Kapali Resort (Best Place on Earth)

Thursday 11th March

by Maria

http://sipadan-kapalai.com/

We flew from Sandakan to Tawau (South) to meet our next tour guide for the diving part of the holiday. Unfortunately we had to wait for 2 other flights to arrive so after a bit of a wait a the airport, we headed east by minibus for an hour to Semporna. The entire length of drive on both sides of the road where filled with Palm Oil trees for as far as the eye could see! considering we had just come from trying to save the jungle for the Orangutans it was quite shocking and very sad.

We where then transferred to boat for the 40 min boat ride to the Kapalai Village resort. The village is built on a sandbar, not attached to any land. Boardwalks attach to all area's, a Dive centre, games room, restaurant, tv room, accommodation and relaxation area. Along every boardwalk there are plants with crystal blue seas with plenty of fish, starfish, coral etc.

View of the resort from the boat

View from our Unit

Starfish, taken from the boardwalk outside our unit

On arrival we were given lunch, drinks and we filled in our diving paperwork, we were then informed our fist dive was in 30 minutes. We rushed to our cabin to change (the cabin is truly amazing, no aircon needed with the ocean breezes. The wooden cabin had slated folding doors to pull open even in the bathroom) The constant sound of the waves to relax you. You don't get any sand flies or flies as there is no land for them to grow on!

Our Unit

View from our beadroom

Walk ways

View from the island (man made)

We changed and headed off to the dive centre to be kitted out with weight belt, flippers, BCD and regulator. Then straight off the pier and into the water (try to picture Mikey and I trying to walk down 10 steps with an extra 15 kg, when your calves and thighs are screaming - we looked like 80 year olds!).

They had made an artificial reef of boat wreaks and Shacks , the dive site was called Mandarin reef. We saw starfish, parrot and angel fish, Large moray eel and lots of other fish. the water was a lovely 27 degrees and about 10 metres viability.

Maria

We then came back to the cabin to get changed and unpack then go to dinner.

Sunset on the "island"

Sunset

We then found out we where one of the 120 divers (from all nearby resorts) to go to Sipadan Island the next day, so had to be ready for 5.30am the next day.

Day 2 at Kapali Resort
by Mikey
We have 4 dives today at Sipadan Island (best dive spot in the area). Today we had dive master Wendy as our instructor and 2 boat staff to help us with our gear.

The first dive (dive 2/8) for the day was Barracuda Point just after sun rise at 6am for around 30mins.

Sunrise from the water

This place was amazing we saw a lot of white tipped reef sharks, grey reef sharks a few turtles and some sleepy barracuda along with many fish. We also saw a few turtles swim by. Unfortunately due to the low light the photographs where grainy and dull.

Shark

Small Turtle

Barracuda

White Tipped Reef Shark

After the dive we landed at Sipadan Island for an hours surface time and breakfast, which was delivered to the island. Sipadan Island used to be a resort Island but was closed for conservation reasons and they now only allow 120 divers per day. The other strange thing about the island is that the army has moved in and you are greeted by machine funs from a nearby hut (stops the kidnapping of tourists).

Dive 2 - Hanging Garden (600ft drop) (Dive 3/8)

The dive was all about Turtles! I think we saw around 20 turtles swimming by or sleeping in the ledge/wall. I forget what else we saw as all I could think about was how many turtles there were.

Turtle

Turtle

Turtles

Back to the island for another 1 hr break.

Dive 3 - Barracuda Point (dive 4/8)

Back to the first dive site of the day. It is amazing the difference 3 hrs makes to the site, especially with the extra light bringing out the colours of the fish and coral.

This dive was memorable for the number of turtles and the pesky trigger fish that kept on attacking me! We saw more sharks but I was mainly concerned by the pesky trigger fish at the end of the dive we also saw a large school of barracuda :)

School of Jack Fish

Resting Turtle

School of Bat Fish

I forgot to mention that the first 3 dives where being filmed.

Up for lunch and a visit from a small monitor lizard.

Dive 4 - White tip Avenue (Dive 5/8)

More turtles, sharks and other wonder fish :)

Michael with a turtle

Shark and Turtle

With the dives now finished we went back to the resort for a free afternoon. We assessed our sunburn and after a second lunch and a quick nap we had a wonderful walk around the resort spotting numerous trumpet fish, starfish, turtles ans sting rays underneath the resort walk ways. One disturbing sight was a black and white sea snake underneath our cabin. After witnessing another perfect sunset back to the restaurant for dinner and to watch the video of our dives.

