{"id":617,"date":"2010-07-28T22:58:22","date_gmt":"2010-07-29T05:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/?p=617"},"modified":"2010-07-28T22:58:22","modified_gmt":"2010-07-29T05:58:22","slug":"diving-sipadan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/2010\/07\/28\/diving-sipadan\/","title":{"rendered":"Diving Sipadan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Diving<\/a><\/p>\n

Sipadan Island is considered one of the top dive sites in the world, and so with much anticipation, we looked forward to our only day of diving in Sipadan (though we did 4 dives that day). \u00a0 The photo above is a school of jacks swimming in a tornado like formation and made for a great accidental but artsy photo.<\/p>\n

Why come all this way and only<\/em> dive one day? \u00a0Because Sipadan is exclusive, but not like a hot-sh*t LA club where you get in if you know someone. \u00a0As of 2005, the Malaysia government limits the number of divers to 120 per day through a black-box lottery system of sorts – you know it’s not completely random who gets in, but you’re not sure what the logic is and you can’t find out. \u00a0And forget about paying someone off to guarantee a spot – it doesn’t work that way.<\/p>\n

[Note to divers:<\/strong> If you want to dive Sipadan, your best bet is to stay longer \u00a0at one of the nearby resorts – every day you stay means you get another chance at the diving permit lottery. \u00a0The consensus seems to be at least 4 nights, giving you 3 days of diving. \u00a0But again, there are no guarantees. \u00a0Our hotel, Sipidan-Kapalai, sent 24 divers for 2 days in a row, and then sent only 12 another day. \u00a0Also, if you have the budget, we also recommend staying closer to Sipadan, on Kapalai or Mabul Islands, which are only a 15 minute boat ride away.]<\/p>\n

Here are some photos to start, then videos, and what we thought about the diving.<\/p>\n

\"Diving<\/a><\/p>\n

Tons of turtles at Sipadan:<\/p>\n

\"Diving<\/a><\/p>\n

A school of barcode barracuda at the famous Barracuda Point dive site, swimming against a ripping current:<\/p>\n

\"Barcode<\/a><\/p>\n

A school of jacks for as far as the eye could see:<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

Lisa swims with the jacks:<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

A big school of barcode barracuda at Barracuda Point:<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

So, we asked ourselves, did Sipadan live up to its reputation as one of the top dives sites in the world?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lisa: <\/strong> Unfortunately, with murky water the visibility was limited. \u00a0I’ve seen clearer waters in the Caribbean. \u00a0But the sea life was outstanding. \u00a0I’ve never swam with bigger schools of fish. \u00a0On several of our four dives, we saw several white and black tipped reef sharks. \u00a0We’ll have to wait and see how Sipadan compares with our future dive journeys.<\/p>\n

Tony: <\/strong>It’s hard to judge after only 4 dives but I won’t say that Sipadan is the best diving I’ve ever done (Turks and Caicos, specifically, the uninhabited island of West Caicos, is still the best for me, although that was 10 years ago). \u00a0 I’d rank it like Cozumel’s wall\/drift dives and diving in Belize, which are great dive spots, but probably below spots along the Great Barrier Reef and the manta rays in Kona, Hawaii. \u00a0That said,\u00a0Sipadan is still very much above the average. \u00a0It’s great for viewing sealife. \u00a0As Lisa said, there are huge schools of fish, so many sharks and turtles you lose count, healthy and abundant coral, and breathtaking wall dives.<\/p>\n

Here are all the photos and videos – simply skip through the ones you’ve seen already:<\/p>\n

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Sipadan Island is considered one of the top dive sites in the world, and so with much anticipation, we looked forward to our only day of diving in Sipadan (though we did 4 dives that day). \u00a0 The photo above is a school of jacks swimming in a tornado like formation and made for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}