Sibu Island

Pulau Sibu is a pleasant hideaway with its lush tropical vegetation, endless stretches of golden beaches and clear blue waters. The island is also dotted with numerous sea caves carved out of rocks. The constant pounding of the sea during the monsoon season has given the island a beautiful yet rugged appearance.

The surrounding waters contain fascinating coral reefs teeming with colourful marine life. Shipwrecks off its coast can also be found. In the olden days, Chinese junks and pirate vessels often exchanged cannon fire around this island, and the remains of these battles lie scattered around the seabed.

There are facilities for scuba diving, snorkelling, windsurfing, sailing and angling. Visitors can go for a hike through the jungle leading to unspoilt mangrove swamps or visit the kelong, or jetty, where anchovies are caught. Alternatively, head for the kampong, or village, to get a first-hand look at how coconuts are smoked to make copra.

Turtle Island Park

Turtle Island Park consists of a number of uninhabited islands lying in the Sulu Sea, off the east coast of Sabah.The park comprises three small islands, Selingan, Gulisan and Bakungan Kechil. Selingan, the largest of the islands, houses the park's headquarters, a turtle hatchery, tourist accommodation and basic facilities. The other two islands are more for conservation activities.

Two species of turtles. Greens and Hawksbill are special festures of this park. Turtle landings usually occur after dusk. The park has a sensible policy of allowing visitors to see only one landing a night. This allows undisturbed nestings to go on throughout the night.

Whilst waiting for the evening's highlight, all that is left to do is to laze on the beach at sunset or snorkel. The west side of the island is ideal for this. It's clean, quiet, and offers some interesting coral and sea life. Wander around the island and you'll be surprised at how many turtles would have landed in the last few days; their tracks, like mini-tractors, remain in the sand for days.

The driest months and the calmest seas are between March and July. The peak egg laying season is July to October. The seas can get rough between October and February.

The nearest mainland town to the park is Sandakan. Your tour operator will organise a speedboat pick-up service to and from Turtle Island Park. It takes about one hours to reach the islands by boat.

Dinawan Island

Surrounded by the serene waters of South China Sea, Dinawan Island is reachable via speedboat from the Marina Sutera jetty in approximately 25 minutes.

This premier island resort is built on a lustrous tropical rainforest in the midst of clear, blue sea with warm and gentle blowing sea breeze. It is built with minimum disturbance to the natural surroundings - an excellent place to engulf oneself in tranquil island atmosphere.

A stay in the resort will give visitors a taste of untainted nature at its divine best! Be thrilled by the sights and sounds of squawking hornbills flying free in the rainforests, and enjoy a breathtaking view of the majestic Mount Kinabalu in the morning.

Guests can entertain themselves with a myriad of exciting activities such as snorkeling, sea walking, scuba diving, and other water sports. Other available activities include day and night fishing, a game of pool, and a game of mahjong. Guests can also enhance their zen experience by getting a traditional massage.

For queries regarding overnight accommodation, please refer to tour operator.

Tunku Abdul Rahman Park

The marine park is a cluster of islands comprising Pulau Gaya, Pulau Sapi, Pulau Manukan, Pulau Mamutik and Pulau Sulug, all only 10 - 20 minute speedboat ride from the city of Kota Kinabalu. The five islands of the Marine Park are characterized by shallow waters, sumptuous coral gardens and all boast splendid white sandy beaches.

The reefs lie in shallow waters with little current making it an ideal location for novice divers, however, the diverse and sometimes rare marine creatures also make it an interesting dive location for experienced divers and underwater photographers. To dive in the marine park you must contact one of the local dive centers based in Kota Kinabalu who also offer a full variety of PADI courses ranging from Discover Scuba to Instructor.

Among the sandy seabed a good variety of marine life can be found such as Scorpion fish, Blue-spotted rays, cuttlefish, mantis shrimps and the occasional green or hawksbill turtle. At some locations, rare creatures such as the harlequin ghost pipefish and mandarin fish can be found especially with the help from local dive guides.

