Best place to stay for likelihood of Sipadan permits?

[flylow47]

I was there last weekend and am going back in a few months. Diving was really good but vis wasn't - maybe 7-10m tops. It clears back up at the end of March I'm told. We got six dives in at Sipadan (2 days).

The permit issue is an interesting one and I can see why they have this system. The reality is the island is very small and just can't accommodate that may people. So the permits of 120 per day are all-encompassing...doesn't matter whether you're diving, sunbathing, taking pictures, snorkling, etc. 120 people can go to the island each day. And you can't stroll around and not go ashore either and think that doesn't count. The park service is at the end of the jetty, and you have to sign in just like the permit that you got the day before.

There was a whiteboard behind the park service window that had each of the 14 resorts allocated permits with how many they had. It didn't look to me like that changed...at least not much. So if you're staying at a resort that has nondiving activities, you are in the same pool of competition as sunbathers and picture-takers (saw many of these).

We stayed on the Seaventures rig and really enjoyed it. Will be back there, and frankly I can't see staying anywhere else. I wrote a review on tripadvisor under my same name.

 

[bracko]

^ all personal choice I guess, I would go nuts staying on the rig for a week.

 

[Roblynn]

Can I ask a quick while we're on the Sipidan topic? Does anyone have a recent, local perspective regarding safety in that general area? (sipidan, mabul, etc) Friends and I are supposed to be on a live-aboard in March but are reading some scary-sounding travel advisories about potential for violence etc in that exact region, so are re-considering whether it's smart to be sitting ducks in a boat. Thanks.

 

[chillyinCanada]

What is your concern with Borneo Divers on Mabul? It was some years ago however I found the rooms to be very pleasant and comfortable. Grounds nice, food was ok, liked the staff. Only thing I didn't care for was the view which would have been lovely except for the Rig. At that time Borneo divers was much nicer than Smart. Has Smart spruced up and Borneo gone downhill?

 

[Jeevz]

Can I ask a quick while we're on the Sipidan topic? Does anyone have a recent, local perspective regarding safety in that general area? (sipidan, mabul, etc) Friends and I are supposed to be on a live-aboard in March but are reading some scary-sounding travel advisories about potential for violence etc in that exact region, so are re-considering whether it's smart to be sitting ducks in a boat. Thanks.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ma...kidnap-wife-pom-pom-resort-3.html#post7031698

---------- Post added February 10th, 2014 at 08:37 AM ----------

Oh I see you had already asked inthat thread

i replied there

 

[kenlau]

To have the best chances, go during the low season. On my last visit (5 days 4 nights), we get to go dive in Sipadan EVERYDAY. It was a hoot.

 

[victor]

When did you go and who did you stay with?

To have the best chances, go during the low season. On my last visit (5 days 4 nights), we get to go dive in Sipadan EVERYDAY. It was a hoot.

 

[The Wolf]

We stayed 7 nights at Kapalai Sept.2013, the accommodations were amazing but the food was just ok...As for the diving, we dove 2 times at Sipadan and had we wanted to pay a more we could have done extra days there as well. We were told 5 days guaranteed 2 days at Sipadan. The diving at Sipadan is amazing!!! The local dive sites are good, nothing spectacular...one highlight is the Mandarin Fish night dive!! Watched 3 or 4 pairs of mandarin fish mate, and got to watch a huge mantis shrimp hunting!!

The one thing I found interesting was how they use their allotted Sipadan permits. One of the days my wife and I went to Sipadan we had to pretend we were someone else, ie. there were different names on the permits than our names. I figured someone decided they didn't want to dive that day so instead of wasting a permit they let us use it...however when I asked when we get "our" permit day I was told we already had gone on our 2 trips to Sipadan and if we wanted to go again we would have to pay extra. Talk about a money grab, as those permits have already been paid for once and now they are selling them again!! This practice wasn't an isolated event as we spoke to other divers and they had gone through the same name game as we did.

Good luck planning your trip!!

I don't think this was the case (of a money grab) but rather the resort re-shuffling the name list to fit other divers in to take your allocated slot the next day.

They have to send the name list in the day before and once the name list has been submitted, no changes are allowed.

---------- Post added February 20th, 2014 at 08:32 PM ----------

Can I ask a quick while we're on the Sipidan topic? Does anyone have a recent, local perspective regarding safety in that general area? (sipidan, mabul, etc) Friends and I are supposed to be on a live-aboard in March but are reading some scary-sounding travel advisories about potential for violence etc in that exact region, so are re-considering whether it's smart to be sitting ducks in a boat. Thanks.

Things are much better now. A lot more patrols and security. To be fair, the security prior to January 2013 was extremely lax and I think the Malaysian authorities got caught with their pants down. A number of casualties on the Malaysian side as well.

There was an incident at Pom Pom Island late last year which, it seems, was an insolated incident.

The US/Australia have the warnings up on their embassy websites but for the most part, I have been diving out here for years and generally feel it's fine.

There will always be a risk, sad to say but, it's minimal.

 

[needmynitrogenfix]

we stayed at kapalai (very nice!) 6 days and got to dive sipadan 2 days (4 dives each day). you shouldnt worry too much about it because the dives around mabul and siamil islands are great also. mabul has tons of cool macro (like lembeh but without all the garbage) and siamil has lots of giant frogfish. shore dives at kapalai are a nice way to get some extra dives also but not as nice as the other 3 areas. i wouldn't bother with mataking if i were you because its only 15 minutes from those philippine pirates which is why they put the rooms in the center of the island, the diving isnt as good, the beach is covered in trash, the management sucks(or used to) and its a long expensive boat ride to the sipadan area.

 

[String]

Seems to be luck of the draw and booking a long time ahead. Im now into my 13th month of trying (and failing) to get a permit. Been 8 days on Mabul this month and still no cancellation permits at all either. Im pretty much ready to give up ever seeing the place.
Mabul diving (except the turtles) is boring me. Mostly macro and not really rare macro at that.