Borneo, Part I: A Whole New World

When I was a young lad, I used to sit and wonder what it would be like to be a mermaid princess. I could zoom along the sea floor and sleep with the fishes. I would befriend the fish and fight the evil eel king. Oh, how I would dream of such a life! Down there...under the sea...that is where I wanted to be. However, I learned that this dream would never come true. Sadly, I was limited to life on land, with feet. That is, until I learned how to scuba dive.

Enid and I spent 5 days diving in bodacious Borneo. It was Enid's first time diving, so she was busy getting her open water diver certification, while I was working toward getting my advanced open water dive certification. And what a place to do it. Off the southeastern coast of the Malaysian state of Sabah lies Sipidan, one of the top dive sites in all the world. Sipidan was formed by a mud volcano rising up from the dark abyss below. Coral grew, then fish came, and eventually palm trees and other plants formed on the island. It is paradise, especially under the water. There are 600 meter walls on all sides of the island going deep into the dark blue oblivion below. A plethora of coral, over 3000 species of fish, and hundreds of turtles call Sipidan home.

On every dive, I saw giant turtles gently gliding through the water, sharks hunting for unsuspecting coral-basking fish, moray eels popping their heads out of crevices, triggerfish darting around, pufferfish ho-humming themselves into shelter, and just about every fish in the movie "Finding Nemo." It was ridiculous really. Sipidan is an underwater wildlife glutton. I got my hands manicured by cleaner shrimp, and my finger was almost bitten off by an eel. I saw lionfish, crocodilefish, and frogfish (oh my!). There were huge cyclones of trevally and barracuda that would swallow you up in orchestrated maneuvers that would make synchronized swimmers wet their pants. Hordes of bumphead parrotfish grazed on the coral like cows munching on grass. Blue-spotted stingrays were spotted on some dive sites like coins in a fountain. It was, in a word, indescribable.

I was lucky enough to have a camera during one of my dives. I was lent the camera for the photography portion of my advanced course. I learned all the inner working of underwater photography (can't you tell from all of my subpar pictures?). I also did a deep dive, where I went to a depth of 35 meters, many drift dives, some semi-wreck dives, and a plethora of naturalist dives. I can't wait to go again!