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Verdi: Exploring the Italian hometown of a musical genius Posted: 30 Jul 2013 11:00 PM PDT In Busetto, the music of its most famous son echoes about every quarter After a Wagner overload at the opulent annual festival devoted to the composer in Bayreuth, Germany, it was good to come to Busseto, Italy, for a little Verdi appreciation. In the year celebrating the 200th birthday of both musical geniuses, it seemed fitting to visit these two towns intimately associated with them. It turned out, however, that the contrast between Bayreuth and Busseto couldn't have been more striking. Bayreuth was the baroque court of a minor German prince, the Margrave of Bayreuth, and still feels like it. Little Busseto is a market town with one main street and a square. Whereas Wagner came to Bayreuth at the peak of his fame to build an opera house in his own honor, Verdi came to Busseto as a talented but penniless boy. The Italian composer had walked there from nearby Le Roncole, the village of his birth, because a local music lover had a piano that Verdi had been invited to play.   Busseto as it appeared in Verdi's day. Aside from some urban sprawl, the town has changed little. Renaissance revisited Apart from some urban sprawl on its outskirts, Busseto today looks remarkably the same as when Giuseppe Verdi arrived in 1824. Its low defensive walls and gates are gone, but its streets follow the same Renaissance grid. There are some big houses and even a palazzo or two, but these are discreetly hidden behind colonnades that line Via Roma, the main street. The only ostentatiously impressive building is the 16th-century Palazzo Pallavincino, with its moat and baroque gatehouse, lying halfway between the railway station and the town proper. The ancient family of Pallavincino held the old castle in Busseto (it now contains an opera house) but in the 18th century they moved out here, to moated splendor beyond the defensive walls. Whether its former occupants would have appreciated the irony is uncertain, but the mighty Pallavincinos' palace is now a museum (Via Ferdinando Provesi 35; + 39 0524 930 039) devoted to Verdi, an innkeeper's son. Halfway along Via Roma on the stands Palazzo Orlandi, where Verdi composed his opera "Rigoletto." A big sign on the doors reads "Vendesi." (For sale) Palazzo Orlandi, where Verdi composed "Rigoletto;" locals say it's falling apart.The locals lament that you can't even go in to look around; some claim it's falling apart. Given that Verdi came back to live here after the success of his breakthrough opera "Nabucco," it's a shame not more is made of the house. On the town square, it's a different story. Casa Barezzi is where the young Verdi came to play music. Today his piano overlooks Piazza Verdi. It was here that the lanky, dark-haired 17-year-old gave his first public performance, in 1830. Antonio Barezzi, a wealthy merchant, not only was Verdi's first patron but also soon became his father-in-law when his daughter fell in love with the young musician. Today just the main salon of Casa Barezzi (Via Roma 119; ‪+39 0524 931 117) has been restored by the "Amici di Verdi." I walked up steps to the first floor to pay the €2 entry fee. The salon is lofty and spacious for such a small town. Had the adolescent Verdi ever seen anything as grand? The adjoining rooms are taken up with display cases full of drawings, paintings and photographs of Verdi. There's a fascinating display of portraits of nearly every singer who played a major operatic Verdi role. Another section commemorates conductors who have performed at Busseto's Teatro Verdi (‪Piazza Giuseppe Verdi 10; ‪+39 0524 92487) with the batons they've donated. Placido Domingo has pride of place. Theater of honor In 1868, to honor the man they were calling the "Swan of Busseto," the people of his hometown didn't just rename their theater after Verdi, they tore it apart and rebuilt it in a much more opulent style, with a royal box, smoking room and private salon where sopranos could serenade affluent gentlemen from a high balcony. A mythological ceiling was painted in the auditorium with a cherub holding up the word "Verdi" to the Muse of Music. Verdi was said to have been furious when he heard that the building he had loved was being destroyed in his name, but in the end he gave money to help complete the project. Mask of genius ... a production of Verdi's opera "Rigoletto," a story of love, revenge and sacrifice.The auditorium is a lovely, delicate red and white structure of boxes on three tiers. Franco Zeffirelli staged "Aida" here in 2001 to mark the centenary of Verdi's death.   