SCUBA Dive Sipadan - Sipadan - TravBuddy

Sipadan Island is on everyones list as one of the best SCUBA diving destinations in the world. Sipadan Island has one of the richest marine habitats in the world. Located off the east coast of Sabah, Malaysia on the Island of Borneo, the Island plunges 2,000 meters straight down to the sea floor, strong marine currents sweep past the island bringing nutrient rich cold waters to the surface and supporting the entire marine food chain.

The abundance of large marine animals is so common and overwhelming the dive instructors who work there are so bored with seeing dozens of green and hawks bill turtles, schools of white-tip and Grey reef sharks on each and every dive. With the ever present eagles rays, devil rays, manta rays, big-eyed trevally, and barracuda swirls that black out the sun, it almost shocking when the dive masters spend their time looking past these large animals for nudie branches, Ghost fish and searching through the clown fish's (Nemo) home looking for anemone shrimp and bubble coral shrimp. Hard to believe that with so much large ocean life around them they get the most excited about finding the smallest creatures. But as you spend more and more time here, frog fish, lion fish and scorpion leaf fish will seem common to you too.

I even saw a juvenile Whale Shark on my first dive at Sipadan. The Whale Shark is one of the most hoped for sighting of most SCUBA divers as there isn't a big "fish" in the ocean, and despite there size they are completely harmless (as long as you don't get hit by their tail as they swim by) and feed on krill.

Sipadan isn't just for sharks, turtles, and coral walls that drop 2,000 meters, nearby is Mabul, where you can see some of the weirdest animals in the sea on a "muck-dive". In Mabul you will see seahorses, dwarf stone fish, harlequin ghost pipe-fish, scorpion fish and frogfish, some of the seas oddest looking treasures. Also nearby Sipadan is Mantabuan, here you can actually see black coral, normally found well below 40 meters, too deep for most recreational divers, here the rare and precious coral can be found in just 22 meters of water. Even if black coral was the only thing you would see in Mantabuan it would be worth the trip, but Mantabuan also has pristine coral in which you will see angelfish, damsel fish, numerous varieties of shrimp and crab, and of course more turtles than you can blow bubbles at. Blue spotted sting ray and flamboyant cuttlefish are also numerous here in Mantabuan. In addition you will find over 25 great island for diving in the Sipadan area including Kapali, Sibuan, and the tropical paradise of Mataking, on the Malaysia Phillipne boarder, where they filmed the first season of Survivor.

One of the reasons that Sipadan is one the worlds greatest SCUBA diving destinations is how easy it is to get here. You can reach the town of Semporna on the East coast of Sabah, Malaysia on the island of Borneo very easily. Daily flight to Tawau, just an hour away by bus or by car, go directly to Kuala Lumpur the capital of Malaysia or Singapore, both major international transportation hubs. In addition, you can fly to the capital of Sabah, Kota Kinabalu just 8 hours away by bus. Air Asia flights are the cheapest around, you can fly from Kota Kinabalu to Tawau for as little as $2USD (plus taxes). That would be a shame though because between KK and Semporna there is the tallest mountain in all of Southeast Asia, Mount Kinabalu, hiking this beautiful mountain makes a wonderful contrast to diving at Sipadan. Also along the way you can stop at an Orang-utan rehabilitation center just outside of Sandikan, go to a sea turtle sanctuary, or spend the night in a jungle longhouse looking for exotic land animals to go with the marine life that you are guaranteed to see.

Spend your days in some of the most beautiful waters in the world and your afternoons and evening relaxing in the seaside town of Semporna, while there isn't much going on in the way of nightlife, take the opportunity to go on a night dive and see the ocean give you a light show that you will never forget.