Diving into Sabah , Malaysia

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The wooden
beams of the
Sipadan-Kapalai
Dive Resort
Under the sea
EXPLORING THE
ISLANDS OF SABAH
IS NOT JUST FOR
EXPERIENCED DIVERS
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www.cityweekend.com.cn
S
ocial media is a powerful beast. One Chinese
girl posted pictures of her snorkeling holiday at the Sipadan-Kapalai Dive Resort in
Sabah. She’d no sooner pressed enter before
all her friends wanted what she’d had—and
we were no different. Tourism boards, take notice.
Social media is probably the biggest factor in deciding where to go next.
Sabah is just one of two Malaysian states on
Borneo, which is in fact the biggest island in Asia.
Another fun fact? No less than three countries occupy space on this massive island—Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei all claim territory here. Our destination were the islands situated off the coast of Semporna, a nondescript city on the northeastern Sabah
coastline that serves as a jumping off point for the
islands that dot the shallow reef falling 27 meters
into the warm waters of the Sulu Sea. They make up
part of the “golden triangle” of diving that includes
Sipadan, one of the world’s top 10 dive spots.
While you can’t actually stay on Sipadan itself (to
preserve the environment, all resorts were closed over
a decade ago), you can arrange day trips from nearby
island resorts. We chose the gorgeous Sipadan-Kapalai Dive Resort (www.sipadan-kapalai.com), completely won over by our friend’s holiday snapshots.
IT TAKES A VILLAGE
A sea of bobbing bottoms, thrashing fins and smiling faces peering out behind snorkel masks greeted our arrival at the Sipadan-Kapalai Dive Resort,
which is designed to mimic a classic Malay-style
water village. It is reachable by a 45-minute speedboat ride from Semporna. Most of our companions
on the boat were young couples and friendly families from China, who were all keen to try snorkeling
and diving—even though most admitted that they
didn’t actually know how to swim.
Modern
interiors
Under the
sea we off
the hook
Gearing up to
go underwater
Fresh fish
hot off the
grill
Breathtakingly, no land was in sight. The resort
is a sublime collection of wooden stilts over a gentle seascape, connected by walkways over a shallow sandbank of the Ligitan Reefs. Pushing open
the front door of our stylishly decorated chalet, we
had a natural aquarium literally at our doorstep,
with gleaming blue water surrounding us. A large
deck extended over the shallow sea, where shoals of
small fish scattered like confetti across the surface.
Sturdy wooden shutters were flung open to catch the
passing breeze and the sun danced across polished
wooden floors. In a word? Paradise.
DIVERSE CROWDS
While diving in Sabah has long been on Western
tourists’ bucket lists, new visitors from China are
changing the landscape. The majority may still not
be great divers, but they are as charmed as anyone else by the close (and colorful) encounters with
spotted cardinal fish, flashy angelfish, shy frog fish,
toothy barracudas and gentle turtles. While in the
past diving resorts catered to hard core divers who
only cared about diving, now they’ve started to
reorient themselves to provide the extras (including
better Wi-Fi to upload all those underwater photos).
But there still needs to be a balance. The waters
around the resort have been declared a selfie stickfree zone as the turtles were being harassed by eager
photographers. But up on the boardwalk? It might
as well be a catwalk as guests, dressed in glamorous
resort wear, strike fashion magazine poses while
promenading to the sand island to capture sizzling
sunset close-ups. Others take out colorful kayaks and
All the gear
you’ll need
paddle quietly around the reef’s edge to observe the
diverse sea life that flit around the resort.
DIVE RIGHT IN
Still, it’s learning to dive that has become highly
aspirational for Chinese visitors, and Sabah’s dive
resorts have responded by introducing a basic PADI
Discover Scuba Diving program (www.padi.com) to
ease them into it.
Surrounded by tanks primed and ready to go,
a group gathers around a dive instructor to learn
about breathing apparatus and the technical aspects
of diving gear. Helped every step of the way, it gives
first-timers a taste of scuba diving, the chance to
learn safety rules and experience how to breathe
underwater. Our group was eager, soaking up the
information like sea sponges.
It didn’t take long for most participants on
the Discover Scuba Diving experience to realize
they wanted to become full-on PADI certified, and
many moved on to the Open Water Diver courses.
Once qualified, many return to dive with SipadanKapalai’s experienced dive masters who carefully
brief small groups before departing to evocatively
named underwater wonderlands like the “Lost World”
and the “Turtle Tomb.” Diving Sipadan’s great coral
wall, where vortices of barracuda spiral and sleek
sharks slip past, is on many a new divers’ wish list,
but a minimum of 20 logged dives is a requirement.
As most visitors only have time to learn the basics and
experience an open water dive before returning home,
it’ll remain the stuff of dreams. We’re sure, however,
that like us, they’ll be back.  Carol West
The waters
around the
resort have
been declared
a selfie stickfree zone as
the turtles
were being
harassed by
eager photographers
January 7-20
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