Thailand diving, Koh Samui Island and dive site information. ABCDivers

Newsletter

ADI & MALA, SANTIBURI RESORT & BOPHUT SPA & RESORT KOH SAMUI THAILAND

This Newsletter is Adi & Mala's way of keeping in touch with family, friends and of course our divers and students who we had the pleasure of diving with and are now safely bubbling in the underwater world.

from Koh Samui

Taken on Pulau Weh, Sumatra June 2008

Greetings once again from ABC DIVERS, Samui.

Firstly we regret not being able to send out our newsletter in July. We had a family member who is still very ill and thus we did not have the time and mind set to finish the newsletter. BUT here is our Christmas and new year mail. Enjoy the bubbles.

We had a very quiet first six months on Samui this season but it was great to see our regular divers. We had a great time introducing beginners to the wonders of the ocean. Adi and I also shared some special moments with experience divers when they saw their first shark or whale sharks. It is the joy of divers like you that keeps ABC DIVERS bubbling.

We are enjoying the new house with its many experiences: The beach is less that 5 minutes walking distance and is called Bantai Beach. Ann (Adi's mum) spent her holidays in January here.

Nice and Quiet on our beach

Different views of the sunset from Bantai Beach

The garden had some surprises for us as well:

The sunflowers planted in October were in full bloom by January

Our first own grown pumpkin

Adi painting our rain water jar

We had many celebrations with neighbors as well and one was our first Easter celebration on Samui. We had a funny time making our first Easter eggs together:

Adi and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary with 3 great bottles of wine. Don't worry we did not drink all on the same day heh,heh

A good 3 days of wine drinking in May

Diving

We are still based in the Santiburi Resort after renewing our contract for another year.

This year the weather was a big problem for diving. We had a lot of rain and windy conditions. Many trips were cancelled or delayed. Yet nature showed us some jewels:

An Interesting Nudibranch from the family Facelinidae (marine snail), This one was 5 cm and spotted at dive sites Chumpon Pinnacle and White Rock.

A delicate juvenile batfish 14cm

This year was Adi's Turtle year. He saw them all the time, sometimes on every dive! He must have special turtle sensors.

Dive site Sail Rock's special features...FISH

Adi's lucky day at Sail Rock

It was great to see old students and share underwater moments together and see that you are all still enjoy diving. For all our newly certified divers, keep on bubbling.

Thank you for diving with us and we enjoyed showing you why we love diving.

A yawn away from civilization

This angry lionfish was trying to get rid of two cleaner wrasse and we got it on camera!

Pulau Weh, Indonesia

General

This beautiful island is located of Banda Aceh, Sumatra where the tsunami hit 3 years ago. We had wanted to visit before the Tsunami. When we heard dive operations had resumed, we packed our bags and headed out there.

Air Asia has direct flights to Banda Aceh from KL and to Medan from Penang. if you arrive in medan you will have to fly to Banda Aceh. Local travel agents are available to help you arrange this.

From Banda Aceh, you need to get a ferry to Pulau Weh,. Transportation can be arranged through the dive center Lumba-Lumba.

It was a good decision to explore Pulau Weh,. We found the locals friendly and helpful...not many could speak English though but Mala speaks Indonesian so no problems.

Food was good especially the local curries which have Indian influence.

Our daily lunch at the warung (small restaurant)

Local restaurant

Land scenery was spectacular. Many isolated white sandy beaches and crystal clear waters with no one!

Gapang beach where we stayed

We rented a bike and explored the island. The roads are good. Most of the time we saw no one! Sometimes we met cows and goats taking a walk and in the forest we met monkeys..perfect

Cows on a walk

Beautiful beaches all over the island

Adi enjoying a local swing

Diving

The dive sites were all within an hour of Gapang Beach. You could also just go for a beach dive which we did pretty often. The underwater scenery here was very impressive..big sea fan gardens, whip corals and amazing visibility greeted us on almost every dive. We were extremely lucky as we had 25 meter visibility on average. Currents can be tricky but the dive groups are kept small so less experienced divers are fine.

