Sipadan diving

[namabiru]

So I'm at work on a really quiet Saturday, and getting increasingly excited over the prospect of patronizing Malaysia Borneo for Christmas. I'm kind of taking the budget route (having been a student really diminished my bank account, as I am still finding...), so Thailand isn't so optimal this time. I asked someone at the scuba club if Sipadan would be fine since it's "off-season", and he's all, are you kidding?

So anyhoo, I am fairly confident that I'll go to Malaysia. At least then I can go someplace new too.

Now, I've been online all day today, trying to book the holiday. I've found two 'budget' operators-- Scuba Junkie and Billabong. SJ is on the mainland, Billabong on Mabul. Are there others, or can someone speak of either of these operators?

Note that I'm not looking for fluff. Cheap style accommodation is frankly good for me.

Any recommendations? I'm looking at a minimum of 1 week, and 10 days would be even better.

[jugglematt]

Hello Nam
i have done Malaysia 2 times
one time i did sipidan as part of another trip , we satyed at Kapali water village . it was a all included meals and diving package , very nice , bungalos on the water , diving was very good , we dived at mabul a couple of times and it looked good .
i noted a few other operators around and some of them looked very cheap , probally would be ok though .

the main thing ,,, the diving at sipidan is very nice well worth wile doing . another location to consider diving at Malaysia is Layang Layang island resort it was similar price to sipidan and the diving was as good as any! i have ever done , including PNG Solomon islands Vanuatu .. Layang has Very Clean unspoilt healthy reefs . just another option if yor thinking of going all that way

Regards
Matt

[mel.b]

I went to Mabul in 2005 and stayed at SMART resort which was great. Even though I was travelling by myself they didn't charge me a single supplement and I still had a room to myself. You might want to look at Seaventures, which is the converted Oil rig just off from Mabul, which is a bit cheaper than the main resorts on Mabul. Personally I wouldn't travel from Semoporna every day to dive as it's a long boat trip (around 1 1/2 hours each way) so that cuts into a huge chunk of your diving time.

I have heard that there are several 'homestay' options on Mabul - some of them don't have electricity & running water before 6pm so if that's ok with you then you can look at them, however I don't know what the quality of the diving operation is like. Maybe check out the lonely planet forum for more info about those diving ops.

HTH,
Mel.b