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The trip started badly as my brother was very late getting to Heathrow. He had the tickets, so all I could do was fume and hope he arrived in time for the flight. In the end, we had about 10 minutes to spare. We flew with Malaysia Air and had great service from them - I reccommend then highly. Zillions of hours later, or so it seemed, we arrived at Tawau and were met by the resort pick-up and were joined by Pascale, a French lady, for the bus ride to Semporna. Next we boarded a speed-boat for the final leg of our journey to Mabul. Twin 200 HP engines made a mockery of the Green Movement!
Arriving at the Smart Resort, we had a quick site briefing and were told that we should be at the dock for 8:30 am the next morning and that the boats always left promptly. In fact this was only true if the dive guide was on time. So, on to the diving. I left my camera behind on the first dive as it is a bit cumbersome and I was concerned that we might be in less than perfect shape after our long journey. We descended to 9m only to be met by a beautiful and very friendly cuttle fish. Wow - if this was what we could expect, then it promised to be an awesome trip!
Over the 10 days, we dived around Mabul, Kapali, Sipadan and Simail. With the exception of Sipadan, all of the sites were for those who like the small stuff. It felt like I was in heaven. On almost every dive we found beautifully coloured nudibranchs, corals, anemones and so on. One of my big expectations was to see the Pygmy Seahorse. I wasn't disappointed. The first time one was pointed out to me, I couldn't actually see it because they are tiny. Still, I pointed the camera and prayed. One of the shots came out so I was very happy. It's hard to believe how small and well camoflaged these little devils are. We came across some more on our very last dive, and these were much easier to see, so the pictures are much better.
The diving on Sipadan is mostly for bigger stuff. I was a bit disappointed because we were there out of season, but we knew that when we booked. We did see about 20 to 30 turltes on every dive there, and Baracuda Point was spectacular. There was a shoal of many hundreds of Barracuda there every time. On a couple of the dives, I ascended into the middle of them and they just circled round me. This is one dive experience I shall remember for a long time. We saw a lot of White Tipped Reef Sharks, but none of the bigger species. June-July would have been the perfect time, but I am still glad to have gone.
We had clear, sunny weather on 4 out of the 10 days diving whilst the others were overcast and occassionally rainy. The rains were not quite monsoon standard, but a couple of times they were really giving it a good try! When the sun was out, we saw a huge improvement in the visibility which made a big difference to the settings I had to use on the camera! Overall, we very lucky and none of our dives were spoilt by the weather. Our first day to Sipadan was hot and sunny - quite lucky as the previous day had been a lot cooler and had poured all day.
Diving off Sipadan is now rigourously controlled. Only 120 permits are issued each day between all of the local resorts and any live-aboard. Our resort had a maximum of 18 per day. If the place had been full, then you'd have a 1 in 10 chance of going each day. During our second week, they place emptied so we dived there on 3 days. Make a good note of this if diving Sipadan is your reason for going to Mabul - you're not going to do a lot of it. Matters are helped by the fact that they arrange 5 dives each time you go (and the next day you only do 1 local dive).
The day starts at 05:30 on the jetty, followed by a very fast crossing, registration with the Marine Park officials, and then jumping in for the first dive at 06:30. This was always a long swim into curent to get to Baracuda Point. Probably a waste as we didn't make it on 2 out of the 3 days. Quite why they persist in going the same way irrespective of curent is beyond me. On those 2 days, we repeated the dive later on, but with the current. This was the only weakness I saw in the dive guides the whole time - a steadfast refusal to actually check the current before jumping in. We went with 'the usual way the current runs here' every time. At first, you'll slow down and urgently alert your buddy to the turtle you've been clever enough to spot. Ten minutes, and 20 turtles later, you'll be annoyed that they are getting in the way of the reef! They were absolutely everywhere - swimming casually past, sleeping on the reef, scratching themselves on the coral...just everywhere! We also saw a lot of White Tipped Reef sharks, but not a lot of other big stuff, apart from the schooling Jacks and Baracuda. They were impressive. On one dive, I arrived there on my own (everyone else was staying as a group and was slowed down by a Japanese lady who wouldn't have passed an OW course in the UK: she had zero concept of bouyancy and should never have been diving along a wall). Thus I had 10 minutes with them all to myself. They formed a 'tornado' and hung around at about 7 metres just off the reef. At one point, they formated around me and we all wandered over towards the shallows. This is one dive when you really are glad you used a wide-angle lens.
The next 2 dives were also along spectacular walls, whist the final 2 were over coral gardens. One of them is a huge area of Staghorn coral. It's immense and all the colours of the rainbow. There was a lot of small stuff to see, but there's always a current so it isn't worth usig a camera (unless you're happy to smash it all up). For 20 minutes of one dive, I was drifting over the coral at a depth of 4 metres in very clear water. I haven't had many more beautiful dives in my life.
The resort we stayed in, Smart Divers, was not up to our expectations for a number of reasons:
1. Our room was small, tatty and right next to the noisy de-salination plant
2. The food was notable for it's lack of splendour
3. If an item ran out, you didn't have enough life left to wait for the staff to get some more, even after asking politely. Choosing something else was the only option.
4. There was no communal area you could gather in the evenings over a beer. Only the canteen and a couple of rattan sofas were available - not at all comfortable.
5. Beer, wine and soft drinks were expensive
We booked with Tony Backhurst because of their reputation for high end diving holidays. We felt very let down by the standard of the resort. Mark sent an email to them and to their credit, we were moved to a much better room the very next day. We were told it was a 'free upgrade' from the 'Standard Room'. I wonder if our original room was what we should have expected, and if TB are aware of the low standard really is - 'Sub-Standard' is the way I describe it. There are some Water Bungalows in a sister resort (divers here are included in the 18 that can go to Sipadan each day) and the standard there is very high, but more expensive. In my opinion, the standard resort is not worth what you pay, so try the WB resort if you're going. It's a long way to go to be unhappy with the rooms.
I'll finish on a few plus points:
1. All the staff were friendly and helpful (apart from the canteen staff who didn't bother to check the buffet)
2. Dive guides were fantastic
3. The dives are awesome and the visibility was in the 10-20 metre range most of the time. I clocked up 34 hours underwater during 35 dives over 10 days - I'm knackered!
4. Air Malaysia were excellent
I've put a few of my photos here
www.sterritt.co.uk/Diving/Mabul2008
Cheers, Chris
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Sorry you weren't happy with the resort, though. It's a long way to go to be less than delighted. 
I've not been busy yet.
Originally Posted by PeeBee 
