Sipadan and Mabul, Borneo

Sipadan is in Sabah, Malaysia (Borneo) and was one of Jacques Cousteau`s favourite dive sites.. It is the only oceanic island in Malaysia, rising 600 metres from the seabed. It was formed by corals growing on a volcanic cone over thousands of years and whenever you look up the top 10 dive sites in the world, Sipadan makes the list.

Sipadan is now a protected marine park and has a small military base located on the island but nothing else. All accommodation that was once there has been moved off the island. This means that you need a permit to dive there and they are limited with only about 7 permits per day being issued to dive companies. Scuba Junkie was one of the companies that had accommodation on Mabul – an island close to Sipadan (with its own great dive sites) that was decent AND affordable.

Scuba Junkies’ policy was you had to do 2 days diving at other sites in order to get 1 day diving on Sipadan. You had to book far in advance to make sure you got those permits and the price for Sipadan was double. Ian and I decided to do 4 days of diving off Mabul, 2 days diving off Sipadan, and 2 days of diving off Semporna. 

Semporna is a gross dirty town with nothing to do but dive. There is garbage, puddles of dirty water, and filth everywhere. Not a place you want to spend any time if you don’t have to (and not a place you’d want to walk around barefoot). Worse was finding a hotel to spend a night or two when we were not staying at the Mabul Dive Resort.  The highest rated hotel on Tripadvisor was only average and was booked. Seafest, the largest hotel in town, was ugly but cheap so it would have to do. The rooms were pretty dated with stained carpet but the beds were comfy, sheets clean and the a/c worked even if the hot water was only lukewarm. When the hydro went out for over 24 hours in Semporna, Seafest had its own generator so we didn’t have to go without a/c like the rest of the town. Then I was glad we were at the Seafest.

Scuba Junkies was a great company to dive with. There was a lot of waiting around every morning because we had to wait for boats to arrive from Semporna and that was a pain, but other than that, they were professional, safe, and friendly; and boy did they know their fish! I picked their brains continually about the fish I was seeing and they not only knew the name but could tell me other details about them. I loved our guides and that company.

The journey to Mabul off Borneo and leaving from Semporna took about 30 – 40 minutes by boat. On route I met a Canadian Dive Master and learned there was another one working on the island. We kitted up and waited forever to get diving.

That first day we didn’t start diving till 10am even though we had been at the dive shop since 7am. It was worth the wait. Our first dive was at Stingray City where we saw crocodile fish, juvenile batfish, and a couple of turtles, etc. Later that day, we saw a giant and a painted frogfish, a school of jack fish, sweetlips, lobster, eels, etc. And every dive just kept getting better.

One evening Ceris the manager let us know that the turtle eggs were hatching. Turns out the resort has a small turtle conservation area where they pay locals to let them where turtle eggs are. They then gather them and place them in a protected area behind a fence. The eggs are buried under layers of sand and don’t hatch for a couple of months. Once they do – look out! About a 100 tiny turtles come scrambling to the surface with an intuition to hit the seas. We watched as the staff gathered them, placed them gently into baskets where they were then released into the sea. We couldn’t use flash photography so my photos are not great - sorry! 

 I felt so honoured being a part of this, even if it was just watching from a distance.

We made some great friends when diving – you can’t help it because you share a boat and food with people you see constantly. The food was average but if you’re hungry and not fussy, it was good enough. The bungalow was also average. There was a large gap under the door and our first night a rat got in. It woke me up rustling in my bag by the head of my bed. I turned on the lights and watched it scurry across the floor to the gap. Yuck. The next day I quietly let Ceris know and she was mortified. That day they put wood over the gaps and gave us two free long sleeve rash tops (to wear diving). Very sweet of them.

Some of the little islands we dove from were stunning.

The water was often crystal clear and from the beach, you could see the change in colour indicating where the coral was.

Beautiful beaches of white sand on remote islands or sometimes occupied by a few local people living in simple huts.

Our dive guide was often Kevin, a very fit man in his 50s who really knew his stuff. He was the one to take us to Sipadan. On our first day there, I rented a camera and here’s Ian in the water ready for our first dive. We were very excited.