On our way to the dive sites

Impressive sea fans of 2-3 meters height

Schooling Anthias (orange fish) splashed the reef with vibrant colors

Golden sweepers spotted under an overhang at Arus Balee

Fantastic scenery at Batu Tokong

Adi at work

Mala at work

Moray Heaven

At Pulau Weh there are many kinds of morays. In fact they nick name Batu Tokong Moray City! We saw up to 25 morays on average there. It was incredible.

Two white eye moray

Blue ribbon eel

Black spotted moray

Undulated moray

Unusual marine life

Cow fish

Cockatoo Wasp fish

Popcorn shrimp in an interesting anemone

Porcelaine crab with housemate Clark anemonefish

Lizard fish

Cleaner shrimp

Catfish

Small blenny in a bottle

Pulau Weh Underwater

Faces of Pulau Weh

Sunday is picnic day

Gapang beach's most beautiful smile

Local kids on a motorbike

De-husking bettle nut

Just some of the numerous frogfish we saw in all sizes, color and species

Bubble coral shrimp

The hunting harpoon of a the flamboyant cuttlefish

A beautiful nudibrach- Glossodoris sp.

An interesting feather star shrimp

A hard color to see - a red leaf scorpionfish

Mating nudibranch's

A new species of fish seen in Lembeh???

This is what happens when you muck dive too much...you start hallucinating underwater. This interesting fish on a rock turned out to be just a leaf!!!!!..TOO MUCH MUCK!

Divers, by now you must realize just how special Gangga Island Resort is and here is the contact:

http://www.ganggaisland.com

AND while you are there do not forget to visit their spa.....a great way to relax after dives. We enjoyed our Gangga Island massage. Yes a great place to dive, relax and rest.

Close up of sea squirts or tunicates

Ambon

This was a new dive destination for us - The Mollocus Islands, Indonesia's most eastern islands. The area produces many spices and on our drive from the airport to the resort we saw cloves drying in the sun. We dived with Maluku Divers. Their Dive masters Nus and Tobias are one of the best in Indonesia.

Despite having gone through bad racial riots and war, Ambon is peaceful now and we felt very safe. We traveled around the town and other areas by ourselves and did not once feel threatened. Local people were friendly and helpful.

The diving in Ambon is excellent and divers will be spoilt for choice of dive sites. There are wrecks, muck, wall, caves, swim throughs and slopes all within an hour of the resort. The dive boats are comfortable enough though some improvements can be done like adding a toilet, having a dive basket for each guests at the dive centre for the divers personal gear etc.

The Resort itself has need of numerous improvements - better furnishing for the rooms, better cook and food, better organisation of the dive centre etc, etc, etc. So honestly dive Ambon by liveboard or wait for other dive operators to open up in Ambon as currently Maluku Divers are too expensive for the quality of food, accomodation and diving that is provided. They ask for USD 200 a night per person for 3 dives but do not give you a cupboard for your clothes, not a desk in your room and not enough food!!! We would not complain if they advertised as a home stay or a small dive resort. This we believe lies in the fault of management who is based in Bali and does not guide the hard working staff in Ambon.

The staff were lovely and tried their very best for us and we appreciate and enjoyed their company very much. We will definitely go back to Ambon soon as the diving is incredible but definitely dive with another operator if we hear things have not improved at Maluku Divers.

