Marc's Public Blog - Diving

25H of travelling is probably a personal record. I'm currently in my second plane, from Hong Kong to Malaysia, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to get some connectivity there since I just realized while dozing off that I entirelyforgot to make my mandatory estimated tax payment (some big sum of money) to both CA and the feds. It is going to be fun to arrange remotely, without my
files and my papers access codes and so forth (I was able to find a lot of information I needed in my local mail spool, and I'm looking in my browser history for .gov URLs right now to see if I have the CA web site for online payments). Doh, doh, doh!
Anyway, Hong Kong was a nice a clean airport, as expected. I didn't get to see a whole lot since I landed at 05:35 local time, but it was still nice to have gone through it. In the funny notes, it was cool to see that there were no less than 8 GSM networks my phone could chose from, and that I was able to use my nokia communicator to send Email ssh to my machine and look at my new messages with mutt while I was in line. That said, I was able to get a good WIFI connection some time later while waiting for my second flight, and I used the time appropriately (although I wish I had realized that little banking problem before then since I could have solved it from the airport and now it's going to be much harder)
The first flight on Cathay Pacific was so-so: I tried fruitlessly to upgrade to business, but I found out that on their planes the business section is much smaller than United's so it was overbooked. The other fun part is that a cash upgrade was $1200 one way, for just 1 out of the 3 planes. The full business fare return for just the first plane was $8000!!! In the meantime, their seating in coach sucked ass, and even my butt hurts from the bad seats. Oh well, bigger problems in life I guess...
Two quick notes after landing in Malaysia and waiting for my 3rd flight: I hadn't done homework and realized that Malaysia was actually a Muslim country, which kind of explained the Jelabas (sp?) I saw as soon as I got off the plane, and the muslim prayer room inside the airport, and the crescent on the national flag :) In other news, they have an interesting way to deal with with whatever is defined as illegal drugs here: trafficking is simply punishable by death.
Apart from that, weather looks lovely, and I have already picked up a bunch of pamphlets about all the great diving spots they have. I can't wait :)
Oh, and the international airport had what looked like a voluntary immigration counter (i.e. you walked by it, but didn't have to go through it physically). That looked weird... :)
In the end, I did arrive to the Island of Sabah at the Sandakan airport (that was kind of funny, the 737 landed on the runway, went to the end, and then turned around on the same runway to reach the terminal since there was no taxiway. I guess that explains why there weren't any international flights going there directly :) )
It's pretty to have houses on the water like this, but I guess you don't wonder why there are so many problems when a tsumani shows up, or even global warming over the next 50-100 years :-/

You can find more pictures from the air here , and pictures from my trip as they get posted and I get the chance to upload them (satellite connection on a pretty island in the middle of nowhere right now), there .
Oh did I just mention that the Island I'm on when sending this is so big that it takes 7 minutes to jog around it? :) and just because I'm lucky they got their satellite internet connection yesterday :)

Current Music: Velfarre - Cyber Trance 10Y Anniversary
Current Mood: Sunrise at 05:50, that's tough. How about 08:30? :)

It's an interesting little Island: you can walk around it in about 10 minutes, everything, including fresh water is brought it by boat, and they have a diesel generator to provide power for the few people who live here, the Army, and us. The army? you say: yes, it's a very protected area for wildlife, and they protect both the Island and 10 nautical miles from Philipino fishing boats, as any kind of fishing here is strictly prohibited.

Damn, life is tough there, you have no idea...
3-4 dives a day, including a night dive on my first day (quite interesting actually, as long as you do bring a flashlight ;) )
On my first day, I also go thtere on time to see a batch of baby turtles being released.
The water has some nice tropical fish (obviously, since I am only a few degrees off the equator), temperature is typically above 30 degres C, which is quite bearable :)





All in all, I manage by taking it one day at a time :)

The Island had one phone/fax, and they just got a satellite internet connection (although I have to find out how much it costs them before uploading more pictures). Anyway, in the meantime, you can find pictures of Lankayan here

After waking up a bit before 05:00 due to mild decompression sickness (tingling in one hand, which had subsided by now), I started packing, went to enjoy a somewhat hidden sunrise (weather was overcast).
I got most of my pictures uploaded by leaving my laptop connected in the resort's office last night, and they are here: Lankayan Island and diving pictures
I'm now going to catch the 07:00 speed boat back to mainland, and stay a day at the nature resort to See Orang Outangs, and visit the city before I take my next plane to Kapalai Dive Resort for more diving (timing is perfect too, whatever nitrogen microbubbles I have in my body should be gone within the next 24 hours, making it entirely safe to fly)

