Épars: Return to Sipadan-Kapalai

Fourth time to Kapalai since my first visit in 2003. Obviously I can't get tired of the place. Located in Malaysian Borneo, Kapalai is the most beautiful diving resort that I've been to, on the most amazing dive site of the world that I've been so far. The island of Sipadan is this drop-off in the open sea, to about 900m deep. It is a marine turtle sanctuary, attracts large pelagics like hammerhead sharks and schools of barracudas, and has a resident school of huge bumphead parrotfish. More info here. Things have changed a bit, we cannot stay on Sipadan since 2005 hence the best shore diving and night dives in the world, right off the drop-off, are no longer available. But since it is because the Malaysian government wants to keep the island clean and the marine turtles nesting undisturbed, it's all in good faith.

This time, my dive buddies were ZL, an old high-school friendship rekindled in the strangest of conditions, and GF from Vancouver, met on a boat in the Big Island last year. As in January in the Similans, I was worried about strangers not getting along - but let's say that my fears evaporated quite quickly ;)

Sunset Blvd, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

We met really nice divers from the UK, Spain, Hong Kong and Belgium. P from the UK reported that the hammerheads were missing from Layang-Layang, probably because it was still too early in the season. Maybe I jumped the gun - the reports by one of the Layang-Layang divemasters can be found here. But P also happened to know South Siam and said that they had had the best season there. So it was an easy choice to extend my trip and return to... the Similans. With GF next week, April 6-9. We convinced IG from Spain to join us as well (like that was so hard!!!).

For some strange reason, even though there are no more resorts on the island, the marine life wasn't around much this year. Less than 5 turtles per dive, no bumphead parrotfish the size of me, absent school of jacks, no vortex, and no school of hammerheads. The seahorses have disappeared from Mabul. Is this cyclical or global warming or due to too many divers, I ask? But the large school of barracudas by the drop-off has returned after having gone missing for 2 years or so. So there is hope. I suppose I can only find out the answer to this by coming back next year with the ever-expanding dive club!!!

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