(Fish) Tornado Hunting

December 3, 4, 5, 2016

We went diving for two days at Pulau Sipadan National Park, and one day at Pulau Bohay Dulang.

 

  PulauSipadan is a vocanic island surrounded by deep water.  

There are lots of larger fish, and regular schools of baracuda and jack fish.

School of jack fish.

 School of baracuda

 Giant (5 ft+) clam

 Day octopus.

 That is not just a sponge, but also a frog fish at Bohay Dulang.

 Large box fish.

 There were so many turtles we stopped counting.

 LARGE bump-head parrot fish.

 Our dive guide Cooze gets bored and surfs his fins.

 

Large turtle tracks on the beach in Sipadan.

Strangler figs at the rest area. 

(Previously there was guest lodging on the island that has now been removed.)

Sama Bajau houses built on shallows reefs.

 

Sama Bajau near town for supplies and trading.

Borneo Bath Water Snorkeling

December 2 2016


Snorkeling at Pulau Sibuan


We continued southeast to the coastal town of Semporna in Sabah intending to dive at the islands off shore.  The first day we just went snorkeling to make sure that Kari’s sinuses would equalize for future diving.

When visiting islands in this area, the harbormaster requires a complete list of passengers from tour boats each day.  Upon arriving at an island, guests must sign in with the local marine outpost.  The coastline, islands, and waters are manned with black-clad men with semi-auto rifles and patrolled by black fast-boats.   There is also a strictly enforced tourist curfew in some areas. This region has been targeted Abu Sayyaf, a Filipino crime organization that poses under the banner of an Islamic separatist group.  Since 1991 they have been carrying out bombings, kidnappings, extortion, drug trafficking, etc..

 

Crown of Thorns sea star (eats coral)

On the island were living a few local "Sea Gypsies"

or Bajau Laut.

Also see this link:

Borneo's Bajau Laut link with great photos by Daily Mail U. K.

Jungle boat ride...sort of

November 30 2016


We continued to travel south in Sabah and stopped along the Kinabatangan river for a night.  The area still has stands of jungle along its banks that have been protected from the fate of becoming yet more oil palm plantations.  The result is relatively high density of wildlife living between the river and the plantations that can be easily seen from eco-tour boats along the river.  We chose a local "home stay" option for sleeping, but there are also various eco and jungle lodges of varying levels of roughing it. 
We enjoyed the ethics of  this company: (Link to Mescot.org sustainable eco tourism)

We took a sunset boat ride as well as a dawn ride.  We got to see proboscis monkeys, macaques, a few orangutans, a flying lemur, hornbills, kingfishers, etc., and glimpsed a crocodile.  Alas, we were not lucky enough to spot a pigmy elephant.

We also stopped off in the morning at the co-op’s eco camp for a short hike and our picnic breakfast beside a lake with a pair of noisy otters.

Later in the morning we traveled to a set of limestone caves that were used as sarcophagi approximately 700-900 years ago.  

Within are the remains of some of the 40+ ironwood coffins placed at the site.