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| View comments | Add comments | E-mail this to a friend | Print this article |   Page  [1]  2  >>   Sipadan Island Paradise Under Siege! Photos and Text by  Deborah Loh The rustic Sipadan Resort. MY family and I went to Sipadan Island with the encouragement of friends in Sabah that it was the safest time to go because of the increased police and military presence in the area after 21 people were kidnapped in April 2000. Sure enough, while there, police boats patrolled the area. The island itself had 12 soldiers and four policemen. And then, on the day we left, Sept 10 a second kidnapping occured on Pandanan Island, which is about half an hour away by speedboat. (We only found out the next day, though.) Arrivals unload at the dockside. In any case, I'll definitely return to Sipadan - after learning how to scuba dive. It's simply an amazing place, even if you can't dive. Just plan on getting your back toasted from being face-down in the water snorkling. What's different about this island from Malaysia's other islands is that it is a limestone pinnacle which protrudes 600m (about 2,000 feet) from the sea bed. It's an oceanic island, not connected to the mainland by a land shelf. So you get to see big, ugly and weird ocean-deep fish, not just the prettily-coloured aquarium variety you find the shallower waters of Redang or Perhentian. Of course you get those too in Sipadan too, and seeing both the macro and micro marine life really stirrs up greater appreciation for Nature. Every little thing, from the tiniest anemone to the giant turtles, has its place and purpose. Diver shuttle boat Happy snorkellers! WE flew to Tawau via Kota Kinabalu. From Tawau, it's about a 2 hour drive to Semporna where the speedboats take you to Sipadan. The sea journey itself is about an hour. Semporna's coastline is really pretty, with green hills that roll down into swamps which fringe the clear blue sea water. Fishing villages with their houses on stilts over the water also make for very nice photos, but in our case, forget it. We had a boat driver who thought he was racing the Formula One, plus the sea was choppy that day. We arrived at Sipadan thoroughly soaked. On the way, we stopped to drop off a diver at Kapalai which is hardly an island. It's a shallow reef over which they've built a resort on stilts. There is no solid ground anywhere and other tourists said you can feel the whole structure shake in a storm or when it's high tide. Anyway, snorkling and diving at Kapalai is supposed to be good as well. A group of turtles we encountered. They are Hawksbill turtles. More underwater life! © 2000 Deborah Loh.   Page  [1]  2  >>   E-mail this to a friend    Print this article    Download Palm Article   Comments Comment from cheng Posted on: Oct 15, 2001 9:30am all the above photo is very nice , do you have any detail about tawau / kg brumas photo , waiting for your reply thank you regards Comment from simonetta Posted on: Feb 24, 2004 5:49am I enjoy your report very much and the photos too. Considering that this summer I'll be in Pulau Sipadan Resort, could you be kind enough to let me know something else about the resort (specially if the rooms are all the same or some of them are better). What kind of camera have you used for the underwater photo? Thank you very mcuh Comment from Gordon L Posted on: Mar 25, 2004 7:06pm I have a lot of experience on Sipadan Island with Pulau Sipadan Resort and have done more than 100 dives on the island itself. It's awesome!!! Feel free to email me anytime about the resort or the island itself =) Comment from herman Posted on: Oct 19, 2004 11:59pm sipadan is a very beutiful   Add comments This article is over a year old. Comments are no longer accepted. [v1.0]

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