The production is still talked about in the town because of the way Zeffirelli transcended the restrictions of the tiny stage. I spent the night in a hotel (next to the old castle) built in 1999 by the great tenor Carlo Bergonzi when he retired to Busseto. He named it "I Due Foscari" (Piazza Carlo Rossi 15; + 39 0524 930039; rooms from €86/$114) after one of the operas that gave Verdi his name.  Resembling a dark palazzo on the Grand Canal, the hotel is now run by Bergonzi's son, Marco. There are pictures of Verdi on every wall, even in my bedroom. There had been high hopes for the bicentenary this autumn, but while I was in Busseto plans were floundering. Italy's recent economic problems mean there's no money to mount a suitable production in October. At the moment it sounds as if only Wagner will be making a big noise in 2013. Where to stay in Busseto Hotel Ristorante Bar Bistrot Sole, Piazza Giacomo Matteotti 10; +39 (0) 524  930 011; rooms from €90 ($120) Agriturismo Il Bosso, Via Traversante Passera 1,  Busseto; +39 (0) 338 5967 038; rooms from €60 ($80) Where to eat in Busseto Trattoria Verdi, Viale Pallavicino, 21; +39 (0) 524 91610/91352; modern bar/trattoria Cafè Pizzosteria Palazzo Orlandi, Via Roma, 60; +39 (0 )524 91523; snack bar beneath palazzo where Verdi lived Ristorante La Casa Nuova, 59 v. Consolatico Superiore; +39 (0) 524 97817; rural fare Salumeria Sapori Della Bassa Di Belli Maria Cristin, Via Balestra 2; +39 (0) 524 931133; delicatessen near church where Verdi was married Salsamenteria Storica Verdiana Baratta, Via Roma 76;  +39 (0) 524 91066; Verdi-themed delicatessen Tags:  italy tourism art festival

Does 'voluntourism' do more harm than good? Posted: 30 Jul 2013 03:00 PM PDT Orphan-huggers create a market for orphans; well-builders take work from locals; and other things ethical travelers should know A leading ethical travel company has removed all volunteering trips to orphanages from its site, citing concerns that "volunteers are fueling the demand for orphans." We wrote about this topic in 2011 -- here's the piece again, let us know what you think in the comments. Whether it's spending time at an orphanage in Cambodia, or helping build houses in Haiti, ethical tourism, or voluntourism, seems pretty morally unambiguous.  What could possibly be wrong with helping the unfortunate?  This feels even more the case when we are personally involved in making the difference, rather than throwing coins in a collection tin thousands of kilometers away. The result has been a boom in tour companies offering voluntourism opportunities in a wide range of destinations, catering to all levels of commitment.  Want to spend weeks building houses in Port-au-prince, or stop in and paint half a wall in a local school somewhere in Southeast Asia? Somewhere out there, a voluntourism outfit has you covered. And, like many chances to easily do good in the world, the reality is a lot more nuanced. In the case of orphanage tours to places like Siem Reap in Cambodia, the presence of wealthy foreigners wanting to play with parentless kids has actually had the perverse effect of creating a market for orphans in the town.  A system has emerged in which parents will rent their children out for the day to play with gullible backpackers, creating fraudulent orphanages in response to visitors' demand for them. Further, many voluntourism outfits that offer the chance to interact with children perform little to no screening of prospective applicants.  The voluntourism dollars of the pedophile are as indistinguishable as those of the legitimate well-wisher -- a poorly thought-out commercial relationship with terrible potential consequences to those being volunteered upon.  Are you really contributing? The difficulties of doing good abroad are not only limited to voluntourism programs that involve children. Even activities as banal as painting walls or building houses are fraught with ethical concerns.  Does the presence of volunteers really contribute to a community's wellbeing, or are outsiders simply doing work that could have helped local breadwinners earn a living?  Are building materials and technical skills sourced locally, to benefit merchants and artisans in the community, or are they simply shipped in from outside? If your intention as a volunteer is to do good, then these questions matter. They are also questions that, for the most part, a booming voluntourism industry happily ignores.  