Mabul/Sipadan

Took a week off with one of my best friends from the States whose been on a diving/photography kick for the last few years. We originally thought about going to dive Australia's GBR, bounced around the idea of New Caledonia, but then ended up on the much closer (and cheaper!) islands of Mabul and Sipadan in Malaysian Borneo. Overall, I got in 11 regular dives, 1 night dive, and 4 dives in Sipadan over the 6 nights I was there.


Dive sites and schedule. Every evening, guests check where they're diving the next day and sigh when they don't get to go to Sipadan.



Warm weather, clear water, the resort part wasn't bad...


Kapalai "island" (mostly a hump of sand) as viewed from Mabul. It's also the location of another resort and some dive sites.


Over water bungalows at our resort. We did not stay in these. Too romantic. The ones we stayed in were over land.






Complete with an old oil rig which is a dive site. Budget travelers can also choose to stay here.



Mike's EOS30D fitted with macro lens, getting prepped for diving!



Mika, our dive master for the first two days.


Local fisherman. Underwater, we would hear these laser gun like sounds. Turns out, the locals still practice blast fishing.



5:30 AM on our way to Sipadan.


Don't come here without a permit:




No pics yet, but Sipadan diving was awesome. Barracuda Pt is the favorite dive spot where white-tipped reef sharks and HUGE schools of Big Eye Jacks, Bumphead Parrotfish, and of course, Barracuda are abundant. Oh yeah, lots of turtles here, but turtles are everywhere on Mabul. The coral is also awesome except for a spot around "drop off" where damage from a barge crashing into the reef in 2006 is still apparent.



Short nap after 4 dives:


From Mike's EOS 30D. These are all from Mabul. Waiting for his Sipadan pics.: