Discovered by Jacques Cousteau, Sipadan is indisputably the best scuba diving destination in Malaysia.

Featuring a unique geological island formation, Sipadan, rises 600m from the seabed and is the only oceanic island of Malaysia.

Pulau Sipadan is located in the Celebes Sea, off the east coast of the Island of Borneo near the departure town of Sempurna.

It has one of the richest marine ecosystem in the world boosting hundred species of corals and more than 3000 species of fish.

In addition to the truely fabulous and awe inspiring walls and panoramic views in transparent waters, you will see schools of hawksbill and greenback turtles everywhere, reef sharks, manta rays, whale sharks, schools of big-eye trevally and barracuda and in tornado formations.

For speciality divers, there is an underwater limestone cave labyrinth with turtle skeletal remains under the island.

Longhouses and luxuy bungalows are available on the nearby island of Mabul (excellent for smaller marine life). Sempurna has its host of cheaper accomodations too.

Sipadan Topography map.

Sipadan Geography Location.

Pulau Sipadan Map

North Point feautures a very beautiful shallow reef and boulder formations.

Reef and white tip shark can be seen along with

• butterflyfish,
• ghost pipefish,
• whip corals,
• bearded scorpion fish,
• big grey botched fan tail rays,
• juvenile boxfish,
• juvenile emperor angelfish,
• potato grouper.

Check the walls for nudibranches and look for barracudas as they have been spotted waiting there.

The Richelieu Rock has a shape of a horseshooe and is a submerged pinnacle.

The Rock hosts everything from small to big marine life in a garden of soft and hard corals.

Whale shark are commonly sighted throughout the season along with manta rays.

The stars of the show include:

• sea horses,
• Janss’s pipefish,
• ghost pipe fish,
• tigris allied cowries,
• harlequin shrimp,
• angel fish,
• juvenile sweetlips,
• tomato clown fish,
• cube box fish,
• squat shrimp,
• cuttlefish,
• moray eels,
• white and black tipped sharks,
• leopard sharks,
• octopus,
• schools of barracuda,
• Schools of rainbow runners,
• blue finned trevallies,
• blue powered surgeon fish,
• yellow damsels,
• frogfish.

You will definetly need several dives to have a glimpse at the diversity of the dive site.

Richelieu Rock, dive briefing.

Richelieu Rock, dive briefing.

Richelieu Rock dive site map (click to enlarge).

The panorama is the main attraction here and there are also leopard and blacktip reef sharks (non dangerous), kuhl and porcupine rays.

Look out for the rare Humphead parrotfish and giant moray eels, loads of trigger fish and cube Boxfish.

Shark Fin Reef dive site map.

Shark Fin Reef dive detail map (click to enlarge).

Koh Bon main particularity is a 33 meter vertical wall, the only one in Thailand.

Leopard sharks lies on the sandy flats and manta rays are frequently seen.

Koh Bon west ridge dive site map.

Kob Bon detailed area map (click to enlarge).

This site boost an amazing collection of blue and purple soft corals and anemones hosting anemone fish and western clownfish.

Look out for butterflyfish, snappers and yellow boxfish.

East of Eden dive sitemap.

Anemone fish.

This spot is excellent for big fish hunting such as sharks, barracuda, rays and giant trevally.

Keep your eyes open for smaller stuff such as frogfish, flabellinas, octopus, sea snakes and cuttlefish.

Elephant Head dive briefing.

Elephant Head sitemap (click to enlarge).

This is a great dive site, perfect for little marvels such as nudibranchs, juvenile rock mover wrasse and Ghost Pipefish.

The wide sandy patches are home to 100s of Garden Eel.

Dive briefing.

Anita’s reef dive sitemap (click to enlarge).

The liveaboard diving to the Similan Marine National Park Islands is one of the best diving adventure available in the world.

The departure point is Khaolak, 3 hours in a minivan and 70km north of Phuket and only 60 km east of the Similan Islands.

The 3 decks dive boat sail in the night and we wake up in the morning right ready for the 1st dive of the day (there are 4 dives each day including one night dive).

After coffee, toast and fresh fruit, the divemasters give us a briefing of the site and we jump in the water for a 50 minute dive in these majestic waters.

Dive locations include:

• The Similan
• Koh Bon
• Koh Tachai
• Tachai
• The Surin Islands
• Richelieu Rock (the famous 5 stars dive spot discovered by Jean Jacques Cousteau).

Map of the Similan Islands.

Map of the Surin Islands.

We depart at 8.15am for a morning dive to get the most of the sunlight. Return will be at 2.30pm after 2 dive with a nice lunch (there is a large selection of various local dishes or sandwiches) and rest in between.

I am with a group of students doing their second dive on this amazing spot. A group from another dive company joins us on the VisaDiving boat.

My buddy’s name Chris, a cool dive master from Sweden.

Dive log

Location: Bida Nok, Phi Phi Islands
Max depth: 19.2m
Average depth: 14m
Time: 50mn

Seen:

• Hawksbill turtle appeared sudenly after a beautiful pass between 2 big rocks.
• Leopard shark was sleeping on the sand with a Re Morray fish on its back. I got very close to him (50cm), slowly approaching on my knees. It let me approach and then went away touching me with its tail. It was amazing!

• Bearded Scorpion fish. Chris told me that with 12 venimous darts on its back, it’s better not to touch it. In the best case, you would spend a month in the hospital with terrible joints pain.
• Juvenile boxfish (yellow)
• Coral Rock Cod

• Big bromfish grouper
• Angel fish
• Big school of yellotail snappers

• Boring clams
• Morish Idol & longfin banner fish
• Marble Sea Cucumbers
• Bubble corals (favorite lunch for turtles)
• Whip corals

• Brain corals
• Fan corals

• Fire corals
• Staghorn Corals
• Sponge coral (basket coral)

• Large Solid Table corals with black small fishes with a white dot
• The following coral which opens up a night:

After this really amazing dive with a lot of fishes, colorful corals and a Leopard Shark, the boat picks us up and we can go to the 2nd dive spot, Palong Wall where we have lunch.

Dive log

Location: Palong Wall (starting from north to south), Phi Phi Ley Island.
Max depth: 16.4m
Time: 62mn

Seen:

• A few small (50cm) and a big (1.5m) Black Tip Reef sharks
• Two white Punted Spinay Lobsters (and a dead one)
• A huge green turtle (90cm+): Chris said it was the largest he ever seen and it was like double the normal size!
• Parrot fishes. At night, this fish spits some mucus which forms a protective bubble around it. Sprinkle sand to see this bubble.
• Pufferfish. This fish can blow up 3 times max with venemous dart. The acid released each time will kill him after 3 times. So don’t make it blow up.
• Titanfish.
• Clark’s Anemone fishes (Clown fish).
• Seal Faced Puffers
• Varicose Wart Slug
• Blue Ringed Angelfish
• Black Diadema Sea Urchins

• Indian Cushion Seastar

After this very good dive, the boat brings us a back to Phi Phi Don Island where we get our dive book stamped.

Diving in the Phi Phi Islands is absolutly a must for fun divers or diving students coming to Thailand.

Contacts

Visa Diving Center
Tom Sorensen (Manager)
77, Moo 7, Phi Phi Islands, Krabi 81000, Thailand
Telephone: +66 (0) 75-601-157
Fax: +66 (0) 75-601-269
Mobile: +66 (0) 86-119-4570
visadiving @ gmail.com