HoKC Images: Escape to Paradise

9th July

It's has been ages since my last proper vacation. For the past year, all my trips has been work related and sometimes if I'm lucky I can squeeze in a day of walk around. So I was pretty excited about this trip to Sipadan.

To get to Sipadan, you need to take a flight to Tawau and then transit by road to the coastal town of Semporna. The road trip took about 1 hour. The Semporna town itself is nothing to shout about as it's key role is as transit point for visitors going out to Sipadan, Mabul, Kapalai, Mataking and others. The Semporna coastline however is lined with Bajau ethnic houses on stilts by the jetty and around the town's mosque.

and being a coastal town, there are boats everywhere...

Our 1st stop was the Mabul island where we will spend the night. From a fishing island, Mabul was transformed into a tourist's stop over when all resorts on Sipadan was closed in order to preserve the island in a pristine state. What you get is an intresting mixture. Instead of a typical resort setting, you live among the locals in a converted homestay hostel.

An interesting sight as we approached Mabul was the Seaventures Dive Resort which was converted from an old accomodation barge to a dive resort, just off the north shore of Mabul. From far it looked like an used oil rig.

Our accommodation for the night. Twin sharing room powered by an electric fan that can only be turned on after 6pm to conserve electricity.

But then again, you don't come to Mabul for it's world class facilities. You come for these beautiful sunsets that you will never get in KL..

The next day, I woke up at 5am and have a walk around the island,hoping to get a glismpe of sunrise..

Some shots from the shore during the early hours..

Our activities for the day was a snorkeling trip to the Ligitan Reefs at Kapalai. The island of Kapalai is situated just 15mins off Sipadan. Next to our snorkeling spot is the Sipadan-Kapalai Dive Resort, built on the shallow sandbanks of the Ligitan Reefs.

Oblivious to the tourists and vistors, local boys paddle their boat for their fun under the sun..

For the 2nd night, we switch over to Singamata Resort as it just a quick 10 minute boat ride away from the Semporna town. We had to be at Semporna by 7am the next day for our trip to Sipadan so this was the most suitable place for us to spend the night. As a proper resort, it has much better facilities compared to the homestay in Mabul.

Surrounded by the open seas and sitting on top a large reef formations, you can just walk down the wooden platform and dive into the sea. It also has a lot of photo ops...

The most beautiful sunset I ever saw..

A new day...

The main course for this trip...Sipadan island. As one of the world’s best top dive destinations, Sipadan needs no further introduction amongst divers. Due to conservation reasons, the Sipadan Marine Park authority imposed a restriction of 120 visitors per day to the island. The island is literally a turtle and shark haven. Green turtles, hawksbill, white tipped sharks, reef sharks and black tip sharks seemed to appear everywhere a diver chooses to look! More than 3,000 species of fish and hundreds of coral genera can be found there, making it a most diverse and beautiful diving site.

Approaching the island..