Diving Sipadan

[pakman]

If you are staying 4 weeks visit also the island of Lakayan it is brought to my attention that it is good diving there as well. I am planning a two week trip in March to Borneo my self diving at SMART, Lakayan and Layang layang. There are many good place and different experiences. My first time there I dove with Scuba Junkies in Semporna the reason for staying at a resort is to have the oportunitie to make dawn and shore dives.
Enjoy your trip

Lakayan is a nice little island. But if you're not into macro, I'd skip it for the other sites.

 

[travel_bunny]

great! thanks pakman, that info really tips the scale.
another question: since i arrive at 20:15 at tawau airport, will there be a mini-bus still to semporna?
and, can i just go there and book a diving package, or do i need to pre-book considering that there is a quota for divers on sipadan? i'd rather go there and suss out which operator i'm comfortable diving with, but if that meant a big risk of not getting a permit, then i'll pre-book...

 

[Travelnsj]

Fantasia,

I was there in Sept 2004. I liked Kapalai, Very good dive operation, rooms are nice....fish wake you up in the AM....also the meals were very good....The only thing I did not like was the Diving!.....2 weeks...maybe 30'-40' vis....saw the school of Barracuda once, some Jacks....and Turtles....oh and a couple of white tips....good muck diving around Mabul and Kapalai....but I am not a muck diver.....hope you see more than I did.

 

[malaysia-islands]

great! thanks pakman, that info really tips the scale.
another question: since i arrive at 20:15 at tawau airport, will there be a mini-bus still to semporna?

815pm is quite late for mini bus I think. You can get taxi cabs from the airport arrival hall to Semporna for about RM100 per journey. I hope they don't charge midnight double-surcharge because it should only starts at, well, midnight.

On your return trip from Semporna, you can get one of those super-cheap mini bus from the town centre. It should cost less than RM10 and tell the driver to drop you off at Tawau Airport. The little downsides are: the mini bus only moves when it is full, but my experience (yes, I've taken it!) showed that the car fills up in no-time because a lot of locals are using the mini-van service to get to Tawau.

...can i just go there and book a diving package, or do i need to pre-book considering that there is a quota for divers on sipadan? i'd rather go there and suss out which operator i'm comfortable diving with, but if that meant a big risk of not getting a permit, then i'll pre-book...

As for now, it is better to pre-book because of this so-called 120-diver-per-day limit imposed on Sipadan. You'll never know, really. My last time there, the limit was yet to be in effect.

I understood your need to "get to know" the dive operators first, but fellow divers here have been discussing a lot of different dive ops to Sipadan. You should gauge their overall effectiveness from divers' own experience.

Have fun! And pls let me know should you have further Q's.

 

[travel_bunny]

thank u all for ur advice!! some peeps recommend not staying at semporna...might reconsider staying somewhere else now =)

 

[fantasia]

Definitely check out http://www.seaventuresdive.com/. We stayed there February of this year for 4d/3n. It's a refurbished oil rig just off Mabul island. Not as fancy as the pictures on the website suggest, but a fantastic place to stay. And way cheaper than any of the nearby resorts! The diving is great.