Mabul Water Bungalows — Attraction in Sabah

We had a great time diving Mabul, Kapalai, and Sipadan Islands. The bungalows are located on Mabul, so each boat ride to dive sites is five minutes or so. Kapalai is a 10-minute boat ride.||Sipadan is a 30- to 45-minute ride and requires a permit, so be sure to book your dives there in advance. And since you'll only do two dives at Sipadan per day, consider getting a permit for two days and let your dive guide know that you want to visit different dive sites.||Our guide -- Neneng -- was very good at showing us marine life and getting us to the least-populated dive sites. Keep in mind, however, that there are MANY divers visiting these islands (through overnight accommodations and day-trippers), so expect to see lots of divers even when you're trying to avoid them.||The setup for divers is pretty good. Nitrox is available. The dive shop has storage space for each diver's gear and plenty of space for hanging gear to dry. They have a dedicated rinse tank for cameras. They have post-dive showers and towels. The boats were comfortable and provided shade, all more than enough for the relatively short boat rides.||Three things keep us from giving five stars to MWB. The first thing is that the location is an attraction for throngs of day-trippers who walk around the facility and pose for photographs; it was quiet at night. We stayed there for a week, and every day we had HUNDREDS of visitors all over the paths creating scenes for taking photographs. Lots of "influencers" making Tik-Tok videos. Many groups walking around with selfie sticks and recording themselves, oblivious to the rest of us trying to get from our rooms to the dive shop or dining room. We even had people more than once posing at the front door to our room and, when we tried to enter or get out, acted rather offended that we were interrupting their sessions. It was truly bizarre, but in the end it was not really an imposition on us. It was just odd being around so many people posing and photographing/recording themselves. It made Disneyland seem rather banal.||The second thing is that the food had a heavy Asian emphasis (not surprising given that you're in Asia), even when the kitchen is trying to accommodate American/European palates. For example, staff made custom omelettes for breakfast but the cooking oil (probably palm) did not sit well with most of the people in our group after a day or two; sauteed vegetables presented a similar issue; the margarine, peanut butter, and baked goods tasted like they too were made with palm oil. In addition, the protein options for those who don't eat red meat or seafood were limited and, at several dinners, non-existent. There was plenty of food, but not always enough in the categories that everyone would have liked or without the palm-oil taste and stomach effects.||The third thing is that we are experienced divers who've been to many great destinations. Except on days when we went to Sipadan, our first dive each day was on Kapalai. However, Kapalai did not offer great diving compared to the other two islands. In hindsight, we'd have made our dives on Mabul and...

The famous Mabul Water Bungalow no doubt is a very beautiful and well-maintained water resort in Sabah but the management has neglected on taking care of passengers’ safety on their daily operation of boat transfer. In my case, this happened yesterday 28 July 2022 via the “Smart” Boat with Number “SA-7457/5/P” departing the resort on 1.40pm (instead of 2pm as scheduled) and arrived at Semporna Jetty (near Seafest Hotel). We are a group of 4 in a family, were last went down to the boat and only found that we were not given the life jacket for the whole journey. The boatman in charged citing the reason that “Life jacket sudah habis dan lain sudah basah (no more life jacket and other life jacket was wet)”. Before we were able to ask them to borrow life jacket from the resort, the boat already speed of. As far as we understand, it is under the law that each passenger must be given a set of life jacket during the sea transport else it is against the law enforcement such as Merchant Shipping Ordinance (MSO) 1960, Police Act 1967 and Panel Code. Half way of the journey, heavy rain came with big waves and we had faced a horrible experience. But we were lucky and nothing serious happen yesterday, beside some of us have half wet body even though the boat was covered with tarpaulin canvas. Immediately arrived at the Semporna Jetty, a call was made to the resort office in Kota Kinabalu where the PIC Ms. Jenny has taken my call and mentioned she will check with the resort management to confirm the incident. After few hours later in the same evening, Jenny has called back and denied the incident. She mentioned investigation has carried out and the two boatmen confirmed no such incidents and there was enough life jacket in the boat. Clearly Jenny has failed to understand the theory of “if you asked a murderer whether he/ she has killed anyone, sure the murderer will say No!”. She even mentioned that the management can only act if there is any other witness come forward to them. If they are sincere enough and serious to investigate the case, they can surely make a call to other passengers to confirm the case. The purpose of me to make the complaint is for the benefit of all especially the tourist come all the ways to have holiday in the resort. We do not want anyone to pin point fingers when there are any unhappy incidents happened involved human life. It is too late by that time! This is not solely a complaint against the resort management but it is also for their own benefit to take note on the weaknesses and rectify it immediately. However, the management has failed to understand it, perhaps they know they have already violated against the law and worry of facing any possible law enforcement.

From Tan Kok Hong (Booking #...

Mabul water bungalows is a beautiful setting for pictures. The water bungalows are clean with big balconies to relax on. The toilets in the rooms barely have a flushing system & the toilets around the water bungalows are mostly squat toilets. The snorkel areas on the island & on the nearby islands that the boat & dive guides take you to, are below average. Extremely poor visibility in the water & the area that the dive guides took us to was full of jellyfish. No warning was given that this area was full of jellyfish & we were stung multiple times. The dive masters were not the slightest bit concerned that we were stung by jellyfish, & instead laughed at our concern about the vast amount of jellyfish in the area that we were swimming in. The guide who took us to the snorel area was fantastic and he made us feel safe & looked after, unfortunately I didn’t get his name. If you are going here for snorkeling, take your own snorkel mask. My friend intended to hire the snorkel mask & it was so disgusting, all chewed & not disinfected. When we asked if the masks were cleaned after use, the two ladies in the shop laughed at us & told us to wash it ourselves. The resort is overcrowded with Chinese people with horrendous eating habits. At meal time it is a fight among them to see who can pile their plate the highest with all the food. The food is aimed at a Chinese palette only. There’s no Malay, American or Western style food. The only positive is that we lost weight during our stay here. The food has no variety whatsoever & you have no hope if you are vegetarian. There is no where to eat outside of the restaurant & no where to order food if you feel hungry out-with meal times. There is no option for room service. On a leaflet for the island it states there is a fresh bakery for pastries & fresh pizzas, that is a complete lie, there is none of that. We felt ripped off as this accommodation is not good value for money at all, the price point is way too high for what it is. |They also expect you to tip everyone when really the owner who is making all this money from the high price for the stay, should be paying their staff accordingly. Most of the staff are lovely & are working hard, but the service is not that of a luxury resort. |The spa was great & we had some really good massages there, the staff at the spa are amazing & we really enjoyed our time there. The transfer from the airport on arrival & then again on departure was seamless & timely. This resort has...