2000 Chapbook

Sipadan, the tiny island off Malaysian Borneo, is the best-known site, "discovered" by Americans barely six or seven years ago. Now it's well known and crowded with new resorts.... Why the crowds? Imagine 20 to 30 giant turtles on every dive, sharks, jacks, schooling barracuda, and the best shore diving anywhere. While there's an abundance of turtles year-round, counts are highest in July and August....The reef in front of the resorts is showing signs of distress from the crowds. . . .The resort, Layang Layang, is in the Spratly Islands; because of their oil reserves, the islands are claimed by China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, and Taiwan as well as Malaysia. Schooling hammerheads and pristine reefs lure divers, but nothing lives on the flat coral atoll except birds.... Hammerhead season is March and April, but the resort operates from March to October....

Palau Redang, Kuala Terengganu

Scuba Quest/Redang Lagoon Hotel, July 1998, Rance Wadley, St. Maries, ID. Vis: 40-70 ft. Water: 77-85 degrees, major thermoclines! Fantastic diving on east coast of Malaysia! Scuba Quest the best operator on this tiny island. Others offer lower prices for herds of Malaysian divers. (I spent US $100 for 6 wonderful dives.) Dived my own limits with divemaster Sam, a young, mellow Malay, who detailed site profiles with colored site sketch. Owner Anuar Abdullah, a published underwater photographer, is a wealth of knowledge. E-mail: Description of sites on their website. Suit up, surf walk, then climb into boat with your tank on. Multidive discount (5 dives) became 7 when registering with staff. Redang Lagoon is OK if you are used to Asia and bargain accommodations. Coral Bay the best for typical American, though a 3 star resort is also on the island. Highlights: sharks and rays, 5 huge bumphead parrotfish, schooling yellowtail barracuda, red whip coral, giant clams, smurf-blue Christmas tree worms, broad club cuttlefish (at night), Pulau Lima and its anemone garden. Advice for traveling in Asia: carry toilet paper and bottled water! Off season means rainy season. Ask Anuar about monsoon diving! West and East coasts of Malaysia are diveable at alternate times. (Telephone +60 011-97-3705; Cellular +60 011-97-3705; Fax +60 9-669-6270)

Layang Layang Island Resort, September 1998, Graham McMullen, Sacramento, CA, Bill Knoblauch, Rancho Cordova, CA. Vis: 80-150 ft. Water: 82-86 degrees. Tiny island off the north coast of Borneo. Accommodations comfortable and roomy with a small, but adequate, patio for hanging swimsuits to dry. Two queen-size beds, a small refrigerator and tv (but the satellite system was damaged). Bathroom adequate but had poor lighting. Only adequate water pressure in the morning and evening for an hour at a time. Desalination system produces freshwater, but is inadequate. Makes for difficulty in showering, shaving, and brushing one's teeth. Use the freshwater swimming pool to wash off sea water after each dive. Two American managers (Jeff and Barbara) appear energetic. 15-acre island shared with Malaysian Navy. Airstrip takes up two-thirds of the island and it is adequate for twin-engine Otter. Pay extra if you have too much (or too heavy) luggage. The island is relatively desolate looking. Food plentiful, buffet style, and uninspiring. Visitors from Japan, Spain, France, Belgium, Australia, and Americas. Dive operation was well-run though there was no apparent dedicated dive shop manager. Boats comfortable, with two 125 HP Evinrudes, and were easy to exit and enter from the dives. Our dive guide Mustafa "Moose" left us when he knew we knew we were doing. Out of 16 dives, over half were more than a hundred feet. Fills 2,500 to 2,700 PSI. Moose gave good pre-dive briefings, recommended a maximum depth and time, but allowed us to dive our own profiles. Dives usually wall dives and were excellent. Variety of fish was excellent and the number of soft and hard corals were great. Loggerhead Turtles, Leopard sharks, Reef sharks, Anthias, Anemones, Anemonefish of many colors and varieties, Dogtooth tunas, bumphead parrotfish, napoleon wrasse, trevallys, barracuda, nudibranchs, dorads, sand gobblers, regal angelfish, emperor angelfish, masked-face angelfish, orange lined triggerfish, clown triggerfish, giant clams, bannerfish, Moorish idols, ghost pipefish, sweetlips, moray eels, starfish, neon fusiliers, pufferfish, pristine sea fans, gorgonia, and barrel sponges. We were overwhelmed. Titan triggerfish attacked divers near their nests. Add a stop at Sipadan as the flight to and from Malaysia is very long. (Ph: 011-60-3-243-3166, Fax 011-60-3-243-3177)

