SEAVENTURES OIL RIG, OFF MABUL ISLAND, MALAYSIAN BORNEO
That's right, you heard me: For the next three days, we're staying on an oil rig! Actually, it's an oil rig that's been converted into a dive resort. Pretty cool, huh? Oh yeah, that's the reason we made the journey to lovely Semporna yesterday: It's the nearest port to Sipadan Island, which Jacques Cousteau once referred to as "an untouched piece of art," and which has been ranked as one of the top ten dive locations in the world. There are no resorts on Sipadan anymore (the government kicked them all off--long story), so this is about as close as we can stay. The rig is just offshore from the island of Mabul, which itself is only a 25-minute boat ride away from Sipadan, and features some amazing diving, too.
What's even crazier about staying here is that Chris and I will be their only guests for the next three days! There were 19 others when we got here, but it was their last day, so now, apart from the staff, we have an entire oil rig to ourselves, complete with game room, sun deck (formerly the helicopter pad), and karaoke bar! How weird is that? And it's actually quite a comfortable place: The rooms are air-conditioned, the food is great, and there are hot showers and free internet. This place really seems like the Hilton after four days in the jungle at Uncle Tan's!
After arriving this morning via boat, we had a "welcome" briefing and then met the Seaventures dive team: Ian and James, both from the UK, and Mando, from the Philippines. Ian is about my age, and was formerly in the British army, while James is only 21, and currently working on his cave diving certification. Mando, who's dived at Sipadan for nine years and seems to be constantly in a good mood, will be Chris' and my dive master for all our dives. So it looks like we'll be in good hands.
Our first dive today was really a "check" dive to see how our diving skills were. So Chris, Mando and I were lowered by a lift platform (very convenient!) right into the ocean to dive at Seaventures' "house reef" directly below the rig. There's a good amount of metal, tires, and other junk down there, which the fish like to skulk around, so we saw quite a bit. For the first time, I got to see some crododile fish (a whole mess of them, actually), a cockatoo waspfish, and a tiny pink pygmy seahorse perfectly camouflaged in a pink sea fan. I also saw a cuttlefish, some colorful nudibranchs, and the usual lionfish, moray eels, stingray, scorpionfish, and butterfly fish. Chris was using his new digital camera and housing that he bought in Singapore, and got some good shots.
Our second dive of the day was a five-minute boat ride away, just offshore from Mabul, at an artificial reef made from wooden beams joined together in large scaffold-like structures. The site is called "froggy lair" as apparently it's the home to several frogfish, but we didn't see any this time--rats! But we did see plenty of grouper and snapper, a school of shrimpfish (which swim standing on their heads), a giant moray, a great barracuda, and a really huge pharoah cuttlefish (it must have been well over two feet long), which let me get within inches of it to take its picture.
This evening Chris and I had dinner on the huge sun deck, and were joined by Ian, James, Mando, and some of the other staff, who had bought some Tanguay (cheap Filipino rum) to share. Mando, who Ian refers to as the "human jukebox," then brought out his guitar and entertained us by singing dozens of songs--mostly '80s cheese rock (Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, and the like), with a few Malay and Filipino pop songs thrown in. It was a lot of fun, especially after several rum and cokes....
That's right, you heard me: For the next three days, we're staying on an oil rig! Actually, it's an oil rig that's been converted into a dive resort. Pretty cool, huh? Oh yeah, that's the reason we made the journey to lovely Semporna yesterday: It's the nearest port to Sipadan Island, which Jacques Cousteau once referred to as "an untouched piece of art," and which has been ranked as one of the top ten dive locations in the world. There are no resorts on Sipadan anymore (the government kicked them all off--long story), so this is about as close as we can stay. The rig is just offshore from the island of Mabul, which itself is only a 25-minute boat ride away from Sipadan, and features some amazing diving, too.
What's even crazier about staying here is that Chris and I will be their only guests for the next three days! There were 19 others when we got here, but it was their last day, so now, apart from the staff, we have an entire oil rig to ourselves, complete with game room, sun deck (formerly the helicopter pad), and karaoke bar! How weird is that? And it's actually quite a comfortable place: The rooms are air-conditioned, the food is great, and there are hot showers and free internet. This place really seems like the Hilton after four days in the jungle at Uncle Tan's!
After arriving this morning via boat, we had a "welcome" briefing and then met the Seaventures dive team: Ian and James, both from the UK, and Mando, from the Philippines. Ian is about my age, and was formerly in the British army, while James is only 21, and currently working on his cave diving certification. Mando, who's dived at Sipadan for nine years and seems to be constantly in a good mood, will be Chris' and my dive master for all our dives. So it looks like we'll be in good hands.
Our first dive today was really a "check" dive to see how our diving skills were. So Chris, Mando and I were lowered by a lift platform (very convenient!) right into the ocean to dive at Seaventures' "house reef" directly below the rig. There's a good amount of metal, tires, and other junk down there, which the fish like to skulk around, so we saw quite a bit. For the first time, I got to see some crododile fish (a whole mess of them, actually), a cockatoo waspfish, and a tiny pink pygmy seahorse perfectly camouflaged in a pink sea fan. I also saw a cuttlefish, some colorful nudibranchs, and the usual lionfish, moray eels, stingray, scorpionfish, and butterfly fish. Chris was using his new digital camera and housing that he bought in Singapore, and got some good shots.
Our second dive of the day was a five-minute boat ride away, just offshore from Mabul, at an artificial reef made from wooden beams joined together in large scaffold-like structures. The site is called "froggy lair" as apparently it's the home to several frogfish, but we didn't see any this time--rats! But we did see plenty of grouper and snapper, a school of shrimpfish (which swim standing on their heads), a giant moray, a great barracuda, and a really huge pharoah cuttlefish (it must have been well over two feet long), which let me get within inches of it to take its picture.
This evening Chris and I had dinner on the huge sun deck, and were joined by Ian, James, Mando, and some of the other staff, who had bought some Tanguay (cheap Filipino rum) to share. Mando, who Ian refers to as the "human jukebox," then brought out his guitar and entertained us by singing dozens of songs--mostly '80s cheese rock (Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, and the like), with a few Malay and Filipino pop songs thrown in. It was a lot of fun, especially after several rum and cokes....
posted by John Kuge at 11:34 PM
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