Results tagged “island” from Discover Borneo: Blog

Kota Kinabalu: Pulau Sipadan moved up to 14th place from 17th spot in the search for seven new wonders of nature being carried out via Internet voting.

Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister, Datuk Masidi Manjun, said Sipadan is now only three spots away from qualifying for the final rounds of voting.

"(But) I am confident that we will be able to achieve our goal to be among the 10 best islands in the world," he said in a text read by Assistant Minister Bolkiah Ismail at the launching of "Vote for Sipadan" campaign at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), here, Thursday.

To qualify, he said Sipadan must be among the 11 finalists under the island category in the online competition.

So, to achieve the goal, he said the Ministry is targeting students from public and private institutes of higher learning especially those with e-mail accounts.

At the same time, he said they are also approaching officers in both the State and Federal governments.

He said they have requested that the State and Federal governments inform their agencies and departments to brief their staff on the voting procedure for Sipadan.

Bolkiah said he has been entrusted to exploit the market in the peninsula and to target students and Federal employees.

Next week, he said he will be meeting with Tourism Minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen to discuss the launching of the campaign in the peninsula in a big way.

(Daily Express)

Continue reading Sipadan three spots away from qualifying

KOTA KINABALU: Sipadan Island, Sabah's pride with its amazingly diverse coral and marine life, needs votes to ensure it is listed as one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature.

The island off Semporna has already passed the first round when it earned national qualification on Dec 31, 2008.

It was selected from a pool of 261 entries from 222 participating countries.

The second round of selection from January to 7 July 2009 will see qualified entries divided into seven categories. Each category will have 11 nominees. Currently, Sipadan is in the 17th position for the island category and requires more votes to make it to the top 11.

The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment is therefore appealing to Sabahans to help place Sipadan Island in the list of the New Seven Wonders of Nature.

At a press conference yesterday, Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said with the help of government agencies and travel companies, they hoped the island would garner enough votes to be included in the list.

Together with the Sabah Tourism Board, the ministry will embark on a "Vote for Sipadan" campaign to urge people to vote for the island.

(Source: New Sabah Times)

Continue reading Vote for Sipadan Island

Voting is easy and no charges are involved. Anyone above the age of 13 can cast their votes by simply visiting the websites www.sabahtourism.com or www.new7wonders.com/nature.

KOTA KINABALU: Sipadan is now officially eligible to be considered for nomination as a Unesco World Heritage site.

The nominee for the World's New Seven Wonders of Nature is famous for its abundance of turtles, schooling barracudas, white tip reef sharks, bumphead parrotfish and its teeming reef.

The island will be judged by a scientific panel alongside other world-renowned diving destinations, such as the Raja Ampat, Banda islands and Bunaken National Park in Indonesia, the Tubbatha and Apo Reefs in the Philippines and hundreds of other islands in the world.

A special panel headed by Sabah Tourism Board chairman Datuk Seri Tengku Zainal Adlin submitted an entry about a week ago.

Continue reading here

PLANS are afoot for Sipadan island, a nominee for the World's New 7 Wonders of Nature, to be listed as a world heritage site.

A special panel headed by Sabah Tourism Board chairman Datuk Seri Tengku Zainal Adlin has been tasked to prepare a working paper for the purpose.

The paper will be submitted to Unesco, the organisation responsible for according world heritage status, as soon as possible.

The idea was raised by state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun at a meeting with Malaysia's permanent delegate to Unesco Datuk Kenneth J. Luis at the Malaysian embassy here yesterday.

(Article is taken from NewStraitsTimes)

Continue reading Getting Sipadan on the list

Having taken a brilliant trip to Pulau Tiga with BorneoDreams for some beautiful diving earlier in the year , four of us from DiscoverBorneo decided to head over to the island for a little bit of an expedition over the weekend. Pulau Tiga was made famous by the TV series 'Survivor Island' a few years ago where a group of people were placed on the island and, well, had to survive.

Away, for our trip, we were departing from Kota Kinabalu (KK) on the Kuda Laut a nice speed boat that we own with two 85 horse power engines on the back she really can cut thought the waves at a good pace. Having spent most of the previous day running around getting provisions; food, fuel, camping stuff ect ect, we could make a early start. As the engines started the sun was still low in the sky and there was a very pleasant cooling breeze, we headed out and away from KK.

We did have a GPS on board and the co-ordinates for Pulau Tiga, however we had elected not go straight there. Pulau Tigau lies 50Km south of KK and 23Km off the coast around about a 3 hour boat drive, we were taking a longer route that would allow us to stick close to the main land and see all the lush jungles and mountains, the little villages and fishing's station build on stilts out at sea and generally some interesting stuff.

