The beginning of the end... (from Semporna to Manila, to Puerto Princessa)

On the morning of April 22, 2008, I grudging packed my bags, dutifully transported myself to the airport, checked in and sat around for the next hour, thinking. Its been over 7 months since i've been in Vancouver. I've transited thousands of kilometers by every form of transport known to man through 8 amazing countries (except of course, by animal, maybe i'll hitch a ride on the back of a turtle when i go island hopping?). I've walked along the stunning beaches of countless islands, trekked through the densest and oldest of jungle, and dived the most amazing reefs.

As i waited in the terminal, i felt a sudden sadness drape over me. The plane was to depart soon, and within the next 7 hrs, i would enter Manila and the final country on my itinerary. 6 weeks in the Philippines. Will that be enough or too much? My best friend will arrive in less than 24 hrs (which i cannot wait) and we will go around together for a few weeks. I had no idea how much i would miss her and everyone else when i left home . I cannot wait till she arrives. A friendly face in a sea of strangers will be of great comfort. My flight home has still not been booked. Maybe its just that i don't want to. I've been out here for so long and i want to go home sooo badly but something keeps me from searching for flights (i'm still an excellent procrastinator of course).

In the last weeks, i have always been traveling with someone. Talking with new people, exchanging new ideas and experiences, i wonder what things will be like when i get home. Am I still the same person i was 7 months ago? Have i changed? Is it for the better or for the worse? I will find out soon enough. If anyone knows who I am it is my best friend. I'm curious to see what she thinks of me now.

Anyways, everything i do for the next 6 weeks will be a bittersweet experience. I have big plans for the Philippines, as with every country i go to. Lets see how many of the things i can do. I must say, arriving 3 hrs outside of metro Manila was actually quite fortunate. I bumped into a cool Kiwi (they all seem to be cool, well, at least the 2 that i've met) and we traveled together for 2 days in Manila. Manila itself is a wicked city. Much more than i ever expected. And the people, amazing. I have no idea why people don't come out here more often. Fine its dirty, but its the same all over SE asia with of course the exception of Singapore.

So back to Malaysia then. My last days in Sabah basically involved a short bus ride to the neighboring town of Tawau where we found a nice and cheap little eco resort in the middle of the jungle. It was set among fruit farms and jungle. A very nice touch. Funniest thing, my 'friend' ordered a large water, and of course they gave her a small water instead. Now, wanting a large water, she asked the waiter to change it. What did he bring back? The water in a glass. HAhahaha! I told her to forget it. If she asked again, it probably would have come back with a straw or ice in it.

Oooooh, scary wooden shark...

View from the eco lodge

We parted ways for the final time on a rainy, bleak tuesday morning. She had a flight to catch in Bangkok in the coming days, while my fate brought me out to the beautiful islands of the Philippines. No tears were shed as we are both just travelers continuing on our separate journeys throughout the world. Though, I must admit i miss her company through all the traveling i've done in the last week (but i'm so glad i no longer have to search high and lo for Diet Coke, although its quite easily procured out here in Philippines, funny the things you notice). Anyways, it was a good 2 weeks together, a time i will not soon forget.



I was thinking that this blog would just be a short and simple one, but since i'm here, i might as well continue with my stories.

My first jeepney ride! Excited Japanese tourist here!

Manila, capital of the Philippines, often overlooked by travelers as a dirty, dingy, unorganized sprawling mess of buildings, concrete roads, hookers and exhaust spewing tricycles. Yes, it is all that but yet, so much more! I was very impressed by the city as we entered from the north (Clark Airport, discount airport of course). Of all the cities that i've come across, Manila most closely resembled (upon first impression of course) Tokyo. Tokyo you say? How is that possible? Isn't the Philippines a 3rd world nation? Why yes it is. And its still very evident as we drive past slum after slum after slum. But there is something quite amazing about having multilevel overpasses, mixed with light rail and mass transport infrastructure strewn about. All passing above western style malls and, of course at the bottom, slums. When you see nice western cars mixed in with jeepneys and tricycles, it always makes me smile at the sillyness of humanity.


I only spent a few days in Manila (2 with a Kiwi and 2 with a Swede). Most of the time was spent running errands for the upcomming arrival of my best friend, and just plain walking about (most of it in the Mall of Asia, i still can't believe we spend 12 hrs in one day there! Ha!). I wasn't in a rush to see much since i will be going back there again in the future so the description of Manila will be left at this for now.

Mmmmmm, garbage barge...

Well actually to our delight, it contained not garbage, but fireworks!

How fantasmic is this!

Finally, someone to sing K with! At 10 Peso/song, you can't got wrong!

(actually, i have a few vids too, but you'll have to wait for it, takes a while to upload)

Haw Haw, can't skate!

Chilling outside the Mall of Asia

Die evil monsters!

