Borneo advice.. Sipadan Booked, what next though?

[Crammy]

Hi,

The wife and I both keen, experienced travellers and divers escaping the Australian work grind for two weeks at the start of July. We have already bought a one way ticket to Tawau (Sipadan) and booked a week there as it was the only availability during our travel dates. The question is, what next? We can do a week in Layang Layang as it's available and we have a hold on a booking but was just curious if there was somewhere else we should be looking to go in the area other than LL and Sipadan? Keeping in mind we only have a week spare after Sipadan and flights + diving don't mix..

Cheers for any help or suggestions you can provide.

 

[Manuel Sam]

It's been more than 15 years since I traveled to the area so please do some research on what follows. In addition to Layang Layang and Sipadan, the other place I dived off of Borneo was Sangalaki on the Indonesian side of Borneo. I am not sure if they still have a resort there but there is probably one still in Derawan. In addition to decent macro, there used to be mantas, there is a jellyfish lake on nearby Kakaban Island, and there is good fish action in Maratua Atoll. Regardless of which, you still have to fly from Tawau to Kota Kinabalu, possibly overnight there, and then fly to Layang Layang; or from Tawau to Tarakan and then take a 3-4 hr boat ride out to Derawan. When I went, the biggest draw for doing Layang Layang were the schooling hammerheads, but they tended to be deep and April-May was the best time to see them.

The other option - albeit a non-diving one -might be to do land tours to see the very unique animal wildlife on Borneo - orangutans and proboscis monkeys and two that come to mind.