Diving at Sipadan on December?

Hi there!

We've been planning a dive trip to Sipadan on December. I've understood
that the government has denied the staying overnight at the island from
beginning of 2005. Does anyone know are the operators already tearing
down their resorts at the island, and would it be better to go to some
liveaboard?

Feel free to suggest alternatives =)

I'll be glad to hear also some experiences about the visibility at that
time of the year, opinions about good operators, their price level etc.


- Miika -

"Miika Härkönen" <miika.harkonen@_abuse_denial_suomi24.fi> wrote in message
news:SoMUc.375$Tj7.75@read3.inet.fi...
> Hi there!
>
> We've been planning a dive trip to Sipadan on December. I've understood
> that the government has denied the staying overnight at the island from
> beginning of 2005. Does anyone know are the operators already tearing
> down their resorts at the island, and would it be better to go to some
> liveaboard?

I don't know when the tear down (if any) is going to start. However, you
could contact Borneo Divers and ask them directly.

>
> Feel free to suggest alternatives =)

Further, Borneo Divers has a new resort on Mabul, that is quite a bit nicer
than that on Sipadan. True the beach and island aren't as pretty but the
resort is much better. I last stayed 1/2 and 1/2 on Sipadan/Mabul. We dove
Sipadan from Mabul. The boat ride was a bit longer, of course, but still
only around 20 minutes.

>
> I'll be glad to hear also some experiences about the visibility at that
> time of the year, opinions about good operators, their price level etc.

I can't help with what the visibility will be like at that time of year, as
I've only been there in the spring. I found Borneo Divers to be quite good
but can't speak to the others, since I haven't been diving with any others.
I found their price levels more than acceptable. I particularly found them
good with regard to getting me from point A to point B. They picked me up
at the airport in Kota Kinabalu, got me checked in at the hotel, picked me
up bright and early in the morning and took me to the airport for my flight
to Tawau. Then they picked me up at the Tawau airport and took me to a
dockside area, where our group assembled. After an hour or so, we were
loaded into a van and driven to Semporna, where we were put onto a boat over
to the island. The return trip was also very well orchestrated and I again
received individual attention upon my return to KK.

They never missed a beat.

Hope you have a great trip and that you are able to arrange to stay on the
island for a few days. I'm very glad that I was able to do that before it
was shutdown to overnighters.

Miika Härkönen <miika.harkonen@_abuse_denial_suomi24.fi> pounded away
at his keyboard resulting in:
: Does anyone know are the operators already tearing
:down their resorts at the island, and would it be better to go to some
:liveaboard?

I don't think there are any liveaboards there. I've heard that you
can stay at Mabul and dive Sipidan.

Dan Bracuk
If at first you don't succeed, you run the risk of failure.
The Best of rec.scuba http://www.pathcom.com/~bracuk/RecScuba/


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"Dan Bracuk" <NOTbracuk@pathcom.com> wrote in message
news:iaq7i0t5ms0n602eisi8081palr8f38ko9@4ax.com...
> Miika Härkönen <miika.harkonen@_abuse_denial_suomi24.fi> pounded away
> at his keyboard resulting in:
> : Does anyone know are the operators already tearing
> :down their resorts at the island, and would it be better to go to some
> :liveaboard?
>
> I don't think there are any liveaboards there. I've heard that you
> can stay at Mabul and dive Sipidan.

There are indeed liveaboards there. A couple of my dive buddies left
Sipadan and continued their vacation on a liveaboard (the name escapes me).
While diving out of Mabul one day to Kapalei, they were moored in the same
area.

In article <SoMUc.375$Tj7.75@read3.inet.fi>,
miika.harkonen@_abuse_denial_suomi24.fi
(=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Miika_H=E4rk=F6nen?=) wrote:

>
> I'll be glad to hear also some experiences about the visibility at that
> time of the year, opinions about good operators, their price level etc.

There are (apart from Sipadan Island) 3 resorts that you can stay on,
Mabul Island, some 15-20 mins by boat from Sipadan, Kapali, about the same
distance, and of course the www.seaventuresdives.com "Rig" that i have
mentioned before.

I can only speak about the "Rig" as i have only ever stayed there on two
occasions, personly i love it, and the diving under the Rig (which
is the house reef, is unlimited) itself is fantastic, i like it so much i
shall be there in a few weeks for two weeks, and booked again allready for
the whole of December....
I arrange my flights from here in the uk to get me to Kota Kinabalu,
seaventures arrange for tickets to Tawau and they pick up there for the
overland to Semporna and the boat trip to the Rig and back. It all works
very smoothly.

The vis in December is as far as i can remember fine, water temp was about
28-29C.