After visiting the Orang Outang in Sepilok, I took a 30mn flight South to Tawau, and a boat transfert to the water village of Kapalai.
Technically there is a island there, but practically, it is under water more than half the time due to damage made by fishermen that were doing dynamite fishing before it was both forbidden and strictly enforced (hence the small contingent of army in that village too)

There is the small price to pay of getting up at 04:50 for the 05:30 boat departure to the Island of Sipadan and its reefs, but the diving is spectacular: I get 3 dives by noon, and another one or two in the afternoon (watching my dive computer carefully to make sure I don't accumulate too much nitrogen in my body)

On my first full day, I got to see giant turtles (more than 1 metre), some eating, some swimming, and some sleeping, fish that look like remnants of dinosaurs, and fish you can barely recognize, even on the picture (like leaf fish, or rock fish). I also got to see a huge school of giant parrot fish: those were more than 1 metre long too, and they were many, quite impressive. The interesting part is that they actually eat rock, process whatever there is to eat inside, and actually shit sand, metric tons of it, and that sand is responsible for the nearby Islands still being there...
I finished the day with a night dive, which is always fun as fish sleep against rock or the bottom, with their eyes opened (no eyelids), and eventually wake up if you shine light in their eyes :)
Oh, and just to make things interesting, I also had to rescue my server from a,
slashdotting that hit the machine pretty hard due to overforking from Rig. All in a day's work :)

Here are a few excerpts from my dive pictures and videos (as I get the chance/bandwidth to upload them). Try the BestOf dir for highlights

This one is easy to spot, but usually they're a lot tougher to see


Crocodile fish, a favourite








Those 1 meter+ parrot fish do eat rock with their teeth


zzz, zzz, zzz....

My trip is coming to an end. I did 5 dives today (all can be found in my new diving pictures directory , with a much updated best of section)

I think it's hard to explain the feeling to be surrounded by several hundred barracudas swarming around you, or the fairly big sharks, turtles everywhere, etc, etc... I also celebrated by 50th dive, and reached 41 metres for the first time.
I also got a DVD of my dives this morning, along with a best of, of what the cameramen have captured in the region

Anyway, two more dives tomorrow morning, and I'm on the boat back to Tawau where I'll be catching a plane early monday morning back to California

Well, first of all, it was obviously great: I now know why the Islands off Sabah were ranked among the top 10 diving spots in the world. I did around 35 dives there, including night dives, something I had never done (then again, neither had I swam next to giant turtles, decently sized sharks, or huge schools of fish, like a Giant Swarm of Barracuda )

I could post more pictures, but some of the best examples are the few 30 sec videos I took. Everything is of course in the diving directory , but for highlights, you should look at the Best of Lankayan and Best of Sipadan-Kapalai

On my trip back, ended up buying a giant Sea Shell and Coral in the Malaysia airport, as well as a couple of things in Hong Kong. Funny thing is that in Hong Kong, security detained me apparently because of the Coral, as I think it was illegal to have/buy in Hong Kong (hard to tell, their English was so-so). In the end, they let me go because the person they were waiting for to verify/decide wasn't available, able to show up in time for me not to miss my flight. My credit card company they freaked out again and almost disabled my card again when I signed up for wireless internet in the airport (tss, losers...), and I got home eventually, in coach (argh, do the seats in cattle class suck on Cathay Pacific, and $3000 for a one way upgrade to business, no thank you, I'll just fly another airline next time).
All was well except for the taxi cab driver who partially broke my coral while getting my suitcase with the coral on top, but 1H and some glue later, it was almost like new...



Oh, and my cat apparently missed me, thanks Xav for taking care of him again :)

All right, and if you're pressed on time and would like a few hand picked video highlights, enjoy:

• Cuttlefish changing color
  
• Clown fish playing/hiding in Anemone
  
• Turtoise Eating
  
• School of Jack Fish
  
• Bottom Feeder, digging very hard
  
• Parrot Fish Fighting
  
• Hard to Find Leopard Shark, deep under water
  
• School of Giant Parrot Fish
  
• Impressive School of Barracuda
  
• Swarm of Barracuda (note that those are about 1 metre long)
  
• A more regular and common shark, but nicely sized
  
• Moray
  
• Another nice shark, sleeping on the ground