Sipadan Permit System...revisited!

[Scuba Susie]

Sipidan Permit System Sucks!!!

Planning a trip to Sipidan in the near future? Before you finalize your plans you must consider the changes over the last 4 months in the permit system! My 2 dive buddies and I traveled from around the United States to stay at SMART dive resort on Mabul, October 9-16, 2008. You will be surprised to hear that we were only able to dive Sipidan ONE DAY!!!

Before booking in May, we had heard a little of the new permit system of only 120 divers a day being allowed to dive Sipidan in an attempt to preserve the world class diving site. We had no idea to which the extent the permit system would limit the diving for divers in the area, and the inequality of the new process. While we are all for preserving this wonderful site, we feel it is the responsibility of the dive resorts via the tour operators to inform vacationers that while they pay to dive Sipidan, they will be seeing very little of the precious waters around that island. We were in Mabul for 6 full dive days and were allowed only ONE day to dive the world class diving sites of Sipidan. The rest of our dive days were spent diving around Mabul and Siamil Island. While these are good dive sites, we did not fly half way around the world and spend thousands of dollars to dive Mabul. We came to dive SIPIDAN!!!

While there, we learned that the new Minister of something or other has taken over the permit system for the Malaysian Government and started enforcing the permit system in August of this year. There are 12 resorts and one live-aboard attempting to land the 120 golden permits to dive Sipidan. At SMART alone, while we were there, there were 101 divers at the resort. No matter how you do the math, there was a heck of a lot of divers trying to get permits each day to dive Sipidan and only 120 dolled out by the government. It appears some resorts get more permits allotted each day than others. Borneo Divers was getting 22-25 permits a day while we were there and SMART only getting 10-12 permits a day.

So while we are on our lovely stay at SMART, and yes the resort is lovely, we learn that the division of permits to each dive resort appears random and circumspect. The added stress to find out if you would ÁØin the trip to Sipidan the next day was ridiculous. The worst was around lunch time. At SMART, there is a giant Dive Board where each diver is assigned to a dive boat and the dive site for the following day. Imagine trying to enjoy lunch in the large dining hall filled with anxiety and hope as everyone prayed their name would be assigned the Sipidan dive boat! To add fuel to the fire, the manager of SMART, held court as he made a huge production of plugging names in, erasing them etc. Nice relaxing vacation huh?

We think it is the responsibility of SMART and the other dive resorts in Mabul, to inform their tour operators of this change in the process, thus allowing the tour operators to inform their customers who may have wanted to change their vacations and do it in a timely matter as to get a refund from the resort! Since this letter was written, SMART sent out a letter to our tour operator informing them of the permit changes. Way too late for us to get a refund of course!

To all our diving friends?call your tour operator, and contact your dive resort prior to your trip so that you donÃÕ feel the same disappointment that we did!

Happy Diving!

 

[Eskasi]

I'm really sorry to hear. I got very lucky. I was there from the 17th till the 23rd. I got to dive 5 days out of 6 diving days.

I believe that it also depends on the resort. SWV where I stayed was not full at all. Permits seem to be divided between resorts. As such, I think I got very lucky. There were probably only 30 people at the resort at that time.

I do agree though that the resorts have been very sneaky about this and all this should be mentioned before booking. I would be extremely unhappy too if in your situation.

 

[SnappyTheDiver]

See the thread on "Sipadan-Don't Waste Your Time" for comprehensive discussion on this topic. I am not going back to Mabul until the situation is improved.

 

[Otter]

See the thread on "Sipadan-Don't Waste Your Time" for comprehensive discussion on this topic. I am not going back to Mabul until the situation is improved.

We were there in late September at SWV. Of the 8 days of diving, we went there 3 days. All in all the diving was nice, but I would take Palau over Sipidan anytime and its cheaper and easier to get to.

I would say that the walls, corals, and small fish were on par with Palau. The sharks, Napoleon Wrasses and other preditors were small 3-4 and less numerous than Palau. There were TONS of turtles...more than Palau, but we saw nothing big. No Mantas, Marble Rays, and fewer different species of sharks.

The permit process was 'interesting' in that I was a Japanese femaile one day and Russian the next....if you catch my drift....glad they didn't check my credentials!

 

[scubafanatic]

...I'm astonished that divers pay good money for this sort of abuse !!! ....sounds like the government just needs to go ahead and run some sort of official 'scuba visa' program where you pay fees and apply for diving 'permits' straight from the government...that way, if conservation really is the motive, there will no longer be multiple divers diving under the same permit...and the dive resorts will no longer commit major fraud on paying customers, tricking divers into showing up at the resort, and only THEN finding out they've really only paid for the chance to participate in a 'scuba lottery' instead of a guaranteed dive trip !

 

[Live_in_Sin]

Sipadan is Malaysia.... you just have to Pay More to secure your permit!!??

 

[huisen]

Sipadan is Malaysia.... you just have to Pay More to secure your permit!!??

Afraid she might be right. I went end August. Dived Sipadan 2 days out of 5. There were 11 divers in my group and only 8 permits for the boat. We all dived and we all paid the marine park fee.

In my opinion, too many divers at the resorts for the number of permits available. I knew about the lottery as most of the divers in my group had dived there before.

Was at the Sipadan Water Village in August. I've booked for next year but with Borneo Divers this time. Very interested in this thread now!

 

[Eskasi]

I am going to Lembeh next year instead.....till they sort this out....

 

[victor]

My wife and I looked at Sipadan but these problems made us decide to go to Bali instead.
Yes over 500 beds and 120 permits, a recipe for corruption and annoyed customers .
We need to preasure the tourism athorities to change the system.
We the tourist should apply for the permit before we book our holiday. It's our permit and the resort should allocate the diving accordingly. Yes it will put some of the resorts out of buisness but thats just tough ****.
Until this happens I, and others like me are just going to go somewhere else.
It may be a world class dive site but thats no use if you don't get to dive it.

 

[Cabbie]

I also changed nationalities a couple of times, and one day I didn't even exist...this was in August.

I confused things one day by offering NOT to go to Sipadan but to spend the day around Mabul and Kapalai instead - got 4 dives that day

Booked to go back in January 2009...