dirtfarmer
Contributor
I spent 9days diving Mabul-Sipadan in early November. It was my first time there and had been on my "List".
Of course I was attracted to Sipadan but as I also Love muck diving I was looking forward to the Mabul area also.
Sipadan-
I was not disappointed. I had three days, 4 dives a day at Sipadan. I was able to get a "guarantee" of three days permits
with my booking of 9 days diving with Scuba Junkie. Overall I found the balance of fish on Sipadan quite good.
On all dives there were Sharks,
and a good mix of small to large reef fish. And of course turtles in abundance. Barracuda Point didn't disappoint except on one dive. There was the school of jacks, the bumpheads, sharks, and on one dive the school of barracuda. My favorite is probably the jacks as they are a blast to play with, and I shoot photos and video so they make for fun subjects. The visibility averaged about 20 meters. One dive it was pretty poor and loads of current, but that day the weather was a bit crappy and I think we dove Barracuda Point at a tide change. The one thing that stands out about Sipadan is the balance from small to large fish. There was lot's of them all. The sharks are a bit on the smaller side ( comparing to Palau) and were typically resting on the bottom of the reef.
I was glad I dove three days, one day at Sipadan isn't enough, two risks a poor dive or two, but with the 3 days/ twelve dives I was able to log there I was able to experience what I was looking for from it. The only part a bit lacking was the time spent diving out in the blue hoping for hammerheads. I know if we had seen a giant school of 'em I'd be singing a different tune. On a few dives we would spend 10 minutes off the reef in the blue, and I'd usually spend my time looking for jellies to shoot photos of.
Mabul area-
I dove 6 days in Mabul-Kapalai-area with one special trip to Siamil. Overall the muck-reef dives ranged from good to excellent. Lot's of great critters, not as varied as my trip to Lembeh but it definitely kept me busy shooting photos. Critters ranged from Ornate ghostpipe/ robust pipe, loads of Nudis's a good range of frogfish, two blue ring octos, some cuttlefish, mantis shrimp, etc. The muck dives was the area I was most nervous about not containing a variety of critters nor exotic. They turned out again to not disappoint.
The resort-shop-food
I found the resort to be well run, with no glitches in my booking. I did book my trip about 4 months ahead to get my 3 permits. The resort was pretty busy, and from what I was told wasn't up to top capacity. Then it might get a bit crowded for my taste. When the boats are at full capacity there is enough room but not spacious. One group on a boat seemed to enjoy taking up twice as much space with their sidemounts and all their gear, which annoyed me a bit. I am a single diver so was moved around from group to group which can have advantages or disadvantages. It mostly worked out for the better. They did try and set me up with a regular dive master which I appreciate. Since I shoot photo's I'm often left behind to look up and find everyone gone. But when I dove with Khai he did a great job at staying relatively close. And all the guides were excellent spotters. My biggest complaint is, as I used their equipment that when I asked for a replacement for my first pair of torn fins, they replaced them with fins with a super narrow foot pocket which promptly wore a couple of holes in my foot despite my nylon dive socks. Lesson learned I'm getting some light fins to travel with.
The food was buffet style and good enough, chicken every day, no seafood as "fish are our friends" mine too
Of course I was attracted to Sipadan but as I also Love muck diving I was looking forward to the Mabul area also.
Sipadan-
I was not disappointed. I had three days, 4 dives a day at Sipadan. I was able to get a "guarantee" of three days permits
with my booking of 9 days diving with Scuba Junkie. Overall I found the balance of fish on Sipadan quite good.
On all dives there were Sharks,
and a good mix of small to large reef fish. And of course turtles in abundance. Barracuda Point didn't disappoint except on one dive. There was the school of jacks, the bumpheads, sharks, and on one dive the school of barracuda. My favorite is probably the jacks as they are a blast to play with, and I shoot photos and video so they make for fun subjects. The visibility averaged about 20 meters. One dive it was pretty poor and loads of current, but that day the weather was a bit crappy and I think we dove Barracuda Point at a tide change. The one thing that stands out about Sipadan is the balance from small to large fish. There was lot's of them all. The sharks are a bit on the smaller side ( comparing to Palau) and were typically resting on the bottom of the reef.
I was glad I dove three days, one day at Sipadan isn't enough, two risks a poor dive or two, but with the 3 days/ twelve dives I was able to log there I was able to experience what I was looking for from it. The only part a bit lacking was the time spent diving out in the blue hoping for hammerheads. I know if we had seen a giant school of 'em I'd be singing a different tune. On a few dives we would spend 10 minutes off the reef in the blue, and I'd usually spend my time looking for jellies to shoot photos of.
Mabul area-
I dove 6 days in Mabul-Kapalai-area with one special trip to Siamil. Overall the muck-reef dives ranged from good to excellent. Lot's of great critters, not as varied as my trip to Lembeh but it definitely kept me busy shooting photos. Critters ranged from Ornate ghostpipe/ robust pipe, loads of Nudis's a good range of frogfish, two blue ring octos, some cuttlefish, mantis shrimp, etc. The muck dives was the area I was most nervous about not containing a variety of critters nor exotic. They turned out again to not disappoint.
The resort-shop-food
I found the resort to be well run, with no glitches in my booking. I did book my trip about 4 months ahead to get my 3 permits. The resort was pretty busy, and from what I was told wasn't up to top capacity. Then it might get a bit crowded for my taste. When the boats are at full capacity there is enough room but not spacious. One group on a boat seemed to enjoy taking up twice as much space with their sidemounts and all their gear, which annoyed me a bit. I am a single diver so was moved around from group to group which can have advantages or disadvantages. It mostly worked out for the better. They did try and set me up with a regular dive master which I appreciate. Since I shoot photo's I'm often left behind to look up and find everyone gone. But when I dove with Khai he did a great job at staying relatively close. And all the guides were excellent spotters. My biggest complaint is, as I used their equipment that when I asked for a replacement for my first pair of torn fins, they replaced them with fins with a super narrow foot pocket which promptly wore a couple of holes in my foot despite my nylon dive socks. Lesson learned I'm getting some light fins to travel with.
The food was buffet style and good enough, chicken every day, no seafood as "fish are our friends" mine too