There are organizations who engage admirably with these issues and work to design properly reasoned volunteering engagements. Yet for the most part, the machinations of the free market have not been kind to ethical volunteering.  More on CNNGo: The price of volunteering in Thailand It's still far too easy to hug a third world orphan unchecked, to waste hundreds of dollars delivering presents or inefficiently trying to build houses and execute development plans in which the community being "developed" has been marginally consulted at best. The roots of much of this unethical behavior and wasteful attempts at doing good lie, in part, in the philosophies underlying many voluntourism organizations.  Anything is better than nothing ... isn't it? The desire of wealthy first-worlders to do good can be treated as a demand for which volunteerism products can be supplied, and that some minor good -- a painted wall or a child smiling for a day -- is better than no good at all. This first view -- that development needs can be packaged as a tour opportunity and sold for profit -- augurs a race to the bottom in ethical behavior.  Volunteer opportunities need to be as convenient (read: short-lived), and emotionally rewarding to the volunteers (read: customers) as possible.  It should come as no surprise then that voluntourism is rarely about the kinds of activities that professional development NGOs undertake. Flexible service projects that allow wealthy tourists to see the locals smile in exchange for minimal hard work are catnip for traveling narcissists. They are also a product that sells predictably well. Real development be damned. The second point of view often given in defense of a poorly conceived or exploitative voluntourism project is harder to unpick.  To claim that having volunteers engaging in inefficient and clumsy development projects is better than no such projects at all is an alluring point of view.  It also misrepresents the situation.  In the now cliché case of orphan-hugging, it's manifestly obvious that in many instances the absence of the voluntourism army would be a preferable situation.  Children can go back to their families instead of being pimped out as objects of affection, and are likely to emerge as psychologically healthier adults when not treated as an emotional plaything. In general, given a choice between spending money to go abroad and engage in a project with a local community for a few weeks, or donating the same amount to an established development organization already present in the area, it should be obvious that staying at home and sending your money instead will almost always be more helpful. Awareness is raised That said, the experience of volunteering is not a one-way street entirely focused on the experience of the recipients to the exclusion of all else.  In the process of volunteering, the privileged first-worlder is also being helped -- albeit in a less obvious way -- towards understanding in very personal terms the lives of the less privileged with whom they share the planet. It's difficult to measure the value of this first-hand understanding against the wish to help needy communities as efficiently as possible.  Yet opening the eyes of those of us wealthy enough to afford the luxury of travel to the realities of inequality is a necessary first step if longer-term solutions to poverty, housing and food insecurity are to ever be found.  And nothing can bring home the emotional reality of these challenges quite as well as engaging with them for yourself. There can be no easy decisions when attempting to weigh up how to voluntour, where to voluntour, or whether to voluntour at all.  Nevertheless, there is a world of difference between ill-considered decisions taken for the purpose of stroking a traveler's ego, and subjective decisions to volunteer after properly considering as much of the moral and practical detail of your engagement as possible.  Voluntourism will likely always remain a compromised industry, but that need not necessarily compromise your decisions as a traveler hoping to do good. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Richard Stupart. Tags:  Tell me about it

