Places to visit in Malaysia?

Full article on Sipadan Island from MariMari.com

Pulau Sipadan (Island)

Acknowledged as one of the best diving and unique spots in Southeast Asia, Pulau Sipadan is located off the small coastal town of Semporna on Sabah's eastern coast. Just 15 feet from the beach, the water turns indigo blue as the sea drops abruptly to 2,850ft deep! It is rather awe-inspiring. Myriad of colorful tropical fish swim in the warm water near the surface whereas huge groupers nose about. Moreover, the water gets so dark that one would not really know what lurks below. This famous feature won Sipadan island a "Best Beach Dive in the World" award in 1993.

The sea is overflowing with marine life. The main attraction for divers is the rich and unique variety of corals both soft and hard. Reef fish of every shape and hue can be found in these waters. Colorful butterfly fishes, angel fishes, damsel fishes of electric blue and bright orange colors inhabit the coral reefs, thus adding to the splendor of the underwater havens.

Between April and September, the Green and Hawksbill turtles will come ashore in droves to nest in the soft golden sands of Sipadan. When you dive during this time, you are bound to encounter these harmless denizens of the deep.

A beautiful white-sand beach fringes Sipadan but the real beauty of this island is in its waters. The season for diving is from mid-February to mid-December. Visibility ranges from 60 feet to over 200 feet. Several dive spots have even been identified and given exotic names after the variety of corals and marine life that are unique to these spots. There is the "Hanging Gardens", the "Barracuda Point", and the exciting "Turtle Cavern".

Professional diving companies operate on the island, complete with water, electricity, food, drinks, and comfortable accommodation for an unforgettable experience. To get there, one can take the 45-minute boat ride from Semporn

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Snippet from an artile published in brisbanetimes.com.au about Sipadan Island

Image:

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/ffximage/2007/04/1...

Last year, nearly 20,000 Australians developed a crush on the mystical island of Borneo, an increase of almost 14 per cent over 2005 and the best signal that its popularity is growing.

For some, a visit is about gazing deep into the eyes of an orang-utan, one of our nearest primate relatives, while others plunge in headfirst to sample some of the world's best diving and snorkelling spots.

Sabah is renowned for the earthly delights of its rich rainforests and deep, impenetrable jungles, and the 1600 kilometres of coast framing the territorial waters of the South China, Sulu and Sulawesi seas make it Borneo's premier adventure diving destination.

Located at the point where the two great land masses of Australia and Asia separated millenniums ago, Borneo is the world's third largest island, with spectacular biodiversity.

A vast variety of organisms gained from both continents exist in its ancient rainforests, including more than 3500 tree species and 1500 types of orchids, far more than anywhere else in the world.

Regular visitor Sir David Attenborough drew the television world's attention to the red-haired "man of the forest" the orang-utan.

The work of the Sepilok Orang-Utan Rehabilitation Centre near Sandakan on the east coast attracts 1 million visitors annually.

However, nature's theme park offers more than jungle trekking, and with the growing trend to marine eco-tourism, Sabah's coral reefs have moved up the conservation agenda.

When the late Jacques Cousteau first saw Sipadan Island's coral wall, which plunges to a depth of 600 metres, he described it as an untouched piece of art, and it soon became a fixture on the world's top 10 dive spots.

Sipadan, or Simpadan as it's known locally, means border and its closeness to Indonesia was a contentious issue that was only settled in Malaysia's favour by the International Court of Justice in 2003.

Sipadan was under stress from growing tourism, and as a result the island's five resorts have closed and will remain so as the Malaysian Government regenerates the island for World Heritage listing.

"The environment is our silent partner - if it's sick we are done," said Clement Lee, chairman of the Sabah Tourism Board's dive industry committee, who was among the first to recognise that short-term commercial loss would result in long-term gains for future generations to enjoy. "Visitors can still dive Sipadan's 18 sites that together with neighbouring Mabul and Kapalai, form Sabah's 'golden dive triangle'," said Lee, who is confident Sipadan has a bright future

Link:

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/travel/borneo...

