Semporna -> Mabul

6:30 a.m. - After I woke up I had a bit of stress because I had to pack my stuff I hang up to dry.

7:30 a.m. - We arrived at the diving center after a decent walk with all our luggage, dropped our bags there and went for breakfast. Afterwards the told us that they made a mistake and the dorm is fully booked so we got a free room upgrade to a privat room.

8 a.m. - We left form the pier and I recognize how poor the people in Semporna are. We saw all the huge floating slums it was insane. I wondered the day before where all the people come from because it isn’t a big city but was very crowded. Now I know because half of the population is living in the floating slums.

9 a.m. - After a nice boat ride we arrived at the island Mabul and got directly instructed where everything is and what the plan is for today. Afterwards we chose our diving equipment. I chose a long wet suite for the first time so I don’t freeze in the water but it was a pain in the ass to get inside. Then we got a short instruction to our divemaster and a short refreshing of the most important things. After that we were already on the boat and ready to dive. The first dive site is called Lobster Wall. It was a bit scary to dive again after almost two months. The maximum depth was 27m and the dive was just 35min long. I saw a lot of sea life, many turtles and nudibranch’s. I love them they are so cute and there are so many different ones. Furthermore the are very colorful. We also saw some eel’s and a octopus hiding in the corals. And we went into a small cave which was amazing. After the first dive we went back to the resort for recovery before the second dive. The second dive site is called Paradise. The maximum depth was 18m and the dive was 53min long. That was the longest I had so far and I really tried to improve my breathing and my buoyancy. The dive site was one of my favorites so far. There were so many small obstacles and a shipwreck full of marine life. We saw some eel’s, a blue spotted stingray, a crocodile flathead, nudibranch’s some turtles and even a black ghost pipefish. It’s insane how hard it is to discover a lot of the named animals because they a perfect in camouflage. Ether they look like stones, corals or other things.

1:30 p.m. - Then we had lunch break at the restaurant. We got some tasty food from the buffet before getting ready for the third dive.

2:20 p.m. - The third dive site was called D-Wall. The dive was 43min long and the maximum depth was 23m. We saw some scorpionfish, a yellow boxfish, a orangutan crab (one of my favorites), nudibranch’s and a huge turtle. As you can see Mabul and the surroundings are perfect for turtles and nudibranch’s. Unfortunately the current was very strong and one Malaysian guy of the other group was really annoying. He kept bumping into us and at some point he just joined our group. Furthermore he always had to film everything with his GoPro which was very annoying.

4 p.m. - We finished diving and chilled for a bit first because diving is exhausting.

5:30 p.m. - Later we went for a walk to discover the island. We walked first through a small local village where kids played football on the street. So I just started to play a bit with them, showed them some tricks and had a lot of fun. Somehow we found a sandy football pitch in the middle of the island. They had a proper football tournament with football shirts, a referee and sideline referee’s. Furthermore the location looked very pretty. Then we walked further and found a nice location for the sunset. It was a biz scary to walk over the wooden platform’s because it was unstable but the place was worth it. Nobody was there, we had hammocks and a great view on the sunset. We also saw many turtles coming up to the surface for air. It was very funny because you can only see their head. Afterwards we walked back to the resort chased by kids.

7 p.m. - Got got dinner in the resort and afterwards I went straight to bed and was knock out. Lea decided after the snorkeling to dive the next day as well.

P.S.: It’s very sad to see how much rubbish especially plastic is at the shore and the hole island. The locals just burn it from time to time.Read more