Seaventures Dive Rig — Hotel in Sabah

I was at the rig for a short stay - 4 days and 3 nights||The Room|- I had a twin room to myself. I thought I might have to pay an extra fee for my own room, which is perhaps the case during busy season, but I was given my own twin bedroom at no extra charge.|- The room was large enough to comfortably fit my suitcase and to unpack it. It might be a bit of a squeeze with 2 big suitcases, but all diving equipment can be unpacked and given to staff before your suitcase is taken to your room.|- Bed was comfy, air con was nice and cool, and shower was powerful. Since I only used my room for sleeping, it was perfect for my needs.||The Rig|- The sun deck is incredible! There is a sheltered part in the center to hide from the sun when needed, and plenty of sun beds and chairs and tables. It faces west so it is a beautiful place to watch the sunset.|- The bar and restaurant area is huge, with a bar in the center and wooden tables and chairs around it.|- A good amount of options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The food was great!|- There is a mini-spa where you can get a massage and there’s also a games room, but I was too busy or tired to use these areas. Probably would have if I stayed a bit longer!|- A big wet area for getting ready for diving. Plenty of space to wash and dry your equipment and a load of benches with plenty of space to sit and get ready at.|- The reef beneath is really nice and you can chill and watch the fish from the deck of the rig. |- Free coffee, tea, juice, ice water, CAKES, and snacks at any time of the day. Don’t worry about being hungry; you will be well fed. ||The Service|- I arrived at Tawau airport at 4pm which was unfortunately too late to hear to the rig that evening. I strongly recommend that anybody coming here gets a flight arriving in the morning, but in my case that wasn’t possible. Private transport to the rig for an extra cost is not available in the late afternoon because of tourism restrictions in the area, so I stayed in Semporna for the evening and got picked up by Seaventures 12:00pm the next day. |- Pick up from hotel was smooth, quickly paid remaining fee at office, then got onto a 40-minute boat ride to the rig.|- Really happy that despite arriving in the afternoon, we were still offered two dives that day (one equipment check dive for about 30 minutes - still saw turtles, frogfish and moray eels, and one house reef orientation dive [which was delayed to another day due to the current])|- All the staff are incredibly friendly and helpful. Even those who are primarily employed to be dive masters are really happy to assist you in any way they can on the rig. I travelled alone, and they regularly started conversation with me, which was very nice!||Diving - Sipadan|- I was only able to visit Sipadan once due to my short stay but those staying longer (because it’s low season, I assume) were able to visit Sipadan twice or even three times. Bear in mind that every trip to Sipadan will have a park fee each time.|- You have to be on the boat to Sipadan by 6am, so it’s an early start. The benefits are huge, though, as you’ll be either the first or second group to arrive at the park and get in the water before the majority of divers.|- The boat to Sipadan was 25 minutes. |- You’ll heads to Sipadan Island, hop off the boat, register at the office, and the go to your first dive sites. Then you’ll head back to the island to have breakfast. Seaventures provided a mini-buffet rather than pre-built meals, which was awesome!|- After that you’ll head for dive number 2 (maximum amount of dives. Allowed in Sipadan), briefly stop at the island again for a toilet break before heading to one of the local dive sites outside of Sipadan for dive number 3.|- The diving in Sipadan is fantastic and if you’re thinking about heading to the rig you’ll probably know that already. The local dive was at Black Ray Channel - a dive site with a mostly sandy bottom, where we saw about 7 turtles. ||Diving - House Reef and Local Dives|- The House Reef is great. You have an orientation dive with a dive master to show you around the bottom of the rig. The big pillars of the rig are all numbered making navigation on your dive really simple. I was there during new moon and the current picked up wildly while we were down there. Treat it with caution and only go down when the current is mild! However, you will see bump head parrotfish, barracuda, crocodile fish, and turtles if you’re lucky.|- The dives near Mabul were much calmer and had lots of life. When I went to Malapascua, I felt that the local, non-thresher shark dives were a little underwhelming. However, the local diving spots near the rig were amazing. While not having Sipadan’s topography or abundance of life, the local dive sites still had plenty to see. Frogfish, crocodile fish, cuttlefish, eagle rays, and plenty of turtles were all spotted on the first full day of diving.||Overall|Excellent service, comfy rooms, and amazing diving made this one of my favorite ever trips. I personally felt 4D3N was not enough, and if I had the time, would have done 5 or 6 days to get at least two Sipadan days in. Overall it was good value and I think the value improves the longer you stay. Plus staying on a repurposed oil rig is just… really cool! Hugely...

One of the most unique places I've ever stayed at. Rough around the edges, but when the ocean and its cooling breeze is surrounding you everywhere you go, any other "worry" is quite minor in comparison. You are even completely FREED from mosquitoes due to its unique location - seriously, magic.

ROOM: small, akin to an interior cabin in a cruise ship, no phone to call reception. Had great sleeps in my private regular room so can't complain though. I always wanted to be outside in the open deck looking at the ocean, socializing or diving anyway! Still though, the bed and pillows were to die for -- even the sweet aroma of the sheets lulled me to sleep in no time. Strong A/C. Shower was hot, but no freshwater (as everywhere else in the area).

GENERAL AREAS: The general platform includes the bar, dining area, and "dive shop." It's open, breezy, and a great place to socialize. As a solo traveler, I was always hanging out here or in the back platform (sundeck) looking at the stunning sunsets while sipping drinks and talking to fellow travelers. Absolutely loved the vibe. So easy to find buddies to go down to the house reef - which is absolutely SPECTACULAR by the way (read below!).

