Due to my work demand, I hardly enjoy the pleasure I had during this 5D4N Borneo Divers Mabul Resort. I now truly understand the tagline for many dive resorts – Eat, Dive, Sleep. In between those, I flipped through the house reef books that I borrowed from the reception trying to identify the fishes and underwater creatures I spotted during the Sipadan dives. It has become some kind of a routine to do just that.
{Read 5D4N Borneo Divers Mabul Resort – Part 1 HERE }
We had a good night sleep and ready for our next dives in Sipadan. After preparing our dive equipments, we left for Sipadan. There were only 4 of us this time around and a dive master. A Chinese guy from China did not understand English. I wonder how he understood instructions from the dive master with his inability to understand a common language.
5D4N Borneo Divers Mabul Resort – Diving in Sipadan
Day 3 – Diving in Sipadan
Sipadan Dive #5 – Barracuda Point, Sipadan Island |18.11.2014\ Max Depth : 18m |Vis : 20 | Dive Time : 45mins
It was another dive at Barracuda Point, one of the highly ranked dive sites in Sipadan Island. It has a great barracuda shoal, a tornado-like, which I did not get the privilege to see in my three day dives in Sipadan Island. To compensate, we saw dozens of turtles, schools of whitetip sharks, batfish, jack fish. Even as we descended along the sheer wall, we encountered a group of huge bumphead parrot fishes. As I was so enthralled observing their decaying big teeths, I didn’t capture their pictures. There was the beautiful lettuce coral, staghorn coral and table coral surrounded with colourful fishes of many kind. It was as if we were in a big aquarium.
Sipadan Dive #6 – The Drop-Off & Turtle Cavern
Our next dive was at Jetty Drop-Off, which is often referred to as the world’s best shore dive. It could be done from the shoreline but we did a boat dive giant stride entry into the sea. The Drop-Off plummets 600 metres down to the deep ocean floor. As I was an open water diver, we sticked to 18 metres maximum depth.
The descent was very different from the other dive sites because we descended down the deep-blue drop-off. There was nothing on sight except for fellow divers until you reached the wall to admire the variety of hard and soft corals. It was here that I realized the truth of the umbrella structured wall of Sipadan.
Sipadan Dive #7 – Lobster Lair, Sipadan Island | 18.11.2014 | Max Depth : 18m | Dive Time : 45 min
According to our dive master, Freddy, there are not many lobsters as it used to be. If we were lucky, we would be able to spot the lobsters. For our dive #7, we only spotted 2 lobsters hiding under the rock formation.
Sipadan Dive #8 – Hanging Garden, Sipadan Island | 18.11.2014 | Max Depth : 18m | Dive Time : 50min
Yellow golf ball sponge, Cinachyra species
Bubble Coral. If you get lucky, you will be able to see the bubble coral shrimp.
Day 4 – Diving in Sipadan Island
For Sipadan Dive #9, #10, #11 and #12, I am going to share random pictures as some pictures would be repetitive of those already shared.
OVERALL REVIEW ON 5D4N BORNEO DIVERS MABUL RESORT
Safety : Despite the controversy that surrounds the Celebes Sea especially the kidnapping incident, we felt safe throughout our stay at Borneo Divers Mabul Resort. The plus point is that Borneo Divers Mabul Resort is smacked in between the police station and ESSCOM centre of Mabul Resort. In fact, a VVIP stayed at the resort during our short stay.
Services : The staff were friendly. They constantly greeted us and checked if everything was okay. They were willing to help us solve our problems immediately. In fact, they helped us arrange our transfer to Tawau Airport even though we stayed for extra days in Semporna. The dive masters were friendly and shared knowledge every now and then.
Food : They were just amazing. Shall I elaborate?
Internet : They were internet connection at the lobby and dining area.
Would we go back again : Definitely YES. Borneo Divers Mabul Resort is famous for its returning guests. Based from our experiences, it is not a wonder why guests return to Borneo Divers Mabul Resort again and again.
Overall Costs for 5D4N Borneo Divers Mabul Resort :
MAS Airfare (KL-TWU-KL) :- RM 460
Taxi from Airport to Tawau : RM45
5D4N Borneo Divers Package : RM2070
Equipment Rental for 5D4N : RM280 2-day extra dives in Sipadan (on top of charges paid for 1 day Mabul and 1 day Kapalai dive) : RM280
TOTAL : RM3135.00
Disclaimer : This is a non-sponsored trip. All opinions are entirely mine based on the stay at Borneo Divers Mabul Resort.
2 Comments
Very interesting write up. Favourite post so far.
Thanks, Jia. =)