Day 3 at Kapali Resort by Maria

Not such an early start today. Today we started at the dive centre at 8.30, we headed out on the boat to Mabul Island, to Stingray alley, today was all about the macros, very different to yesterday!

We saw nudi's, cuttlefish, 2 turtles and frog fish (strange buggers) then back to Kapali for a break.

Cuttlefish

School of fish

Then back out to Maul to the artificial reef, saw a massive school of jackfish, nudibranch, eel, stone fish and a black seahorse, then back to Kapali for lunch.

Lionfish

Michael in a school of Jack fish

We then jumped back on the boat to midreef at Kapali, saw lots of different starfish, eel, cuttlefish and stone fish.

Michael and Maria

Nudibranch

Reef Fish

Nudibranch

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and eating.

Sunset

Evening view of the resort

Hungry after the dives

Day 4 at Kapali Resort by Mikey

It was a sad day as we really enjoyed our stay here and the diving. With check out at 12 and the no diving within 24 hours of flying we were unable to dive and it looked like our group would of been scheduled for another day at Sipadan (next time we will stay longer) Today we spent time walking around the resort and with low tide around 12 we had specular views of the area including the reamins of Kapali Island which is now a sand bar. The boat ridge back to Semporna was smooth and with great views of the nearby islands. The bus ride back to Tawau was sad and interesting as we drove another 90km through Palm Oil Plantation land.We had blown a tire on our bus about 20 kms from the airport with quick work from the driver and a very worn and dodgy looking spare tire we made our flight back to Kota Kinabulu with 20 minutes to spare.

Tonight we ate in the hotel restaurant and enjoyed a beautiful Beef Randang.


Galleries - Above Water, Dive 1, Dive 2, Dive 3, Dive 4, Dive 5, Dive 6, Dive 7, Dive 8
Slideshow - Above Water, Dive 1, Dive 2, Dive 3, Dive 4, Dive 5, Dive 6, Dive 7, Dive 8

Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre

Wednesday 10th March
by Maria

We arrived at the airport early thankfully, as our flight had been cancelled, Malaysian Airlines managed to put us on an earlier flight. We where picked up by our tour operators at the Sandakan airport and taken to the lovely Sepilok Nature Resort (keep in mind that Mikey and I where still feeling the effects of the climb, our thighs and calves where hot and any stairs or slop was a major obstacle - very amusing to everyone else).

The Resort was lovely and an orchid lovers paradise!

We were then taken to the Orangutan Centre next door, just in time for the first feeding at 10am. We had 2 Orangutan's come out and feed there where a lot of other monkeys (Makats) trying to scrounge food. It was very busy with tourist and most people where melting in the sun (no shade). We then went and watched a video and looked at the exhibit and walked back to the resort and had lunch.

Green Viper

10am Feeding

Baby Makak

We then went for a walk around the resort looking at orchids, to be confronted by a monkey chasing a lizard, it then proceeded to tear it limb from limb and eat it! Mikey and I stood there shocked!

We then went back to the Orangutan Centre for the 2nd feeding of the day at 3pm (which thankfully was in the shade this time) We had four orangutans come out and play and feed (and no Makaks) which was great! We then organised a night walk with the park at 6pm (if you ever do this, organize it through the park and not the resort as there is a 80 ringett difference!)

We went back to the resort for some rest then went back at 6pm. The guide was great, he knew all the sounds of the Jungle. The best part was that we stayed on the park boardwalk. As we had a few venomous green tree snakes around. We saw squirrel, flying squirrel, bats, birds, honbills. We stayed out for about an hour and a half then headed back to the resort for dinner, and repack the bags for the next day.


Gallery - Sepilok Nature Resort, Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre
Slideshow - Sepilok Nature Resort, Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre

Borneo Trip - Mt Kinabalu World Heritage listed site

7-9 March 2010

Mt Kinabalu Climb by Mikey

Sunday

We traveled by van from Kota Kinabalu to Kinabalu National Park, the trip took a couple of hours. Our tour guild arranged all the organised our food vouchers, mountain climbing guide and entry tickets.