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Cycling gets chic: Rise of London's pedal culture Posted: 26 Jul 2013 10:33 AM PDT The British capital may not be Amsterdam or Copenhagen but it's becoming a great -- and fashionable -- place to explore by bike Ride a bike in London and it'll change your view of the city forever. As more cyclists clamber on, the city's cycle culture is developing, underpinned by a packed calendar of cycling events, an evolving breed of cycle cafes and a government with £1 billion ($1.54 billion) to spend on making London a bicycle city on par with Europe's best. The number of cyclists in London has doubled in the past 10 years, according to the London Cycling Campaign. Yet when you compare the British capital with, say, Amsterdam or Copenhagen, where strict laws preserving cyclists' rights have created near-utopian bicycling cities, London still feels like a car town. That could change, however, with Transport for London's recent announcement of a £1 billion investment in cycle lanes and cycle safety. From proliferating cycle cafes to themed rides and protected cycle lanes, London is showing all the signs of being on the verge of a "velorution" -- to borrow the name of a particularly trendy London cycle store. Cycle cafes Get pumped up on caffeine and air at a cycle cafe. London cyclists get together at cycle cafes -- neighborhood haunts where camaraderie is built over common denominators of cycling and caffeine. Lock 7 (129 Pritchard's Rd, E2 9AP; +44 (0)207 739 3042), in Hackney, was one of the first London cycle cafes. Sprouting up more recently in other London neighborhoods are Look Mum No Hands (49 Old St, EC1V 9HX; +44 (0)207 253 1025), Rapha Cycle Club (81 Brewer St, W1F 0RH; +44 (0)20 7494 9831) and Micycle (47 Barnsbury St, N1 1PT; +44 (0)207 7684 0671). Lesson for cycling travelers: Now you can watch mechanics retuning your bike while you refuel with an espresso or two. Cycle chic Increasingly, you have to own a bike to be fashionable in London.Some cyclists don't care a fig for fashion and opt for form-fitting lycra that just lets them go as fast as possible. But in fashion-conscious London, it's no surprise that dedicated cycle style brands -- such as Nonusual and Cyclodelic --- have popped up selling cycling apparel that looks as good as it functions. London Cycle Chic is a style blog and online shop that launched to sell better-looking helmets to the growing number of women cyclists. It has expanded to sell panniers, lights and other good-looking cycling accessories. "A big cycling culture has developed [in London]," says the blog's founder Caz Nicklin "It's become a lifestyle statement, and perhaps nowadays a fashionable cycling outfit is part of that personal expression." Velo-City-Girl is another cycle style blog that captures this zeitgeist with a travelog of founder Jools Walker's cycling adventures around London, complemented with photos and reviews of the latest gear. Even the mainstream fashion house H&M has a cyclist fashion line, designed in collaboration with East London's Brick Lane Bikes (118 Bethnal Green Road; + 44 (0)207 033 9053). The outfits combine streamlined practicality with a look suiting the (mean) streets of London: water-repellent jackets, vintage bike caps and jeans with rollable cuffs. Lesson for cycling travelers:  Whether you opt for the fashionable or functional look in London, fellow cyclists will be checking you out. Themed rides Retro cycling isn't just for tweedy chaps; tweedy women can join in, too. Jacquie Shannon's themed cycle rides were born of trawling the London Fixed Gear and Single Speed Forum for cyclists who shared her passions for cycling and London architecture. As a result, she says, she organized cycle routes that sought out "really great architecture" in the city -- from which the Tweed Run evolved in 2009. Now 500 cyclists get together every April with just one rule: dress in tweed. Critical Mass is another example of cycling with a cause: an unofficial meet on the last Friday of every month, when hundreds of cyclists travel en masse to raise awareness of cyclists amongst motorists. Lesson for cycling travelers: You can go online to find meets with like-minded cyclists before you hit the city. Alternatively, just follow someone on two wheels who looks interesting. Who knows where you'll end up? Cycling consciousness is rising The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, launched a city-wide cycle hire scheme in 2010 -- borrowing partly from Paris's widely imitated Vélib' scheme -- to integrate cycling into the city's transport.  