Sipadan and Mabul and Kapalai are brilliant. So many big and small critters to see - robust ghost pipefish, ornate ghost pipefish, frog fish, leaf fish, bamboo sharks, decorator crabs, sea horses, cowfish, a school of 15 devil rays.
Be aware that the currents are not predicatable around sipadan. This is not a problem if you are an experienced diver but you must be comfortable in a current and able to look after yourself as you often become separated from the dive master. Novice divers must not expect a dive master close by all the time as they have a huge range of abilities to guide and they can't be everywhere playing nursemaid to the nervous.
We thought the dive briefings were a little - well, brief - but 'plan your dive and dive your plan' is not always possible, so now we know why. Sometimes you just have to let go and drift (fly) with the current - we got around 3-4 knots. Some dives where the current changed 3 times, you set off reef on right then the current gets up and you turn round then 50 metres back the current turns again - no wonder the briefings were sketchy.
There were also down currents on a couple of days to the extent where you had your BCD fully inflated at 30m and were still going down and thinking about dumping weight if it didn't end soon. all good fun for the confident but not for the faint-hearted.
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Pulau Sipadan
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on Dec 6, 2004
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