Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving

Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving

One of the top activities that Kota Kinabalu offer is Scuba Diving. They have nice diving spots that certified and non-certified divers can enjoy. So, when Busy and I went to Kota Kinabalu, we booked scuba diving lessons right away from Downbelow Adventures by Adventures in Borneo.

 

Important Information

Scuba Diving lessons provider: Adventures in Borneo

Facebook: Adventures in Borneo

Instagram: Adventures in Borneo

Contact No.: +60 88-486 800 ; (+6) 012 866 1935

Email address: [email protected]

Address: KK Times Square, Lot 33-G, Block F, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Diving Address: Gaya Island, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Time spent on the activity: 4 hours

Rates: Contact the provider for the rates.

 

 

Going to Gaya Island – Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving

We went to Sutera Harbour Marina Jetty to wait for the other guests and the boat. It is good to wait here because this place is nice, it has a lot of yachts and Doves that are very friendly.

Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 2 - Sutera Harbour Marina Jetty Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels

 

This boat is nice, a little upgrade than what I expected.

Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 3 - Sutera Harbour Marina Jetty Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels

 

We are just a total of 5 people on the boat, the captain, guide, another guest, and Busy and I. So, we had a lot of space for ourselves.

Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 4 - Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels

 

At first, it was okay to sit in front and take videos and pictures, but after a while, we were told to sit at the back because the boat will start to go really, really fast. The boat ride is around 15 to 20 minutes.

Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 3.5 - Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels

 

Gaya Island

We immediately saw Gaya Island a few minutes after leaving the marina.

Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 5 - Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels

 

The island is full of trees and life, we even saw some Hornbills while we are on the boat.

 

After a while, we saw the jetty of Downbelow Adventures.

Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 6 - jetty Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels

 

Scuba Diving gears are lined up on the jetty because the owner Richard and his team will go out and dive to remove a reported fishing net that was left behind. They always do these jobs that can save our ocean.

Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 7 - Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels

 

Start of Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving

We do not have a certificate/license for scuba diving, so it is mandatory that an introduction is given to us even though we’ve been through this a lot of times already. Plus, there is a newbie soon-to-be instructor who is taking his first dive today, so he sat down with us during the introduction.

Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 9 - lecture Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels
Our instructor Kerry, giving an introduction to scuba diving.

 

Then, Kerry arranged all of our scuba diving gears so we can start already.

Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 10 - equipments Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels

 

As mentioned, we are not licensed scuba divers so we took a quick exercise under the shallow water. The usual exercises were made like what to do when water gets inside the mask and what to do in case the mouthpiece is taken out of the mouth.

Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 11 - shallow water practice Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels

After we passed, we went back to the island and had a snack.

 

Adik Reef – Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving

After the quick snack, Kerry showed us that we are going to dive into Adik Reef which is just around 12 meters deep. It has good marine life, there are coral reefs, different schools of fish, Turtles, Blacktip Reef sharks, and Whale sharks (sometimes).

Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 12 - adik reef Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels

 

This time, we will be diving with Kerry and Richard.

Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 13 - instructor kerry owner Richard Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels

 

After the boat stopped, we went down to Adik Reef.

adik reef Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 19 - yellow tail snapper yellow silver fish Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels
Yellow Tail Snapper

 

There is a lot of marine life here, there are various schools of fish, like this school of jacks.

adik reef Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 17 -school of jacks Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels
School of Jacks

 

And a school of Yellow Tail Snapper which keeps on swimming near us.

adik reef Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 19 - yellow tail snapper yellow silver fish Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels
Yellow Tail Snapper

There are also various Barrel Sponges around.

adik reef Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 18 - barrel sponge Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels
Barrel Sponge

 

Finally, a Green Sea Turtle showed up! Here’s his picture with Richard.

adik reef Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 20 - green sea turtle Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels
Green Sea Turtle and Richard

 

It is busy and not minding us at all. It’s like he is used to people being around.

adik reef Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 21 - green sea turtle Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels

adik reef Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 22 - green sea turtle Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels

 

Thank you Richard for this picture, I am trying my best here to keep my distance from the Turtle and the coral reefs.

adik reef Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 23 - green sea turtle Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels
Green Sea Turtle and Happy. Photo courtesy of Richard of Adventures in Borneo

 

adik reef Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 24 - green sea turtle Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels
Green Sea Turtle

 

We also saw a Blacktip Reef Shark, but we didn’t get a chance to take a picture of it. I tried to swim toward it, but it really swims fast.

 

 

It was Fun!

We had a fun morning dive, we even met a few friends like him from Singapore. He even wants to bring his son the next day to dive because he find the activity enjoyable.

Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 26 - singaporean friend Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels

Plus, Richard has been in Kota Kinabalu for a lot of years.

 

Happy and Busy’s Smileys for Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving with Downbelow Adventures

Overall our experience is good. The place is not crowded, there is a lot of marine life throughout the reef that we visited, all of the instructors are friendly and fluent in speaking English, and

Location 

Ambiance

Value for money 

Fun

 

I took underwater pictures using my Insta360 x3 for the first time, and I am not pleased, most of them are blurry. Apologies for the blurred pictures. I might be going back to Go Pro for underwater pictures and videos.

 

adik reef Kota Kinabalu Scuba Diving 25 - Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures in Borneo What to do in Gaya Island - Sabah Tourism Happy and Busy Travels

 

More exciting activity reviews at https://happyandbusytravels.com/category/activities/

 

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