Nicknamed Boris bikes, the distinctive, chunky blue vehicles have substantially increased the number of cycle journeys in London, but they've also had a more viral effect: raising awareness, particularly among motorists, of cyclists. "Having 20 or 30 official city bikes [in traffic] every two or three hundred meters makes cycling very visible," says Mike Cavenatt, of the longstanding London Cycling Campaign. Lesson for cycling travelers: London's a big, traffic-heavy city but increasingly you can cycle without fear. Pump-funding £1bn ... that's a lot of cycle lanes, even in pricey London.But the best news for London cycling in years is the government's announcement of £1 billion funding to improve the city's cycling infrastructure. Plans include physical segregation between cyclists and motorists on high-traffic roads, adding two-way cycle lanes to one way streets and -- crucially, for a place where bike theft is endemic -- adding secure cycle parking to transport hubs so that commuters can cycle instead of drive to their next bus, train or Tube.  More of the city's well known "cycle superhighways" -- dedicated lanes on fast-moving motorways -- are planned that will allow cyclists to make long journeys across the city more quickly and safely. Lesson for cycling travelers: London may not quite resemble those bike nirvanas Amsterdam or Copenhagen yet but the future looks bright. Tags:  bicycle bicycle journey bicycle trips fixed-gear bicycles London

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Hong Kong's art museum aims to rival Tate and MoMA Posted: 26 Jul 2013 03:00 PM PDT Big vision and big bucks -- $642 million worth -- hope to tilt the world art scene toward Asia A city once stuck in artistic backwaters, Hong Kong is about to get a cultural boost. M+, a contemporary art and visual culture museum, will open its doors in 2017. The $642 million government-backed project hopes to rival London's Tate Modern and New York's Museum of Modern Art. Paul McCarthy's "Complex Pile" offered a tongue-in-cheek look at the kind of contemporary art M+ might house. Hong Kongers flocked to see the inflatable sculpture at a temporary exhibit. Earlier this summer, M+ christened its home at the edge of Victoria Harbor with six giant inflatable sculptures. Approximately 150,000 visitors flocked to view installations that resembled Stonehenge, a massive suckling pig and what artist Paul McCarthy politely named "Complex Pile." "To me, of course, it looks like a big pile of s---," M+ executive director Lars Nittve says of McCarthy's installation. "But at the same time, it raises a discussion about meaning -- where does meaning come from and what is my role in it as a viewer?" Nittve, who served as the founding director of the Tate Modern, remembers a similar conversation that took London by storm in the 1970s when the Tate paid £2,297 for Carl Andre's Equivalent VIII, a rectangular sculpture formed through 120 nondescript firebricks. While Nittve admits that there isn't much of a museum-going culture in Hong Kong, he doesn't think he'll have a problem finding an audience for contemporary art in this city of 7 million. "There is a great curiosity in the Hong Kong public," he says. "We are in a position where maybe New York was in the 1950s or where Los Angeles was in the 1970s, when their institutions were young and they were building audiences. There's great promise out there." Where the art comes from M+'s promise owes no small part to Swiss businessman Dr. Uli Sigg, who donated 1,463 Chinese contemporary pieces and sold another 47 to the museum last year. The collection, which includes dozens of pieces by Ai Wei Wei, charts the development of Chinese art from the Cultural Revolution to the 21st Century. M+ executive director Lars Nittve hopes the museum will rival London's Tate Modern and New York's Museum of Modern Art. Dr. Sigg always hoped that his collection would find a permanent home on Chinese soil. However, censorship rules that prevent artists from depicting their political leaders or sexually explicit content prevented some pieces from being publically displayed in the mainland, according to Dr. Pi Li, the senior curator of Chinese contemporary art at M+ who will be managing the collection. Hong Kong's status as a semiautonomous region that values free speech makes it a safer location for these works. The fact that the city is the number one destination for mainland Chinese tourists also means that this collection will reach a large Chinese audience. "Just like they will cross the border to protest, they will cross the border to see the art," Li says. Indeed, Eli Klein, who owns a SoHo art gallery that focuses on Chinese contemporary art, has seen no shortage of interest in Chinese art in recent years, despite the global recession. While Klein primarily deals with European and American clients, he says much of the market is increasingly driven by mainland Chinese collectors and auction houses. Although Hong Kong isn't likely to match New