Please help - Wife wants to cancel Sipadan for security reasons

[slee416]

I want to thank everyone for their input on this. Your comments, both for and against, provide great value.

In my search for middle ground we are now we are looking in Fiji. We planned our honeymoon there a couple years back and had to cancel due to family health issues. The soft corals are world class and sounds like some of the diving there is pretty spectacular too. There's more topside for her plus I've always wanted to do the Kava ceremony .

I'm checking into Kadavu and Tavueni with Aqua-trek divers. Marriage is all about compromise, right? Well now I can give myself a pat on the back and the wife owes me one...that means shark dive! .

 

[Gussy]

I now live in San Francisco, but grew up in the Philippines. My feeling about the whole thing is that a lot of the risk are exaggerated because of the media. I have friends in Asia who will not come to the US because of 9/11 and risk of future bombings. And I have friends who will not go back with me for diving this October to the Philippines because there was a kidnapping...although the kidnapping happend in 2001! Security have increased dramatically in Asia, but I guess people are always fearfull about places that they are not familiar with. I worry a lot about risk, but know that it is no more risk than crossing the Golden Gate Bridge (w/ the risk of Al Quida taking the bridge down!).

 

[DORSETBOY]

I now live in San Francisco, but grew up in the Philippines. My feeling about the whole thing is that a lot of the risk are exaggerated because of the media.

sad but true, the same happened in the years following the terroist attacks in luxor (egypt), prices fell dramatically for flights and accom generally for the next 2 yrs.

 

[Deepman]

We were there just recently on gorgeous Sipadan. We felt safe. Armed coast guards who seem to be friendly and whose presence on the island is very reassuring yet not the least threatening are on patrol around the clock. The local Sabah government and the Federal Malaysia government take the piracy issue really seriously it seems. Police boats were visible patroling the waters and quite honestly we felt very safe during our one week on Sipadan. We may be going back soon. The diving is superb needless to say. Good luck with the weather and the viz.



[/FONT]

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!

 

[t-rocks69]

go to sipidan me and my wife where in KK at the time of the kidnapings they were not in sipidan but a resort near sipidan..Even then it turned out to be Indoneasean's that did the kidnaping and killing and had nothing to do with teriost activity..the island is so guarded since the problems in 2000 that nothing but drunk drives making to much noise are the only problems...as far as i have been told and seen make your reservations in advance are you won't get to stay on the island.. as far as just diving from one of the boats and staying in Mabul i don't know..i believe T. Jefferson said that "nothing can be believe that is written in the newspapers the goverment controls them now" not exactly right but the meaning is there.any way Malaysia is a very peacefull country specialy Sabah with very freindly people. been there 3 times and love the place.now if i could only find a way to support myself there i would move there.


gogogogogogogogogogo
you'll have fun
troy

 

[diver janet]

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!

I had a group at Sipadan Water Village this past April...16 of us. The diving is FABULOUS, the resort is beautiful and VERY SAFE. The Malaysian Navy has a very strong presence in the whole region and frequently docked at SWV and ate dinners in the dining room with the guests.

The diving at Mabul & Kapalai are wonderful muck destinations; diving at Sipadan itself was world-class wall diving. Giant manta, turtles galore and lots of marine life both large and macro.

No one in the group ever felt a moment's unease...I've rebooked the resort for Christmas 2005 and a good portion of my group will be returning with me along with some newbies!

I was there in March of '03 and felt the same way......

As far as your wife worrying about the baby, that's a natural reaction for any new mom and I hate to tell you, no matter where you go in the world, she's still going to worry about baby for the whole trip! Enjoy your holiday!

 

[mania]

We have a saying in POlish. It's very old one.
Poor gets hit by a brick in the wooden church....
Go on your holiday nad have fun
Mania

 

[slee416]

Well it's gonna have to wait...or I mean I'm going to have to wait. I would bet everything but the baby that we would of had an incident-free trip, but regardless I decided to give in...err i mean compromise...and we decided on fiji, but then switched to Bali. There's a great Bali report with pics going on in the underwater photography section for anyone that's interested. Anyway my wife only has one dive under her belt after OW certification and she's still nervous about diving. That one dive was a check out dive on a house reef in the Maldives. We found out she was pregnant a day before our trip. I dove the rest of the week alone. Our baby has one dive logged! :babycrawl

 

[bob.s]

I am also going to sipadan the end of september and did not know about the recent kidnappings...I tried to find information on the website you provided but the page had been moved and i couldnt locate the new site...I am not to worried about it...but I can understand your wifes concerns..my family is always worried when i travel to Indonesia ..

 

[Hank49]

Well it's gonna have to wait...or I mean I'm going to have to wait. I would bet everything but the baby that we would of had an incident-free trip, but regardless I decided to give in...err i mean compromise...and we decided on fiji, but then switched to Bali. There's a great Bali report with pics going on in the underwater photography section for anyone that's interested. Anyway my wife only has one dive under her belt after OW certification and she's still nervous about diving. That one dive was a check out dive on a house reef in the Maldives. We found out she was pregnant a day before our trip. I dove the rest of the week alone. Our baby has one dive logged! :babycrawl

Bali? Not to panic you or anything but the disco bombing there a few years ago was more tragic than the kidnappings at Sipadan. It's a beautiful island no doubt, but Kuta beach is a zoo with all the hawkers.... who can get quite rude if you blow them off. I haven't been to Fiji but I would go there rather than Bali. Been there three times.