hinsonme
Guest
Hello all
Im new to the boards and I have a few questions re. Sipadan / Mabul / Kapalai / Mataking and maybe even Layang Layang. I have done quite a bit of reseach on the internet and searched the forums to narrow it down a bit, but now I have some more specific questions!
First of all a bit about us. Were planning a 3 week backpacking trip to Sabah and as part of it wed like to do 5 or so days of diving. The dive part of our holiday is usually the treat part after a couple of weeks roughing it! We are Open Water qualified (Belize 10 months ago), but weve not done any more dives than those so were not very experienced. Well need a bit of a refresher and wed like to do Advanced Open Water. Wed prefer to book in advance and know everything was arranged for the tuition, rather than just turn up.
So, the questions:
* Do you think that the diving in the above areas will be suitable for us? I get the impression many of the people who dive these areas are very experienced. The first thing we would do is the Advanced OW, so we wont just throw ourselves into a group dive. What do you think?
* Any opinions on the areas? Sipadan / Mabul / Mataking area or Layang Layang?
* Any opinions on Dive Operators? Borneo Divers consistently get a good write up. North Borneo Divers have a few recs too. Has anyone dived with Sipadan Water Village (I saw JonnieBs great trip report), or the Reef Resort on Mataking? Given our inexperience, which do you think would suit us?
* Accomodation wise, recommendations? We would usually try to stay in more budget accommodation separate from the dive operations, and then dive with one of the big centres. But so far in my research it seems like there are only all-in dive resorts on all of these islands. Is that correct? Its not possible to stay somewhere a bit more budget but then dive with one of the Mabul operators? I know I can do this if we stay in Semporna but wed like to stay on the islands (even if we do pay for it).
* For the instruction, do you have to pay the 3 dives a day package AND the instruction fees? This would make it seriously expensive. I think we would like to do AOW first off and then be a bit more flexible for our remaining days not necessarily tie ourselves down to three dives every day. Should I just negotiate a package to suit us with the resorts?
Thanks in advance, any opinions and / or advice would be really welcome. If you think we should try somewhere completely different and would be hopelessly out of our depth please say!
Maz
Im new to the boards and I have a few questions re. Sipadan / Mabul / Kapalai / Mataking and maybe even Layang Layang. I have done quite a bit of reseach on the internet and searched the forums to narrow it down a bit, but now I have some more specific questions!
First of all a bit about us. Were planning a 3 week backpacking trip to Sabah and as part of it wed like to do 5 or so days of diving. The dive part of our holiday is usually the treat part after a couple of weeks roughing it! We are Open Water qualified (Belize 10 months ago), but weve not done any more dives than those so were not very experienced. Well need a bit of a refresher and wed like to do Advanced Open Water. Wed prefer to book in advance and know everything was arranged for the tuition, rather than just turn up.
So, the questions:
* Do you think that the diving in the above areas will be suitable for us? I get the impression many of the people who dive these areas are very experienced. The first thing we would do is the Advanced OW, so we wont just throw ourselves into a group dive. What do you think?
* Any opinions on the areas? Sipadan / Mabul / Mataking area or Layang Layang?
* Any opinions on Dive Operators? Borneo Divers consistently get a good write up. North Borneo Divers have a few recs too. Has anyone dived with Sipadan Water Village (I saw JonnieBs great trip report), or the Reef Resort on Mataking? Given our inexperience, which do you think would suit us?
* Accomodation wise, recommendations? We would usually try to stay in more budget accommodation separate from the dive operations, and then dive with one of the big centres. But so far in my research it seems like there are only all-in dive resorts on all of these islands. Is that correct? Its not possible to stay somewhere a bit more budget but then dive with one of the Mabul operators? I know I can do this if we stay in Semporna but wed like to stay on the islands (even if we do pay for it).
* For the instruction, do you have to pay the 3 dives a day package AND the instruction fees? This would make it seriously expensive. I think we would like to do AOW first off and then be a bit more flexible for our remaining days not necessarily tie ourselves down to three dives every day. Should I just negotiate a package to suit us with the resorts?
Thanks in advance, any opinions and / or advice would be really welcome. If you think we should try somewhere completely different and would be hopelessly out of our depth please say!
Maz