View of Mt Kinabalu

We checked into the Grace Hostel and visited the Botanical Gardens. We were lucky that we managed to be the only people staying in our room so this gave us some privacy for the first part of the trip. The botanical Gardens were nice but we organised our trip for the dry season as we weren't keen to walk in the afternoon rain and didn't want to risk not being allowed to climb to the peak due to slippery conditions, unfortunately that meant that we didn't get too see too many flowering orchids in the gardens or on the climb.

Orchid at the Botanical Gardens

Back to the hostel where our guide gave us instructions for the rest of our Mt Kinabalu stay before he departed. We decided on a walk to the visitors centre for a wonderful lunch and a quick look around. Back to the hotel for a shower then to the cafe for dinner and to watch the sun set.

Sunset

Monday

We where picked up at 8am and off to the cafe for breakfast and to organise our packed lunch, after breakfast we meet our mountain guide Jermin and headed to the Timpohon gate for the start of the climb, we have 6km by foot and an elevation gain of 1404 m in front of us.

The climb didn't seem that difficult initially as we had done a lot of preparation back in Brisbane. The weather was hot and sticky and most of the time we where in the clouds with limited views.

We saw a lot of ground squirrels (they jump a lot, a few orchids in flower, a lot of orchids not in flower and other plants like Balsams , rhododendron and pitcher plants etc.

The walk was over pretty good track that had a lot of stairs with rest stops and toilets every 1/2 to 1 km.

Lots of Steps

Around the 5.5km mark (around 3000m elelvation) I started getting a bad headache the first signs of altitude sickness, and after 7 hours we finally made it to Laban Ratan which was our overnight accommodation. At this stage I had a really bad headache and wasn't feeling that good, after a snack, coke and Panadol and 30 minutes I started to feel better but still not 100%.

The accommodation was dormitory style 4 people in our room and round 12 rooms in our building, with some rooms holding 6 to 8 people. Due to the dry season water was being rationed so things like the toilets and showers only worked for about 2 hours a day. You had to time your toilet visit right otherwise it was a bit of a mess.Laban Ratan also server as a bar, restaurant and a general place to relax and recover from the climb. The amazing thing is that everything has to be brought up by porters. we saw over 20 porters today taking up everything from gas cylinders, eggs, to beer cans.

For the sunset we went outside and enjoyed the sun setting to the west of the mountain. Dinner was ok and I really enjoyed the ginger beef. We had a 2:30am start the next morning and breakfast was being served at 2am, so off to bed around 7:30pm.

Tuesday "Day from Hell"

We got up around 1:30am to the sound of other walkers making noise and packing their bags. We both didn't get a good nights sleep, but we weren't feeling that bad. Our guide was waiting for us downstairs at 2:30 and we made our way up the mountain 2.7km to go by foot and another 825m of elevation to gain.

Things started well, we were going at a good pace and even overtook some people.

Around halfway up I stated to get altitude sickness again, this time bad nausea. Maria was also getting this but not to the same extent. I really thought I wasn't going to make it but I went about 20 m then would rest and so on for the rest of the climb which was initially lots steps then a roped section to the top.

The temperature was around 2 deg C and it was windy, thankfully we had rugged up. I was now dry reaching every 100 m or so but with the encouragement from Maria and our guide I made it to the top on Lows Peak with an Elevation of 4095.2m.

Summit

The views were great as was the feeling of accomplishment. We spent around 20 mins at the top before the decent. I was still pretty bad at this stage and Maria's also breathing was pretty bad.

It was a slow decent but every 200-300m felt better by the time I reached Laban Ratan I was exhausted and still feeling nauseous but no longer dry reaching I still had a bad headache however. We spent an hour recovering, packing up our gear, and had a quick snack.

Maria at this stage stated having pain in her knees and our guide decided to carry Maria's backpack. Every 500m I felt better but Maria felt worse and every step on the steps/stairs (and their where 100's) killed her, but in the end we made it down around 4pm.

Our bus driver was waiting for us and he quickly (110km an hour in a 90 zone) drove us down the mountain back to the hotel at Kota Kinabalu. We where both pretty sore and decide to eat in at the hotel and have an early night as we had an early flight in the morning.

Gallery - Travel, Gardens, Climb, Mt Kinabalu other
Slide Show - Travel, Gardens, Climb, Mt Kinabalu other