What I wish I had known about Sipadan before going...

I went for two days of scuba diving at Sipadan in mid-September 2016. I opted for a dive operator which didn’t tie the Sipadan permit to multiple days of diving at and around Mabul and the other islands in the region, which I had heard was pretty mediocre for anyone who has already done some good diving in the past.

So my main focus was obviously Sipadan, but because the price difference to adding another day of diving at Mabul was pretty negligible, I opted for a 2D3N package based in Semporna. I paid around 1200 Ringgit for this, including accommodation.

I ended up going to Sipadan twice as my dive operator only had one boat going out on both days I was there. My luck I guess, since what other divers had told me about Mabul and around suggested those places to be quite the anticlimax in contrast to Sipadan.

As for Sipadan itself, I can’t say it fully lived up to my (too high?) expectations. Part of the reason surely was that the visibility was rather poor by Sipadan standards, down to about 20 meters at best. Mid-September is not the ideal season so I guess this “risk” was to be expected. I was surprised to see the bad state most of the corals were in at all the dive sites I went to. On the bright side, I did see a large school of skipjacks and barracudas on both occasions of diving Barracuda Point, which was very nice. Also, I don’t think I’ve seen so many turtles anywhere else I have dived. Dozens of them during a single dive. Some reef sharks as well. As a pretty experienced, but not super enthusiastic scuba diver, I thought two days at Sipadan were plenty.

As for Semporna, it can only be described as the armpit of Malaysia. There are some good food options around at least, but the town itself is pretty depressing by almost anyone’s standards.

If you want to join a tour at Kinabatangan, it’s well possible to take a morning bus from Semporna to Kota Kinabatangan, Sepilok, or anywhere else your pick-up point is by the way. The 7:30am departure from Semporna reaches Kota Kinabatangan at around 11am, and Sepilok at around noon. Most companies pick up people between 12:30pm to 1:30pm.

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