Nus our dive master was fun and helpful and showed us a great many animals that kept our cameras busy:

Exploring Pintu Kota a huge underwater arch

Nus our dive master under the arch

Mala happily exploring the Harukila cave

Pulau Tiga - fish soup

A hairy sea horse seen at Latu Lahat - Ambon's muck site

A wonderful scene underwater

Another magnificent nudibranch

R&R at the resort

There are traditional hand weavers in Ambon and I bought some beautiful material - a great tip from Hanne

Colorful market stall in Ambon

The clear waters of Ambon with visibility reaching 40 meters +

Adi one his way to diving in a tricycle as he injured his toe with Henry

Crystal clear waters at Pulau Tiga

A visitor to the dive boat

Picking coconuts Ambon style

Meet the Coleman shrimp that live on fire urchins

Wreck Diving in Ambon

Sleeping Beauty Close up of pipefish Mandarin fish mating

Beautiful coral garden at Pulau Tiga, Ambon

After Ambon we arrived in Bali once more where we had 3 lovely days with friends and had a good time exploring Legian, Kerobokan and Seminyak on motorbike enjoying the smells of Bali from the burning incense sticks to the flower and food offerings. Peter has a lovely restaurant in Seminyak within the compounds of the horse stables there. We enjoyed the beautiful surrounding and enjoyed an excellent dinner there. Yutz's Place is Markus restaurant in Legian. Another must in Bali.We also enjoyed catching up with Jon, the honorable Swiss consul in Bali.

We enjoyed a few arak madu and dinners with friends and ended up our Indonesian trip on a high note in beautiful Bali.

Swiss friends (sudah lama's) in Bali

Borneo

After a month in Indonesia, we touched down in Sabah and stayed with Mala's parents.While doing some shopping in town we were lucky to bump into Big John and his family. Big John was the first dive master who took us diving around Mabul Island in 1999. We dived three more times with him on previous visits. For such a big man, he is an expert at finding small critters. He now has his own dive center in Semporna, which is the town on the mainland from where boats leave to Sipadan, Mabul etc. He also has connections to a home stay for those budget travelers. Divers can also opt to stay in Semporna.

We had long wanted to see a boxer crab which has been on the wish list for some time. Big John could find them. So off we went to dive with him for three days and BOXER CRAB we saw...3 actually besides many other amazing animals. Thanks Big John, it was a great time with you as usual..one of the sharpest eyes underwater.

Meet the elusive boxer crab. Note the anemone he carries in each claw. The crab is also less than 2cm in size

Clown frogfish

Another gorgeous nudibranch seen at Semporna

Decorator crab at night

Close up of a shrimp at night

A tight squeeze, 8 morays in a hole

Porcelain Crab

Big John

A home made swing in the water village where the home stay is located

Happy village kids

Bob tail squid 2cm in size

A unique coloring for the dwarf scorpionfish which is usually reddish brown

Close up of head of Nudibranch

The stick like velvet fish seen in Semporna

Mabul-Sipadan

We spent 3 days again like every year on Mabul Island at our favorite resort on BorneoSipadan-Mabul Resort. Most of you you hav been getting this newsletter know we spent time here every year and it is also the place where we met on Sipadan Island 10 years ago. It is a special place to dive and do have a look at the website for more info. For the new readers see the pictures and you will be convinced. Sharks, turtles and abundance of reef fish are NORMAL here. Schooling barracudas here are the largest we have ever observed and every year we are lucky to see them, the big eye trevally and the bumpheads.

http://www..sipadan-mabul.com.my

email: mabul@po.jaring.my

Barracuda special at Sipadan

Adi flying with the barracudas...yabadabadoo

A beautiful yellow sea fan on Sipadan's wall

The friendly giant grouper who lives on Smart's house reef

Incredible Jacks

I'm watching you - eye of a blue spotted fantail ray

Fuzzy hermit crab out on a stroll

White tip shark relaxing along Sipadan's slope - very common sight

In the cave at Sipadan

Transparent goby on whip

A close up of Sipadan's famous resident

Swirling Jacks

Our first half underwater half land shot done at Mabuk Island

So after 14 flights in 7 weeks we are back on Samui Island ready for the new season. This year there will be new slide shows, new articles, new ideas and as always we will be on the go for the search of new bubbles.

We have seen amazing sights above and under the sea, met numerous people who made a difference to the holiday and have been extremely lucky to have had the chance to do so.

We hope you enjoy the pictures and text and we look forward to seeing you, your friends or family on Samui soon. Please take note of the important info at the start of this newsletter.