Another Sipadan Diving Permit Thread: Sipadan Water Village vs Mabul Water Bungalows

[gee13]

Hey thanks Luko, glad you like them! And yes you are right about the lens. I just came back from Borneo Divers couple of weeks back. The new lens has been tricky to use and focus for the first time but fruitful if you nail the shot.

 

[Luko]

I'm considering purchasing this lens too, some perspectives are soooo interesting... but it's so expensive too (the whole rig including lens and housing adaptor would cost me more than 1500EUR for my SLR)

 

[gee13]

Wow Luko thats 2 arms and leg sfor your dslr lens! My Inon lens for my compact was about only 300 eu. They are great lens for real cfwa shots though.

 

[Average]

I just realized this now: The Mabul Water Bungalows' Price of 1581 for 5 days 4 nights... is per diver!
It said twin share, so I thought that price is for 2 persons... but it is over 3K for 2 divers? holy moly, guys, how did you afford that?

 

[Luko]

I just realized this now: The Mabul Water Bungalows' Price of 1581 for 5 days 4 nights... is per diver!
It said twin share, so I thought that price is for 2 persons... but it is over 3K for 2 divers? holy moly, guys, how did you afford that?

Well YOU put up this choice first on your list, didn't you?

There are less expensive ways to dive Sipadan : Borneo Divers or Seaventures for instance are cheaper than Mabul Water bungalows...

 

[Average]

Yup, haha, my bad!

No Pirate Life for me! hehe, no problem, No1 is Diving!

 

[gee13]

Another option is scuba junkies for budget. Or homestay in mabul I hear will be less than US 50 per day. Some of these may also be on stilts over water Depends on what you want. Are you going to Mabul to dive or lounge around the resort in luxury.

 

[tfitz]

I am OW only and Mabul water bungalows had us surface before the more experienced divers (I think we got 50 vs. their 55 min or so. They were a ways away at the surface) the first day we were at Sipadan. Next day we dove with less experienced group and all had similar dive times. Can't say if that was planned or not but thinking it was. We got two days out of 5 at MWB in June 2011 and maybe could have wrangled one more but the husband was happy to do more muck diving. Take your own safety sausage bc i don't believe they had extras...

 

[mcliffy2]

If price is a concern, shoot the places an email. I just asked if there were any discounts available last year during offseason (late Nov), and was offered 20% off published prices at SWV. This made SWV the much less expensive option. for what it is worth, I did the same research you did and chose SWV because of increased chance of Sipadan permits. We were guaranteed 2 of 5 days, but ended up getting 3 of 5, and were actually offered a 4th day, but turned it down because our long lost luggage (lost between SF and Seoul) was finally arriving after 5 days journey back to us

 

[ClausC]

Quite some years ago, when it was still possible to stay on Sipadan, we arranged a trip through a travelagent in Denmark, but 4 days before departure the whole trip was cancelled due to disagreement with the agent.

We were desperate to go anyway and was completely set up for the trip and 2 days before original departure we managed to book a flight to Kota Kinabalu from Denmark, one day later than originally planned, but had no arrangement in relation to hotel, diving, Sipadan or anything.

The day after arrival in Kota Kinabalu, we visited Borneo Divers office in Kota Kinabalu and arranged the exact same itinery as planned through the travel agent in Denmark. We were not exactly unhappy about the arrangement, because it worked out almost half of the price we should have paid to the Danish travel agent.

You might be lucky to get a serious discount if you make the booking in Malaysia, on the other hand there is a small risk involved