Some really cute kids outside Chinatown

Here they are again, such wonderful smiles

Back at the hostel. Nothing really special, just a bunch of Filippinos.

I took the 12 hr Super Ferry from Manila to Coron town (i believe, my first long ocean voyage) which deposited me in the middle of nowhere at 9 pm at night. Starving and tired (i had slept all day, because i pulled an all nighter the day before) I popped into an italian restaurant that just happened to be there, ate, hailed a tricycle and headed into town. Which of course was perfect considering it just started to pour. In the morning, i headed out shopping. Not for clothes or supplies, for what else but, dive shops. Quite honestly, i did not like any that i came across. None seemed very professional except one, and that one seemed to have a twat for an instructor. With basically no real good options, i went with the twat (they were also the most expensive, but hey, they have an on-site recompression chamber, makes you feel all warm and fuzzy doesn't it?).

Coron Bay

Nice walkway

Day 1 really had nothing special to talk about. I did two deep (25+ m) dives in very poor visibility water. What was i looking for? Old Japanese world war 2 wrecks. Ok, so the wrecks were really cool to look at underwater. I won't deny that. But as for fish life, pretty ordinary. We swam about the wrecks, back to front and then came back up. That's about it. I think day 1 was such a disappointment because of this american girl in my dive group. First of all, it has nothing to do with the fact that she's american. It has to do with that she sucks ass at diving. In the first dive, she used up all her air in like 20 min (we were supposed to be down for 45 min). So then my group had to surface (a swedish guy was my buddy). But it didn't just end there, we followed the dive master up as we were supposed to, but he knew so little english he never really explained what we were going to do. I think we did various deco (decompression) stops along the way for extra levels of safety. I have no idea, we just stopped while ascending a few times. By that time, the girl had almost completely run out of air and was now using the drop tank (emergency tank left hanging in the water). Things looked pretty grim. When we surfaced, i asked what happened and she told me she was confused about who to follow, blah, blah, blah. I told her no problem, as long as you're ok. Didn't want to add "it still doesn't explain why you used your air so fast! Bitch..." Ok, so i didn't actually call her a bitch, and she didn't really deserve the label either (she was a nice girl), its just that i was so annoyed we had to come up so fast. Either way, next dive she was no longer with us which was a relief for me (i hate diving with newbs now!). But then of course, after the second dive, i find out that she was allowed to penetrate the wreck while i was stuck outside, looking at stupid coral and fish again! What is up with that? This girl cannot dive worth shit and here i am, poking around outside the wreck. i was not impressed. Of course i didn't mention this to anyone, but this time, i was pissed.


Day 2. I was either going inside the wrecks or i wasn't going to dive! The morning was nice like the day before and we headed out for 2 new wrecks. We finished our briefing and I asked the dive master if i was going inside this time. I stared him in the face and he looked at me, for just a second, and said ok. Sweet! I'm finally going into one of these bad boys! Really, the previous day, i just watched people swim and disappear into these giant cargo holds. Only to follow their bubbles (which were coming out of the wreck) and find them exiting on the other side. I was so envious!


Wreck one, a cargo ship sunk back in 1944 by the Helldivers bomber fleet was sitting upright on the bottom at approximately 27 m below the surface with a length of 110ish m. We entered a massive gaping hole in the stern and proceeded towards the bow through what appeared to be the upper deck. Cool, as a word, just cannot describe the feeling i had when I entered this massive steel structure underwater. We swam along a well illuminated deck, through doors and even windows (wreck and cave diving are the true tests of your buoyancy control) to the main cabin in the centre. From there we swam up through the top (why there was a massive hole here i forgot to ask, but probably a bomber?) and entered another section close by. This time, it was not a passage but a room which we entered and exited the same way. It looked like the bridge of the ship or something but after so many years underwater, things were difficult to make out. It really felt like i was on the surface of the moon or something, things were so different looking and the environment so cramped and narrow. Fun? Oh yeah, but nothing compared to the second wreck we saw that day.


Wreck two, a cargo ship which was also sunk back in 1944 by the Helldivers had a lot more to offer. Although roughly the same length and at the same depth, this one had a unique twist. It was lying on the bottom on its starboard side. What this meant was that the decks were now vertical instead of horizontal which made things much easier to maneuver through. That, plus the fact that we swam the entire length of the vessel on the first pass and half of in on the second, all on the inside! Add to that, we entered internal compartments that were completely sealed off from the surface (imagine being locked into a room underwater with no escape!). Finally, to top things off, maneuvering about in the ship first required going over and under obstructions (fallen beams, bent walls, etc), and towards the end, required swimming through tunnels and holes just wide enough for a diver to fit through (i as well as other, got stuck as either our equipment snagged, or some were just fat, hhahah!). And no, these weren't windows or doorways, they were ragged metal holes! Oh, and don't forget, its dark inside. But not completely black as light came in through portholes and cracks. Just spooky, eerily lit. Hahaha! Fantastic! What an experience.


