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Sipadan island is situated in the remote south-eastern of the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo, and provides some of the best diving in the world. The remote location, coupled with the oceanic depths around the island make this a unique dive site. Unfortunately, due to terrorist activities around the island in 2000 which resulted in a number of western divers being held hostage for a considerable period of time, it is no longer possible to stay on the island. Resorts nearer the Borneo coast are thereby used, taking a small number of divers to the island.

Sipadan Island

Sipadan island is situated in the remote south-eastern of the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo. Due to terrorist activity in 2000, the dive resort was closed and the island now accommodates a Malaysian army base. Divers can dive around the island during the day if they have a permit, but the permit system is not especially good! The permit requires the diver to be named, so it is extremely difficult to change places with someone else. Sipadan itself is a tiny island. At the end of the short jetty the depths drop straight down to over 600m, bringing in pelagic species. The island is also home to a large number of turtles, and in general, an immense amount of sealife.

 

We stayed at Kapalai resort. This is the closest resort to Palau Sipadan, and can only be recommended. Kapalai is a stilt village - at high water, there is no land at all, although a small sand bar does dry out at low water. The accommodation is of a very high standard, with individual chalet style rooms with a private balcony overlooking the open ocean. In addition to diving around Sipadan, Kapalai provides diving around Kapalai reef, as well as other surrounding islands. Visibility on the surrounding islands is generally not as good as on Sipadan, although there is a different type of life to be seen.

The Diving

Diving around Sipadan is all about the "bigger picture". There are huge schools of baracudda and jacks, sharks and turtles are everywhere, and the amazing dropoffs ensure the diver has plenty to look at in all directions. On the islands around Kapalai however, the story is very different. Visibility tends to be considerably less than on Sipadan, however the shallow reefs provide some excelent "macro" diving. Here sea snakes and nudibranchs keep the diver interested.

On Sipadan, due to permit restrictions, four dives were performed before lunch. The boat would leave Kapalai at 5:30am, and the first dive would be around 6am. Each dive was around 45minutes long, and we would go onto Sipadan island for snacks and drinks for a 1 hour surface interval between dives. The afternoon was then spent relaxing on Kapalai, or diving on the Kapalai house reef.

For days where we did not dive Sipadan, we did three boat dives on the islands surrounding Kapalai. The boat would go out for 2 dives leaving at 8:30, and return for lunch, and a third dive would then be done after lunch. The diver was then free to do a night or dusk dive after this.

	There are an abundance of green turtles around Sipadan, although they are also seen in smaller numbers while diving around the other islands near Kapalai. The normally are not bothered by divers, and will simply sit there and ignore you!
	Diving at Baracudda point on Sipadan is an amazing experience with huge schools of baracudda cirlcing the diver.
	Sea snakes aren't uncommon around Kapalai. These are extremely dangerous - much more so than their land based cousins!
	There are many different types of nudibranchs on the islands around Kapalai, although they are not so noticable on Sipadan. Due to the better visibility on Sipadan, you are normally far to busy looking at sharks, or schools of a thousand baracudda than tiny nudibranchs.
	Pigmy seahorses can be seen around Kapalai. These are absolutely tiny - only a few millimeters!
	Moray eels of all shapes and colours are seen around Kapalai and Sipadan.

Logistics

We fley to Borneo with Royal Brunei Airways on our way from the UK to New Zealand. From Brunei we flew to Kota Kinabalu, then down to Tawau where we were met by the Kapalai resort staff for transfer to the resort. This takes a few hours - approximately a 1 1/2 hour drive, and then a 1 hour boat trip to the resort.