Beautiful country, but there are a few issues that might keep you from going here. There are three major groups living here: Chinese, Indian, Malays. The first two are lovely people. The Malays however are not very welcoming. They seem friendly but they never talk to you or make you feel welcome. If you actually live here then they will never become your friend, in fact, the longer you are here the more clear it gets that you are not part of their superior race. They are in charge of Malaysia and therefore decide the atmospere. They are moderate muslims which is nice, but it does mean that there is not much entertainment in Malaysia due to their laws and licensing laws. So walking through a town like KL is nice for a day and then gets very boring. Everything that is seen as a tourist spot is a dissapointment: You can only see the gate of the Royal Palace, empty museum, half closed museum, closed museum, everything always has seized to be years ago, nobody knows the way, cabs overcharge you. If you expect to see the beautiful Malay culture (dance, silat, music) then you will be dissapointed. The governement does not want to spend any money on it so there is not much going on. A weekly demonstration of dance and silat and music on Merdeka square would be nice, but there is nothing at all. Eventhough this is the so called 'Visit Malaysia' year. Most Malay cultural events are secret and only for local royalty and v.i.p.s. No foreigners and outsiders allowed. If there is something going on then you won't know, you will read it in the paper afterwards. Hotels are very nice though and some will sometimes have a little dance performance in the lobby. The hotels see why it is not bad spending some money on that. If you like nature, then going to the rainforrest or the islands is interesting however. Lankawi is the only place ready for tourists in the whole of malaysia. And of course diving is magnificent if you know where to go. The sea resorts are all beautifull and have some entertainment aswell. This is possible because it is on private land. So if you like a quite holiday with no real contact with people then I suggest one of the sea resorts. If you like to see some culture and like to walk around then go somewhere else. In Indonesia people are much nicer and they are quite good at entertaining tourists, every aspect of their beautiful culture is there ready and waiting for you. The Indonesians are used to foreigners and when they are nice they really mean it, when they are not nice they really mean it too. The Malays smile but have a lot of prejudice behind your back. They think we are all christians and anti islam in Europe. They have no idea that 40 percent of the so called white Europeans are historically muslim, and the rest are a combination of many religions including christianity. Also they don't understand that we are many tribes and not just one tribe. So expect some very backward racial talk if you are lucky to talk to anybody. But they probably don't talk to you at all. The malays only read books that are related to their career/job and to religion, they have no interest in other cultures or people. Therefore they don't know much about the rest of the world. The Malay women are often smarter than the men. Most customers of the few international bookshops in the many shopping malls are female. Probably because they have to fight and study harder to be somebody. To cut a long story short: Living here as a foreigner is a lonely existence, don't do it... Having a holiday here is only nice if you like peace and quite and you don't mind staying in a resort. If you want to see culture, go to Indonesia, Java in particular. Java has over a thousand temples alone.... Have a nice holiday.....

That depends on what type of honeymoon are you looking for. Malaysia has one of the best beaches in the world.

Pulau Langkawi, Kedah has one of the best beaches, facing the Andaman Sea - The Datai/The Andaman/Four Seasons

Tanjung Jara in Terrengganu

Pulau Pangkor in Perak

Kuantan/Cherating in Pahang

Pulau Redang/Perhentian in Terengganu

Kota Kinabalu in Sabah

Try www.cuti.com.my and www.mari.com.my to get more details. Many couples I meet would usually go for Pulau Langkawi since it has some famous resorts and there's much to do there.

For a honeymoon, I would recommend an island if total relaxation is what you are looking for. If you are looking more for nightlife and shopping etc, then maybe a city like KL would be good.

For islands, Malaysia has many including Penang, islands at the East Coast (not suitable during monsoon periods) and over at Sabah.

Go to Sabah (the east of Malaysia) everything are wonderful here. We have the largest mall in the country (1Borneo Hypermall) we have the best 5 star resorts (Shangrila Tanjung Aru, Sutera Harbour, Karambunai Beach Resort, Shangrila Rasa Ria Resort, and much more).

Kuala Lumpur, Bako National Park, Deer Cave, That Orangutan Refuge

Kuala Lumpor The Mosques and Towers are kwl

if honeymoon , Pulau Redang