York's status as a major art buying city any time soon, "M+ will bring to Hong Kong the cache that's needed to support it has a cultural hub," he says. Shifting Hong Kong's art scene While it's unclear whether M+ will fulfill its lofty goals of transforming the Asian art world, it's guaranteed to shift its Hong Kong's landscape. Earlier this month, the museum selected a design by Pritzker Prize-winning architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. The pair is best known for transforming part of an old power station into the Tate Modern and for working with Ai Wei Wei on the Bird's Nest in Beijing. Proposed view of M+ from Hong Kong Island. The M+ is the white "inverted T" building at the water's edge. M+ will be housed in an inverted T-shape building at the edge of a 35-acre park. In addition to traditional gallery spaces, the building will contain screening rooms, lecture halls and a sky garden. Although M+ may risk being shrouded by Hong Kong's tallest building, the 118-story International Commerce Center, it hopes to rival neon advertisements that crown the city's skyline. The building's south end will be fitted with solar-powered LED bands that might transform the building into a giant billboard. "It will be interesting for artists and curators to use this," says Ascan Mergenthaler, senior partner at Herzog & de Meuron. "We will be using a similar language for very different content. It could be very subversive." Tags:  Hong Kong art art museums

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QT Sydney: the hottest, hippest historic hotel in town Posted: 25 Jul 2013 10:27 PM PDT The story behind the boldest boutique hotel to hit Sydney in over a decade With red-wigged, black leather-clad "Directors of Chaos" ushering in guests at the entrance, theatricality is a tenet of QT Sydney, the most audacious hotel to arrive in the city in a decade. The much-hyped experience starts as soon as you step into the lobby, which feels like a cool art cinema foyer -- complete with vintage movie posters, primary colors and a carefully compiled soundtrack. The place is sexy. There's no doubt about that. But before you settle into your room and mix yourself the hotel's signature espresso Martini with the Belvedere vodka and Patrón XO Cafe tequila beckoning from your welcome tray, you might want to take some time to study the hotel's hallowed heritage. Don't get this confused with the local cinema. Seventeen months and $65 million Amalgamated Holdings Limited, the parent company of Greater Union and Event cinemas as well as the Rydges Hotels & Resorts, is the powerhouse behind the QT Sydney vision -- fitting, given the hotel's theatrical bent. The project, which opened late last year, was huge. QT Sydney took 17 months to develop with a price tag of approximately AU$70 million (US$65 million). It unites two heritage-listed lights of the CBD's golden age -- the State Theatre property's shopping and office complex (designed by leading theater architect Henry E. White and built in 1929-1930) and the Gowings Building (conceived by well-known retail architect Crawford H. Mackellar and completed in 1929), home to a famous men's department store. More on CNN: How to see the best of Sydney in a week State Level suite -- hope you like brown. Choosing sides Some of the most impressive and moodiest rooms are in the State Theatre section -- the property's most luxurious suites are on level 10, with original veneer paneling and an illustrious corporate history. AHL's senior management's offices and main boardroom were housed here, and the original fireplace, timber cabinets and decorative plaster ceilings still exist within suite 1022. The Gowings section's contemporary loft appeal has light-filled corner suites, with wooden floorboards and great views to the Queen Victoria Building, another Sydney icon. So much more than just a bath and a room. Devilish details At the end of the hallway on each floor of the Gowings Building one of the property's former doors has been hung, going nowhere. The old doors were not adequately fire safe by modern day building laws. But they are sill heritage listed, with their compliance plates on display, as required by the council. The new fireproof timber (Queensland maple) doors to all Gowings' guest rooms mimic the appearance and weight of the imposing originals. The State Theatre wing was Australia's first multi-level shopping mall and the exceptionally wide corridors reflect this promenading past. Period urinals, marble partitions and timber doors can be found in bathrooms on the State Theatre Lobby Level 1 northeast corner and were installed 1929. This bathroom has been recreated using original fittings and fixtures sourced from numerous bathrooms previously located throughout the building.  