Honeymoon Brain Storming

[StubbornRussian]

My wife to be and I (been together 10 years) are going onhoneymoon second half of June for 16 days. Very much drawn toMabul/Sipadan for obvious reasons. We normally travel with our daughterwho is not a diver so we have to balance diving with topside/natureexperiences. With us being kid free for this one trying to put together amore dive heavy itinerary. I have two ideas in mind both include thesecond half of our trip being on Mabul. I have a quote for 3k for the two of usat Mabul Water Bungalows for 7 days and 6 nights with one guaranteed permit forSipadan.

Concept 1
Fly to Philippines and make way to Malapascua Island for5 days and 4 nights. Then on to Sipadan with a couple days at the end of thetrip getting some nature trekking/wildlife experience. We are animal lovers.
Concept 2
Stay near the East side of Borneo the whole time.
Concept 1 is kind of a logistical headache to get from Malapascuato Tawau. With concept 2 I have notfound anywhere else I am drawn to for diving in Borneo. Layang Layang gets so many bad reviews foroffering poor service for the price plus lots of complaints of unsafe diving,12 divers to a dm, etc. Langkayan getspoor reviews for bang for your buck as well with pretty average reviews fordiving although the turtle experiences seem pretty neat.
Is there anywhere else in SE Asia or Borneo that we couldget 4 nights at before Sipadan that wouldn’t involve so many flights, boats,and land travel? Something just a little bit more streamlined. Lembeh seems just ascomplicated. Thailand? Too bad therearen’t any direct flights from Cebu to Borneo. And too bad the great places are always a pain in the butt get to!

Perhaps a third trip concept would be to add some liveaboarddays to the Mabul trip to get more guaranteed days at Sipadan. Seems the boat is kind of a mess but we candeal with that. Can we spend too muchtime around Sipadan/Mabul? Never stayedin one area for over a week but there seems to be a ton of diversity in divesites in this area. After a weeksomewhere we are usually ready to go experience someplace different. We do lovecritter dives though and they are still new to us. Last year in Tulamben we spent some time and loved it.

For topside in Borneo any recommendations for an off thebeaten path truly unique wildlife experience?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Wingy]

Have you looked at Kapalai if you are after something special for your honeymoon? You shouldn't have a problem getting a Sipidan permit from Kapalai. Topside Borneo if you want to minimise travel time try hanging around the Sarawak and Sabah provinces. You wont find a shortage of quite good tours to see wildlife and nature in both and wont have to spend 4 months lying on the jungle floor to see a mouse deer...

Id hazard a guess but may be wrong if you wanted to go from Malapusca to Tawau you would have to go back to a Philippine hub and then to KL then to Tawau so theres a good two and a half to three days gone plus another day getting out from Tawau and settling in.

Lembeh could be done relatively easy - fly into Singapore and take a direct flight to Manado but remember you will also lose a day in transit from Manado to Lembeh.

If you can deal with a LOB boat being a bit of a mess also have a look at SeaVentures Rig - i've enjoyed it as much as Kapalai.

Have you thought about combining Indonesian Borneo with Malaysian Borneo?

 

[Centrals]

Forget Malapascua and just concentrate in Sabah or even Sarawak(cool dry cave and long house).
Trekking in Mt. Kinabalau.
Orangutan Sanctury.
Turtle island.

 

[StubbornRussian]

Yeah Malapascua is going to have to wait for a dedicated trip to the Philippines. Lembeh could be done but like said I am loosing days in transit based on how the flights line up. I am now choosing between Anilao and Tulamben if we stop some place on the way since we would not really lose much time getting to either location and the flights line up well. Like Bali/Manila to KL to home instead of Sing-Manado-KL-home. We went to Tulamben last year so I am favoring Anilao but could definitely do Tulamben again. Amazing. Could also do the topside stuff instead of the stopover. Too bad about the fires in Indonesian Borneo as that is where I wanted to focus my time if we stayed topside for half the trip. I will look into Sabah and Sarawak. Looked at Seaventures rig. Looks neat.