Michael & Yuhui – Our Life Journey

Dive #4 at White Tip Avenue, Sipadan

We’re heading to Sipadan! After the low key dives of the first day, all of us were eager to finally get to dive at Sipadan. Our dive master would still be Niger taking us to White Tip Avenue where the visibility was definitely a lot better than Day 1.

This white-tip shark swam about 2m away from me and I was holding my breath (first time up close to a shark does that to you) when I took a few quick snaps. Luckily this shot came out quite well.

The puffer fish below probably surprised me the most since i always thought it would be a diminutive creature and not the giant that you see below.
 

Zh enjoying the suspension in mid-water.

Dive #3 at House Reef, Kapalai Island

A quick break and we’re off to Kapalai Island’s house reef. There were some pretty nice sights like the clown fish in torch coral below. Vis was at 5m (becoming a common occurrence) and max depth around 20m.

Pipefish above is almost invisible and cuttlefish below also doing a good join blending in. So far I’m pretty happy with the G11 since it’s able to react fast enough for my needs.

Good end to the first day, the moon was full and lit up the night sky.

Dive #2 at Ribbon Valley 1, Mabul

After a rather hearty lunch at the resort restaurant, we had some time to laze about before our next dive. I managed to grab this panorama of the area (created using my netbook on Windows Live Photo Gallery). Personally think it really captures the beauty of the place and the wonderfully kept corals.

The sea water was ultra-clear with the sun illuminating the sea bed for perfect photo taking opportunities.

Dive #2 was also quite low on vis (5m) which was unfortunate since there was a great many sea creatures to spot. This beautiful orange plate (Thanks Julian for identifying) really stood out from it’s surrounding. If Niger hadn’t pointed out the incredibly well camouflaged frog fish, I would definitely have missed it!

Checkout Dive #1 at Paradise, Mabul

What a great way to start 2010, it was finally time to dive! Our first dive would be at Paradise, Mabul to get familiar with the basics for some of us who haven’t dived in awhile. After such a long absence, I actually had to get used to descending and took a couple of attempts before I managed to hit bottom. It’s definitely beneficial to dive regularly!

While the dive master, Niger, gave everyone the usual practice rounds of clearing masks, I decided to take the opportunity to test out the new Canon Powershot G11 with it’s underwater case which I just purchased specially for the trip (the Canon A90 was getting real old and a new upgraded was in order).

Caught sight of this curious sight where the fishes? hung around in a circle and just floated with the current.

Rather uneventful dive with murky visibility (approx 5m) even though the weather was perfect. The water was comfortable (would apply throughout the trip) and I had no issues in a 5mm full skinsuit.

Diving again at Sipadan

Looking back, it’s hard to believe it took me 2.5 years to get back into diving. The trip was planned on a suggestion from J and the destination, Sipadan. We (J, Zh and myself) would be staying at Sipadan Water Vaillage Resort, Mabul Island, Borneo booked through Gill Divers.

After a rather long bus ride from Tawau Airport to Semporna (About 1.5 hours), we hopped on a speedboat for Mabul Island where we would stay for the duration of the trip. Divers are actually not allowed to stay on Sipadan itself and there is also a limit on the visitors per day.

Stepping off the speedboat, you’re immediately greeted by the friendly staff at the resort and also the huge huts built right on the beach of Mabul.  A quick briefing on the dive times and usual indemnity form signing later, we were introduced to our lodgings which were pretty nice for a dive resort.

The three islands Mabul, Kapalai and Sipadan would be our playground for the upcoming week.

Drive to Kukup for dinner n fireworks

About a hour and quarter drive from Singapore is the coastal village Kukup in Malaysia. This would be our 2nd trip there in recent years (July 2007) but this time would be shorter since we were just planning on good food and some fireworks fun. Getting to Kukup is pretty easy since there is only one direct route via Tuas second link and then heading up to Pontian Kechil and then back south to Kukup. You can’t miss the signs on the way. We also passed by Gelang Patah where we had dined at “Restoran Tian Lai” on July 19th.

After setting off at, we hit immigration at around 5.15pm and both cars set off towards the village. The ride was uneventful via the rather well maintained country roads (mostly single lane) and we reached our destination at around 6.30pm. Parking (I think it was RM $4) is very convenient with a small bus that will take you to the village centre (5-10 min walk).

Ig recommended Ah Keong’s food as he had been here recently and we settled in to order a sumptious meal of fried bee hoon, stewed fish and crayfish. Crabs was unfortunately not available but the last dish of steamed prawns more than made up for it. Total bill was approx RM $225 which was pretty decent.

The other aim of the trip was to set off some fireworks. After some negotiation, we trooped off to find a corner to set off some explosive fun. Video below shows the highlights after some minor technical difficulties getting a good sequence (most of us were noobs at this).

More Photos

Traveling back to Singapore from Kukup

After a night of fireworks and mahjong for some, we soon were awoke to a great sunny morning. Caught sight of two snakes having a morning tussle as the smaller one was biting onto the larger one and couldn’t resist taking a snap. Our morning breakfast was all ready with a serving of nasi lemak (which had great chilli!) and youtiao.

While some chose to enjoy the free time playing a couple more rounds of mahjong and some did karaoke, we did some light reading and I tried to finish the scuba magazines. Dozed off a couple times though since it was the perfect environment to just relax and forget about work.

