Mataking Island and Sipadan Dive Trip (28th November - 1st December 2009)

Mataking Island - Located latitude119 degrees and longitude 4 degrees and 35 minute. Is about 40minute boat ride from the main land of Semporna, province of Sabah Malaysia.

The Island is about 40 arces and lies on the edge of continental shelf surrounded by fringing reef of hard and soft coral, In this island there is only one resort "The Reef Dive" Resort of Mataking. (http://www.mataking.com/)

This is a trip that I anticipate for a long long time..... This trip suppose to happened some time around year 2008, however due to my wife pregnant we have to postpone the trip till she delivered and ready for dive.

To reach Mataking Island you can take airasia, MAS or any airline that reach Tawau airport, from the airport there will be land transfer arrange by the resort to take you from Tawau to Semporna which take about 1.5 hours, from Semporna is just another 40 minute boat ride to reach the island.

We are staying chalet room which are consider a better one, overall the staying is great, comfortable and a very friendly staff around. However the price is a bit on the high side considering the food, dive and accommodation.

As for diving...... Mataking is well know as a macro haven, you can find lots of nudibranch, shirmp, lobster, sea turtle and even pipe fish. But please do not expect something big like manta, whale shark, school of baracuda, jack and etc.

During the night there will be some cultural dance to keep you entertain and you will be amaze with the dancer, why? not because they are superb, just because you can see those dancer are the waiter, waitress  and even dive master.....lol....

The highlight of the trip is our 1 day trip to Sipadan island which took about 80minute with fast speed boat from the resort.

Diving in Sipadan is absolutely amazing, the amount of shark, turtle and other sea life you see is just amaze you. Till this trip I have clock around 40++ so far the best is Manta Ray in Thailand, but Sipadan just a different world after all.

Due to the formation of Sipadan most of the dive is a wall dive because Sipadan is basically bottomless (about 600meter deep). Sipadan is the place I will definitely going again because this trip I only able to make 3 dive in Sipadan, In fact I just make my booking  to stay in Kapalai Water Village from 4th August to 8th August 2011.

Back to Mataking....... Like what I said before price in Mataking is a bit on the high side, however Mataking is much more suitable for romantic couple or family that looking for exclusive holiday with some diving and family getting together. For hardcore dives I think with the amount of money paid I would suggest Sipadan, as for me this is much like a annual honeymoon trip so is still not too bad. In total we spend about RM 7k for 2 person all inclusive, in term of exclusiveness still no way near our honeymoon to Maldive but the amount of money paid is also different.

Here are some photo

Redang Island 28th April 2008

Redang Island is one of the largest island off the east coast of Malaysia. Together with nine other island they form the marine park. White sandy beach, crystal clear water and brilliant underwater world make Redang a major tourist attraction during the month of March till October, thousand of visitor from local and oversea flooded Redang during its peak season.

This is the 2nd time I travel to this island and the first time as a scuba diver, we travel in a group of 10 with 5 scuba divers, 1 about to turn himself to be diver and 4 other non-divers. To reach Redang you either take a bus from Kuala Lumpur main bus station or flight to Kuala Terengganu Airport and you need to take a boat from Merang Jetty which approximately 45 minute in order to reach the island.

This round we will stay in Redang Kalong Resort one of the five start dive center in Redang (Redang Kalong) some of  the nice scenery

In total we do 6 dive which cover dive site like South Tip Pulau Lima, Chek Isa, Terumbo Kili, Mat Cantik, Black Coral Garden and house reef of Kalong Resort (night Dive). You can get the info of all dive site in Redang from Redang Dive Site.

Travelling package in Redang usually consist of Full Board meal and usually Saturday night with BBQ dinner, diving in Redang is consider inexpensive and reasonable price. If you want to party at night you can either choose to stay in Long Beach which most of the resort located, or Redang Kalong which is 10minute walking distance away from long beach. There will be party and drinking all night in long beach.

Personally I prefer somewhere quite to get out of hectic city like in Kuala Lumpur. If you need any information regarding diving in Malaysia you can contact me via my email

Some underwater photo

Krabi - Thailand

8th February 2008 - Fly from Malaysia to Krabi Thailand, my annual honeymoon + dive trip. This is the first time I'm travelling to Krabi, In Malaysia Krabi is not as famous as Phuket although they are only 1 hours away from each other.

