Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Love & Travel - Sipadan, Mabul, Sabah

It has took quite sometimes for me to updated my blog as I was too lazy to upload the pictures.=)

Anyway, let's get it start!

This was one of my long awaited trip in this year. Have been planned this trip since a year a go. Just for your information, due to the limited rooms in the island (Mabul island and Kapalai Island), you are advised to book your package at least 6months before your arrival date. And for me myself, i have been do the research online and liaise with my agent since a year ago. And finally, the 6days 5 nights journey begin from here.....

*Not forgotten to bring the hat that I bought from Bali.
Day 1: Miri - KK (45mins Flight)

Accommodation: The Crown Borneo Hotel.(Booked through Agoda.com)
 *Click Tripadvisor for reviews posted by Me & others room guests

Price (Per Night): RM130+- inclusive of breakfast for 2, Room with Wifi.
**Airport Pick up by FREE airport shuttle provided by The Crown Borneo Hotel.
+ Clean room with awesome glass bathroom design & room lighting.
- Small room, no elevator available.

15mins-20mins walk from The Crown Borneo hotel to Tanjung Aru Beach.

Bought a fresh cup corn and
Steamed Peanuts
See children playing happily on the beach.

Having our dinner at Stalk No.7













and  a Must Try drink

Jumbo Mango Juice at RM8.00. Enough for 2persons
Yummy BBQ Wings
and Tomyam!

On the way walk back to the hotel, we dropped by
It's a nice place for family recreation and a very excellent place to jog with a very comfortable jogging track while enjoying the relaxing music playing around the park.
The show begin every half and hour, start from 7.30pm
Children Playground

Day 2: KK- Tawau (50mins) - Semporna (45mins) - Mabul (60mins)!
Leave the hotel in the early morning without breakfast (Although the hotel package was included of breakfast for 2 persons, but the breakfast serve from 7:00am onwards)

Waiting for the flight at Domestic Boarding room

Flying above the cloud and saw Mt. Kinabalu on the left side.

Landed at Tawau airport








Once you have stepped out from the arrival hall, you can see a lot of people holding their guest's name waiting outside the hall.

We were welcomed by the S.M.A.R.T 's crew and headed us to the van that will picked us up from Tawau to Semporna. Besides than us, there are 1 family that if I'm not mistaken, they are came from Georgina, Canada.




The weather is not ok upon arrival. Raining all the way to Semporna.

Arrived at Semporna jetty.
and on shore via boat transfer for about 60mins-75mins due to the bad weather.

Arrived at SMART resort. Short briefing before they distribute and headed us to the hotel room. SMART is the biggest resort on Mabul Island. Besides, SMART, there are a lot other resort as well. Such as Scuba Junkie, Uncle Chang, and Mabul Water Village. Normally, the package are almost the same, which is started from the transfer from Tawau to Mabul, meals, and dive boat transfer.
Our Room No. 152. Spacious and comfortable. Equipped with hot and cold water in the bath room, air con, ceiling fan, safety cash box, and mini refrigerator...
private balcony
and mosquito repellent  as well! =)



This is the view in front of our room
It's raining day and nothing much we can do...so we decided to have a walk around the resort
at SMART, there are 3 options of room available. One is Semi D with shared balcony, another one is Stand Alone onshore Bungalow, and the third one is Water Bungalow. Obviously, the Water bungalow are among the most expensive among the others.  
From water Bungalow, you can found the Mabul Water Village resort is just next to it and another platform based hotel known as
Seventures Diver Platform

For your information, all daily entry to dive or visit to Sipadan Island will be subject to approval by the Sabah Parks Management, so you are only been informed for the permit approval status a day before your arrival. The total number of divers or visitors allowed to visit Sipadan island is restricted now to 120 pax per day. The permit cost RM40 per pax for a non diver if it is apply through own resort or additional RM 70 is needed if the permit is apply and bought from the other resort.  Normally people who stayed 5days and above will get a better chance to go. But some even need to stay more than a week just to get a dive permit to Sipadan.
 and we are damn surprise when saw our name wrote on the notice board during the lunch time!! Yuhoo!! Can't wait for it!

taken in front of the bar at SMART






The dining hall.

Day 3: Mabul- Sipadan (30mins boat transfer)

We are suppose to follow the diving team to Sipadan on 5.30am. But due to my laziness, we decided to change the schedule and follow the lunch boat to Sipadan.

So, we went for snorkeling around Mabul Island in the morning.

Together with another 3 divers, we headed to the mid of Mabul Island.  Due to the heavy rain last night, we can found a lot of small jelly fish under the seas. The water was quite cold and the current was quite strong which caused me to vomit for twice after the snorkeling trip..EEuuu~~

Next, we follow the lunch boat and headed to SipadanCarribean oceans, Indonesia and etc just for diving.

Anyway, I didn't do any snorkeling at Sipadan due to the minor vomiting that i have on this morning. But Kevin did! They saw barracuda, Jack fish, baby shark and Turtle! and me too! I can use turtle swimming underneath the boat too!













































Reached the shore around 4pm. Have a short break and we started our journey again.


















But before that, went to the Equipment Rental Shop to return the shark fin,google and the life jacket.

I have read some reviews wrote by the other visitor and found that they claim the rental at Mabul is more expensive than the other places. Well, i have no idea if that is true or not. But for all the equipment that i have rented, it cost me for about RM40 per day.