Layang Layang Island Resort, September 1998, Michael Bouvier, Long Beach, CA. Water: 85+. Controlled diving, Cayman island like; 45 minutes max. no deeper than 80 ft, yada yada yada. As a group we have been diving together for 20 years, we all have computers, yet we weren't given slack (they mainly get novice divers mostly Japanese but don't make exceptions for experience). Layang Layang Island is 1200 meters by 300 meters, built by Malaysian Navy to establish a presence in the disputed Spratly Islands. Resort was built in 1995. Nothing on the island but the navy base (off limits), the resort and airstrip. The lagoon is long (maybe 3 miles) and narrow (about 1 mile wide). All sites are on the outer perimeter of the reef. You can walk around the island in a half hour if you walk slow. Southern part of the island is a bird sanctuary, with two birdwatching gazebos. Paved paths around the bird sanctuary, with light poles. Tiny beach at the southernmost part of the island. The resort is beautiful, with a wonderful fresh water pool. 84 air-conditioned rooms with single or double beds, refrigerator, phone and TV (only one channel). Water comes from a desalination plant. Power is generated by two diesels. Because of a pump breakdown, there was no water pressure for 12 hours a day while we were there, between 7 pm and 7 am. Access to the island is from Kota-Kinabalu on the Malaysian (Sabah) portion of Borneo. A twin-turboprop Otter makes the 150-mile one way trip (about a 1 hr. 15 min. flight) twice a day or more frequently as needed. They also bring in fresh provisions. Food is plentiful and well-prepared, served buffet-style. Continental breakfast: toast, coffee or tea (both instant), cereal - 7 am-8:30 am; Breakfast (after first dive): Eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes, noodle soup, fruit - 9 am-11:30 am; Lunch (after 2nd dive): Five entrees (meat, fish, chicken, mostly prepared Japanese style), fruit - 1:30-3 pm; Tea (after 3rd dive): Usually a baked good, tea and coffee (instant) - 5 pm-6:30 pm. Dinner: Five entrees (meat, fish, chicken, usually done in a combination of Western and Japanese styles) - 7 pm-8:30 pm. Menu became repetitive. They don't bake on the island (One of our group had a birthday while we were there, and we had to wait 2 days to celebrate it because they had to fly a cake in! It only cost $15). Full bar, reasonable prices. Dive operation: they plan major renovations, including a new pier. Plans are to create a 5-star PADI dive center with instructors and fully stocked dive shop. Reading between the lines, they want to cater heavily toward the beginning and novice divers, and sell a lot of instruction and gear. They will accommodate experienced divers but don't expect special treatment. Dive operation is well-run; twin-pontoon, outboard-powered dive boats are stable and fast. All have full awnings for sun protection. Farthest dive site is 20 minutes away, so the boats return to the resort after every dive. At the top of the boat-loading ramp are gigantic fresh water tubs for rinsing gear and cameras, along with a freshwater shower. Rooms are short walk away. Nicely done fill station, with 2 full-time workers pumping tanks, usually only 2500 psi fills (not a problem, because I never used more than 2000 psi!) Shore diving was not available, because the perimeter of the island is lined with rip-rap, prohibiting ingress and egress; lagoon is sand and the vis is terrible. The management plans to build a dive pier over the rip-rap. Diving was very nice, 80-100' visibility. A lot of coral, and a lot of small reef fish. Few large fish, a few nurse sharks, and several green turtles, several schools of dolphins but they never let us get close. Most action was at the "Valley" and "The Point," large bommies with sandy areas, and sloped gradually (most dive sites were walls.) Large populations of aggressive (and large) queen triggers! One German diver was attacked and received a gash on the forehead that required 11 stitches. They attacked me twice, while waiting at the surface to be picked up by the boat. While it's funny now, at the time it was not pleasant. If you entered their nest perimeter, even if you were on the surface and they were 50 feet down, they'd attack you. Large schools of jacks. Guides say during April and May, these are whale sharks and mantas. Most unique aspect: anemones. Snow white ones, light blue ones, white ones with pink tips, pale green ones, and yellow ones. Stunning! All had clown fish. Overall, after a couple of days the diving seemed dull. I guess I'm jaded. Of the 14 sites, most are wall dives and they all looked alike. Reef fish are the same ones you see throughout the tropical Pacific.

