Trip Report: Brunei and Malaysia (Kota Kinabalu)

Tino de Rijk · 13th June 2008, 09:36

Last May Rita & I went to Brunei & Malaysia for almost 4 weeks of diving.

The first 2 weeks we were the proud guests of Mark Tuttle, a long-time Inspo diver and BSAC (Trimix) Instructor we met a few years back when he worked for Shell in Holland.
We had stayed in contact with Mark over the years, and Mark had very kindly invited us to stay with him & come diving with him in Brunei, where he is stationed for Shell for a few years already.

Mark is the BSAC Diving Officer for Panaga Divers (BSAC special branch #0788) , the local diving club associated with (and partly sponsored by) Shell, and part of the Kuala Belait Boat Club (KBBC), which is also home to their beautiful diveboat.
Panaga Divers is a mixed club, so non-BSAC members are very welcome as well.
They run a very fine and powerful catamaran boat which is quite stable, roomy and fast. The club owns a brand-new continuous-flow Nitrox filling station and two compressors, and Mark privately owns a brand-new booster pump and helium, so we could mix anything we liked, including 200 bar O2 fills.
Mark’s “humble home” is actually a quite spacey villa especially to Dutch standards, and in the evenings was temporarily turned into a diving operation, with a compressor humming in the kitchen while Rita prepared dinner. “Do you want oxygen or helium with your potatoes, dear..?”.

Although Panaga Divers is not a commercial diving club, I was told that generally incidental visitors are welcome, and they pay a modest price for joining the diving.
The diving is both at quite beautiful coral reefs as well as many very nice wrecks.
Depths can range from 20 to well over 60 meter, depending on the location and weather. The weather can be a problem, as all diving is open sea, and that part of Brunei (Seria) does not offer sheltered diving spots. If you’re lucky, they will offer you some unique diving on the legs of the oil rigs – being a Shell diving club, they have a unique permission to do so, offering a view on a unique sea life habitat with an abundance of life on the steel vertical structures.
Unfortunately when we were there, an oil rig had managed to catch fire (quite spectacular, but not funny…..), so they could do very well without a small diving boat interfering with the research and cleanup operations.
For details and info on the many wrecks and the diving take a look at the club’s fine website: www.panagadivers.com . It also contains their contact details.

In the second week Mark and his friend Nigel took us by car overland to Kota Kinabalu in Borneo-Malaysia, a good 8 hours driving with great views.
There we were the guest of a fairly new British-led commercial diving club: BorneoDream watersports, led by Billy Hammond, his lovely wife Jo Cotterill and the always friendly Ron Boddy. They started up Borneodream a year ago or so, and have quickly built up a very “slick” professional operation, with a very good brand-new large catamaran diving boat, boosterpump, sofnolime and even two Evo’s for rental available. Billy is a longtime Inspo/Evo diver (& instructor) with his CCR instructor roots in the UK. The diving is good, the boat (with skipper Jo) perfect, as well as the service.
They have many wrecks on offer, but also very nice coral reefs for the shallow dives.
The amazing thing is that we were all alone on our diving spots: no other diving operations around, as the local diving operators do not typically go very far while Borneodream’s fast boat can & will travel the distance, which makes all the difference.
We went a.o. to the Gaya and “rice bowl” wrecks in around 50 meters, with spectacular visibility (almost unbelievable, if you come from Holland…!).

You can find info on Borneodream’s operation on www.borneodream.com, and a full-featured trip report with photo & video on http://www.borneodream.com/news05.html .
Borneodream can also sort you out for hotels, and Kota Kinabalu is a nice city for shopping and eating (and, unlike Brunei, drinking J).

The last week we spent diving in Malaysia on the other side of Borneo, at Kapalai Resort ( www.sipadan-kapalai.com ), very close to the famous Sipadan island.
Kapalai is a whole romantic purpose-built wooden village built smack in the middle of the ocean on wooden poles, all geared towards diving, diving & diving (& eating). However, they only do the typical recreational type OC air diving: no Nitrox, no CCR, so as such I will not bore you here on a CCR mailing list with the details. It is however highly recommended to combine with your CCR diving trip, as we did, as it is only an hour (cheap) flight from Borneodream in Koto Kinabalu. The diving operation is very well organized, and the food is great. If you ask nicely you can probably leave your Inspo’s temporarily with Borneodream.

