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5-8 May 2005 Islands of Semporna - Sipadan, Mabul & Kapalai (4 days 3 nights)
This was a Company trip involving 21 adults and 4 children introduced by a staff who is a member of the Malaysia Nature Society.
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5-8 May 2005 Islands of Semporna - Sipadan, Mabul & Kapalai (4 days 3 nights)
This was a Company trip involving 21 adults and 4 children introduced by a staff who is a member of the Malaysia Nature Society.
Group at seaweed farm / Mabul Homestay
Day 1 KL to Semporna: There are two daily flights to Tawau. We opted for the 720am flight, which meant a very early morning trip to the airport. I had arranged for three local vans to ferry the group to the Dragon Inn. After lunch I took the group for walkabout in the Bajau village and the town market area. We later went on a boat ride in two local boats and visited a seaweed farm in the open seas. The group had free time afterwards. At night we grouped up and had local ikan bakar.
Day 2 Sipadan & Mabul Island: After breakfast, we left for Mabul Island 1hr and after putting away our things at the fisherman's village homestay, we headed for Sipadan Island, 20 minutes by speedboat. We snorkeled for a couple of hours along the famous Sipadan Wall, which is more suited for divers. We also lunched on the island which was in the midst of being "renovated". The previous six resorts on the islands were slowly being dismantled, following the government directive to keep the island free of resorts. We returned to Mabul Island in the late afternoon and spend the evening waiting for the sunset at one of the jetties.
Day 3 Kapalai Island and back to Semporna: After breakfast we went on to Kapalai Island, or more appropirately Kapalai Atoll, some 12 minutes away. There's only one small resort, which is built completely on stilts.. It has the best snorkeling site of all the three islands visited with abundance of marine life. I arranged rental of three sets of diving gear and the group went on "fun dives" accompanied by our boatmen, who are divers. We returned to Mabul Island for a late lunch. The rest of the day was spent walking about this small island, which can be circumvented in 30 minutes. We left Mabul at 4pm for the short 1 hour boat-ride to Semporna.
Day 4 Home: In the morning we made a second visit to the interesting market. We also basically relaxed in the floating accomodation until noon. We then went to Tawau town for lunch before going on to Tawau Hills. Unfortunately the waters were muddied because of heavy rains but a bunch of us decided to do the hour long trek to a waterfall. At the airport, one of our members fainted because of an alergic reaction to an insect bite he received at Tawau Hills. Fortunately he got to the doctors in time to contain the situation. Anyway the rest of the members flew home on schedule at 9pm.
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