Tag Archives: scuba

Malaysia, Travelinds

Sibuan Island

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06 February 2014

Nicknamed “Sunburn island”, Sibuan is like something out of a dreamy beach romance.  White sandy beach, cobalt clear water, reefs right off the island and a couple of palm trees dotted here and there.  The military base building is the only sign of life here and life seems to creep past at a suitably slow island pace.

The snorkelling here was fantastic, colourful coral, turtles, all kinds of colourful fish and other interesting sea creatures.  It is close enough to swim back to the beach if you get tired and the visibility was good that day.

Favourite memory:

Due to the military presence of these islands (mostly for environmental protection and immigration law enforcement) it is common to see a couple of soldiers, with big guns, lying around on hammocks or patrolling the islands checking for illegal activity. One of the Swedish tourists was in his skimpy speedo (only) and demanded a photo shoot with the soldier and his large weapon, to which the soldier of course, happily complied. They were having a whale of a time doing a photo shoot of “the soldier and the speedo” – hilarious to watch!

Weird experience:

We were on our third snorkelling spot of the day around Sibuan when we heard two loud bangs in a row.  It was enough to get us to lift our heads out of the water suddenly and look around expectantly. Apparently, this area has a problem with fisherman using dynamite for fishing purposes and unfortunately, these explosions occur pretty regularly.  This particular one was apparently about two kilometres from us, but unbelievably loud for being that distance away.  There is a system to report explosions (time,date, location) in the area so that officals can investigate and hopefully catch the offending parties.

TIP:
Take suncream with you. It sure is hot, with little to no shady spots on the island. As a result, we spent most of our downtime at Sibuan in the shade of the speedboat.

See more about Scuba Junkie here.

Malaysia, Travelinds

Scuba Junkie

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5 February 2014

If you ask anyone in Sabah which dive operator they would recommend in the town of Semporna, Scuba Junkie is usually the first name on the tip of their tongues.  Semporna is the gateway to the underwater beauty of Borneo and its beautiful islands – among them the world-famous Sipidan island, said to be one of the world’s top diving sites!

Although there are a wide range of other dive operators in Semporna, we only had a few days here and did not want to waste precious hours looking at other options.  We went straight to Scuba Junkie when we arrived in Semporna and set up our next few days of snorkelling tours.

Upon arrival, we hadn’t done much research about which islands we wanted to see, but Kay at Scuba Junkie patiently took us through the options, cost and details of the trips so that we could decide on the best course of action.  Scuba Junkie

We ended up choosing to do three day trips – to Mataking, Sibuan and then Mabul.  Not being divers, we obviously couldn’t get in to Sipidan itself because this is a prime diving spot (only) and generally requires special permits, applied for ahead of your trip.  The other islands, however, are more than enough to provide breath-taking underwater scenes and a vibrant mix of colours in the reefs that are teeming with beautiful and odd ocean creatures.

The full day snorkelling trip cost MYR120 (as at February 2014) and included tea, lunch, transport, environmental fee, wetsuit, snorkel, fins and your dive master. Snorkellers go on the boat with the divers and snorkel in the same spots as the dive group.

After three days of AMAZING snorkelling, turtles, rays, acute sunburn, happy memories and so much more, we definitely recommend Scuba Junkie if you only have a couple of days in Semporna.  Our favourite island trip was to Mataking (a ‘northern’ island) as this was the most beautiful underwater scene of the three.  Mabul Island was also wonderful for seeing many large turtles, including the rare hawkbills!

You can find out more about Scuba Junkie online on their Facebook Page, TripAdvisor or the website.

See more on these snorkel day trips to Mabul Island, Mataking Island and Sibuan Island.