Diving Sipadan Island, Borneo | Malaysia

DESTINATION OVERVIEW | Sipadan is regarded as one of 'those' diving destinations, a must-see place to put on any divers hit-list. It become a dive legend after it was discovered by Jacques Costeau. Sitting beyond the Litigan Reefs, the island walls are said to drop to over 700 metres. The tiny island is pretty, and in the past there were several dive resorts clustered together on an arc of pure white sand. However, in late 2005 all accommodation was closed in the hope that one day the island would achieve World Heritage status.

Diving on Sipadan's surrounding reefs is still allowed (but limited) and when you see the way the turquoise water changes sharply to deep blue, you understand why Sipadan became so famous. The house wall slips away to incredible depths and the currents that sweep across it support some impressive pelagic life. Turtles are so prolific you see them on every dive and, if such a thing is possible, they almost get to be annoying as there are so many. Considering how endangered they are, that may sound churlish – and it is a pleasure to see so them in such large numbers – but they do like to get in the way!

Equally impressive are the schools of pelagic fish. Huge numbers of barracuda, jacks and tuna are always hangiing over the reef wall. Reef sharks are common and hammerheads are spotted at certain times of year.

PROS AND CONS | Although you can no longer stay on Sipadan, you can dive there from either Kapalai or Mabul. Providing, that is, the operators have organised the permits correctly. There are some horror stories of divers never seeing Sipadan as the permits weren't done and funny stories of people who got to go every day as therre were too many. Meanwhile, several new programmes are being enforced to encourage rehabilitation of both the land and marine environments.

SCUBA DIVING | The sheer underwater topography can bring in some spectacular sights, the visibility is amazing but currents can be strong.

OPINION | Not being able to stay on Sipadan doesn't really matter as there are only a handful of sites around the island. The speedboat transfers only take about 20 minutes so mixing it with one of the macro destinations nearby is ideal.

MALAYSIA | Explore other diving destinations in Indonesia

GUIDEBOOK | Diving Southeast Asia, order via Amazon here

ORDER | Images on this page are available as prints. Take a note of the name then go to the photo order form.

SEARCH SeaFocus | Looking for something on this site? Type in a few words and google will take you there.