Mabul Water Bungalows or Sipadan-Kapalai Resort?

[dazed_dizzy]

Hi,

My boyfriend and i are going to Borneo next year in may. We have heard there is some great dive sites, so may take an open water course in the new year before we go, as we cant dive at the moment.
The problem is we cant decide whether to stay at Mabul Water Bungalows or Kapalai. We would prefer one of these to the budget options, (eg nice rooms ect), but as we will be inexperienced divers we want one that will best suit us. And also offers good snorkeling aswell.

Can anyone recommend which one we should go for any why? I read that maybe we will have a better chance of going to sipadan if we stay at kapalai?

thansk alot

 

[OnTheSpot]

HI dazed_dizzy

Mabul Water Bungalows is a 14 room resort built on stilts, and Kapalai Dive Resort has 41 rooms also built on stilts.

Mabul Water Bungalows are a bit more exclusive, so Kapalai will be the budget conscious choice between the two, with about US$600 difference per couple in an 8 day 7 night package, or even more in low season.

You can check out the links above for detailed information about the two resorts.

 

[Skuba-doo]

We stayed at Mabul Water Bungalows last summer - its a lovely stilted bungalow resort which is pretty similar to some of teh maldives resorts. The staff are really nice, friendly, helpful and attentive. The same cannot be said for the management you treat people with dismay. We had three dives a day and they started pretty early - we were up at about 430am!! Its a really quite place and not particularly sociable, so we went across to the other SMART resort on Mabul where a younger crowd stayed - probably due to the lower costs.

The House Reef is very good, and teh DM's are attentive enough and have superb eyesight! Dont expect to get on to Sipadan though due to the permit issues, though if you're new to diving, Mabul is still an excellent place to dive

The rooms are lovely, private balconies overlooking the sea with fish swimming all around. The air-con was quite, the tv channels good, and there are plenty of free books to borrow. The food is very good, and they give you a couple of bikes so you can travel the island!

The other stilted accomodation - Sipidan Water Village - was a larger resort, which had a better shop, better bar/social area and seemed to have a lot more Americans/Canadians - good for getting some advice on US/Carribean dives.

The difference in cost is really down to the standard of accomodation I think. People who stayed elsewhere on Mabul all commented how much better the accomodation was at MWB - though with the Ž£ being so weak Im not sure if teh difference in price is really worth it. If I went back Id go for the Sipadan Water Village due to teh lower costs and better chance of getting a Sipadan permit

 

[nigeltlee]

For a couple who wants to dive and chill Sipadan-Kapalai is my vote. its on its own - dose not have mosquitoes - also dose not have aircon but we didn't need it because of the ocean breeze. (i am one of those folks who ALWAYS needs aircon)

I guess if you want a younger crowed - perhaps more of a party atmosphere during the evenings Mabul would be my choice - with SWV within walking distance.

The price for both of these resorts are very similar, why not stay at both then write a review for us?

 

[SnappyTheDiver]

I have stayed at the Water Bungalows six times and enjoyed the food and comforts. Never saw a single mosquito. Issue with Sipadan diving permits with SMART may be your deciding factor.

 

[victor]

Dizzy
From my reading I do not think Sipadan is suitable for a newly qualified Open Water diver. Before spending your hard earned dosh on a resort I would strongly recommend that you get certified to minimum PADI advanced or equivalent and get a few (at least 20+) fun, unsupervised, dives under your belt before you get to Sipadan.

We have heard there is some great dive sites, so may take an open water course in the new year before we go, as we cant dive at the moment.

 

[Sabriya]

Hi there. Firstly you will need to have a minimum Advance Diver Certification before you qualify to dive Sipadan Island so make sure you get to that level otherwise alot of the dive sites will not be accessible to you. Since Sipadan is protected, only a limited number of divers are allowed onto the Island. This allocation is divided between the resorts operating out of Mabul and Kapalai and Semporna. I have personally stayed at Sipadan Water Village in Mabul and have no complaints. That would be my recomendation to you. Sipadan is done on a 3 boat dive basis and takes a whole day. So if you plan to stay for a week you will probably get to dive in Sipadan at least for 2 days. The operators do try and accomodate your requests as best as they can. Mabul has a beautiful house reef with plenty of macro stuff so you wont be dissappointed with these dive sites and the resort offers unlimited diving off the house reef.

 

[Skuba-doo]

When I was at Mabul Water Bungalows, our dives were organised into three dives per day on a 2-day cycle roughly as follows:
Cycle 1:
0900 - Mabul/Kapalai
1100 - Mabul Kapalai
1400 - Sipadan

Cycle 2:
0600 - Sipadan
0900 - Sipadan
1100 - Mabul/Kapalai

So we had three dives at Sipadan over a two day period (we were lucky enough not to have any permit issues.

I was only Open Water when I went, and hadnt dived for 12 months. I had a check dive on teh house reef on my first afternoon. I dont think there is any requirement for Advanced OW, as only 1 our of my group of 8 had anything above OW. The DM's are very good and very attentive. Maybe try googling mabul water bungalows or Sipadan Mabul resort (SMART) and contact them direct to see if teh regulations have changed at all since last summer

 

[divergregg]

Wife and I loved Kapalai, though I would not consider Sipadan a good spot to learn the sport of diving. It has the potential to be very dangerous. We had some very nasty down currents on the wall right off the Island and am thankful for our training, we could have easily ended up at 60+meters very quickly.

Most likely won't be back because of the permit system. The house reefs at Kapalai and Mabul are nice, but if you fly all the way around the world to dive Sipadan and end up doing 70% of your dives at non Sipadan sites you have wasted lots of money.

However we did a week combination at Kapalai and then headed out to the Danum Valley Conservation Area to stay at the Borneo Rainforrest Lodge and saw 6 wild Oran-U-Tans. The total trip was amazing and one we will never forget.

Also one thing to remember that the poverty is rampant and the economy is basically addicted to producing Palm Oil so the deforrestation is quite severe and depressing. Just be aware. "Buses" are little vans that are a white knuckle drive leapfrogging slower vehicles on a two lane road. Very very scary. Fun, but scary. Our bus had chickens, and a goat. So made for some interesting smells.

Again, awesome place, but one that is quickly going to lose its charm.