Pulau Sipadan Travel Forum

Hi all, I'm an Indonesian living in Jakarta. I'm interested to go to Sipadan, but I find it it's a long way to go if I have to fly from Jakarta to KL then Kota Kinabalu then Tawau, while it's closer to East Kalimantan province of Indonesia. Is it possible to go from Tarakan (the northest city of East Kalimantan)? Maybe by boat?
Second, is there cheaper way to stay? I heard we are no longer can stay in Sipadan but in other islands like Mabul. But from the website, there's only (expensive) resort in Mabul and Kapalau. Any other cheaper hotel or hostel?
Thanks a lot!

--Perucha

Well Sipadan has no immigration facilities so certainly entry to Malaysia must occur at another port of entry. Air Asia does, I believe fly direct from Jakarta to Balikpapan and you can make your way to Tarakan and then to Tawau. Also you can fly from Jalarta to Kota Kinabalu (KK) via brunei using Brunei airlines and then catch a flight or bus to Tawau I suppose. Mind you, I'm unsure if Tawau's the best launch off point to Sipadan. You still got to get to the coastal town of Semporna first I believe.

You can come in from KL KK TWU or fly or boat from Tarakan to Tawau. From Tawau you will transit and go to Semporna for a boat ride to mabul and dive in Sipadan. You can seek local packages from :

http://www.sipadan-mabul.com.my/
or
http://www.swvresort.com/
or
http://www.sipadan-resort.com/
or
the Borneo divers

package includes dive and stay in Mabul or Kapalai. unless you want to stay in Seporna or Tawau, there are few reasonable price hotels there.

Glad to know ur coming to Sipadan! mind u, its almost exclusively for avid divers so unless u r going to dive, there might be other better options elsewhere. the resorts on sipadan are almost the same class, with sipadan water village and sipadan mabul resort probably the classiest. kapalai is nice too. the food everywhere will be good too. personally i like borneo divers for their service and reasonable rates. seaventures is a former oil rig turned into a resort n is nto half bad. i think airasia has flights from kl directly to tawau. from the tawau airport, its abt an hour's drive to the coastal town of semporna fr where u will take a boat for about 45 minutes to mabul or kapalai. book a dive tour n all tht will be taken care of.