Sipadan Mabul Resort Semporna

The resort is split into mainland bungalows and water bungalows. We were on the mainland and at first we were disappointed but I think we might have got lucky as it’s quieter, although without the terrace over the sea and less floral than the water bungalows. The actual accommodation is about the same, comfortable but not luxurious and pretty shoddily built. Our outdoor bathroom had a patchwork of grubby insect netting over it l, broken tiles and sealant spilling out from under the floor tiles. There is wifi in theory but it almost never worked, either in our room or up at the main building. The staff are super friendly and helpful, both in the resort and at the dive centre. The dive guides were great but the diving is all sandy/silty bottomed with poor visibility. We went to Sipadan for one day (two dives) and the diving there is incredible, clear beautiful reef, sharks everywhere plus loads of other things to see, but it’s £80 per head on top of your dive package for 2 dives. If we’d wanted to go for a second day it would have been £130 per head so we saved our money. The main gripe with the resort is the food and drink which is truly terrible. A buffet every day, lunch and dinner, very little variety and awful quality. There’s a coffee machine which operates at breakfast only. Outside of that you can only get Nescafé. “Juice” is powdered squash. And there are no knives put out ( although they are available if you ask) so I saw people trying to butter toast and eat eggs on toast with a spoon. Thank god I like watermelon or I might have starved. There’s a bar by the dive centre where you can get a beer. There’s a cocktail menu but they don’t have the ingredients to make them and the glasses are all tiny, so they end up very overpriced and nasty. We took to walking along the beach to the Scuba Junkies resort where the bar is much more reasonably priced and their wifi worked.

It is the first time I visited Sipadan. Having heard so many great diving reviews about the place and with a high price tag, my hopes were high. Stayed for 7 nights in the water bungalow. Park permit: Alert to those going to Sipadan, they had applied new rules to the place. First, starting from 2023, only 2 dives per day pass. Second, the price of the pass has shot up enormalously! The 1st day pass cost 140 RYM. 2nd or 3rd one will cost 540 RYM! These are the price of the entry pass to Sipdadan island, not including the cost of your dive Resort: Took really long to get there if you arrive from kuala lumpur. Domestic flight to Tawau, 1.5-2 hour bus to Sempourna, then 1 hour jetty to get to the island. If you are diving in Sipadan, will take 30 minutes jetty before arriving. This place was flooded with day visitors (mostly locals), like 60-100 per day. So if you are looking for something quiet, definitely not your choice. Water bungalow: my room faced outwards to the sea giving me great view every morning and during my afternoon nap. The room was equipped with TV, safe, air con, hair dryer. The water pressure of the bath was low but i guess can't expect too much on an island. The bed was comfortable. The balcony outside the bungalow offers great view and one can relax on the sunbed and shaded area. Satisfied with the room in general. Food: ***REALLY BAD! Served in a buffet style with really long lines as there were only limited choice of food. 1 pan of fried stuff (fries/fried wanton/ spring roll), 1 grilled fish (usually overcooked), 2 BBQ protein (either sausages, lamb, chicken), 6 hot dishes (4 protein, 2 veg), rice and soup. The hot dishes kept repeating themselves: chewy stir fried beef, chicken nuggets in different sauce, tofu (which went sour), overcooked bak choy, beans, cooked frozen prawns. Not only are the choices being limited, as there were crowds of people, they ran out early too. The rice was mushy and the chicken winter melon soup was kind of artificial in taste. This was the menu for dinner, lunch was even worse with only 2-3 hot dishes, cooked spagetti and rice. The coffee machine only worked in breakfast. For cakes, they were dry and tasted buttery irrespective of the colour or intentional flavour. Other times, you can only have instant coffee or sweet drinks. Given a long stay there, the food has made it really difficult and I wish i had brought some food myself. If you are going on a diet and wish for some weight loss, this might be a solution. Staff: Really nice staff. I have reflected the food issue on-site and the staff has kindly fried some eggs for me. The Dive masters had been really helpful and nice as well. Everyone carried smiles around the resort. Dive: Mabul/ Kapalai: turtle, garden eel, lots of nudibranch, ghost pipefish, seahorse, frogfish, cuttlefish, lion fish, crocodile fish, scorpion fish, napoleon, eels, manta shrimp, lobster, box fish, blue spotted ray Sipadan: schools of barracuda, jackfish, bumphe