Diving at Mataking

20th February
Arrival at Tawau Airport ... we flew Air Asia (surprisingly, on time!)
I was pleasantly surprised by how modern the Tawau airport was!



We were promptly greeted by The Reef Resort team, and were whisked away to Semporna by mini-van ... 100km, or about 2 hours away (cos' we stopped to eat! Ouch, 20 ringgit worth of fried rice, well it was between 5 of us!)



View of King 5 room ...


Stunning sunsets each evening ...



22nd February
Day trip in Sipadan ... 3 dives at the Holy Grail of diving!
We dived South Point, Baraccuda Point, and Drop Off (with the famous Turtle Cavern) ... but pity the viz wasn't particularly good. Still it was great to do my first wall dive.
Even snorkeling at Sipadan is an adventure with huge schools of fish, including a lonely Bumphead Parrotfish. Highlight of the 3 dives was thousands of jacks swimming in formation, a small school of 10 barracudas, and the friendliest turtles ever!


All in all, between Mataking and Sipadan, I completed 16 dives ... great :-)
Best of all, got to know new dive kakis, including Michelle, Alyssa, Rachel, Daniel, Bryan (Happy 100th Dive!) and Desmond.

There was even an underwater postoffice at Mataking! At 19 metres deep, one could post a postcard at the wreck, which is 'cleared' 4 times a week.

Bryan and Rachel led a team to release turtles into the sea on our last evening there ... COOL!

24th February

Farewell friends and Mataking ...

One night in Tawau ...
We even had yee-sang to celebrate Chinese New Year!

Have to say the food at this place wasn't very good, and rather expensive at $270 for the ten of us ... The 'Hoi Tai Kai' didn't compare with Kota Kinabalu's!!

24th February night ... Market shopping for fruits in Tawau!


25th February

Flying MAS back to KL ... horrible nasi lemak and even worse lemon chicken on board!