Borneo Divers Trip Report

[Kevster]

Borneo Divers –Trip report
9th Aug 08 – 4 Days /3 nights
Flights KL-KK-TW with Malaysian Airlines
2 Dives Sipadan(Best sites Barracuda Point)
7 Dives Mabul(Best Sites Ray Point,Sea ventures,Paradise point)

Accom- Was good. Nice big bungalow with A/c & fan,Wi-fi.
Food – very average. Every 2nd night was a barbecue which was good. Other meals were average-poor considering price.
Weather – Overcast/windy. Sea conditions were not great . 40 min transit time to Sipadan. About 1-2m swells. Travel to Sipadan was uncomfortable. Bone jarring exp. Travel back was fine.

Diving

The diving was very good. Sites around Mabul were good. Not true muck diving but saw many new things. Lots of Nudis, cuttlefish. Main highlight was blue ring octopus & shaded batfish. Viss was good 15+m except on last day.
Barracuda point at Sipadan was amazing. Excellent viss 30m. Lots of bumperhead parrot fish, barracuda(huge shoals of barr!!) . Sharks,tuna….lots of turtles.
The 2nd dive at Sipadan at White point Av was very average , viss was less than 10 m .

There is currently a big problem with permits for Sipadan. On day 2 we had permits but were not allowed to dive. Went to Kaparai instead which was crap. I have been told the permit system is under review. Recently Borneo divers have had several boats(with permits) return from Sipadan with no diving. This was not good as spending 40 mins in rough seas just to turn back , was not much fun. I recommend going early in the morning.5.30am.

In truth there are far too many divers & not enough dive sites. A large number of divers also seem to be combining the sports of Rock climbing & diving. A lot of touching going on. :11:
In Sipadan the weather was rough so most boats were at one or 2 of the sheltered sites. At barracuda pt 3 boat loads went in together. 30+ divers following one another…!!!The dive would have been amazing apart from all the bubbles & lining up to take photos!! I actually detoured on my own for a bit to dive the wall away from the crowd & hit the massive ball of barra.
Also dive times were really short. Average was 40-45 mins. At Sipadan the conditions were great but we surfaced after 40 mins including safety stop!!!not happy. The guides were ok.

In summary-
The diving was good but not worth the $$$. I spent about $1200 for 9 dives & 3 nights accom. That’s very expensive compare to Indonesia/Philippines. Also dive sites were too busy. Too many divers. I hope they really limit the number of permits to Sipadan. IMO all dive resorts are too big. Borneo divers felt like a factory operation. It would have been great to dive here 5 years ago & stay on the island.

Good diving but not sure I would return. Definitely do not go during peak season.

 

[Belushi]

This is a shame.
They used to limit the number of divers to 80 to dive Sipadan. (I was there in 95)

When I went there, I was also there for a weekend, and saw manta, hammerhead, huuuuuuuuge school of ba-ba-ra-ra-cu-cu-da-da, and turtles.


Heartbreaking story. :-(

 

[Pearldiver07]

Sorry to hear about your dive experiences there.

I personally didn't find Sipadan the highlight of the diving there. I would mostly trade off of the boat when mine was scheduled for Sipadan, to get on one going to Kapalai or stay on Mabul. But then again, I am a macro fan much more than the larger life you'll see on Sipadan.

If you're not a fan of tiny life, Kapalai can be a let down too. And it may have been the weather didn't allow you to see some of the better life there.

I hope you got a chance to dive under the SeaVenture resort too. The morays (large!), crocodilefish, and various giant frogfish were spectacular there. But again, for me it was a fantastic ornate pipefish that made that dive for me. I spent 10 minutes at the base of our anchor line photographing that thing.

Anyway, there's so many good dive locations in that area, as you said, that if you weren't impressed by Sipadan, there's more than ample opportunities elsewhere (my next major dream trip is to PNG).

 

[DiveRN deep]

Don't get your hopes up with PNG either. I am leaving for Borneo in 3 weeks. Hope it's better than PNG was.
DivRNdeep

 

[kathydee]

Sorry your experience wasn't great. Wonder if things have changed since last summer?

I was at Sipadan last June. It was dreamy. Permits were an issue. 125 issued per day with long wait lists - The permit story in June went like this: A certain # of permits are allocated to various dive shops (based on political clout, bribes, I don't know???) - client names must be registered months before for reservations slots - fake names are given. If shops or resorts don't have clients then slots are redistributed to other customers. Sometimes dive shops will assume they have permits but in fact, nobody knows who actually has permits till about 4pm the night before. I would guess the top resorts are excluded from the "lottery system" & have first crack at the permits.

I showed up last summer while traveling in Borneo without reservations and still managed to catch 2 days at Sipadan and a few more days around the area. The other dive spots I visited were pretty but not as spectacular as Sipadan.

My first dive at Sipadan had 45m vis and reef sharks up to 3m+, lots of turtles and the beautiful school of barracuta. At one point we were swimming under the circular school of 500-1000? Barracuda, 3-4 turtles and 3 sharks were all in view at the same time. I particularly like the coral shelf @ the safety stop just after the schooling barracuda. Nice coral, sharks swimming over the reef, turtles, so many fish! The second dive had about 30m & more divers but was still quite beautiful.

Also liked diving under the Sea Ventures Oil Rig on Mabul & micro diving on the artificial reef in front of the water place. Mabul was ok for a warm up, but not spectacular, Bohayen was also nice but not Sipadan.

Saw more crown of thorns munching on coral than tourists touching the coral. A good dive operator will navigate around the other divers and find sites/times when there are few divers.


Cheapest way to do Sipadan is to stay in Semporna $18US per night or on Mabul island in a home stay $18US per night (unless you slum in the $3 12 person backpacker dorms) & dive with an outfit based out of Semporna - Borneo Divers is the cheapest retreat on Mabul but by no means the best.

 

[M_Faizal]

The problem is the big resort din't control the number of guest...this because there want money...Sipadan permit is 120 perday. so everage per operator is 8 paxs to 12 paxs. please check the small operator. cheaper price!!!

Cheers