During the cooler months from November to February, plankton blooms attract krill which in turn attract whale sharks, the world's largest fish. At times, the density of the krill can be so thick in these murky conditions underwater encounters with these colossal animals can be exciting as they suddenly appear out of the gloom.

Pulau Tiga "Survivor Island"

Pulau Tiga is an island situated within the Pulau Tiga Park that was gazetted in 1978 and located about 35 nautical miles southwest of Kota Kinabalu. These islands make up Pulau Tiga Park, they Pualu Tiga, Pulau Kalampunian Damit or better know as `Snake Island` and Pulau Kalampunian Besar. Pulau Tiga is believed to have been formed by the eruption of several mud volcanoes, which with the combination of subterranean gas pressure and expelled muddy sediment could have built up the island to its present height of approximately 100m above sea level.

Several species of mammals, numerous birds (including the very rare megapode), a variety of reptiles and amphibians and hundreds of insects can be found on Pulau Tiga,making it a truly wild tropical island. It was no surprise when Pulau Tiga was chosen as the location for the first US CBS TV series `Survivor`.

With only one resort on Pulau Tiga, you can guarantee a relaxed and tranquil dive holiday. Pulau Tiga Resort offers PADI dive courses and many dive sites for the novice and experienced divers including some unexplored dive locations. A rich variety of marine life can be seen including nudibranchs, bamboo sharks, cuttlefish, marbled stingray and of course, a visit to nearby Snake Island guarantees sightings of banded sea snakes. The surrounding reefs are shallow healthy coral and water visibility ranging from m to 20m.

Sipadan Island

The internationally famous island of Sipadan lies five degrees north of the equator in the Sulawesi Sea (Celebes Sea). Lying 35km south of Semporna, on Sabah’s mainland, like many tropical islands it is thickly forested and surrounded by sandy beaches. Sipadan is an oceanic island and was formed by living corals growing on top of an extinct undersea volcano, which rises 600m from the seabed.

The geographic position of Sipadan puts it in the centre of the richest marine habitat in the world, the heart of the Indo-Pacific basin. More than 3000 species of fish and hundreds of coral species have been classified in this richest of ecosystems. Sipadan is well known for its unusually large numbers of green and hawksbill turtles which gather there to mate and nest and it is not unusual for a diver to see more than 20 turtles on each dive. Another unique feature to divers visiting Sipadan is the turtle tomb, an underwater limestone cave with a labyrinth of tunnels and chambers that contain many skeletal remains of turtles that became disoriented and then drowned.

The residential schooling barracuda and big-eye trevally, which often gather in thousands forming spectacular tornado-like formations, are one of the highlights of every diver’s wish-list. With the possibility of seeing pelagic species such as mantas, eagle rays, scalloped hammerhead sharks and whale sharks, each dive at Sipadan is a highly anticipated event.

It is not only the big fish that amaze divers coming to Sipadan, the macro life is equally mesmerizing. Garden eels, leaf scorpion fish, mantis shrimps, fire gobies, and various pipefish are guaranteed at various dive sites. The diversity and abundance of marine found at Sipadan gives it its reputation of being one of the ten best dive locations in the world.

The Government of Malaysia has decided that all existing onsite dive resort operators are to move their operations out of Sipadan Island by 31st December 2004. The move is mainly to conserve and maintain a balaned marine and land eco-systems on Sipadan and its environs. Diving will continue in Sipadan for divers to be ferried in by operators operating from the mainland or nearby islands other than the island of Sipadan and Ligitan.

Mataking Island

Mataking Island is an island not far from Sipadan. Located to the north of Mabul, it is about 40-minutes boat ride away from mainland Semporna.

Diving in Mataking is a combination of Macro and pelagics which is suitable for photographers, new and advanced divers. The eastern shore is a sloping reef dropping to a depth of 100 meters whereas on the western reef is mostly wall diving with depth of 100 meters. Many have commented that the living color of the undersea corals at Mataking are magnificent and a real heaven for many species of nudibranch and frogfish. Other Marine lives found are rainbow runner, bat fish, humphead parrotfish, barracuda, green and hawksbill turtles, lobster, giant clams, blue spotted rays and many more. There are many interesting dive sites not to be missed at the island, which are close proximity to Mataking.