Another service they offer is a free daily trip to the village at 4:30 PM, returning at 6 PM, in case you want to leave the rig or simply explore Mabul island to buy souvenirs and see how the locals live. I didn't take it advantage of this though because I was always diving or too comfortable taking in the 180-degree ocean views (hehe).

DIVING: excellent staff, DM's, and instructors. Knowledgeable, friendly, safe, punctual. Some are better guides than others (naturally), so just make sure you let them know what you like to see and they'll go hunting with you. I specified I like macro and they would appoint a guide that's good at finding the little guys. Equipment was in pretty good shape, minus a few BCDs that were showing their age (albeit still functional, from my experience).

One thing I didn't like much: Sipadan trip only includes 2, instead of 3 dives like other operator I used in the area. If you want to dive more, you have to pay extra for an afternoon trip (2 extra dives). Cost per diver will depend on how many people from the morning trip wants to go back.

You do get unlimited house reef dives though, and let me tell you - it is OUTSTANDING. on a night dive here I saw a stunning flamboyant cuttlefish (bright red/orange/blue) doing quite a show for us; moray eels; sleeping parrotfishes; Chevron barracudas; pipefish; several nudis. on a day dive the Seaventures house reef I saw a nice school of yellowtail trevally; tiny cuttlefish; adorable juvenile yellow box fish; many schools of several types of reef fish.

FOOD: top-notch! Aside from the average breakfasts, lunch and dinner were delicious -- very nice variety. A type of fish, chicken, vegetable's, soup and rice were the usual fare -- mixing traditional Malay with international dishes. You can tell the chef worked at 5-star hotels before coming here. Even the pastries and dessert were excellent.

And OMG PLEASE plan your stay at around a Thursday night: they have a BBQ that is TO DIE FOR. Grilled lamb, chicken, prawns - all incredibly well-seasoned and prepared. There's even live music! Their multi-talented staff grab some instruments and start playing classic rock covers. Fun times.

So, why did I mention "rough around the edges" earlier, you may ask? Well, the dive rig could use a refurb. Certain areas are seriously rusting away - although not interfering with accommodation area. I wonder though, how would you go about refurbishing a RIG?! Just make sure you're always wearing shoes when outside your room.

Seriously though, I can't wait to go back. There's this magical vibe to the dive rig - always being surrounded by that beautiful blue ocean. And of course, the extremely friendly, helpful staff and great divers/travelers the resort attracts. Will I do my Divemaster internship here?...

The Rig This is an old decommissioned oil platform. WHen you arrive they take you for an orientation tour of the facilities.

The rooms are nice, they provide unlimited fresh water for drinking at stations, tap water not for drinking. We stayed on the 4th floor so a lot of steps, but not bad at all.

The food was really good and plentiful. They try to cater to the cuisine of the divers on the rig. There was always rice, a soup, salad, and fruit. Generally there was a land a sea dish to choose from. There was always a cooked vegetable and tofu dish too.

They have a camera room with stations for about 10 people with plugs and counter top. Everything we needed.

The Diving Day of arrival you are met by a dive master that will be with you the entire stay. They take you to a sandy bottom area and do a check out dive to assess your skills. When you get back to the rig, there is a surface interval, then they take you on an orientation dive on the house reef.

House Reef -- We really enjoyed the house reef and dove it every day (including 2 night dives), except the day of departure :) The house reef is a bunch of artificial reef structures that is completely covered in corals. Some of the highlights we saw on the house reef were Flamboyant Cuttlefish, a hermit crab riding on the back of a turtle, batfish, nudis, ribbon eel, needless to say, a lot of incredible things down there to see.

Sipidan -- We got lucky and were able to dive Sipidan 4 days in a row. Sipidan is a protected island and they only allow 200 divers per day to dive there. The park has divers in the water monitoring divers and if they catch you breaking the rules, you can be banned for life from diving there. Amongst the sites we dove there were Barracuda Point (strong current), South Point (strong current), and several easier sites with light current (Drop off, Coral Gardens, & West Ridge). We saw tons of large things on these dives, including barracuda, bumphead parretfish, travali, and sharks. Corals were amazing, but current kept you from seeing a lot of little things. We did see tons of anemonefish, I love watching them dart in and out. Our final dive in Sipidan we were greeted on the surface by mating turtles... As a cave diver (Tech Cave Instructor), I was looking forward to diving Turtle Tomb. Kelly, our DM, was a Full Cave Diver and was able to guide us into the cave. You must provide proof of cave training to be allowed to dive the cave. Of all the dives on this trip to SE Asia (40 total), this will be my highlight to remember. Turtle Tomb gets its name from the turtle skeletons where turtles saw in and could not find their way out and drown :(

Mabul -- The house reef counts as Mabul, and our checkout dive was at Paradise II where we saw what Kelly called a "peacock wrasse" -- an amazing looking little fish with a top knot like a fishing lure. Our final dive of the trip was Lobster Wall. There was a strong current at the start of the dive so mainly looking at big things.

Kapalai -- We only dove one site here, and wish we had more time to do more. We dove Mandarin Valley. It is a combination of natural and artificial reef. We saw tons on nudis, a "peacock wrasse", and a frogfish :) I could have easily done 4 or 5 dives on this one site and not gotten bored.

The Jump On the rig you live, dive, and can JUMP. It is an 8m fall to the water when you jump. They advise you not jump until all of your diving is done. They give you stickers for the rig when you are checking out that say Live Dive Jump. I told my wife we could only earn the stickers if we actually jumped. So after our final dive, we jumped. 8m doesn't sound far, but when you are failing that distance, it is a LONG way :)

Summary I love everything about this trip. I will likely return and really look forward to it. I would do fewer trips to Sipidan, and more around...