The gargoyles of the State Theatre building exterior were removed during World War II because of the concern that Sydney would be bombed. The statues were placed in storage and nobody's seen them since. The modern-day recreations -- interpretations from archival images -- are best seen from the suites on the Market Street side of State Level 10. There's something a bit too Addams family about this ... Art all about QT Sydney is one of the city's few art hotels with its own curator, Amanda Love. Fabio Ongarato-designed hand statues clasp the hotel room numbers in the State Theatre wing; larger hi-tech diversions can be seen in public thoroughfares. There's also cutting edge Australian and international video art, such as the Grant Stevens (Brisbane) installation at the entrance of Gowings Bar & Grill. Shelley Indyk, designer of the hotel's rooms and suites, along with consultants ARTDUO, chose the work of contemporary artists Richard Blackwell (Canberra) and Sydney's own Morgan Shimeld for rooms. Blackwell produced illusion themed pieces, while Shimeld created the steel wall sculptures. Gobble down at Gowings. Cut-throat cool There is a spa level to the State Theatre wing, where the original tiled Gowings empire barbershop has been conserved but now operates as two spa treatment rooms in spaQ. The new barbershop has a resolutely old school esthetic, with a young shaveologist working with the setting's natural light, in a location that has seen a changing roster of retail tenants over the years. In terms of dining, the Gowings Bar & Grill is an expansive dining space in the former Gowings site, with a generous, meat-loving menu and macho open kitchen. If you've had too much foodie largesse for one evening, you could always head back to your room for a lollipop, a cheeky side-kick to the mini bar's "intimacy kit." 49 Market St.; +61 2 8262 0000; US$433 per night; www.qtsydney.com.au More on CNN: Sydney hotels: 7 stays for 7 types of travelers Tags:  sydney hotels boutique hotels historic boutique hotels

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Gallery: Why you've never seen a dive site like Sipadan Posted: 23 Jul 2013 03:00 PM PDT With more than 3,000 species of fish and a 600-meter wall, this protected Malaysian island is a scuba diver's dream For hardcore divers, the number of sites capable of inspiring that rare one-in-a-lifetime thrill is fast shrinking. Overfishing, pollution, coral bleaching and seabed dredging have all contributed to the slow ruin of many of what were once the world's top dive destinations. Near the top of the list of remaining global greats is Malaysia's Sipadan Island. A contender on any dive publication's list of the "world's best dives," Sipadan lies 35 kilometers off the coast of Sabah, in Malaysian Borneo. "Sipadan is the stuff of divers' dreams, where you see turtles, sharks, barracuda, huge schools of jacks and many more, not just fleetingly but in your face all the time," says Asia-based scuba journalist and author Chris Mitchell.  More on CNN: World's 50 best dive sites Steve White, editor in chief of adventure travel magazine Action Asia, agrees that it's deserving of its rep as one of the top dives on the planet.  "The coral and fish diversity in Asia far outstrips that of the Caribbean," he says.  "The steep drop-offs mean that you get to combine the sights of a bustling tropical reef with blue-water pelagics on the same dive." In other words, divers get the best of both aquatic worlds.      Sipadan's rocky recent history The sites below the surface might be the stuff of scuba dreams, but Sipadan's real fame comes from a less-than paradisiacal period filled with courthouse battles and armed struggles.  First there was the hostage crisis of 2000. Abu Sayaff, a Filipino Islamic separatist group, kidnapped 21 people from the island. The hostages -- 10 tourists and 11 resort workers -- were taken to a camp on the southern Philippine island of Jolo.  In an effort to preserve the island's pristine state, only 120 divers per day are issued permits to visit Sipadan. Over the following months they were released, allegedly after ransoms of up to $1 million per hostage were paid to the kidnappers. In 2002, following an intense territorial dispute between Malaysia and Indonesia, the International Court of Justice ruled that Sipadan is Malaysian.   