Layang Layang Island Resort, May 1999, Tom & Ruth Millington (PUHHBO@aol.com), Somis, CA. Vis: 100 ft. Water: 84-86 degrees. Restrictions: 40 meter depth (not enforced). Start safety stops after 45 min. (politely enforced). SPUMS meeting. 125 divers on 2 small Atolls. I like diving with just few people, but they have 9 boats; you always go on the same boat, so you become friends with 9-16 divers. Good briefings, dive guides let you do your own thing, lag behind taking photographs. Hammerheads at thermocline (80 degrees) at 130 ft. our boat missed them, but had mantas half the dives. Lots of turtles, large jacks, dogtooth tuna. Food fair.

Layang Layang Island Resort, September 1999, Sharon Bormann, Shingle Springs, CA. Vis: 90-130+ ft. Water: 85 degrees. Restrictions: 130'. Rained fairly hard during one dive. The chop remained for one more day. On days 3 & 4 seas were flat and skies were sunny. No water pressure for hot shower most of day. Food plentiful, but not to my liking. Rooms comfortable. You must enjoy being away from it all! Our divemaster, Keiko very knowledgeable. We enjoyed the diving! Great walls, deep on every dive.

Mabul Island

Sipadan-Mabul Resort, July 1999, John Crossley, Midvale, UT. Vis: 40-80 ft. Water: 80-83 degrees. Restrictions: 130 max, time limit 50 min. One hour boat ride from Semporna, on the east coast of Borneo, 20-40 minute boat ride from Sipadan. Conditions nicer than Sipadan, where I have also stayed. Resort is cleaner, more spacious, more amenities, such as a nice pool. Cabins are basic but clean, and each has a sink, toilet, shower, and air conditioning. Food is buffet in an open air pavilion. Several entrée choices. Plentiful and fairly good, though not great. Variety of international guests, mostly European, sit at several long tables and socialize over the meals. Bar, gift shop, small library, reading area, photo and video shop (Scubazoo) that does a great job with daily group videos. Forty guests during my stay (half-full). 8 dive boats go to Sipadan, Mabul, or Kapalai for three dives/day. Two morning dives and one afternoon dive can be at different islands. Night dives cost extra. Each boat has a cushion for cameras, and cameras can be soaked on Sipadan between dives, or back at Mabul's dedicated camera tank if diving Mabul or Kapalai. Sipadan still has its swirls of schooling jacks and barracuda, white tip reef sharks, and loads of turtles. Many corals trashed during two huge storms last year. Vis 50-80 feet. Mabul and Kapalai great macro-dive areas. One dive I saw 12 crocodile fish, on another four volleyball size frogfish. Sea horses, pipefish, ghost pipefish, scorpion fish, leaf scorpions, blue ribbon eels, mandarin fish, flying gurnards, mantis shrimp, snake eels, anemone fish, cuttle fish, lionfish, many types of nudibranchs. Vis typically 30-40 feet, sometimes less, fine for macro critter diving. Sipadan-Mabul (SMART) was great, because it combined the "big-action" of Sipadan, with the macro heaven of Mabul and Kapalai; plus a nicer resort and cheaper than being on the better known Sipadan. (e-mail: mabul@po.jaring.my; website: www.infosabah.com.my/sipadan-mabul;P.O. Box 14125; 88847; Kota Kinabalu, Sabah; Malaysia)

Sipadan