27 Dec 2010 - Last night on Kapalai

It was a beautiful morning here at Kapalai. Nice morning to sleep in except for the natural alarm clock provided by the numerous gossiping herons outside the resorts. I bet they're boasting to each other about the size of their catches for their breakfast. As there's still some time before our breakfast, I couldn't resist getting out to the balcony to get my hands on some shots of our noisy neighbours while they're having their fish party.

Got a little too engrossed with the birds photography that I've forgotten the time. Very quickly, we head out to the dining hall for our breakfast, which again was quite a spread. For some reason, I love the fried bee hoon and the breads which was warm and moist inside.  It's hard not to gain weight here! Fortunately I was out late so I didn't have the luxury of time to stuff myself silly with all the yummy food.

Silhouette of a passing heron from my balcony at Sipadan-Kapalai Resort - Sabah, Malaysia

Passing heron from my balcony at Sipadan-Kapalai Resort - Sabah, Malaysia

Next stop is to the dive centre after the breakfast where we get changed into our wetsuit before getting onto the boat. For non Sipadan diving days, the standard schedule appears to be 2 boat dives in the morning, followed by 1 boat dive after lunch. Thereafter you're free to do unlimited housereef dive if you're in the mood. All you need to do is to put your name up on a board with the expected time of your dive and your gear will be prepared. After you're done from your housereef dive, just erased your name so they know you're back. This looks like a wonderful arrangement that seems to work pretty  well to handle the fair amount of guests (it's the peak Christmas season) while we're there.

The morning dives for this morning is to Si Amil island and Danawan island which is located slightly further away than Mabul and Sipadan. Just like the dives at Sipadan, the resort have another boat to bring us some tea and snacks while we rest at the island during our surface interval. Lunch is back at Kapalai and it's off to the nearer Mabul island for our third dive. And finally we end the day with an additional night dive at the housereef.

There's still some time before dinner so we head back to the room for a washup. Being our last night on the resort, I didn't want to waste any opportunities and thus set up my camera for another star trail shoot on the balcony before I head out for diner.

Startrails from my balcony at Sipadan-Kapalai Resort - Sabah, Malaysia

During diner, the video captured for today's group at Sipadan was put up for viewing. That really got a number of us really disappointed given the no show the day before. We didn't stay too long after dinner as we need to get our stuffs packed for our departure the next day. Back at the room, I was busy switching task between packing my stuffs, preparing the camera and underwater housing for the next day and doing various shoots. Naturally, I'm not a good multitasker and that resulted in a stupid blunder which comes back to haunt me the next day.

The water below the balcony for each room is beautifully lit and you may get to see some fishes and stuffs getting around or even the occasional turtle too. Being curious about what might pass by, I quickly set up the camera to point at the sea below our balcony for some timelapse shots. Looks like it's a quiet night with just one lone fish around throughout the shot.

Planned to set up for a final star trail shot before heading to bed but the sky wasn't cooperating with clouds aplenty in the sky. Not giving up, I just go ahead to aim the camera towards the horizon for some timelapse of the cloud and water movement. Surprisingly, the results came out pretty well. The time lapse video below comprises of 402 shots captured from 23:57 to 03:53, and compressed into the 1:20 mins video. Quite a busy scene with many stuffs occuring. At times, you see fishes (those streak of lights in the water) swimming by. The changing water surface.. The clouds rolling in and thunder flashing. And at the top, you can even see some stars moving at spots where it's not covered by clouds. But you probably need to open it up in youtube and view it fullscreen in HD mode to see the stars though. See if you like it too. :)

26 Dec 2010 - Early Sipadan dives and a lazy afternoon

Ohaiyo Gozaimasu! Boxing day 2010 and it was the Sipadan dives for our group. This is what everyone is here for and surely is the highlight for our trip. With just 120 permits for divers per day at Sipadan and being around the peak Christmas holiday, we couldn't get more dives at Sipadan even if we wanted. The day started early so as to squeeze in 4 dives at Sipadan in the morning. I'm not sure why we need such tight schedule but I suspect its all due to some business decision to maximize their profitability.

All of us sleepy heads gathered at the dive centre around 05:30 in the morning, eagerly looking forward to our Sipadan dives. Our gear are already loaded into the boat by the time we reached the dive centre. But the videographer that we've booked to capture our Sipadan dives is nowhere to be found! I believe they tried to call him but couldn't get a response. Was told then he join up on the later boat to get our video for the subsequent dives. With that, we moved off and it didn't take long before we arrived at Sipadan island where we got onto the island for registration. The mozzies are out in full strength while we're waiting to get registered for our permit. Guess it's a good idea to find a "decoy" by standing next to someone in a shortie. But if you're the one wearing a shortie, tough! Give the mozzies some love, they must have been hungry with just 120 visitors a day. Slurp!

Finally, feeding time is over for the mozzies and we got into water at about a quarter pass 6. A minor "incident" for me starting the dive but that didn't borther me the least once I got on my way. Great diving at Sipadan with walls that extends all the way down 600 metres. We returned to Sipadan island after our first dive. By now, the mozzies are gone and it's our turn for breakfast. Thereafter it's three more dives around Sipadan and we're done diving for the day. Previously you can still continue with the unlimited housereef dives after the morning at Sipadan. However they have since banned additional housereef dive after doing the morning Sipadan dives due to numerous DCS cases ending up in the chamber. The only major hiccup for the 4 dives today was the no show of the videographer. He could still join up later as there's a couple of boats bringing food but he didn't. And neither was there any explaination given for the no show, which absolutely was unprofessional. Especially after we've confirmed the booking and have reminded him about the shoot. It sure made a lot of us very  disappointed about it, especially when we subsequently saw the video of another group taken on the following day.

