Semporna
...the home town of Duyung...

where we made a trip in 2005

Jimmy is a nature-loving man who lives in a fishing village and spends his time looking after the environment by clearing rubbish. He has always believed in the myth told by his mother that if the environment is looked after, a mermaid would appear.....

 

"Duyung" is a light-hearted fantasy romantic comedy.

The town proper itself is a few rows of run-down shop houses. The wharf area is always bustling with activities with many fishermen unloading their catches and tourists going out to their favorite island destinations in the Celebes sea or retiring to land.

On the right hand side of the resort is small Muslim village. This village is built on stilts and has about 200 residents. A quiet  village with an atmosphere of tranquility but with good connections to the busier tourist resort beside.

The water is clear that one could see the bottom with school of fish, one would feel on a tropic island here thought the place is a mainland.

I could feel a complete serenity for this place is really nice. A place where the legendly Mermaid  "Duyung" would live in.

....and overnight this village became a tourist attraction.

At night we were so hungry that Shirley and the children went out by themselves  in search of food nearby but there is  dissent eating place around the hotel.

 room is about RM60 to 70. Most budget visitor to island choose to stay here because most dive operators have their office just beside this Dragon Inn.

There are many local and international diving companies offering professional and skilled dive masters/instructors in semporna. Scuba Junkie is one of them.
 

We spend couple of hours here enjoying the pleasant evening sea breezes.

Almost the entire resort is built of hardwood and Nipa palm. An eco-friendly resort with long plank walk.

The Semporna Holiday Resort at Tampi-tampi, Semporna. And yes, the movie was filmed there besides some other internationally known dive sites and resorts such as Sipadan Island, Mataking Island and as well as Mabul Island.

The restaurant is minutes walk from the bungalow.

To get to a beach one has to  get to one of the surrounding islands. But these world famous islands are  expensive for most ordinary Malaysian to stay on. We never being to any of the island. But the islands are well know as paradise, white sand and beautiful (and expensive)  resorts. They were far too expensive for our  budget.

And almost all traveler go there for diving and the high cost of diving means a fortune for most Malaysian.

Clear blue water with eye-catching coral reef and rich exotic marine life sprawling and dancing around the beautiful Duyung (mermaid) acted by Maya Karin.

The starfish is not a fish and is more closely related to sea urchins and sand dollars. This is why scientists are calling them Sea Stars. They are carnivores and are found in the sea floors. They have the amazing ability to regenerate their limbs.

they move very slowly and sometimes just sit clinging on the rocks and not moving at all.

I find Sea Stars interesting. The Orange Sea Star comes in all sorts of shades in the orange spectrum from bright reds to orangey yellows.

While they start on the Barrier Reef, they are often found in the rock pools along the coast of South East Queensland. The sea stars come in with the tides, or the cyclones and are stranded in the rock pools.

They are fascinating animals, which when dead dry out in a skeletal shape. This weekend I went to Melbourne, and today got the ferry down the Yarra to Williamstown. This is a seaside resort established in the convict days. As we got off the ferry I could see star fish in the water. They are a pest in these waters, and there was a chap with a long implement whose job it was to kill the star fish. Apparently they rein havoc with the mussels and native fish to the area.

There are several different types of starfish or sea stars in the waters of Puget Sound. They differ in color, size and number of arms. It is fun to go out a low tide and see how many you can find.
The Six-arm Sea Star is one of the smallest

this story by Loren Eisely in his book, The Star Thrower. The author finds himself with writer's block and decides to take a walk along a sandy beach where hundreds of starfish had been washed up on the shore overnight. He noticed a boy picking up the starfish one by one and throwing each back into the ocean. Observing the boy for a few minutes Eisley asked him, "What are you doing?" The boy replied that he was returning the starfish to the sea, otherwise they would die when the burning rays of the sun hit them. The beach was miles and miles long and the author questioned the boy as to whether he was making a difference. The boy bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the back into the ocean and said, “it matters to this one.” Eisley left the boy and went home to continue writing, only to find that he could not type a single word. He returned to the beach and spent the rest of the morning helping the boy throw starfish back into the sea.

Loren Eiseley (September 3, 1907 – July 9, 1977)  was an American anthropologist, educator, philosopher, and natural science writer, who taught and published books from the 1950s through the 1970s. During this period he received more than 36 honorary degrees

We had time to observe, to speculate, and to dream.”

The story is set on the east coast of Sabah. Jimmy (Saiful Apek) is a young man who spends his days cleaning the rubbish in the sea village that he lives. He refuses to do any work other than caring for the environment, which makes him an outcast and laughingstock among the villagers. His only friend is Orix (Yassin Yahya).

Jimmy wants to marry his childhood sweetheart, Aspalela (Yasmin Hani), who returns his feelings. He asks Aspalela's father, Wan Pagek, for Aspalela's hand in marriage, but Wan Pagek declares that he has to have land of his own before he can marry her. Jimmy builds a floating island out of discarded rubbish, on which he builds a small hut. This amuses Wan Pagek and displeases Kordi (Awie), another man who wants to marry Aspalela.

One night, Jimmy is woken up by a mermaid named Puteri (Maya Karin). She explains that she has been watching Jimmy for some time, and to show her appreciation for Jimmy's efforts in cleaning the village, she has been helping fortify his floating island. Jimmy boasts to the entire village that he has met a mermaid, but when Puteri refuses to surface when called, Jimmy is declared a crazy liar and disowned by his father.

When Puteri returns to visit Jimmy, she reminds him that their friendship is supposed to be a secret. She takes him to her home in an underwater cave, which is filled with pirate's treasure. Puteri explains that she is lonely, and has developed feelings for Jimmy. However, Jimmy explains that he is in love with Aspalela, but he cannot marry her because he has no money. Puteri offers to give her treasure to him, but he turns it down. After Jimmy returns to his floating island, he wakes up the next morning and finds that Puteri has left two boxes of treasure for him. Jimmy flaunts his newfound wealth and gains the favour of all the villagers and Aspalela's father.

Kordi is suspicious of Jimmy's good fortune and goes to his island, where he captures Puteri. He places her in a cage and charges the villagers money to see her. Jimmy's father sees the mermaid and realises that his son isn't crazy. Jimmy, Orix, Aspalela, Jimmy's parents and Aspalela's parents work together to free Puteri. After getting away from Kordi, Puteri wishes Jimmy happiness with Aspalela, and swims off into the ocean.

In an epilogue set three years later, Jimmy and Aspalela are married, Kordi is working for them, the village is prosperous, and the villagers work for Jimmy in monitoring the environment. Jimmy explains in voice-over that he has not seen Puteri since their goodbye and doesn't expect to see her ever again. Puteri is briefly shown secretly visiting the village with a merman by her side.

Duyung is the first Malaysian film to shoot undersea. Nearly 40 percent of the scenes were filmed underwater. [3] Eric Madeja of Treasure Images Sdn Bhd was responsible for coordinating and filming of the underwater scenes. [4] Filming took place over 25 days at Sipadan, Mataking, Semporna and Bohey Dulang island in Sabah. Maya Karin performed almost all her underwater scenes without the aid of a stunt double.[5]
 

New rows of shop houses are being built at the waterfront. This is the area of  hotels and lodging houses and restaurants to carter for the ever increasing number of tourists.

Although first timers to Semporna (like myself) will initially feel a bit unsafe because of hearing

There are stories of too many stories of  illegal Filipino and Indonesian immigrants in this town. But this is  very safe town with many simple friendly people.

 Is the myth true? Will his diligence pay off and will Jimmy finally get to see a real live mermaid?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duyung