Sipadan - Don't Waste Your Time

[Skuba-doo]

Had 5 nights staying at the Mabul Water Bungalows (run by SMART) last July. Three dives per day were organised, roughly as follows: 0600, 0930, 1130. We had two dives each day at Sipadan, with the third dive either at Mabul or Kapalai.

We were luck to get on to Sipadan, as friends who have been since stayed at Mabul for 7 days and had only 2 dives at Sipadan. The DM's generally choose the dive sites once they receive authorised permits. The DM's are all pretty good, nice guys, knowledgeable and attentive to their groups. The staff at MWB were all very friendly, polite and seemed pleased to help. All equipment was washed off and prepared (tho of course do your own checks!). The resort really is beautiful, and an ideal romantic getaway. pretty similar to the Maldives, however the evenings were pretty dull, and we went over to the other SMART resort which was much more sociable.

The diving was really good, Barracuda Point and White Tip Avenue at Sipadan were superb, and teh other sites almost as good. BUT...its really not worth diving the early dive - at around 0600 - as there are soooo many divers all you can see are fins, air bubbles and groups or other divers. Its better to snorkel from the beach, as you see alot more. The MWB House Reef if surprisingly good considering its only a few years old, and the muck diving is excellent around Mabul.

I also had the opportunity to dive off Kota Kinabalu, which was also pretty good, though not a patch on Sipadan

[gee13]

Hi guys, Im planning to book for Kapalai/Sipadan resort for 5D/4N May 11-15 and looking for any interested diver to twin share a room (cheaper for me than single supplement). I have chosen Kapalai due to more consistent favourable reports. Please get in touch asap for more details. Cost should be approx $1000 US with a 25 % deposit at time of booking. Cheers G

[skifrog]

I have not tried to dive Malaysia at all - - political reasons - - but I think a strict quote is a good thing - - UNLESS they can come up with a 'test' to keep out unqualified divers. I have been on popular sites in Thailand (Kho Tao for one) and have seen divers with pry bars poking under and moving stones on the reef. Bad buoyancy control, out of control kicks, and a general disregard for the environment are rampant - there seems to be an attitude, among tourist AND locals, that if I can afford to be here diving, I can do what I want and DO NOT TOUCH rules are for others. You see divers with cameras banging corral, basically messing with the reef and animals in it to get the shot they want How do we upgrade the caliber of diver - - both skill level and attitude.
I am thinking the NUMBER of diver may be less important than the quality of divers.
I think dive operators have a responsibility FOR - not TO - their customers, if they are not willing to ensure dive practices that are compatible with preserving the reefs, then I would think they should be denied access for periods of time, or be subject to some sort of punitive measure.
A permit system that is better run, and available in advance seems do able. . That would save boats running out and being turned back - - surely they have radio communication there?? How do we get the governing body to behave more sensibly.

[bill22]

I don't think people have a problem with quota's. The problem they have is with the way the quota system is administered. The problem occurs when they are told by a travel agent or resort that they are going to be able to dive a certain location and they spend a ton of money to fly half-way around the world only to be told "sorry". That is not acceptable.

It's a little late to get the government to behave sensibly. They've already allowed the area to be way overbuilt. Restricting construction would have been the first step. Unlikely they're going to tell resort owners to tear down their resorts now. There will never be enough permits to make everyone happy.

Personally, I've read enough here to decide I'll be diving elsewhere.

[Cabbie]

One resort at least has changed the way it works. Divers now go for 3 dives on Sipadan. However the issue of pretending to be someone else is still happening by all accounts. I've only just arrived and am diving Sipadan tomorrow. Will see how the rest of the days go...

[OnTheSpot]

Hi Cabbie, so how did the rest of the day(s) go?

[Cabbie]

thanks for the reminder

I had a total of 3 days (9 dives) on Sipadan, out of 6 full diving days. This was perfect for me as I had a load of fun with the macro stuff on the other days (including some new fish).

Definitely saw the difference in trying to get permits when the resort filled up immediately after Chinese New Year. Some people only got one day out of 4. Others who'd been there a while had 8 days out of 12.

Having said that, one day there were only 117 permits allocated, so someone didn't use up the full quota What I didn't realise is that snorkellers also require permits...and guess what ? Yep, these come out of the 120........

The really really really bad news is that the new resort on Mabul (200 rooms + oceanarium) has apparently been approved