Bottom line:

Consider Brunei as an unusual diving spot. Be nice to the guys from Panaga Divers, and especially their “gently giant” diving officer Mark Tuttle, and they will accommodate you with your turtle or mini-turtle for some very unusual diving.
Consider also Borneodream in Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia, as they are 100% rebreather-friendly and offer a very slick operation, with very nice people.
If you want to enjoy lots of alcohol and disco’s in the evening: forget Brunei, it is a (very friendly) Islamic sultanate, where they take Allah’s wishes that you do not destroy your liver with alcohol, and your eyes with looking at other women very seriously.. J.

As to travel: we travelled KLM from Amsterdam to Singapore, and Royal Brunei from Singapore to Brunei. No major drama’s with our luggage: we had to pay some overweight, but not as much as we had feared.

Ciao,

Tino & Rita.

silent running · 13th June 2008, 19:49

Thanks very much for the trip report Tino. Great to hear about Borneodream being CCR friendly as I have had Borneo on my short list... -Andy

miridiver · 16th June 2008, 08:37

Tino,

Thank you very much for the report... it brings back a lot of sweet memories...:)
Did you get to dive the Toho Maru (AKA Yuko Maru) in Brunei?
It is also nice to hear that there is now a reliable operator (and breather friendly moreover) in KK diving the Usakan Bay Marus.

Laurent

Dave1w · 19th June 2008, 12:17

It's a shame I didn't know about these guys when I wa sdown there in February

Anyway, I think I will pay them a visit soonish!
Nice post

Dave

CharlieT · 19th June 2008, 15:48

Great trip report, Tino ;)

One day.............

RonVA · 20th June 2008, 05:21

Tino, Excellent report, thanks for taking the effort to write up on the diving in this part of the world. Next time hop across the border to Miri and dive some of our excellent reefs. Ronald

13th June 2008, 09:36	#1 (permalink)
Tino de Rijk Old, maybe one day wise Current Rebreather/s: Inspiration Vision Other Rebreather/s: Inspiration Classic Evolution Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Amsterdam Posts: 395	Trip Report: Brunei and Malaysia (Kota Kinabalu) Last May Rita & I went to Brunei & Malaysia for almost 4 weeks of diving. The first 2 weeks we were the proud guests of Mark Tuttle, a long-time Inspo diver and BSAC (Trimix) Instructor we met a few years back when he worked for Shell in Holland. We had stayed in contact with Mark over the years, and Mark had very kindly invited us to stay with him & come diving with him in Brunei, where he is stationed for Shell for a few years already. Mark is the BSAC Diving Officer for Panaga Divers (BSAC special branch #0788) , the local diving club associated with (and partly sponsored by) Shell, and part of the Kuala Belait Boat Club (KBBC), which is also home to their beautiful diveboat. Panaga Divers is a mixed club, so non-BSAC members are very welcome as well. They run a very fine and powerful catamaran boat which is quite stable, roomy and fast. The club owns a brand-new continuous-flow Nitrox filling station and two compressors, and Mark privately owns a brand-new booster pump and helium, so we could mix anything we liked, including 200 bar O2 fills. Mark’s “humble home” is actually a quite spacey villa especially to Dutch standards, and in the evenings was temporarily turned into a diving operation, with a compressor humming in the kitchen while Rita prepared dinner. “Do you want oxygen or helium with your potatoes, dear..?”. Although Panaga Divers is not a commercial diving club, I was told that generally incidental visitors are welcome, and they pay a modest price for joining the diving. The diving is both at quite beautiful coral reefs as well as many very nice wrecks. Depths can range from 20 to well over 60 meter, depending on the location and weather. The weather can be a problem, as all diving is open sea, and that part of Brunei (Seria) does not offer sheltered diving spots. If you’re lucky, they will offer you some unique diving on the legs of the oil rigs – being a Shell diving club, they have a unique permission to do so, offering a view on a unique sea life habitat with an abundance of life on the steel vertical structures. Unfortunately when we were there, an oil rig had managed to catch fire (quite spectacular, but not funny…..), so they could do very well without a small diving boat interfering with the research and cleanup operations. For details and info on the many wrecks and the diving take a look at the club’s fine website: www.panagadivers.com . It also contains their contact details. In the second week Mark and his friend Nigel took us by car overland to Kota Kinabalu in Borneo-Malaysia, a good 8 hours driving with great views. There we were the guest of a fairly new British-led commercial diving club: BorneoDream watersports, led by Billy Hammond, his lovely wife Jo Cotterill and the always friendly Ron Boddy. They started up Borneodream a year ago or so, and have quickly built up a very “slick” professional operation, with a very good brand-new large catamaran diving boat, boosterpump, sofnolime and even two Evo’s for rental available. Billy is a longtime Inspo/Evo diver (& instructor) with his CCR instructor roots in the UK. The diving is good, the boat (with skipper Jo) perfect, as well as the service. They have many wrecks on offer, but also very nice coral reefs for the shallow dives. The amazing thing is that we were all alone on our diving spots: no other diving operations around, as the local diving operators do not typically go very far while Borneodream’s fast boat can & will travel the distance, which makes all the difference. We went a.o. to the Gaya and “rice bowl” wrecks in around 50 meters, with spectacular visibility (almost unbelievable, if you come from Holland…!). You can find info on Borneodream’s operation on www.borneodream.com, and a full-featured trip report with photo & video on http://www.borneodream.com/news05.html . Borneodream can also sort you out for hotels, and Kota Kinabalu is a nice city for shopping and eating (and, unlike Brunei, drinking J). The last week we spent diving in Malaysia on the other side of Borneo, at Kapalai Resort ( www.sipadan-kapalai.com ), very close to the famous Sipadan island. Kapalai is a whole romantic purpose-built wooden village built smack in the middle of the ocean on wooden poles, all geared towards diving, diving & diving (& eating). However, they only do the typical recreational type OC air diving: no Nitrox, no CCR, so as such I will not bore you here on a CCR mailing list with the details. It is however highly recommended to combine with your CCR diving trip, as we did, as it is only an hour (cheap) flight from Borneodream in Koto Kinabalu. The diving operation is very well organized, and the food is great. If you ask nicely you can probably leave your Inspo’s temporarily with Borneodream. Bottom line: Consider Brunei as an unusual diving spot. Be nice to the guys from Panaga Divers, and especially their “gently giant” diving officer Mark Tuttle, and they will accommodate you with your turtle or mini-turtle for some very unusual diving. Consider also Borneodream in Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia, as they are 100% rebreather-friendly and offer a very slick operation, with very nice people. If you want to enjoy lots of alcohol and disco’s in the evening: forget Brunei, it is a (very friendly) Islamic sultanate, where they take Allah’s wishes that you do not destroy your liver with alcohol, and your eyes with looking at other women very seriously.. J. As to travel: we travelled KLM from Amsterdam to Singapore, and Royal Brunei from Singapore to Brunei. No major drama’s with our luggage: we had to pay some overweight, but not as much as we had feared. Ciao, Tino & Rita.
(Offline)