Now Pulau Tiga is a marine protected area so no fishing, however before we got there, about half way between the main land and the island, we stopped off for a little fishing and a little general frivolity; swimming, drink and a little lunch. We did catch a fish which was a Remora (one of those fish that cline to big fish like sharks) it was quite a respectable Remora as well about half a meter long. I have never know anyone to eat Remora, they are ugly things and none of us what to give it a try so we through it back, wondering where it had come from and what fish had giving it a ride, had it been a shark?


Pulau tiga, the first job was to pay the marine park fee at the ranger hut, not too bad only 10 RM about 2 US dollars per head. Also the pier provided a great opportunity from some diving practise the water was crystal clear and just full of life. We then hunted around for some good dive spots, the diving was good; no really big stuff and the visibility was only about 15 meters but still a nice dive with lots to see, you just had to pay attention and look for the little stuff. Not bad considering we really had no idea of where the real dive spots actually where.


As we relaxed on the boat the sun was already begin to dip towards the horizon, we selected our camping beach and then our camping spot pretty quickly since the whole place was beautiful it was not very difficult. Now I should point out that when I say camping I really don't mean tents. We just had a massive tarpaulin sheet that we strung up in a tree to give us a bit of shelter if it happened to rain, we did have one tent but that was for supplies.


So after all this was done and the wood for the fire collected we when off to hunt down the mud volcanoes that the island is famous for. At one point as massive monitor lizard jump from a tree, into a pool next to the path sending up a great plume of water. Making camp and collect the wood had take some time and now it was getting dark fast in the island jungle, Ants began to nip at peoples feet and the path became harder to see, we turned back disappointed in not making it to the volcanoes but know that a dark jungle is a dangerous.


When we got back to the beach there was still a little light left from the setting sun, we sat drank and ate watching as the sun gave way to the moon and the stars began to light up the heavens. It was still a little dark though so we lit the fire. The fire was really quite impressive we had so much wood that the flames flicked thought till the sun came up the next morning. Sleeping on the edge of an island jungle at night with the waves crashing in front of you is a fine place to sleep. The jungle did make sounds lots of sounds and every now and again foreign eyes twinkled in fire light. The morning was fresh and clear but busy we had to get the dive tanks back to the shop early that morning, so there was no time to make another try for the mud volcanoes only for a quick jump into the sea, remove every trace that we had been there and then head for home. 

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KOTA KINABALU: The proposed 33-hectare oceanarium resort in Mabul Island, located in the Sabah East Coast, will not destroy the coral reefs.

Rather, it would help ease pressure from the diving crowd coming from neighbouring Sipadan island, said state tourism, culture & environment minister Datuk Masidi Manjun yesterday.

He said the government was initiating efforts to restore the coral reefs which he claimed, had already been destroyed over the past 15 years due to illegal usage of fish bombs.

"I am not trying to defend the oceanarium... what the oceanarium is trying to create is a diving spot by rehabilitating the coral and marine life so that people need not go to Sipadan but just stay in Mabul.

"The whole idea is to disperse the diving crowd so that it eases the pressure on Sipadan," he told reporters on the sidelines of the state legislative assembly sitting.
(Article is taken from NewSabahTimes)

Continue reading Mabul Island Oceanarium won't destroy coral

Most of the coral reefs on Sabah's West coast described in Famous Dive Locations are known to locals and tourists, the only known exception being a submerged reef lying approximately 30km directly out from Kota Kinabalu, known to local fishermen it has yet to be dived. Coral Reefs on the North and East coasts of Sabah however are largely unexplored, with the exception of a handful of places described in Famous Dive Locations. On the North coast there exists a multitude of tropical islands, large and small, stretching between Pulau Balambangan and Pulau Jambongan. On most of these islands freshwater is not available and therefore local settlements, or Kampongs, are sparsely distributed.

Sipadan & her surrounding islands:

On the East coast of Sabah, in the Sulu Sulawesi Sea, lies Pulau Sipadan and her surrounding islands, Pulau Kapalai and Pulau Mabul. This group of protected islands is legendary in dive circles and is ranked in the five top diving destinations in the world. The fantastically shaped islands, surrounded by immaculate white sand beaches, clear turquoise blue seas and fringing reefs provide a variety of dive experiences. The perfect reefs harbor incredible fish, invertebrate and coral biodiversity. At Sipadan huge schools of hammerhead sharks, jacks and spiraling barracuda can be seen over the 700 meter drop offs, the topography also offers caverns and coral gardens. Two species of turtle are very common at Sipadan, green and hawksbill turtles and encounters with manta rays, grey reef, white tip and leopard sharks and if you're very lucky, thresher and whale sharks, all add to the excitement. Pulau Mabul and Kapalai, don't offer the jaw dropping topography of Sipadan however the diversity of marco animals is incredible, and the shallow waters make Mabul and Kapalai excellent snorkeling spots too, much of the marcofauna here is yet be classified and new species are constantly being discovered!