Please help - Wife wants to cancel Sipadan for security reasons

[slee416]

Hello. For the past 2 months I have been planning a dive trip to Sipadan for the last week of September. I just got the flights arranged and was about to secure lodging when my wife read the US travel warning posting on Malaysia (http://travel.state.gov/malaysia_announce.html) and learned about the recent kidnappings.

I heard about the incident that happened in 2000 or 2001 but I had no idea about the kidnappings in 2003 and the one from April of this year. I still think we're 99.9% okay to go but my wife is very concerned about all of this and wants to change our plans and go somewhere else. She told me last night she has a bad feeling about this one.

Both my wife and I are Korean, raised in the states and speak perfect english. I am a US citizen and she is a Korean citizen but gets mistaken for Filipino all the time. She tends to worry too much and we just had our first child. The baby will not make the trip with us.

If you have traveled to Sipadan recently or have an insight into any safety issues there can you post comments about your experience here? Thanks and help me get to Sipadan!

 

[Kim]

I haven't been there but I have been elsewhere in Malaysia - Tioman island off the East coast of the peninsular. The diving there was very good. Also Redang is supposed to be excellent. I know that you probably don't want to hear it but if it was my wife I would definitely listen to her gut feeling and change the plan. I can't see how you will really enjoy it there if she's worried the whole time - especially just after having a new baby. The mainland and the small islands off the East coast have had no problems that I know of. Sipidan (or that general area) has had. I agree with you that the chances are probably fairly low - but still higher than elsewhere. Whatever you decide - I'm jealous!! and I hope you have a really great trip!

 

[Diver Lori]

I agree with Kim. I've not been to Malaysia, but my buddy wants to go and I'm balking all the way. You simply cannot argue with a woman's gut feeling for two reasons....1. alot of times, they are right....and 2. How much fun is she going to have worrying all the time?

 

[Kim]

I agree with Kim. I've not been to Malaysia, but my buddy wants to go and I'm balking all the way. You simply cannot argue with a woman's gut feeling for two reasons....1. alot of times, they are right....and 2. How much fun is she going to have worrying all the time?

The mainland peninsular is fine safety wise. Malaysia is a really nice place as well - it's well worth a visit!

 

[frogfish]

I visited Sipadan in February this year and had a great time. However there were Malaysian soldiers patrolling the island...

People from Singapore go diving there all the time.

But if your wife has a bad feeling about the trip, why not go somewhere else ? There are plenty of other great dive destinations !

 

[Peter Lim]

Layang Layang is one of them and is in Sabah with a naval base next to the resort. You will not need to worry about your flight as it is similar to the route to Sipadan via KK. In fact, I just get back from Lombok and am going to Sangalaki (Indonesia) next month.

I will however skip Jakarta if going to Indonesia and since your wife is concern, just go to KK, Tunku Abdul Rahman Park or the West Malaysia where the diving is not great but safe. Koh Tao in Thailand is another but nothing much to shout about.

 

[davidlkh]

If you miss Sipadan this time round there will be no staying on Sipadan next time.

As for the wife issue, here is my own experience.

This was during the height of the Indonesian riots many years back. When the locals were going after the Chinese in Jakarta not sure over what issue.

Anyway, the kids were 3 and 5 years old then. Hotel rates were way way way down, infact all rates were way down. The trip was to Bali. My wife was extremely negative about the trip. I explained Bali is "Hindu" with some muslim element. Quite different from the CNN Jakarta Reports. In the end we did go, had a super great time and infact we ended up going there twice a year for many years at the request of my wife (I wanted to explore new sites/countries). Even just after the Bali bombing. We stay away from the "main joints" and live among the locals in a nice villa. Extremely safe, extremely luxurious, extremely fun.

So how does this apply to Sipadan and your wife.

Explain to your wife:
1. Police post is on the island
2. Regular patrol fly past too
3. There are other military / police post on Padanan and Mataking (near Phillipines border), so the patrol is much further beyond Sipadan perimeter. The Abu Sayaf are from Phillipines.

4. Not sure where you are actually staying, perhaps if in Sipadan Water Village, you can try and sell her how nice the place is.

 

[Peter Lim]

Hi davidlkh,

You still can dive Sipadan and stay in Mabul or Kapalai just skip the land stay in Sipadan resort instead, no major loss. In fact, the government change their policies so often that the island might be open again, who know!

Who would want to have a diving holiday and worrying about safety or security?

 

[Albion]

Would not worry about it, i went to sipadan beginning of last year and it was fine, there are plenty of naval vessels patrolling now.
Re the kidnapping - Point to note, the operator affected employs many fillipino's in fact i think on sipadan a lot of them do, now just before the kidnapping in 2000, i understand that the operator kicked a load of his Filipino staff out. Now it seems to me more than a coincidence to me that a couple of months later fillipino rebels come and grab some hostages form one operator only especially as it would be easier to go to one of the other operators. This really was an isolated incident, and with sipadan closing to live on gueast form the end of the year i would go otherwise you could end up regretting not having the oportunity

 

[ilandeemdst]

My brothe in law was there 2 weeks ago, and had an amazing time, im very jealous... not security problems at all. They had a great time plenty of marine life to see.