Few could deny Malaysia's fight for rights was at least partially motivated by the tourism value that comes from having ownership of such a rare island. In order to protect Sipadan's fragile ecosystem, in 2004 the Malaysian government ordered all dive resorts off the island, banned night dives and set a limit of 120 divers per day. Regardless, the divers kept coming. More on CNN: 7 of Thailand's incredible underwater sights Even Monsieur Cousteau was impressed "There was some cynicism about the government moves at first -- especially when that barge sunk on the reef [in 2006] -- but banning resorts and instituting a permit system were necessary steps and appear to be working reasonably well," says White of Action Asia. "Operators are respecting the limits, helped by the fact that there are many other good dive sites within reach, so not getting a permit one day doesn't mean you don't dive at all. Pressured dive sites elsewhere should look at the model." "Usually you'd be lucky to see a turtle once in a weeklong dive trip," says scuba diving writer Chris Mitchell. "At Sipadan you're almost pushing them away." Today, Sipadan seems to have a handle on its preservation, as the surrounding waters continue to teem with life. "Jacques Cousteau raved about Sipadan when he first dived it [in 1989] and he was a hard man to impress," says Mitchell. "If you can imagine being the only people on this tiny island, camping on the beach and then wading into the gin-clear waters to see a smorgasbord of underwater life, you can understand why he would have been so thrilled."  Despite its burgeoning popularity these days, Mitchell says Sipadan's abundance has been preserved.  That said, local rangers need to remain vigilant and equipped with proper gear to track and intercept potential dangers to the island. "As with everywhere else in Asia, governments need to invest more in careful monitoring of reef health, fund scientific research and come down hard on overfishing." More on CNN: 10 best dive sites in Asia Quick facts In East Malaysia, Sipadan is the country's only oceanic island. This means it rises from the deep-sea floor, unlike a continental island, which is an unsubmerged part of the continental shelf.    According to Sabah tourism officials, Sipadan was formed by living corals growing on top of an extinct undersea volcano that rises 600 meters from the seabed. The Sipadan Water Village Resort has 42 cottages built over the shallow reef of Mabul Island. For divers, this is the main attraction -- a 600-meter wall dive just 15 meters from the shore that looks off into the deep blue.   Sipadan's waters are home to a reported 3,000 species of fish, hundreds of species of coral, an abundance of rays and sharks and large populations of green and hawksbill turtles.  There are 12 dive sites off Sipadan Island -- the most popular are Barracuda Point, Turtle Cavern, South Point and Hanging Gardens.  The island is open for divers from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. -- no night dives allowed. The number of divers allowed to access Sipadan has been limited to 120 per day in an effort to preserve the island's pristine state. Sipadan is an ideal dive destination year-round, though most dive operators in the area say the best months to visit are April to December.  "Scouring forums like ScubaBoard.com can be invaluable in finding the best times of year to avoid the crowds at Sipadan," says Mitchell.  Where to stay Divers aren't allowed to stay on Sipadan Island itself, but they can stay closeby at over-water resorts or nearby islands. Visitors are recommended to book dives through resort operators well in advance to ensure they secure a permit.  Top options include: Sipadan Kapalai Dive Resort, built on stilts over the water; Sipadan Pom Pom Resort; and Sipadan Water Village Resort on Mabul Island. More on CNN: 10 best islands for a Malaysia holiday Getting there From Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur, fly to Sabah capital Kota Kinbalu. Flight time is about two and a half hours.  Then take a 55-minute flight from Kota Kinbalu to the town of Tawau. An hour's drive gets you to the even smaller township of Semporna, where you can catch a speedboat for the 40-minute ride to Sipadan. For more info, check out Sabahtourism.com. Have you ever visited Sipadan? Share your experiences in the box below. CNN Travel's series often carries sponsorship originating from the countries and regions we profile. However, CNN retains full editorial control over all of its reports. Read the policy.

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