Sipadan/Kapalai? Resort? DC?

Hello Thorntree Scuba group!
My GF and I are planning on doing a 10 day dive off of Sipadan, Malaysia, and would REALLY appreciate any direction available in the matter of a Dive Center or resort from which we can reach the dive areas?
Thanks
Dave

Hey David--First you should be aware that if you are a resident of Singapore (a citizen or holding a long-stay visa) you are probably eligible for resident discounts at at least a few of the major resorts, so make sure that you or your agent asks when making booking inquiries.

For Sipadan diving you have two basic bases: the town of Semporna on Borneo proper or a resort on Mabul or Kapalai. The Semporna ops tend to be less expensive since you are not buying an all-inclusive package and the lodgings are basic. The dives at Sipadan and neighboring islands are by longish speedboat ride. At least one of the land-based ops offers longhouse accommodations on Mabul as well, but you wait for the speedboat from Semporna to come get you for the dives.

For the island-based ops, there are six main choices with the longhouse/homestay low budget options for those who don't mind living rough. One of these six is on Kapalai, one is a converted oil rig, two are the standard and luxury sides of one resort operator, and the last is another upscale resort.

Does that help?

If you opt for the cheaper but nt as nice Semporna base (30mins boat) I can't recomend North Borneo divers enough, based at the Dragon Inn, owned by a European expat Gerry and run by his local, fun and professional team. Chok was wonderful and gave us the bug! x

Thanks all.. we are flying in to Tawau, spending a night at Semporna, then doing the Kapalai water village thing -- will check out North Borneo divers (ta).. found that we will be doing speedboat dives to Sipadan and unlimited shore dives at Kapalai, which for us is more exciting, as we are into muck diving in a big way. The sharks and barracuda wall at Sipadan, while cool, is ... nice, but not all what we are into. Saw a cool barracuda wall (making a fish ball) off of Richelieu Rock last year, and enough sharks at Fakarava, French Polynesia, to last me a lifetime, not to mention at Vertigo, off of Yap... so we are off next week to check out frogfish, turtles, anglerfish (I hope), and maybe a stonefish or two... and of course, nudibranches (I have been checking out the web and saw some really neat stuff there). I think we are on a standard water-village on stilts place, not the luxury resort (no need), so we'll be roughing it a bit, but hey, we're going to dive... right?
:)
quero and bigbigbertha.. thanks again. Hope it'll rock.
Sure it'll be an experience. We are flying a budget airline (domestic) from Malaysia to Tawau, so only hope is that we get there (grin), as that is the riskiest part of the journey. Heard there were kidnapping issues in 2000 and 2001 but that the Malaysian armed forces have clamped down on the Phillipino ransom takers lately.. :)

Quite welcome, Dave. There is little to fear in terms of hostage taking. The Malaysian Navy maintain a highly visible presence at the island resorts these days; you can often see their patrol boats docked at the resorts for an hour or two a couple of times a day. When looking for the macro stuff, make sure to ask for a sunset shore dive to see the mating mandarin fish. Lovely beyond words! Q.