13th June 2008, 19:49	#2 (permalink)
silent running Mature mouth breather Current Rebreather/s: Prism Topaz Other Rebreather/s: Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: U.S.A. Brooklyn, New York Posts: 1,928	Re: Trip Report: Brunei and Malaysia (Kota Kinabalu) Thanks very much for the trip report Tino. Great to hear about Borneodream being CCR friendly as I have had Borneo on my short list... -Andy
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16th June 2008, 08:37	#3 (permalink)
miridiver New Member Current Rebreather/s: Megalodon Other Rebreather/s: Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Miri, now Perth Posts: 2	Re: Trip Report: Brunei and Malaysia (Kota Kinabalu) Tino, Thank you very much for the report... it brings back a lot of sweet memories...:) Did you get to dive the Toho Maru (AKA Yuko Maru) in Brunei? It is also nice to hear that there is now a reliable operator (and breather friendly moreover) in KK diving the Usakan Bay Marus. Laurent
(Offline)

19th June 2008, 12:17	#4 (permalink)
Dave1w Born Again Diver! Current Rebreather/s: Sport Kiss Dolphin Home Build Other Rebreather/s: Classic Kiss Dolphin Home Build Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Singapore / UK Posts: 472	Re: Trip Report: Brunei and Malaysia (Kota Kinabalu) It's a shame I didn't know about these guys when I wa sdown there in February Anyway, I think I will pay them a visit soonish! Nice post Dave
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19th June 2008, 15:48	#5 (permalink)
CharlieT RBW Member Current Rebreather/s: Inspiration Vision Other Rebreather/s: Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: London Posts: 455	Re: Trip Report: Brunei and Malaysia (Kota Kinabalu) Great trip report, Tino ;) One day.............
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20th June 2008, 05:21	#6 (permalink)
RonVA RBW Member Current Rebreather/s: Megalodon Other Rebreather/s: Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Miri, Borneo, Malaysia Posts: 5	Re: Trip Report: Brunei and Malaysia (Kota Kinabalu) Tino, Excellent report, thanks for taking the effort to write up on the diving in this part of the world. Next time hop across the border to Miri and dive some of our excellent reefs. Ronald
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