Luko
Contributor
Sipadan & Mabul : you might think I am biased for my favorite dive resort, and you would be right. 
I love some much the place that I came back twice from the beginning of the year with Borneo Divers’ operation, the 4th time in total since 2004- which almost had a feeling of returning home. One of the biggest advantage is also that I know as much every guide –Emily, Jonathan, Elger, Steven, Lianah- as they know me now, no need for thorough communication or prior assessing of each one’s personality and likes.
Hence after two and a half weeks diving Komodo and Maumere in Indonesia, we decided to hop our way to Sipadan for a week stay in mid august. Even though it can take 3 flights from Bali to get to Tawau, AirAsia.com made it less painful for my bank account as we managed to grab a few promo tickets paid 9MYR (3USD) for one leg.
I was quite worried with all these horror stories on the shortage of Sipadan permits in peak season, though it turned out smoothly to allow us a dive day on Sipadan every two days, which was even more dives than what I expected. Probably it was due to the fact that there were many Italian snorkelers which didn’t care on either going to Sipadan or staying on Mabul… and marginally on the fact it was our 4th stay at Borneo Divers.
It pays to be a loyal customer. :blinking:
No need to describe the boring but short bustrip from Tawau to Semporna along the alleys of palm oil trees getting more ubiquitous year after year, the fast 45mn speed boat ride to Mabul, the comfy wooden bungalows in the resort and the efficiency or the check in. One hour after my arrival, I was already on the boat with DM Emily to start the orientation dive on Old House Reef.
Mabul Borneo Divers Resort from the pier
The dives around Mabul and Kapalai were as usual full of fun to photo critters, like flamboyant cuttlefish, stargazer, frogfish, leaf fish, crustacia, … although no DM could find any pygmy seahorse nor ghostpipefish : it seems there is somehow too much diver pressure on some spots which might impact on certain critters. For instance when you witness the struggle between the divers of 3 boats for spotting mandarin fish on Paradise 2 jetty, its no surprise some shyer species have gone AWOL.
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Mabul dive sites are still a lovely playground for macro photography, the key is sometimes having a dedicated guide who will understand your likes –very easy just looking at my heavy camera rig- and take the time to look around for the most hidden or uncommon critters.
For some reasons, I focused this time heavily on yawning or open mouths.
A flamboyant squid on Kapalai...:cool2: but no blue ring octopus... :depressed::
Borneo divers dive package includes 4 dives a day : the usual dive plan for a day on Mabul is to go boat diving on Kapalai/Mabul sites in the daytime and to chose between a sunset or a night dive on the house reef as a fourth dive. I wanted to change a bit and asked for a guided night dive on the other side of Mabul on Ray Point, which was added as a supplement to my package.
I was focused on blue ring octopus which we didn’t spot, nevertheless it was a winning move which I would gladly repeat everyday : on a 90 minutes dive, Emily showed me about half of the “Macrolife” book (A&A Ferrari), chapter “crustacia”. That was ranging from the decorator crab to the anemone hermit crab or any kind of shrimp you liked, but also small cuttlefish playing with my focus light.
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Sipadan is another story about blue water, jackfish or barracuda schools swirling round in tornadoes, whitetips and grey reef sharks on every dive, sometimes humphead parrotfish schools and lots of turtles that appeal for ultra wide angle photography… though I was quite dumbfounded when the DM pointed a couple of sea moths on a sandy patch of Barracuda Point, while I was fitted with my fisheye lens.
Schools... name your fish, and just watch...
Although their sight is very common I was struck this time by the number of turtles on the spot called Hanging Gardens… I mean that was probably a matter of 40 or 50 turtles seen per dive, sometimes 5 when looking 360° around you… we even played peeping tom on a rainy day, staring at turtles mating in the shallows attracting other males… and even Italian snorkelers.
Peeping Toms ! :shocked2:
Conclusion :
As a diver the Sipadan-Mabul-Kapalai combo is high on my top list, I am travelling with non diving wife and daughter and they enjoy the place as much as I do, thanks to the resort.
Probably as much as the dives I like the smooth way Borneo Divers are running the operations with extra friendly and skilful DMs, a managing team who listens to their customers and will adapt to needs.
For all this, I am quite sure we will be back again within a year.
Compared to the last time we stayed, I must admit there were some drawbacks :
-August brings rain in the afternoon and therefore visibility might not be as brilliant as say march to may which on our case was exceptionally clear end of february, 15m (45ft) at least on the muckiest of Mabul and up to 30m (100ft) on Sipadan blue water spots.
-The main problem is that peak season loads the dive boats, albeit Borneo Divers manages to keep a diver to guide ratio below 6 and we were often 2 or 3 in the afternoon dives.
I only had to complain once the boat carried too many snorkelers with the divers, immediately after, BD put an extra speedboat, only for us divers… talk about listening to clients.
Sipadan Landing : we'll come back!!!
