Going to Sipadan in a week!

[pakman]

We had no tour guide. Diving Adventure acted as a travel agent and booked the trip only. We went back to Hong Kong from the US for vacation so our schedule didn't coincide with one of the scheduled tours. At some point we would love to do that!

I noticed that your location is Hong Kong via Seattle - do you currently live in Hong Kong or Seattle?

IC... yeah the packaged scheduled tour can be pretty cheap with the group airfare and ground transportation. I'm originally from Seattle, currently working in HK (or at least that is what my company thinks I'm doing... really just an excuse to be a short flight away from some of the greatest diving in the region!! ) Happy holidays!

 

[GoBlue!]

Any recommendations for a good book that includes info on Sipidan (or more generally, Borneo/Malaysia/SE Asia) for divers? A friend is going within the next couple months...

Thanks,
Jim

 

[Galun]

Here are the pictures of my trip. There are quite a few pictures as I just dumped them all onto the website without editing.

http://garyko.smugmug.com/gallery/2318671

 

[justinechn]

Hi all..

I'm looking to go to Sipadan this March. Can anyone provide us with information on good dive centres/resorts?

Thanks!

 

[tzeyap]

Check out this guide :

'diving southeast asia' published by periplus -isbn 0-79460076-x

I was able to get one sent to one of the scubaboard mods through Amazon.

It is a inexpensive guide - <$10

 

[pains]

Thank you. Good pics.

Is it possible to see and touch the baby turtles at Mabul? I'm planning to be there coming june.

 

[Galun]

Thank you. Good pics.

Is it possible to see and touch the baby turtles at Mabul? I'm planning to be there coming june.

It's really luck of the draw. I think the locals would rescue the newly hatched baby turtles and take care of them for a few months before releasing them back into the wild. Our DM happened to see the locals carrying the baby turtles on Sipadan island and asked them to show it to our group. We had to go to the back behind the military barracks to see them. AFAIK none of the other groups from other resorts saw them so it's really just the DM knowing the locals.

I am quite happy with Borneo Divers but I cannot comment on the quality at other resorts. As far as diving is concerned, SMART allows unlimited shore diving but in my opinion their house reef is really not that great (dove it twice). The house reef at Sea Ventures (oil rig) is quite good but I am not sure if you can get unlimited "shore" diving there. I heard from someone here that Borneo Divers is building a new jetty that will allow unlimited shore diving on their reef - that reef is actually quite good also. If the jetty at Borneo Divers is completed by the time you go, I would highly recommend staying there.

One thing that I did find surprising is that it doesn't take that long to get to Sipadan from Sempora. If you go to Sipadan from Sempora, they use boats with engines that are twice as powerful as the boats from Mabul / Kipalai resorts. It takes about half hour to get to Sipadan from Mabul, but only about 45 minutes from Sempora. But then I think you do have to worry about permits in Sipadan if you stay in Sempora.

 

[Traminer]

Thanks for the great pics, Galun.. how was the resort accomodations? Were there non-diving things to do? Do they have good draft beer to celebrate sighting yet another turtle?

 

[Galun]

The rooms were clean and more importantly (to us), air conditioned. They have free wi-fi internet access that were quite fast, and if you get a room close to the main dining area (where the router is), you can access the internet from your room. Food was okay, nothing to write home about. There weren't that many non-diving things to do, but frankly with 4 dives a day, we were resting when we were not diving. The place has a pool and does have massage service. We didn't try it but heard it was quite nice. We didn't try their beer but I think they have quite a few choices.

 

[malaysia-islands]

Hope not to steal anyone's thunder but I've managed to get flight from KL to Tawau in Sep with AirAsia (they are doing RM0.00 seat + tax + fuel surcharge). It works out to be RM130 nett for the round trip journey. I plan to spend 1 night in Semporna (perhaps this time will dive with Scuba Junkie)