Majority of the villager are working at the nearby resort, while the rest are fisherman.





















While we are on our way to the village, we met a girl from Shang Hai. She has went to snorkeling at west Malaysia, and Philippine, before she came to Mabul. She invited us to join her to Uncle Chang's resort for a live band performance.


















The guest room at Uncle Chang. Usually, backpackers will like the environment over here, but not for me. I found it quite unsafe as there are no handle along the bridge. And the condition of the room doesn't suit me. =(

Anyway, I like the balcony.

























And the lazy chair facing to the sea. A great place to wait for the sunset.




















Went back to the Jetty's bar at SMART. The water was so calm.


















And the Dinner of the day is BBQ!!


















All the staff at here are very friendly and cheerful. Every night during the dinner time, the owner of the resort and the Dive master will walk around and chit chat with their guest. They even remembered what is your name and which room are you! They really try hard to makes their guest feel like it's second home for them =)

Day 4: Mabul Own Leisure

This is the last day at Mabul as we gonna leave by tomorrow morning.No snorkeling trip today as we decided to walk around and visit the nearby villages. Besides, we have paid for such a HUGE amount of money (at least for me, it is a bit expensive la..) for this trip, so we decided to fully utilized the facilities in this resort.haha!

Swimming pool and jacuzzi are available in this resort. Sea Kayak is available for rent as well. Besides, there are basketball court and volleyball court as well. Normally, the staff will mixed around with the guest and have a match in the evening.

1 of the thing that I like to stay at here is you are needless to bring you purse and wallet all along the way. It's very convenience to purchase anything in the resort. All you have to do is get the stuff that you want, bring it to the counter, tell them you are from which room, and carry your things back with you, that's it! They will automatically charge it under your bill and you are only need to pay it at once before you check out. Isn't it convenience?

And one of our mission for this trip is to shoot the local children playing on the boat! and yes! we did it! XD..























Watch out for those kids! They climb up to the deck and begging money from the people! It's been advised not to give any money to those children but it's ok to give them small souvenir such as caps or t-shirt for them. This is to avoid it's become a norm to them to begging money from people.








Another Dinning Hall Located at the Water Bungalow























Aww...Sexy lady

I like to lay at here..looking to the sea view


















And have a coke will be nice too (RM4.00 each)


















Feel the breeze

and saw an old man with children























in the hot and sunny afternoon. Poor...but no choice, that's the routine of their life.

















Saw the staff were busy decorating a table for 2 by the beach...Wondering who is that lucky couple..Hmmm....

































One of my favourite shoot for this trip...

Walking back to our room. We decided to take a look who are the lucky couple of the night...but disappointingly that the dinner is not start yet. So, headed to the room to take bath and ready for dinner.

On our way back to our room, we stopped by a staff called "Lang Lang". "Helen, your dinner will be serve on the beach tonight =)"... Kevin and I were very surprise. Kevin thought it was a birthday surprise that i planned for him, and i thought it is the anniversary surprise that Kevin set up for me..

Later, Lang Lang told us, it's actually arranged by our lovely agent Ms.Serena Vun who planned it. How sweat she is...=) Appreciated it very much.























The night is abit windy, but we enjoy it very much.

Day 5: Mabul-Tawau-KK

Today is our last day at Mabul.


















Having the last breakfast at Mabul

















Souvenir given by Patrick, the dive master






















The shade in front of our room. I'm gonna miss it soon


















The exterior of the dining hall


















The only doggy on the beach-Yellow

















Perhaps i should come back around May next time to see the turtle lay eggs

















Er..So far I only saw 1 Sting ray somewhere under the water bungalow.


















I love to lay at here so much!

















Finally, have to wave goodbye to all the staff. Thanks for the staff for their kind hospitality, thanks LangLang and Serena for the special dinner arrangement, Thanks to Neneng, Patrick and other Dive Master for guiding us to have a safe and enjoyable trip, Thanks to my dear new friends that i have met at here too!!It's a fate brought us here together!

Bye Bye Mabul


















I'm gonna miss all the memories that I have at here.






















On the way transfer back to Tawau Airport and saw this sign in the van. Yeah, Say No to shark fin!
And this definetely will be our next destination after we got the PADI cert soon!


















Souvenier from SMART resort

Day 6: KK- Miri

















Flying back to Miri.. Buhbye Mabul!!We will be back soon! Thanks SMART & Asia Vacation for giving us an unforgettable trips at Mabul!


EndNote: Mabul, Kapalai, and Sipadan is a Must Go destination for those who loves diving. For those who plan to go Mabul, you may book your package via serena@sipadandivingvacation.com and attention to Ms. Serena Vun. She will be more than happy to assist you =)














2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi, i will pay a visit to mabul on this coming july, but yet to book any hotel... can i know the price u book for the hotel ..?? n ur looking for an agent rite??can i know the total price u used up during the trip??? thankss~

ChewyinC™ said...

Hi Shu Ying. Yeah,I have booked the hotel from an agent. The cost is roughly around RM2500++ for per pax including breakfast,lunch, and dinner.. They also have water bungalow and stand alone chalet available but with a more expensive prices. By the way, you might need to rent the snorkeling gears or diving equipments if you don't have one. I can't really remember the price for the snorkeling gear, but it's around RM30 for the fin and mask.=) hope this can help u ya.Enjoy!