Final dive of the day. My first ever freshwater dive. Nothing terribly special about freshwater and lakes in general. But this one was unique. Surface temperature was something like 25ish degrees. Down below 10 m, the temp suddenly rises to 38ish degrees. Another 10 m below that it drops back down to 32ish degrees. Cool huh (pardon the pun)? It definitely was when we got down there. There was little life in this lake and we descended along the sandy surface through the first thermal. Well, thats what i thought the bottom was. Up until the divemaster called all of us to look at him. I was like what do you want now? We're fine, no need to worry. Then all of a sudden he jammed his hand into the 'sand' and sank all the way up to his shoulder! He then took off one of his fins and put his leg in all the way to his hip! Hhahaah, it was quite a sight to see and i couldn't help but smile through my regulator. I pushed my hand into the 'sand' as well but stopped well short of my wrist. It felt not like sand, but like jello. Jello with mysterious chunks (probably shells). I couldn't fathom the courage to put my entire arm into this mysterious goo. Besides, i was just enjoying the nice warm water we just entered.


And yes, the water was literally hot! Its quite a jump in temp when you go from 25ish to 38ish. Like jumping into a hot shower! At first it was too much to handle as i still had my wetsuit on. But after a few moments it became very comfortable, almost spa like. We swam along the underwater limestone ridge for the next little bit. It was quite an impressive site. Like Halong bay limestone stone structures but underwater! These sharp stones piercing the sky above you while plunging deep down into dark murky water below, with you 'flying' by at mid level gave you a really spooky feeling.

We found a nice little underwater passage and swam through on our way back to the exit, at which point, we entered the cooler surface water. Actually cooler might not be the best description. Freezing cold would be more like it. Yes, it was damn cold! i have no idea how i could have handled it in the first place! Every one of us immediately dove back down through the thermal and cruised back in the warmer waters below (all except this really fat guy, he had enough natural insulation i guess). Its weird to swim in such a sharp, contrasting thermal. You put your hand up an you can feel cold water and your feet are in warm. In between, its quite warm but the water is very blurry as the different temps mix. Its so hard to see that you lose all shapes and forms just a mere 5 m away from you and have them replaced by only colors. In addition to this blurry zone, in areas where no one has swam before, you can stay just under the thermal and the light reflects in just a way that a dark, thin line appears. This line, can only be seen at a very shallow angle to the thermal and strangely, gives the water the appearance of two mutually repulsive liquids, like oil and water.

So anyways, of the 5 dives i did in Coron, 3 were amazing, and the other 2 were just ok. Would i dive there again or on some other wreck? I really don't know. Its cool once in a while but i feel i'm not really a wreck diver. Plus, wrecks are usually quite deep. With such short bottom times and high risk of DCI, i don't think i will be doing it much. Its fun, but more for once in a while, you know, to change things up a little.

So finishing a day with 3 stellar dives in a row, i figured why ruin the moment and do more, maybe only so-so dives? I decided that i would head out for Putero Princesa a little earlier than expected, just to make sure that i got there in time to meet my best friend. The ocean voyage this time was only 8 hrs, between small islands, but on nothing more than a little pump boat as they're called. There were only 4 of us on board minus the crew so there was plenty of space to sleep on the bench, that is of course, if you can take rain and seawater occasional splashing onto your face.

Is that my lifeboat? It looks as rickety as the boat i'm on right now.

Sunset off Manila Bay

We arrived just as the sun was setting in the picturesque bay where the town of El Nido was located. I bid farewell to the Japanese fellow i had dived with and found myself a place to call home for the night. Upon walking around the town that evening, i again bumped into him in one of the local resteraunts. There we ate and shared some more dive stories (he's done close to 700 dives!). So apparently there are hammerheads around the south island of Japan. Hmm, looks like i will have to head there soon. And it just so happened that there was a dive magazine in the shop with an article about great whites. Hmmm, south australia, looks like i need to head there too. Hahha, so much diving, so little time.


Early the next morning, i hopped onto the local bus and headed to Puerto Princesa where I currently am sitting, writing this post, and waiting for my best friend. Where we off to? Who knows. Around Palawan for now. Get into the rugged beauty of the island i guess before heading off to the more refined and *gasp* commercalized beaches of Borocay.

Pulau Sipidan

What can I say?

Best diving ever?
Coolest diving ever?
Friendliest turtles ever?
Most sharks ever?

Pulau Sipidan, located off the east coast of Borneo somewhere in between the Philippines and Indonesia, did not disappoint. Photos? None. Tall tales? Hahaha, plenty. I'll just say, while waiting at the surface before the first dive even started, 3 turtles surfaced, there was a school of bumperhead parrot fish just below (yes, a school, not just one), another large school of fishies, and a 3 reef sharks. Below them, a huge reef teaming with marine life of all kinds. But the best part of all, the edge of the reef forms a wall plummeting a staggering 600ish meters straight down! There's nothing like descending 25 m down the edge of a vertical wall made of coral and still not being able to see the bottom.

