CC goes scuba!

A few months ago when I was in Borneo I happened to get chatting to the girl next to me on my flight from KK to KL (Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu).

Her name was Jen, she was English, and she lived in Borneo with her Scottish fiance, who ran a dive company in Semporna.

During the course of the flight I told her about Challenge Charly, and she suggested I dive at Sipadan as one of my challenges.

And that is exactly what I've just done!!

Sipadan is famed as Borneo's best dive site, and the 3rd best dive site in the world according some Malaysian water bottles!!

It was fantastic. I'm technically in the Philippines this trip, making my final Masters documentary on free press and the murder of journalists in the Philippines ( a topic which unfortunately didnt lend itself to video making, so that didnt turn out to be a challenge in itself). However, it is 'relatively' easy to fly across from Manila to KK.

I saw relatively because it turns out that Clark 'Manila' airport, where all the cheap flights to Borneo fly from, is actually nowhere near Manila! I spent more money on my two 3 hour taxi journeys to and from the airport than I did on the flights themselves.

However, despite this aggravation, and some interesting time keeping as a result of the 3 hr journey, I managed to get to Semporna, the nearest town to Sipadan, fairly seemlessly.

Over the course of my 3 days diving there I completed my PADI advanced open water, dived on the islands of Mabul and Sibuan, and then did 3 awesome dives at Sipadan, seeking heaps and heaps of white tip sharks and turtles.

I would definitely recommend Sipadan for diving enthusiasts, and Scuba Junkie, the company Jen had recommended, were brilliant.