Diving Borneo At Kota Kinabalu

[danclem]

We will be in Borneo in early January, and are thinking about diving at Kota Kinabalu. Any thoughts or recommendations?

I understand that plankton blooms take place this time of year, so viz may be so/so. But, then again, I am from the a Pacific Northwest.

 

[bunty99]

Dont waste your time with diving in kota kinabalu unless you deperately just want to get wet. I was there last sept, viz was about 5-10m, marine life wasnt that exciting either (no pelagics and only the pikachu nudi for macro)

 

[Tippytoes12]

You can fly from KK to Manila and dive Animal , Puerto Galera or any of the other wonderful destinations there...the weather and vis should be better and the diving heaps better.

 

[Manneca]

Dived there several years ago. Not worth it unless you really, really want to. Not much life and murky water. There is world class diving at Sipidan (stay on Mabul Island, fly to Semporna). We stayed at Sea Ventures because they guaranteed the most Sipidan trips for the number of nights we were staying. Another great option is Layang Layang. Great coral and reef fish. My major complaint is that of the 45 minute dive, 30 minutes was spent in the blue waiting for hammerheads. When I said I'd prefer not to, they allowed my buddy and me to stay on the reef and they then returned to join us.

 

[danclem]

Thanks for the responses.

@bunty99: Kind of what I thought, but thought I would check it out.
@Tippytoes12: Love diving the Philippeans, but not this trip.
@Manneca: Thought about Mabul, will see if logistics work out.