Help Me Decide On Mabul/sipadan

[Sidhu]

Hello!

Im mostly a lurker here.
Late August we have tickets booked to KL, which could take us onwards to Bali or Thailand or elsewhere. But I have for a while wanted to dive at Sipadan. I travel with my girlfriend and we are both competent divers.

However, it is very very expensive for what we can comfortably afford. There are questions over which shop to dive with (Seaventures/ScubaJunkie/Billabong) with Billabong putting us in budget, and seaventures we wanting to do, but SJ gives 4 dives at Sipadan (not tooo sure about that!, and alternatives welcome).

Ill list my concerns :

1. We try to not make our vacations exclusively diving. We usually end up doing just that, and come back more physically exhausted than we left. We want a vacation!
2. Im not too sure if Sipandan vs. Tulamben/Lembongan vs. Lanta is what one would call value for money. Please advise if the cost is totally worth it. We are not very rich, and we would be spending all our holiday budget in half the time.
3. Im concerned with the Shark fishing industry in Malaysia. If we see a dead shark in Semporna thats the end of our holiday... But i doubt us not going there changes anything.

I hope i was clear in listing my issues. I always wanted to dive Sipadan as just... But its very expensive.

Thank you all!
Sidhu

 

[E-la]

Hi Sidhu,

I always have mabul/sipadan in my list. After
2 flights tickets not utilized and finally i managed to dive with Seaventures Jan this year (2016).

If you don't mind sharing your budget then I can offer you some advice. I spent around RM 1,700 for diving inclusive of accomodation, meals - stay in dorm btw. I logged closed to 12/13 dives since they offer unlimited house reef dives. As for Sipadan, i only did 3 dives and later i did know that you can add 2 extra dives with some extra fees.

Mabul & Kapalai are not bad either. Awesome macro. I spotted devil's ray when we were diving in mabul, can't recall the dive site name.

One of the reason we choose Seaventures becuase of the rig and every night there will be polices station there. So u'll feel safe.

There will be Dive exhibition coming in 29-31 july in Kuala lumpur. Most divers will go there to get discount on dive trips/ gears. Seaventures will have their promo as well - that's how i got the cheaper price. U may want to check that or ask anyone u know here to book for u.

Hope it helps! Cheers