At about 2+, it was time to pack up and head back to Singapore. We bid farewell to the owners for their hospitality and soon were on our way off. Before leaving though, we had to collect the agar agar (jelly) we had ordered the day before. RM$6 for 12 pieces of jelly in various flavors and something different for fillings (red bean, pineapple, etc).

We had a simple seafood lunch at the entrance, “Restoran Makanan Laut Long Man”. Wasn’t anything fancy since some of the dishes seem to be reheated but for RM$70 for the whole trip, there wasn’t much to complain about!

Leaving Kukup, we were soon near Pontian where everyone shopped a little for groceries at Giant and even got a little fruits along a roadside fruit stall nearer to Johor. Our plans to have dinner just before exiting the 2nd causeway was dashed when the place seemed to be closed for renovations. Had heard that the satay there was very good but didn’t get to try it. All in all, was a great way to spend the weekend with new friends and definitely good way to forget about work and just relax.

Fireworks and Birthday Celebrations

Since everyone had snacks and weren’t feeling particularly hungry, we started dinner a little late after catching a screening of “Fantastic Four : Rise of the Silver Surfer”. The owner and his family were busy preparing a sumptuous meal for us at the back of the home. When we headed to the meal area, the tables were all laid out with items like chilli prawns, otah, squid, satay and sambal sting ray. It looked like a huge spread but everyone soon tucked into the food and also enjoyed some bbq chicken wings that was served later.

Near the end of dinner, we even got a chance to check out some of the fireworks that could be purchased and fired off at a safe clearing near the resort. Being a little over-enthusiastic in wanting to create a mini fireworks festival, we soon found ourselves with over RM$350 worth of fireworks with some eloborate items like a 50 shot one and some nicer flares.

I managed to get myself set up with a tripod some 10 metres from the luanch pad and took some photos. Was a little hard figuring out the timing of the fireworks but eventually got off some nicer snaps with two of the sequences captured on video below. Silly me left the camera in its vertical position while taking the videos and so had to rotate them and crop it for youtube. A bit of detail is lost but am glad we managed to create a mini-fireworks festival which drew a small crowd.

The night ended (before the mahjong sessions got underway) with us celebrating birthdays for Shirley and Fuming. A huge mango cake had been brought up from Singapore and we each enjoyed a slice of cake for supper.

A short cruise and visit to kelong at Kukup

Since it was still pretty early after we unloaded all our gear, some of us decided to take a short walk out into the main town area to do some shopping. The good thing about this place? Its a small town so not much tourists around and you don’t feel like you’re back in Singapore. However, if you’re into shopping for clothes etc, you’ll probably be disappointed since the stalls mainly sell foodstuffs like cuttlefish, keropok, etc. There aren’t many shops with a few being restaurants and some selling foodstuffs and souvenirs. 

We headed back to the resort after a short 30 minutes shopping and were treated to the sights of fried prawn pastries by the owner. Due to my haste in enjoying the great afternoon treat, I forgot to snap photos!

At about 5+ pm, we headed out once again to the jetty under construction (apparently already 1.5 years since it started) and took a small boat out for a cruise along the sea. Our guide and driver was a young chap who amazingly after maneuvering his way past various traps in the sea hopped to the back of the boat to introduce the sights. We eventually ended up on a small kelong where the guide introduced a few of the fishes that they reared. There was a particular species that actually started “spitting” at us when we were viewing. Too bad didn’t quite catch the name though I believe have seen it in documentaries where the fish spits to catch insects.

There was also an area where there was a small shark, king crab and puffer fish. We lingered on for a bit in the kelong taking photos and enjoying the view befoer heading back to the resort.

Back to Kukup Village after 20+ years!

We first learnt that there would be a trip to Kukup village organized by Jelyn & Howard’s friends some time back in late April’07. Since then we have met up with some of the folks going on the trip (Jason, Chiew Lin, Shirley, Yaohui, Jelyn, Howard) at Citylink’s New York New York for dinner.

It was soon 14th July and we all met up at Singapore Science Centre in Jurong East in the late morning. With a a convoy of 4 Toyota’s (1 x Camry, 1 x Corolla, 2 x Altis), we soon made way via Tuas 2nd Link to Kukup. The trip was pretty smooth through the various checkpoints and toll booths and took approximately an hour traveling mostly on single lane roads. We managed to get to Kukup at about 1pm+ and the cars were left overnight at the nearby Carpark #1 for a low fee. With about 3 ferries from the provided transport, we were soon making our way to Kukup Venice, our accommodations for the weekend.

I remember my first time here 20+ years ago when my dad used to drive the family up for weekend trips that Kukup was a small and rather quaint village. It definitely has changed somewhat over the years with more houses and vehicles plying the roads. The houses in the village however look pretty much the same near the entrance. They are still pretty much constructed from wood but there were small upgrades like air-conditioned units. We walked through the small village on stilts during the low tide and caught sight of the inhabitants of the mangrove swamp, crabs and mudskippers which were abundant. Walking nearer end of the village could see signs of modernization with houses being renovated for tourists and having much better facilities.

Kukup Venice was a short 10 minute walk through the houses near the end of the village. We were pleasantly surprised to actually find a well furnished brick house with high ceilings and clean sleeping environments. The owners of the house were extremely friendly in helping ensure we had a good stay and even personally prepared most of our meals during our stay. With facilities like karaoke and mahjong, it helped most of us spend the time over the weekend enjoying ourselves.

Kukup Venice Holiday Villa Resort
No. 40 Kukup Laut
82300 Pontian, Johor
Tel : 07-696 1516