Anyway, we have lunch back on Kapalai and it's a free & easy afternoon after that. I've initially planned to do some snokelling and also to try some over-under shots of the resort from the water. But due to the little sleep I got the couple of nights before and the early morning, I ended up in dozing off and sleeped the afternoon away. Hardly felt I had a wink before the alarm sounds for us to do some sunset shooting around the resort. I thought it was rather cool to see some folks enjoying soccer on a mini sand bank surrounded by water. Really is so glad to be out here for the beautiful sunset from the sandbank platform. The feeling was just so serene and peaceful. What more can I asked for? Hm.. K, perhaps a couple of gorgeous babes in "strawskirt" fanning me with giant palm leaves and peeling me some grapes will be nice? Oooops. Stop dreaming already dude! :p

Kayaking and soccer on a sandbank at Sipadan-Kapalai Resort - Sabah, Malaysia

Sunset at Sipadan-Kapalai Resort - Sabah, Malaysia

Very soon, the sun sets. While time and tide waits for no man, neither does the food on the buffet table. Dinner as usual is served around 19:30 so I quickly rushed back for a quick shower before joining the battle. A hungry man is an angry man! Well, but the food is worth the rush. Yummy!

Dining hall at Sipadan-Kapalai Resort - Sabah, Malaysia

Dusk on the sandbank  at Sipadan-Kapalai Resort - Sabah, Malaysia

Despite the afternoon nap, I'm still feeling quite tired and sleepy. Time to visit the Zzzz monster I guess. Again, did a quick setup for another star trails, this time pointing up just off the roof of my  balcony. This time round, I did remember to switch the sound off the intervalometer. Unfortunately the moon came into the frame halfway through the shooting and hence I could only stacked together a much smaller number of shots for a shorter trail. The moving moon (overexposed) can be seen in the time lapsed video though.

Startrails from my balcony at Sipadan-Kapalai Resort - Sabah, Malaysia

25 Dec 2010 - From Semporna to Kapalai

Good morning and Merry Christmas! Woke up early this morning for a quick photo session to catch the sunrise before our breadfast. Despite having checked the sunrise timing, I got out late for the shoot and the sun was already up. Nonetheless, we still have some beautiful colours in the sky and quickly setup for some shots. There's also a small fishing port behind our hotel but most of the activity has probably ceased by the time we got there. I guess the early bird gets the worm.

Sunrise at Semporna - Sabah, Malaysia

Small fishing port at Semporna - Sabah, Malaysia

I guess the rest of the groups are just about getting up by the time we're done with the photos. And it's time for some buffet breakfast at the hotel before we head out to the Sipadan-Kapalai Resort office at Semporna, which is just a short distance away. Compared to most other outfit, they seems to have the biggest jetty there on semporna.

Didn't take too long to get the logistics done and we're off to Kapalai on a 500 horsepower speedboat. Oh boy I can't wait! We arrived at Kapalai in no time and I'm thrilled with what I saw. Just like the relaxing resort that I always have in my dreams and here I am, finally! I didn't waste a second to enjoy the welcome drink and I'm off to look around. All the houses and walkway here are raised on stilts and surrounded by crystal clear water with fishes and many starfishes all around. It's hard to resist jumping in straight away.

Sipadan-Kapalai Resort - Sabah, Malaysia

As our rooms are not yet ready, we proceed to retrieve our dive gear and leave our luggage in the games room. By the time we arrived at the dive center for the dive briefing, our gear are mostly rigged up. Finally, we hit the water around noon for our check-out dive at Kapalai house reef. I'll do separate blog entries for the dive logs to reduce the clutter here. And then it's buffet lunch at the resort dining area. Food is fantastic with quite a good selection even for a vegetarian. The rest have apparently also enjoyed the rest of the non-vegetarian options.

Finally, our room is ready and we got our stuffs transferred to our room. For a dive resort, I'll say the room's size is generous and it comes with a big attached washroom and a balcony, which is one of my favorite corner in the room where I did a number of my birds and star trails photography. Plenty of electrical sockets are available for all those power hungry folks with 1001 chargers on all their gadgets.

Balcony at Sipadan-Kapalai Resort - Sabah, Malaysia

We have two more dives before our dinner. Dive plans for the next day is usually out in the evening and tomorrow's gonna be our big day to dive at Sipadan island itself! After dinner,  me and my dive buddy went around the resort to recce for any nice location dark location that I can do my star trails. The surrounding is too bright all around the resort. We heard from the staffs that the lights at the platform around the sandbank will be off but the area will be locked up at night. So no luck there either.

With that we head back for an early night to be ready for an early dive at Sipadan the next morning. Before turning in for the night, I set up my camera in the balcony and have my 1st attempt at star trail photography. Haha, made the mistake of not switching off the sound on the intervalometer so the whole night, I'm hearing ... click ... paused... clack.. beep beep beep.. *repeats*. But I'll say I'm pretty pleased with the final result.

Startrails from my balcony at Sipadan-Kapalai Resort - Sabah, Malaysia

It seems like the video was highly compressed by youtube that the stars all disappear when viewed via the above. You should still be able see some stars if you open the video in youtube (click twice on the above video), select the 1080p HD version and open it up to full screen. :)