Borneo Divers/Borneo Divers Mabul Resort: "Borneo Divers Mabul Resort - Mabul and Sipadan diving", May, 2019,by David W., Paris, FR (![]() |
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Photos Submitted with this Report |
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Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
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Accommodations | ![]() |
Food | ![]() |
Service and Attitude | ![]() |
Environmental Sensitivity | ![]() |
Dive Operation | ![]() |
Shore Diving | ![]() |
Snorkeling | N/A | ||
Overall Rating |
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Value for $$ | ![]() |
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Beginners | ![]() |
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Advanced | ![]() |
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Comments |
Borneo Divers is located on the small Island of Mabul which has loads of great dive sites, some right off the shore and some a bit further out by boat, and the resort is built on the beach with nice sea-view chalets and rooms. They are probably your best bet for available Sipadan diving permits since they get issued the maximum daily quota, and it’s a smaller place than other resorts that get the same number of permits. Mabul has the best house reef, easily entered from the steps and can be done day or night with a DM or on your own as we did, because he was busy with novice divers at the time. The water isn’t as clear as you’d expect from the Pacific, but the reef had lots of Turtles, Frog fish, and cool macro critters the blue-ringged octopus, and we saw schools of Trumpet Fish and spawning Cuttlefish right underneath the steps. During our 4-day stay, we dived at Sipadan twice and although visibility isn’t great in December it was still incredible, and we saw lots of huge turtles, White Tip Sharks, and schooling Jacks and lots of huge Barracudas. We skipped the third visit here when we realised that Seaventures Rig just in front of our resort was better than Sipadan except for Barracuda Point Site where in one dive alone, we must have seen thousands of Barracudas, as well as Queensland Groupers, massive Moray Eels, Frog Fish and schooling Rainbow Runners. On one dive as we were tethered with a hook to a safety stop about 15 meters deep below, There were hundreds of Barracudas circling around us again, and we also saw White-Tip and grey Reef Sharks, loads of colourful reef fish including some aggressive Trigger Fish, lots of feeding turtles, gorgeous Western Pacific Coral and schooling Humphead Parrotfish. We stayed till we were nearly out of air; it was that fascinating. On another dive, we descended just below the surface to this astounding reef wall and when I looked at my dive gauge, it said we were already at 5 meters deep! |
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Websites | Borneo Divers Borneo Divers Mabul Resort | ||
Reporter and Travel |
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Dive Experience | 251-500 dives | ||
Where else diving | Philippines Thailand Indonesia Red Sea | ||
Closest Airport | Tawau Airport | Getting There | On arrival in Tawau airport pick-up by resort and transfer to Semporna by A/C van (about 1h20). Then onward to Mabul island by boat (45 minutes). |
Dive Conditions |
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Weather | windy, rainy | Seas | choppy, currents |
Water Temp | 25-28°C / 77-82°F | Wetsuit Thickness | |
Water Visibility | 5-15 M / 16-49 Ft | ||
Dive Policy |
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Dive own profile | ? | ||
Enforced diving restrictions | Diving restrictions are limited to 45-50-min dives, and there’s no need to go deep as the best activities were close to the surface anyway. | ||
Liveaboard? | no | Nitrox Available? | |
What I Saw |
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Sharks | Lots | Mantas | 1 or 2 |
Dolphins | None | Whale Sharks | None |
Turtles | > 2 | Whales | None |
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best): |
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Corals | ![]() |
Tropical Fish | ![]() |
Small Critters | ![]() |
Large Fish | ![]() |
Large Pelagics | ![]() |
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Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
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Subject Matter | N/A | Boat Facilities | N/A |
Overall rating for UWP's | N/A | Shore Facilities | N/A |
UW Photo Comments | [None] |
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