Sandakan

Destination Sandakan for some world class diving at the world renowned dive spot, Pulau Sipadan. Sandakan is a small fishing village on the southeastern coast of Sabah. There's not much to see in the town, the main attraction is diving off the nearby islands.
This is Dragon Inn, a floating hotel at the waterfront.

Of course like everyone else here, we are waiting to go to the famous Pulau Sipadan. Unfortunately we were not able to get a permit to go to the island right away. Several years ago, this island was a popular resort destination, until the Malaysian government announced that all dive operations were to relocate off the island as a move to preserve the island and the surrounding reef. So now a limited number of permits are issued each day for people to visit the island.

Our first day we are going diving at Pulau Mabul, known for its 'muck' dives.

Here is picture from our boat leaving the Sandakan waterfront.

Tiny little tropical island with white sandy beaches and palm trees.

All the housing is built on stilts along the edge of the beach in the ocean, connected into water villages along the sea.

Pulau Sipidan

It was a beautiful clear and sunny day, perfect weather for diving/snorkeling. My sister enjoyed some world class diving at Sipadan while I had a leisurely snorkel and lay about on the roof of our boat. Unfortunately for me, I was not able to dive since I'm not a certified diver. They don't take beginner divers out here because of the 600m drop off and strong currents. But I was quite happy snorkeling about. The water is clear and shallow off the beach and there was tons of marine life to see from the surface of the water. The highlight at Sipadan was the abundance of sea turtles everywhere and plentiful colourful fish and coral. I had purchased an underwater bag for my camera to take photos while snorkeling but the seal along the side cracked so I have no underwater pictures to show :(