Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Diving In Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park

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I have been diving pretty much these days and one of my recent destinations was to Tunku Abdul Rahman Park or fondly known as TARP in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. I tell you, we are lucky to be in Malaysia because we’re surrounded by awesome dive sites. If you are a Singaporean, the only place you could dive is probably at MacRitchie Reservoir.
It was a punishing hot day and the moment I got out of my transport, off with my shirt.

Il fait choud

H20 is a must

Kota Kinabalu is probably just inches away from the ocean and although it was brutally hot, a city located just next to the sea will always have their charm, for example Alexandria, New York and Kota Bharu.
I signed myself up with Sabah Divers and the entire 3 dive package at TARP was only RM200.00. Everything was included – gears, boat and lunch. That is like a crazy 80% warehouse sale in diving lingo.
My divemaster, Jason is probably 50 plus years old. He was a dive master in Sipadan for 2 years. Did I also mention he is quite grumpy at times? I guess staying in Sipadan for 2 years is akin to staying in Alcatraz. Doing the same thing day in and day out, regardless of where you are can be repetitively mind blowing. A balance is so needed for my divemaster.
We took a boat ride to Pulau Sapi and Pulau Gaya, two islands filled with lifejacket-wearing-ankle –deep-in-water tourists.
I saw my first black fan tail ray and several lion fishes.
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I love compressed air

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Backroll

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Feeling pukey

During lunch, while chillaxing(I just learnt this word. It combines the words- chill and relax), two wild albino boars came out from the woods and mingled with the crowd. The pair were the most tamed wild boars I’ve seen and did I mention albino? They should be in the Proboscis monkey, orang utan, pygmy elephant group – endemic only to Sabah.
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Albino wild boar

My 3rd dive ended about 5pm and what a glorious sunset to view. Ohhh how I love Sabah.
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Blackberrying on the boat


Signal hill behind

I have 3 trips to Sabah in 2010. A Sipadan dive, a solo camping trip along the Liwagu river hopefully with Mt Kinabalu in the background and a sideways illegal entry into Maliau Basin(because I’m too frugal to pay RM3000)

7 comments:

Maria said...

Albino wild boars? Time to establish a city! I mean, if one little white pelanduk is good luck, two pigs must be crazy awesome!

afif yusof said...

have u had the maliau basin trip? i'm in tawau now....haven't been there though....would love to

Unknown said...

Diving is the most exciting activity You can feel the immensity of the ocean. It's like traveling to another world. unexplained.This blog is amazing and very interesting.
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Generic Viagra said...

I never saw one of those animals. Well first I didn't know that its name was Albion. quite interesting name that it isn't common.

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U Joe said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
U Joe said...

Which island were the albino wild boars on? I didn't see any on Manukan.

Btw, if you're into wild boars, the Sri Jada Muniswarar Temple near the TESCO in Taiping, Perak gets visited every evening by a whole lot of wild boars.

SteveBrad said...

Diving is the most exciting activity You can feel the immensity of the ocean. you are lucky that you got such a opportunity to do that.