The site was gorgeous. Plenty of fish including an Emperor Angelfish – so colourful –

Lionfish -

And stunning table coral with Sweetlips hiding beneath -

It also wasn’t long into the dive when we saw our first shark – a white tip –

And another one -

We saw many white tips and grey reef sharks throughout our Sipadan dives. One dive alone I counted at least 30, sometimes there were 5 or 6 swimming below. Very cool.

When we dove Turtle Patch, we could see why it was called that. There were so many tutles!

Who doesn’t love turtles?

In between dives, we went onto the island itself for our hour break. There were washroom facilities and an area with tables where we could eat our snack and/or lunch.
We swam Barracuda Point but never did see the infamous swirling school of barracuda although we did catch them flying by us in the 1000s. On one of our dives, Kevin, Ian and I descended right next to a school of Bumphead Parrotfish. I didn’t have the camera that day which is too bad because they are spectacular beasts; very prehistoric looking. Over 60 of them floated around, unperturbed by any divers’ presence. They were probably 2.5 metres in length and maybe a metre tall. As you might have surmised from the name, they have a huge bump on their foreheads. It was fantastic seeing them and according to Kevin, quite unexpected.

We also saw schools of unicorn fish (yes they have a single horn-like protrusion from their foreheads) and we saw schools of Jacks.

It was great seeing those Jacks, when you looked through them, you could see a turtle and a shark swimming around as well. Jacks are top predators so we could swim easily into their midst and it didn’t bother them at all.

Here's an octopus - might be hard to spot at first but it's in the centre of the photo. I was lucky to get the shot because it moved so quickly; it was not interested in letting us see it for long.

I would have loved to have done 4 days of diving at Sipadan alone. All the diving was amazing, even on the artificial reefs we saw frogfish and the largest cuttlefish and grouper we’d ever seen. 

After diving off Mabul, we sadly headed back to Semporna and the Seafest for a couple nights, including a night dive that Lindsay, one of the friends we made, convinced us to do with her. It was quite gross as the water around Semporna is dirty and there was a lot of garbage in it but the dive turned out to be spectacular. We saw some fascinating crabs (spider, hermit, sponge and decorator), 2 seahorse, a Papuan cuttlefish, 3 frogfish (shaggy, green and lime), harlequin sweetlips, etc. It was a brilliant dive.
My 100^th dive was off a pretty island called Mataking and here I saw a huge octopus sitting on some coral. We sat and watched it for a good 10 minutes. I got a little too close and it turned white from fear so I backed off and it returned to its original red colour. We also saw a 2 metre long giant barracuda that wasn’t bothered by us at all so I got a really good look at it.

Off in the distance I could see a rain storm and sure enough, our boat hit it on the way back.

It poured down on us hard. All of us in the boat huddle down as best we could. Ian sat on the floor and I laid down on the bench but we were both freezing. Note to self: take a windbreaker when diving.

Our flight out was late our last day so we couldn’t dive. Instead of sitting in Semporna, we decided to snorkel with Scuba Junkies and they took us to a lovely little island. The snorkelling was okay, nothing great. I would rather have been diving. My last snorkel I wasn’t in the water a minute when sea lice got in my bathing suit and started bitting into me like I was the yummiest snack ever. I jumped out of the boat and the captain poured vinegar down my suit which alleviate the sting somewhat but I was not a happy camper. I stayed in the boat while Ian finished up.

By the time I got on the plane that night red welts covered my torso. The next day, I could barely tolerate clothing next to my skin. It was a nightmare. Not only had I been bitten but had an allergic reaction to the bites so I was covered in hives.

We slept in the airport in Kuala Lumpur and headed out to Singapore super early. Since Singapore is overly sensitive about drugs, I couldn’t get anything over the counter so off I went to the doctor’s for anti-histamines and steroid cream. It took about 7 days to clear up.  I will never go diving or snorkelling again without a rash top.

Despite the rash, the trip was awesome and I'd go back in a heartbeat.