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Category Archives: Underwater
Dive Training – Singamata Adventures Semporna
Some friends and I kicked off a 10-day trip to Borneo by doing a 4-day dive course at Singamata Adventures Semporna. I didn’t have a lot of time to take pictures, because getting open water certification actually took most of my energy. We would start studying in the morning during breakfast, do practice dives throughout the day, and study and test during the evening until bedtime. Hard work, but definitely worth it.
Singamata, got mixed reviews from our group of 6. The food was average, the setting was great, rooms are sparse, training was good (we all loved our instructor Mark), but once we visited nearby Sipadan Island for one of our last dives, we all agreed it would have been much better to stay there. However, Singamata is about 1/3 the price of anything on Sipadan, so in the end you get what you pay for. What’s more, we paid a lot of money to get dive training, but Vicky at Singamata never processed our PADI certifications. Without a PADI card, I will not be able to dive anywhere else. WHAT A RIP OFF!
Positives: Learned to dive. Negatives: Did not get to see/meet any sea gypsies. This was the #1 reason I was drawn to Semporna. Maybe next time.
by P-Lo
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