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Malaysia's Dive Resorts | Live Aboards | Land Based Adventures

Malaysia Dive Resorts

Borneo Divers Mabul Resort | Smart Divers Resort | Mabul Water Bungalow | Sipadan Water Village | Sipadan-Kapalai Dive Resort
Lankayan Resort | Layang Layang Island Resort

Sipadan-Kapalai Dive Resort

Text by Costas Christ
Photograph by Peter Wong/Courtesy of Sipadan Resort

"Take out a pen and an atlas (Nat Geo, naturally). Draw a line connecting the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Solomon Islands. What do you get? The single richest marine ecosystem on Earth, aka the Coral Triangle. Spanning nearly 2.3 million square miles, it contains 75 percent of all known coral species and more types of fish than there are birds in the Amazon. And yes, like all other reef systems, it too is in danger. Which is where travelers come in. Across the region, eco-conscious lodges like Malaysia's Sipadan-Kapalai Dive Resort serve as important reminders to local governments that their underwater inhabitants are worth more alive than dead. While you won't be solving ocean acidification, your presence—and tourist dollars—can help keep commercial fishing fleets at bay. Sipadan-Kapalai's 51 stilted bungalows sit just off the famed Ligitan Reefs near Sipadan Island, where vibrant coral walls, schools of whitetip reef sharks, and mating mandarin fish draw divers from across the globe."

Sipadan-Kapalai Dive Resort

A few minutes by boat from Sipadan but a full world away from it lies the exhilarating Sipadan-Kapalai Dive Resort , sitting on its sturdy stilts on the shallow sandbanks of the Ligitan Reefs. Planned and built in full style as an airy, comfortable, sunny water village with no land in sight, it boasts a mile-long sandbank of powdery and blindingly white sand where one can suntan at complete leisure.

The resort offers great food, surprisingly roomy and elegant twin-sharing wooden chalets with huge private balconies and attached bathrooms and a couple of miles of walkways for those who like to take their morning jog while looking at thousands of fish just a few feet beneath. Meals are served in the terraced, open central structure, while a big western sundeck allows divers to have an evening drink or an after-dive chat with a view of Kapalai's fabulous tropical sunset.

Diving around Kapalai is exceedingly easy and shallow but quite spectacular: the sandy bottom and the spare coral heads host an amazing array of small, often yet-to-be-classified, shamelessly colorful subjects, making the diving here an unforgettable experience for any discerning photographers. The resort offers three dives a day plus, if requested, day trips around Sipadan.

Facilities

A perfect relaxing place to share your underwater images and videos after dive. Some enjoy reading while immerse in the cooling sea breeze of Kapalai.

"Broadband Internet Access, satellite phone, fresh water from mainland, no flies and no mosquitoes" are some of the words uttered by our customers. And those who just want to relax and rest between the dives may take advantage of the cleverly thought-out balconies of the bungalows, which offer the total sought out privacy by the lovers of sunbathing and sun tanning.

All dive spots are extremely close and can be reached in just a few minutes by speedboat and some of them, actually, just by swimming from the dive center pier. The diving in Kapalai is so easy and shallow which makes it ideal for the newcomers to the sport, but nevertheless satisfying for the very experienced at the same time.

In any case, those who are ready to venture more and aside from the tiny marvels of the macro life of Kapalai can, in just a few minutes, dive in Sipadan (where big fish and turtles abound) or in Mabul (where silty and muddy bottoms offer different and equally pleasant experience and opportunities to the lovers of "muck diving").

Home to the weird and technicolored flamboyant cuttlefish rumbling on the bottom like a miniature tank rippling with fluorescent waves of vermilion, purple, chocolate brown, bright yellow and blinding white, all the time waving and flourishing its paddle-shaped front tentacles like some samurai of yore, looking more like a sensuous orchid than a predatory cephalopod ; it is the domain of the invisible frogfish found in Kapalai in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors- which despite sometimes being as large as a melon will often escape even from the most trained of wildlife spotters.

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Malaysia's Dive Resorts | Live Aboards | Land Based Adventures