already gotten off.

We got out of the bus and tried to find our hotel. The directions in our book were OK if you knew the town at all, but were not very helpful to us. We started off in the wrong direction, tried to ask for directions, got a lot of stares and drive offers. Finally we had had enough and decided to get some reliable information. Well, the standard is the same anywhere in the world: lost and have no idea where to go? Ask the gas station attendants. And sure enough, the local ESSO workers were very helpful. They set us off in the right direction, and we finally reached the hotel. It has a nice view of this mosque.

We checked in quickly and organized some clothes to be washed, then ate some dinner and talked for a while. After returning to our room, we played Scrabble and called it a night. I was happy to be leaving Lahad Datu in the morning.

We woke up early this morning at 5:30 and Andrew's right ear still felt plugged. He took another Sudafed, waited for an extra half hour for the boat, and ended up leaving at 6:30. It turns out that there was a problem with the boat. While we were waiting, I debated and finally decided to rent a camera for the day. We went back to dive at Sipadan again, and dove at Mid-reef and Barracuda Point.

We saw lots of turtles and sharks again. One of the sharks was sleeping. We would come close to it and it would up and swim in a big circle, only to come back to the same spot again to rest. This happened a couple of times. We also saw lots of other cool fish. Here are a few of the pictures:

So those are a few photos from the first dive. After the dive, we went to the island to eat some more sandwiches and wait to dive again.

Our second dive was pretty great also. There was a pretty strong current here, and Andrew was still having ear problems, so he didn't really enjoy himself that much. We saw lots more turtles, sharks, and a big school of barracuda. Here are some of the pictures from this site:

We wrapped up the dive and were back to the rig by 10:30. I noticed I got some pretty nasty scratches from some dead coral on the bottom. I got some pretty accusing looks from the others in the boat, labeling me a coral killer. No corals were harmed in the taking of these photos; I know way better than that.

We both promptly fell asleep for a good nap before lunch. We hung out on the deck, reading and talking until about 16:00, when we kitted up and went for another dive under the rig. Andrew was doing his navigation dive to finish his course. Again, I took some photos. Here are some of them:

We came out of the water, and were ready to check out the pictures from the day.

There were more than 200 (it was hard to narrow down which ones I would put here, let me just say). We enjoyed a very nice sunset from the sundeck of the boat while waiting for the pictures to transfer to the iPod.

That night there was a wonderful barbecue buffet for dinner. Lots of food: fish, shrimp, lamb. Delicious!

It wasn't difficult to get to sleep, after diving all day and a full stomach of good food.

PS If you're interested in the names of all the things we saw, I tried my hardest to label most of the photos in the online photo album. Common and scientific names, because that's how I roll. Click here to access them (there are extra comments on some of them too).

After renting a digital camera for a day, my next dive investment will be a waterproof case for the point-and-shoot.