For more photos, pls click on the links to Mabul or Sipadan galleries embedded in my signature below.
I love some much the place that I came back twice from the beginning of the year with Borneo Divers’ operation, the 4th time in total since 2004- which almost had a feeling of returning home. One of the biggest advantage is also that I know as much every guide –Emily, Jonathan, Elger, Steven, Lianah- as they know me now, no need for thorough communication or prior assessing of each one’s personality and likes.
Hence after two and a half weeks diving Komodo and Maumere in Indonesia, we decided to hop our way to Sipadan for a week stay in mid august. Even though it can take 3 flights from Bali to get to Tawau, AirAsia.com made it less painful for my bank account as we managed to grab a few promo tickets paid 9MYR (3USD) for one leg.
I was quite worried with all these horror stories on the shortage of Sipadan permits in peak season, though it turned out smoothly to allow us a dive day on Sipadan every two days, which was even more dives than what I expected. Probably it was due to the fact that there were many Italian snorkelers which didn’t care on either going to Sipadan or staying on Mabul… and marginally on the fact it was our 4th stay at Borneo Divers.
It pays to be a loyal customer. :blinking:
No need to describe the boring but short bustrip from Tawau to Semporna along the alleys of palm oil trees getting more ubiquitous year after year, the fast 45mn speed boat ride to Mabul, the comfy wooden bungalows in the resort and the efficiency or the check in. One hour after my arrival, I was already on the boat with DM Emily to start the orientation dive on Old House Reef.
Mabul Borneo Divers Resort from the pier
The dives around Mabul and Kapalai were as usual full of fun to photo critters, like flamboyant cuttlefish, stargazer, frogfish, leaf fish, crustacia, … although no DM could find any pygmy seahorse nor ghostpipefish : it seems there is somehow too much diver pressure on some spots which might impact on certain critters. For instance when you witness the struggle between the divers of 3 boats for spotting mandarin fish on Paradise 2 jetty, its no surprise some shyer species have gone AWOL.
------------------------
Mabul dive sites are still a lovely playground for macro photography, the key is sometimes having a dedicated guide who will understand your likes –very easy just looking at my heavy camera rig- and take the time to look around for the most hidden or uncommon critters.
For some reasons, I focused this time heavily on yawning or open mouths.
A flamboyant squid on Kapalai...:cool2: but no blue ring octopus... :depressed::
Borneo divers dive package includes 4 dives a day : the usual dive plan for a day on Mabul is to go boat diving on Kapalai/Mabul sites in the daytime and to chose between a sunset or a night dive on the house reef as a fourth dive. I wanted to change a bit and asked for a guided night dive on the other side of Mabul on Ray Point, which was added as a supplement to my package.
I was focused on blue ring octopus which we didn’t spot, nevertheless it was a winning move which I would gladly repeat everyday : on a 90 minutes dive, Emily showed me about half of the “Macrolife” book (A&A Ferrari), chapter “crustacia”. That was ranging from the decorator crab to the anemone hermit crab or any kind of shrimp you liked, but also small cuttlefish playing with my focus light.
-----------------------
Sipadan is another story about blue water, jackfish or barracuda schools swirling round in tornadoes, whitetips and grey reef sharks on every dive, sometimes humphead parrotfish schools and lots of turtles that appeal for ultra wide angle photography… though I was quite dumbfounded when the DM pointed a couple of sea moths on a sandy patch of Barracuda Point, while I was fitted with my fisheye lens.
Schools... name your fish, and just watch...
Although their sight is very common I was struck this time by the number of turtles on the spot called Hanging Gardens… I mean that was probably a matter of 40 or 50 turtles seen per dive, sometimes 5 when looking 360° around you… we even played peeping tom on a rainy day, staring at turtles mating in the shallows attracting other males… and even Italian snorkelers.
Peeping Toms ! :shocked2:
Conclusion :
As a diver the Sipadan-Mabul-Kapalai combo is high on my top list, I am travelling with non diving wife and daughter and they enjoy the place as much as I do, thanks to the resort.
Probably as much as the dives I like the smooth way Borneo Divers are running the operations with extra friendly and skilful DMs, a managing team who listens to their customers and will adapt to needs.
For all this, I am quite sure we will be back again within a year.
Compared to the last time we stayed, I must admit there were some drawbacks :
-August brings rain in the afternoon and therefore visibility might not be as brilliant as say march to may which on our case was exceptionally clear end of february, 15m (45ft) at least on the muckiest of Mabul and up to 30m (100ft) on Sipadan blue water spots.
-The main problem is that peak season loads the dive boats, albeit Borneo Divers manages to keep a diver to guide ratio below 6 and we were often 2 or 3 in the afternoon dives.
I only had to complain once the boat carried too many snorkelers with the divers, immediately after, BD put an extra speedboat, only for us divers… talk about listening to clients.
Sipadan Landing : we'll come back!!!
For more photos, pls click on the links to Mabul or Sipadan galleries embedded in my signature below.
