Sipadan Island, off the northeast coast of Malaysian Borneo, is widely known to serious divers as a very special place with dramatic sheer walls plummeting to 3,000 feet, a teeming turtle population, hammerhead sharks, and huge schools of jacks. It's also the place where 20 American and European divers were kidnapped by Philippino Muslim separatists in April 2000, taken to the Philippines, and held hostage for quite a long time.

Less well-known is the small island of Mabul, a 15-minute boat ride to the west. Mabul has non of the above-listed attractions of Sipadan, but what it does have is world-class muck diving and a critter population equalled only by that of the Lembeh Strait. Mabul and Sipadan are difficult to get to: you have to fly to Kota Kinabalu in western Borneo, then to Tawau on the east coast, then a long boring drive up the coast to Semporna to catch a long boring boat ride out to the islands. Once there, I stayed on both my visits at the Sipadan-Mabul Resort, or SMART. The resort sprawls over a good patch of land at one end of Mabul; visitor accomodations are fairly crude huts which are kind of charming in their own way. Meals are served in a central lodge buffet style, consisting mostly of hearty and good Chinese-style food. One of the best things about the resort is its hot tub, which is a truly wonderful thing after a day of diving. All dive resorts should have one! The constant roar of the diesel generator was a drag; try to get a hut as far away from it as possible. My first trip to Mabul happened to fall on the Muslim feast of Ramadan, and the first few days were a constant madhouse of locals running races around the island in their hopped-up (and loud) fishing skiffs.

SMART's dive operation is pretty well-run, but bottom times were often unpleasantly restrictive, with many dives cut off well short of an hour. The divemasters do earn their keep by pointing out the critters, which are usually incredibly well-camouflaged. If you're not really practiced you just won't see them without help. A great innovation I first saw here is the use by divemasters of old radio antennas as pointers; I never dive without one myself now. Tanks and gear were handled for divers by the staff, you don't need to carry anything.

The accomodations I saw on Sipadan during surface intervals there were truly spartan; I don't think I'd want to spend a week there. On my first night there I sliced open my big toe on a razor-sharp cut-tile edge at the bathroom entrance, keeping it from getting infected during the trip was a challenge. Borneo Divers has since opened up a new resort on Mabul, which looks a lot more luxurious than SMART.

In addition to Mabul and Sipadan, there's a tiny nearby island called Kapali, submerged at high tide, which also offers excellent muck diving. While diving Kapali I heard numerous explosions from dynamite fishing, which is utterly heartbreaking as well as being disconcerting while diving. Hundreds of years of reef growth destroyed instantly. The problem of dynamite fishing is an ongoing struggle in these waters - the fishermen have to support their families and this is the easiest and most efficient way they know. The government tried giving them boats so they could fish more distant waters using sustainable methods, but the fisherman only used the boats to extend the range of their illegal dynamiting. So sad.

The diving was as expected: superb muck and critters around Mabul, and superb big game and visibility around Sipadan. My first trip to Mabul was only my third dive trip in Pacific waters, and my first real "muck diving". I saw so many bizarre and facinating critters for the first time here, including the flamboyant cuttlefish, my favorite marine animal.

Flamboyant Cuttlefish

Here are my dive log entries for my first visit to Mabul in September 1998: