As a family, it was quite complicated to visit these dive sites but ultimately, we put in the money and found an acceptable option. We therefore ended up staying here for 8 days in an all-inclusive dive/snorkel resort on the island of Mabul. All we did was dive/snorkel and eat all day long under the splendid sun. Sipadan is renowned world wide for it's amazing diving, especially it's large schools of fish and the size of the others. Legend has it you can loose your dive buddy in a school of Jackfish ;)
The schools of barracuda are huge and come together in large tornados... and the bumped head  parrot fish are as large as the divers... the underwater world here is just out of this world impressive!

There were a few monitor lizards wandering around the property, you can witness here they were not tiny!!

Since it is really hard, not to say impossible, to describe what we saw during this amazing week, here is a lengthy video compilation (almost 8 minutes) of our best of moments of Sipadans underwater world. Hope you enjoy!

One moment that we didn't get on camera but that felt like a live National Geographic take happened as follows:
​The kids and I are snorkeling when I notice a local guy swimming around with his tiny boat. To make this more visual, this is what I am seeing, a wooden boat barely longer than the guy lying down in it with half his body hanging over the backend of the boat. 
He is wearing his googles and I am not so sure what he is doing... so I get up nice and close to have a better look.
Now that is when it happens, right there in front of us, live a movie without the borders of the TV screen.
​The guy was stringing along an octopus decoy on a fishing line. It is hanging close to the bottom when a real live octopus cames out from hiding, chasing after the decoy. We see it so well, out in the open swimming after it's prey and then boom! The fisherman is in the water, grabs the octopus which quickly wraps itself around his arm. Without hesitation, the fisherman takes a bite in the neck area and that is that.. supper goes into the boat for the fisherman and his family before he settles right back in to his original position and its out to fish for another victim. 
​What a scene!!! Very, very impressed to have witnessed this live!!

After observing the Probiscus Monkeys in the wild when we visited Bako National Park, I really wanted a chance to see them again. These monkeys are shy by nature so we were lucky to have seen them from quite close in Bako.  And yes we did see them along the Kinabatangan river as well but from further off.

​The Sanctuary in Sabah offers a similar opportunity to the Orangoutang sanctuaries we visited in that they have feeding platforms that allow visitors a chance to get a really good look. I was also hoping to see some babies which we had not yet seen.

It did not disappoint! Yes they are free to come or not to the feeding platforms but who would pass on a free meal?! They are feed modified pancakes to suit their dietary requirements and they seem to love them. They are also quite relaxed in the presence of us humains, making it easy to observe their every move and enjoy trying to understand the complex hierarchy that they live by.  

Although this is a Probiscus Monkey Sanctuary, it remains a wild space and so they share the habitat with Silver leaf Monkeys which we also had the chance to see up close,  babies and all :)

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by a crocodile farm. It is privately owned, not sure I liked seeing the living environment for some (some of the enclosures seamed too small and cleanliness optional) but in the end, we did see a lot of crocodiles! A lot as in... hundreds! They came in all sizes, from the little ones measuring in at 30 or 60 cm long, to the biggest one that I would estimate measured at least 4 if not 5 meters long. That would be the one in the picture below. So he was captured years ago in the Kitabatangan river after he attacked and ate 3 local fisherman. He was released to the crocodile farm to be kept captive in the objective of keeping the locals safe! It's hard to tell without a reference beside the beast, but just the snout part was at least 1 meter in length!

Oui Oui...ENCORE des Orangutangs!!! Après tout c'est une des raisons principale qui nous a attiré à Bornéo!!! Ici, tout comme à Semenggoh, les animaux sont en liberté. Le concept est le même que le premier que nous avons visité, mais tout en étant pareils, l'expérience était différente.
Ici, c'est aussi un centre de réhabilitation actif (partie non accessible au publique) et ensuite ils profitent d'un milieux de vie protégé. Le program de réhabilitation comporte plusieurs phases allant de la pouponnière puis la garderie où ils apprennent à grimper aux arbres  et finalement la cours de grands où ils sont jumelé avec un autre orangoutan et où ils apprennent à être ce qu'ils sont: des singes! Quand ils sont prêt, ils sont relâché dans la nature  entourant le centre et où ils viennent et vont à leur guise.
La population est grandissantes autour du centre et ils se reproduisent avec beaucoup de succès! Les plateformes pour nourrir les animaux permettent aux visiteurs de les observer de près. Ils sont nourrit avec ne variété de fruits 2 fois par jour. Le centre d'information à l'entrée du site est très complet et vraiment interessant! Dire que nous avons une génétique qui est à 97% identique à la leur!!! Évidement qu'on y retrouvent de ressemblances frappantes en les regardant!

À la différence de Semenggoh où nous avons observé entre autre 2 gros males alpha et une très vielle femelle (une cinquantaine d'années), ici nous avons vu beaucoup de bébés avec leur mère. C'est juste fascinant à observer!

Une rare occasion de voir que, comme chez l'humain, les petits partent de loin! Regardez ce petit qui prend des premiers pas loin de sa maman!!