Dave Morgan @ Work in the UK
Take out the "goes diving" bit....
Trip photos on line at www.morg.co.uk

> Further, Borneo Divers has a new resort on Mabul, that is quite a bit nicer
> than that on Sipadan. True the beach and island aren't as pretty but the
> resort is much better. I last stayed 1/2 and 1/2 on Sipadan/Mabul. We dove
> Sipadan from Mabul. The boat ride was a bit longer, of course, but still
> only around 20 minutes.

I mailed to Borneo Divers, and they answered that if staying in Mabul,
the dive sites will be Mabul and Kapalai (in addition to Sipadan).

Did you dive Mabul/Kapalai? If yes, how were they?

"Miika Härkönen" <miika.harkonen@_abuse_denial_suomi24.fi> wrote in message
news:5%2Wc.202$ZU4.97@read3.inet.fi...
>
> > Further, Borneo Divers has a new resort on Mabul, that is quite a bit
nicer
> > than that on Sipadan. True the beach and island aren't as pretty but
the
> > resort is much better. I last stayed 1/2 and 1/2 on Sipadan/Mabul. We
dove
> > Sipadan from Mabul. The boat ride was a bit longer, of course, but
still
> > only around 20 minutes.
>
> I mailed to Borneo Divers, and they answered that if staying in Mabul,
> the dive sites will be Mabul and Kapalai (in addition to Sipadan).
>
> Did you dive Mabul/Kapalai? If yes, how were they?

Mabul and even Kapalia diving can not really be compared to diving Sipadan.
Sipadan is best known for its wall diving, while Mabul is muck diving. I
only did a couple of dives at Kapalai. Also shallow, but beautiful coral
outcrops, lots of wonderful little stuff there too.

In article <5%2Wc.202$ZU4.97@read3.inet.fi>,
miika.harkonen@_abuse_denial_suomi24.fi
(=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Miika_H=E4rk=F6nen?=) wrote:

> Did you dive Mabul/Kapalai? If yes, how were they?

Sipadan is different in that there are (or were) big schools of Barracuda,
Jacks, Bumpheads etc and lots and lots of Turtles and lots of reef Sharks,
allthough i have missed them on every occasion i have dived there, there
are Hammerheads.

Kapali, there are lots of macro opportunities there, very diverse, you can
bump into anything there.......
The village is a small water village built on stilts.

Mabul, muck diving on the mainland side (west i think) strangest critters
you ever saw........Sea horse's, Frog Fish......and if your lucky enough,
Mandarin fish......(dont stand or tread all over the coral while waiting
for them, like some I've seen, not that you would)
On the Sipadan side of Mabul the reef drops away quite steeply, again all
manner of creatures there in cluding the Lobsters lair.....(small cave in
the reef wall with dozens of Lobsters crawling about)

Just of Mabul is the "Rig" that i stay on, underneath the Rig is for my
money the best diving there, 18m so dives are an hour plus....
If you have time you should look at my link below and you will see whats
on offer at the sites mentioned....
have fun.........

Dave Morgan @ Work in the UK
Take out the "goes diving" bit....
Trip photos on line at www.morg.co.uk

"Miika Härkönen" <miika.harkonen@_abuse_denial_suomi24.fi> ha scritto nel
messaggio news:SoMUc.375$Tj7.75@read3.inet.fi...

> We've been planning a dive trip to Sipadan on December. I've understood
> that the government has denied the staying overnight at the island from
> beginning of 2005.
I'm just returned from Sipadan (3 days ago) and one of the dive master said
me that the shutting down of the island is not sure. The Government will
decide next months.

> I'll be glad to hear also some experiences about the visibility at that
> time of the year, opinions about good operators, their price level etc.
I can inform you about the staying during August: the visibility during the
two weeks of staying was from max 20/25 mt. to min 5 mt (it happened only
one day after a storm) the average visibility was 15/20 mt.
Some guys that stayed at Kapalai said me that the visibility was really bad.
Furthermore staying in Kapalai (and I think also in Mabul) they cannot come
to Sipadan each day (sometimes owing to rough sea and wind, but also owing
to the closed number of divers per day in Sipadan)
I stayed at Pulau Sipadan Resort and everything was well organized.
The dives were fantastic: more than 50 turtles during each dive, white tip,
grey reef and leopard sharks (no hammerhead and some divers went to 70
metres to looking form them), schools of thousand of barracudas and jacks
and ............ everything else.

In case you need some other information, I'm at disposal.

Bye Bye
Simonetta

"Dan Bracuk" <NOTbracuk@pathcom.com> ha scritto nel messaggio
news:iaq7i0t5ms0n602eisi8081palr8f38ko9@4ax.com...
> I don't think there are any liveaboards there. I've heard that you
> can stay at Mabul and dive Sipidan.
>
> Dan Bracuk
During my staying on August there was a cruise boat called "Celebes
Explorer" (www.borneo.org/liveaboard/).

Bye Bye
Simonetta