Experience the beauty and wonders which Mataking has to offer. Indeed it is a promised island for divers, honeymooners and holidaymakers alike.

Layang-Layang Island

Layang-Layang, known as "Swallows Reef" is an atoll situated in the South China Sea 300km north-west of Kota Kinabalu. The island is man-made and was constructed for the Malaysian Navy and later developed for the only dive resort, Layang-Layang Island Resort.

The island location offers absolute isolation, luckily there is an airstrip with regular flights from Kota Kinabalu, which is the only mode of transport for guests visiting Layang-Layang. The extreme location of Layang-Layang, the pristine reefs, excellent visibility, steep walls down to 2000km and regular sightings of pelagics has given Layang-Layang a much deserved reputation of being one of the top ten dive locations in the world.

With resident schools of barracuda and big-eye trevally and frequently seen green and hawksbill are plentiful and healthy with sea fans stretching to more than three meters across that filter plankton from the passing currents.

The 20m deep lagoon has some great macro creatures to be found including seahorses, cuttlefish and pipefish but it is the pelagics visiting the outer walls that truly excite divers. Schools of scalloped hammerhead sharks, grey reef sharks, leopard sharks and the occasional threshers and silvertip sharks can all be seen.

Stingrays are also regular visitors including manta rays, pygmy devil rays, marbled rays and eagle rays. Rare sightings such as whale sharks, orcas and melon headed whales have all been seen ove the last few years. Spinner and bottlenose dolphins frequently follow the dive boats to each location and divers are sometimes rewarded with snorkelling and diverse fish life and visiting pelagic marine life.

Layang-Layang has rightly gained worldwide recognition.

Lankayan Island

Lankayan Island is located in the Sulu Sea north west of Sandakan on the north east coast of Sabah. This small paradise island, with stretches of white sandy beaches, swaying casuarinas pines and beautiful sunsets is another island with only one dive resort, Lankayan Island Dive Resort. The resort was built in 1997 and since then tourist have slowly been discovering the serenity and tranquility of this remote peace of paradise. Lankayan offers a fantastic variety of macro marine life, a muck-diving arena that rivals both Mabul and Kapalai Island.

However, with new protection from local fishermen, the larger marine creatures such as leopard sharks, marbled stingray and giant grouper have returned to the surrounding reefs. School of humphead parrotfish, yellowtail barracuda and scads also appear at many dive sites.

Among the 40 dive sites is ` Lankayan Wreck `, an ocean going fish poaching vessel that demised in the area of its illegal activities. This wreck now hosts many different species of fish from small glassfish, harlequin ghost pipefish, painted frogfish to giant grouper and marbled stingrays.

Many rate subjects can be found on many other sites including seahorses, flying gurnards, flamboyant cuttlefish, Jaw fish, dragonets and sand divers. Having Pulau Selingan, home to Sabah`s Turtle Sanctuary nearby, it is not a surprise to also see the occasional hawksbill or green turtle on one of your dives.

Kapalai Island

Between Sipadan and Mabul Island lies a sand bar known many years aga as Kapalai Island. Unfortunately, erosion has taken its toll and now the sand bar sits on top of the reef known as the Ligitan Reefs, a very extensive-stretch bording the deep and vast Celebes Sea. Sipadan-Kapalai Resort is atually a water village style resort built above the water. All structures are erected on water and guests are able to observe the antiecs of squids and needlefish from their chalet balcony.

The underwater scene together with nearby Mabul offers some of the best "muck-diving" in the world. Race subjects such as flamboyant cuttlefish, blue-ringed octopus, sea moths, and mating mandarin fish are seen on a regular basisi. Giant frogfish, ribbon eels, harlequin ghost pipefish and crab-eye gobies are seen on many of the dive sites.

They jetty dive itself has plenty to offer including leaf scorpion fish, pink-eye gobies, ammonium shrimps and the comical antics of the mantis shrimp. Other frequently seen creatures such as the crocodile fish, lionfish and scorpion fish are almost ignored as being too common!