I did a total of 6 dives in Sipidan, which ranged from good to absolutely amazing. If i ever become a divemaster/instructor, this is the place I'm coming back to!

The only story i'll regale my readers with involves my final dive (writing about Sipidan really is pointless, pictures i think also are worthless, nothing could possibly can capture the amazing scenery and experience I had there). The dive site is known as Turtle Tomb (18 m below the surface), an underwater cave in which turtles sometimes get lost and drown before then can reach the surface. Now, like i've said countless times, i've been to caves before. Water caves, pretty caves, hell, even the world's largest cave (still at the top of my list mind you). But there is something very special about an underwater cave. Many people say diving is like floating/flying, and i have to admit, it really feels like that when you swim into a cave! I had no idea it would be sooo cool! Really, you literally fly into it! You can poke around the roof, you can chill and the bottom, you can even just float in the middle of it upside down. That was a seriously wicked experience. Can't wait to find another cave.

Anyways, no more writing about Sipidan. If you dive, you have to go. That's it.

-bk

I'm so lazy....

Ghetto stilt house in Semporna. The water here is disgusting!
Nasty!
The local welcomer to Kapalai Resort
One of the very few fat locals
What a great place!
Spectacular day
The resort pool
That's some nice waterSweet lips
Mermaid?
Hello thereHey! Go away! Trying to do my business here! Fishies!
More fishies!
Gasp! The world's deadliest creature!
I spit in the face of danger!
Silly snorklers
Things always look more impressive at night

Outside the resteraunt

Down the boardwalk

Outside the room

-bk

the world's BIGGEST cave

Back from the jungle again! This time to Mulu National park. Been hoping to go here to see some big assed caves since i was in transit from Cameron Highlands to Taman Negara back in mid January. It was not cheap. Nor was it the easiest thing to do. But, the one cave, Deer Cave, did not disappoint.

Beautiful underground structures

Mulu is famous for its huge underground network of caves, rainforest, flowers and hornbills. Apparently, its the most famous park in Sarawak and a must see for every spleunker out there. My reason to go there? To see the one massive cave. The largest cave passage in the world. Some stats via Malaysian tourist website. 1000m long, 120 m high. Of course that means nothing to you. In fact, it meant nothing to me as well. At least, before i entered the cave.

Lame boardwalks! I guess its for all the geriatric toursits!

But lets backtrack a little. I flew out of Miri (closet city to Mulu) via a Fokker blah blah. Its the smallest plane i have ever taken with just twin propellers taking us through a 30 min journey over the beautiful forests of Borneo. Beautiful flight primarily because of its low altitude. Great views of the river and trees below.

Zooom!

Arriving in the national park and heading to my hostel i was greeted with my first disappointment. All trails in the park were guided treks with the exception of a few lame circular routes on a boardwalk. A complete contrast to Bako which had all treks listed as self guided and actually through jungle paths. Whatever, i could use the break from treking hard i figured. And plus i'm here to see a cave (which also had a boardwalk and lighting, so what, i'm not here to work hard, not at this point anyways!). So I pay my fees and lower my expectations of this park just a little. I don't want to feel like i wasted all this money for nothing!


Fastforward to a few other caves i also saw. They are supposed to be some of the most beautiful
caves in the world. One had a river (apparently the longest in the world), and the other two ha very beautiful cave formations. I had to admit, all very nice, pretty caves which i tried to take lots of pics of (but they won't let you bring in tripods! How the hell are you supposed to take low light photos with out a tripod?).


Anyhoo, lets not talk about all the jungle stuff, other show caves, river ride, etc. I only have one thing to say. If you like caves, especially big ones, you must see Deer Cave in Mulu national park. I'm not going to bother describing it to you because its basically impossible to with words. Quite honestly, its equally impossible with pictures (but i will try). You have to be there to really see it. All i will say is:

"It is the LARGEST cave i have ever seen"

Take a close look at the pic. See the walkway? Guess what, its still bigger than you think it is

Ab Lincon. A very famous view in Deer Cave

It was so big, i don't even think i could have imagined something of its size. The only regret i have is that i wasn't a better caver. In the park, deep inside a mountain, is another formation. It takes 3 hrs just to trek there. After that, 3-5 hrs of caving before you enter the Sarawak chamber. The worlds largest chamber. According to the guides, its even larger than Deer Cave! And its just a chamber! But of course, without good proper lighting, it would be impossible to truly see the entire chamber. But then again, maybe its the effect of having good, powerful lights shine off into the distance to reveal nothing but darkness that is so amazing. Who knows. One day.