Malaysia

Sipadan is the reason divers go to Malaysia.

The island sits 600 meters above the seafloor on an ocean plateau off the east coast of Borneo (Sabah). Jacques Cousteau called it 'an untouched piece of art.' The reef wraps the island in a complete circle and the diving is drift in any direction, with Barracuda Point producing the famous tornado of chevron barracuda that schools at midday.

Turtles live on Sipadan year-round — you will see more green and hawksbill turtles on one dive here than on an entire dive trip almost anywhere else. Reef sharks patrol the edges, bumphead parrotfish forage in groups, and the walls drop vertical into the blue.

Access is tightly regulated: only 176 permits per day. Most divers stay at resorts on nearby Mabul or Kapalai (both shallow muck-diving gems in their own right) and take daily boats to Sipadan.

In the far north, Layang Layang is a remote atoll reached only by a 3-hour flight from Kota Kinabalu on seasonal flights — April through August. The draw is schools of scalloped hammerhead sharks at 30 meters. One of the only reliable hammerhead sites in Southeast Asia.