Krabi (http://www.krabi.com/) located on Southern of Thailand at the shore of Andaman Sea, the most notable are the solitary limestone hills both on the land and on the sea as island it attract thousands of rock climber from all over the world for rock climbing activities. However rock climbing is never my type of activities maybe is against gravity, my main agenda of this trip is an annual honeymoon and 2 dive in 2 world famous dive side Hin Daeng and Hin Muang. Things  to see....... The mighty Manta Ray and Whale Shark.

9th February 2008 - We gather in hotel lobby waiting for dive center staff to pick us up to their boat the weather is nice but the water is a bit choppy, to reach the 2 dive side we need to travel from Krabi with speed boat for 2 hours and 30min again..... is a very difficult journey due to the water condition.

Once we reach the first dive site Hin Daeng, we gear up and jump in the water and start our first dive to look for Manta ray...... according to dive master we should able to spot the Manta as the ratio of seeing one is 7 out of 12 dive. There is nothing much special under the water because everyone only focus on one thing the MANTA......

After almost 40minute we didn't even see the shadow of manta and is very disappointed and we decide to end the dive since nothing much to see. The dive master signal for our routine 3min safety stop with 80bar of air in my tank, suddenly I heard the dive master banging his tank repeatedly and pointed to the reef.......... There she came....The MANTA RAY !!! My wife start taking video and we decent to 10 meter with no time. It was huge and a beauty....Is beyond our speech and is an AWESOME experience and unbelievable how magnificent is this creatures.

First dive ended with lots of happiness and our hope is high for the whale shark..... However 2nd dive end with nothing..... no whale shark and no manta ray as well.... anyway is a very good experience and an unforgettable one. The balance few days in Krabi we didn't dive anymore, we decide to enjoy in the hotel, visit some local market and enjoy the food.

Check out the video and photo of this trip below.

Krabi Sunset

Limestone

Dive Shop Ower, Dive Master and Friend from Singapore we meet during the trip

Me and My Wife

Hotel We Stay

More Post to Come......................

Dayang Island Malaysia My First Dive Trip

Dayang Island located on the northern east cost of state of Johor approximately 65km off Mersing Jetty, Dayang Island is West Malaysia's furthest and most unique paradise out in South China Sea, Surrounded by crytal clear blue water and white sandy beach. Read more about the island at http://www.dayangisland.com/

Diving is always something I wanted to do since student, however due to the cost of this hobby and many other factor it has been delay till October 2007. This is my first dive trip, during this trip I will also do my PADI Open Water Certification and also PADI Advance Open Water Certification.

To access to Dayang from Kuala Lumpur (Capital of Malaysia) you can either take a Bus from KL main station which will took approximately 6 hours to reach Mersing or drive to Mersing which will took approximately 4-5 hours. This trip we decide to drive since car is available and plenty of dive gear to carry.

Me, my wife, 2 of our friend (1 non diver) and dive instructor Encik Nizam, 5 of us split into 2 cars start our journey at 6pm local time on 4rd of October to start our 4Days/4Night trip.

We reach Mersing Jetty around 12am Midnight and depart from jetty by a fishing boat around 1am check out the picture below

Normally most people will travel with a big ferry (150 people ferry), we used a fishing boat because we are going in the island 1 day earlier then the rest......... The consequences ...... a suffering night due to a small boat and very choppy water, anyway we arrived safely after 6 hours of boat ride.

Is a worth suffering 6 hours, what waiting for us is a calm and crystal clear water of Dayang Island !. Is amazing I never even heard about this island on my 30 years staying in Malaysia.

Some of beautiful photo of Dayang Island  

View from top

White Sandy Beach

Crystal Clear Blue Water

After check in to the simple and clear resort we take some light breakfast and get ready for my maiden dive !!!.

In this dive trip I completed a total of 12 dives and qualified as an PADI open water divers and Advance Open water divers certificate. All in all is an awesome experience and a very good start of a series of dive trip.

Dive site in Dayang Island: Pulau Lang, Pulau Pinang, Captain Point, Aur Reef, Batu Rakit, Dayang Jetty and many more.

The one I like the most is Batu Rakit due to is beatiful sea scaping, big rock and deep dive (max I done for this trip 28 Meter).

To anyone that thinking of taking up this hobby.....STOP Thinking and START doing it. Below is some photo taken during this dive trip, I will share more of my experience and places I dive before .... do check out my next post. Bye Bye

Cutter Fish

Crown Fish

Crown Fish

Nudibranch

Moray Eel

Me and My wife