Went to Sipadan, Sabah last Saturday. I stay at Kapalai Dive Resort. It's a diver paradise but sadly i don't have the diving license, but it still a very good place for people to relax, snorkeling and enjoy.
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| LCCT, depart in the morning |
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| Reach Tawau at 10am |
It took 1 hour + from Tawau Airport to jetty, and about half an hour from jetty to reach the resort. The resort is at the middle of the sea. So you will spend your time at the resort everyday, even breakfast, lunch & dinner. I took the non-diver package, which is about RM1k+ per person. The package include 3 meals for everyday, airport and jetty transfer, but not include jetty fees: (Malaysian RM2, tourist RM10).
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| OTW to jetty. |
There are a lot of palm oil trees planted along the way from airport until the town area. I guess it is the major income for Sabah people.
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| The Jetty. |
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We wait the boat to fetch
us to Kapalai Resort. |
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| While waiting the boat. |
The water here very clear, you hardly find a drain which is polluted, even it's near to the jetty.
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| The kids just play in the sea. |
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The boat carry the fruits
and fetch us to the resort. |
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| Their jetty. |
From jetty to Kapalai is about half an hour journey. The wave were very strong especially we reach at the middle of the sea.
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| On the boat. |
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| The resort. |
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| Sipadan Kapalai Dive Resort. |
When we reach, the receptionist here welcome us with cold towel and welcome drinks. We were asked to have our lunch first, and later the staff brief us on the rules & regulation.
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| Outside of the restaurant. |
There're total of 3 meals provided which all is buffet style. We cannot fishing here, or touch the living things in the sea such as starfish, coral, fish and turtle. We cannot throw rubbish into the sea, and can't even make too much noise until other guests make complaint, if we violate the rules, they have rights to send us out from the resort.
This season is full of Asian, mostly came from China, but there're some came from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and even Europe. While weekdays mostly are European.
The food there is nice, seafood is fresh, the cake and bread are awesome, especially the butter cake, it's so soft. After the lunch and a staff named Thong had brief us, we took our key and follow the staff to our chalet.
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| The lounge. |
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It's all water chalet
which facing the sea. |
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| Sunny day. |
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The water outside my chalet.
It's so crystal clear |
One good thing is you can swim or snorkeling at the area around the resort, except the chalet area as there might have some poison living things and it's not under protected by the resort.
We need to rent the gears like mask & snorkel which is only RM15 per day for snorkeling, while live jacket will be provided for free and return back to the resort when you check-out.
I can see sun set from my room, the time for sun set is about 5.30pm.
After dinner, we went to the mini island which is an artificial island for people to sit back relax and chit chat. It's surrounded by the sea and it's very near to the army camp. You can find full bar of your phone reception here, but you have very less or even no reception at your room. This is pretty good especially for those who really want to relax, enjoy holiday and escape from their busy work life & city.
You can see the sun rise at the other side of the resort which is quite near to my room. Normally you can see it at 5.30am, but that day due to too much cloud so we couldn't see it.
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| Morning view of the resort. |
On the second day, we join a tour to Pulau Mabul & snokerling there. It's free and it has to have min of 5 people in order for them to start the tour. The tour start at 2.30pm so we went for lunch before we proceed.
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It just few min from Kapalai to
Mabul by speed boat. |
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| There's one resort here - Sipadan Water Village |
The local people stay at the back of the resort. The tour guide bring us to walk one round of the whole village and shows us how's the local life is.
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| The children free time. |
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| The houses they live. |
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| Free time. |
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He posing when I wanted
to snap his picture. |
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| They were so friendly. |
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| Childhood game. |
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| Fierce kitty. |
The children here some of them did not wear clothes and run here and there, playing around with each other, fooling around on the floor. It makes me think of back to the childhood when there's no electronic toy like smart phone or iPad. They were playing cards, gasing, hide & seek; all these childhood game we were hardly see it in the city now
They might fall behind of the city, but compares to the children live in city, children nowadays were busy playing their iPad or smart phone, and not allow to play with other kids and run around the neighborhood as accident will always happen. It's the big different of growing in a city and a small village.
Check-out on the third day and leave Kapalai on 1.30pm which is last schedule of the boat to drive out to Jetty.
Was rain heavily in the morning, luckily the rain stop and sunshine when we about to leave.
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| Cloudy in the morning. |
It's a memorable trip and I enjoy very much. Worth of it!! I will be back! :)
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