Dive Review of
Borneo Divers/Kapalai Resort in
Malaysia

Indonesia, Fiji, Costa Rica, French Polynesia, Honduras, Belixe, Grand
Cayman, St. Vincent, Bahamas, Hawaii, PNG

Dive Conditions

Depth restricted.  Dives ended promptly after 45 minutes.  

Designated rinse tanks on dock.  Staff experienced at handling cameras.  

Overall Rating

The resort is casual and very comfortable, a creation of boardwalks and
bungalows stemming out from a tiny sandbar in the middle of nowhere. All
the rooms are the same with 2 twin beds, double ceiling fans,large bathroom
and balcony. Each private balcony has a floodlight that is switched on at
night.  I spent hours gazing at blue spotted stingrays, trumpetfish,
lionfish and anenomes from the window near my bed.  Meals are buffet style
with a nice variety of choices.  Beer and wine available. They ran out of
diet coke and could not replace it during the 4 days of my stay.

Diving was organized and the divemasters and staff were super friendly. 
You are assigned a boat, and most days do 2 dives in Sipidan and a 3rd dive
in Mabul or Kapalai.  Night dives on the house reef whenever you want as
long as you have a buddy.  If there are a minimum of 6 divers you can do a
5:30 am Sipidan dive to catch the schooling bumphead parrotfish.  Each
morning as I walked to the dive shop, I was greeted by a smiling crewman
who took my camera, placed it in a laundry basket padded with a life
vest,wrapped a damp towel over the top, and placed it in a shady spot on
the boat.  The fact that there was no rinse tank on the boat was instantly
and permanently foregiven.

On the first day, when we arrived at the Sipidan guardshack to pay the
newly imposed US$10 levy, the guard turned us away saying that there were
already too many people diving. We angrily circled around for a bit then
went back to give it another shot.  Our divemaster was able to convince him
to let us dive but it could have been a disappointing day.  We saw
schooling barracuda and walls of jacks, as well as 10 - 12 reef sharks on
one dive.  Huge sea turtles swam out with the current over walls and into
the blue.  Muck diving around Mabul and Kapalai was great, although the
guides didn't seem to be as experienced in spotting critters compared to
the guides at Sipadan Water Village. The only thing that disappointed me
was the strictly enforced 45 minute, including the safety stop, dive time. 

See Sipidan Water Village report for additional diving info. 

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