After 5 wonderful days in the forest with River Junkie, we transferred to the coastal town of Semporna. We had about half a day in Semporna to do some laundry, get some snacks, and be organised for the next few days on the boat.
We were expecting a beautiful seaside town where we could walk on the beach and enjoy little cafes and restaurants overlooking the ocean, but Semporna couldn’t be further from that. It’s a horrible dirty town and we didn’t feel that safe there, it was so disappointing. We feel very sad for the people who live there, they live in such poverty, it doesn’t feel like the government does much for them. Semporna is on the doorstep of some of the best dive sites in the world with thousands of visitors passing through every year. We can’t understand how people can pollute the environment like that so close to such a pristine natural ocean marvel and haven’t tried to do more with the town and area. Such a lost opportunity. So sad.
Anyway.
We booked with Scuba Junkie again and couldn’t have been happier. Unlike in Kota Kinabalu where we organised our own accommodation, diving with Scuba Junkie Sipadan includes full board and lodge. It was so easy and convenient and a beautiful location. We highly recommend it! The beach resort is on Mabul Island and has a full onsite restaurant for all meals, drinking water stations, tea and coffee are always available with morning and afternoon treats on offer, a small dive shop, a bar and lounge area, a pier and jetty with ample space for getting ready and relaxing inbetween boat outings. The grounds are beautiful and well kept. The beach in the front is sadly a bit small so no long walks on a sandy white beach. It is possible to walk around the whole island with some of the trail through the local town, but I didn’t feel comfortable going on my own.
Scuba Junkie makes a lot of effort to be eco and environmentally friendly. Examples include: no fish is included in any of their meals due to the problem of overfishing, recycling projects and responsible waste management, and they started a turtle hatchery. In 2009 Scuba Junkie founded a dedicated conservation arm called SEAS and has since grown into a registered NGO with several conservation and outreach projects including turtle, shark, and coral conservation. One of the efforts has been in preventing the poaching of turtle eggs. A turtle hatchery was launched in 2011 and island locals are given a monetary incentive for identifying turtle nests. The nest is relocated to the hatchery on the beach resort property and protected until the hatchlings appear. The baby turtles are then released back into the ocean. Over 307 nests have been relocated and 21 500 baby turtles released since the initiative began. Visitors can adopt and name a baby turtle and all proceeds go back into the project and used as the reward for identifying nests. We adopted a baby turtle and named her Eve, may she grow big and strong and be a successful mother to many babies. We were fortunate to see hatchlings being released. On our first day at Mabul a nest of green turtles hatched and the babies were released into the ocean in the late afternoon. Little Eve was part of that nest. It was very special watching the little ones scramble for the water, they are so fast! A cat was trying his luck but was scooped up by a SEAS member. Be safe and grow well little ones.
Adopting little Eve
We realised how privileged we were to be able visit this incredible part of the ocean and were struck by the juxtaposition of so many people living in dire conditions and poverty right next door to the beach resort. There is a community of Bajau or sea gypsies adjacent to the Scuba Junkie pier. The Bajau are essentially sea nomads, they live in stilt houses and survive on fishing and free diving. They are a stateless people with Malaysia, Philippines, and Indonesia not granting them citizenship. Without any official paperwork, children cannot go to school and most Bajua are not able to read and write. There are many articles online about the Bajau with beautiful idyllic photos of ocean life, but the reality we saw seemed far from blissful. The children wander around all day and beg from every visitor. So much waste and rubbish is thrown into the ocean everyday from the stilt houses. Their situation seems so hopeless and we were just struck with a deep sadness at their predicament. Scuba Junkie seem to manage and maintain a friendly and diplomatic relationship with their neighbours though which is good for everyone all round.
We enjoyed three full days and 2 nights at the Scuba Junkie Mabul Beach Resort. The first morning we transferred from Semporna to Mabul and after a debriefing, headed out for the first snorkel and dive session. We were happy to be on the same boat for the first day. Bron was the only snorkeler that day and had a guide all to herself. There were 3 dives/snorkels a day with a shore break with hot tea and snacks on the jetty between the morning dives and lunch at the resort before the afternoon dive. Sometimes the shore break is on the boat and if it’s a Sipadan day, lunch is provided on the island. The first day we both visited sites around Mabul island. Bron had a rest day on the second day at the resort while Justin dived Sipadan and Kepalai. The third day Justin was supposed to go to Sipadan again but was not feeling well so he had to skip, while Bron snorkelled at Kepalai and Mabul again. When booking, Bron didn’t know that snorkelers could also go to Sipadan and when we got there all the spots were booked up so she unfortunately missed out on Sipadan, but she still had a great time and saw loads around Mabul and Kepalai.
Justin has dived with turtles before but swimming with turtles has been a bucket list item for Bron for the longest time. This dream finally came true at Mabul and what a special time it was. We saw so many turtles of varying sizes but also some very big ones. They were mostly chilling on the edge of the reef and also feeding, but we also saw quite a few come to the surface for air. We gave them lots of space but were still close enough to enjoy and appreciate them. One of the snorkel spots is called Turtle Cleaning Station and many turtles come here to be cleaned by cleaner fish. There are mostly green turtles here but we also saw hawksbill turtles. Such a great experience!
List of fish and sea creatures we saw at Mabul and Sipadan:
Green turtle, hawksbill turtle, white-tipped reef shark, grey reef shark, Napoleon wrasse, pick-handle barracuda, giant moray eel, yellow pipefish, giant trevally, blue tang (Dory in Finding Nemo), great barracuda, common lionfish, midnight snapper, school of red snapper, dartfish, remora fish, chevron barracuda, orange spotted grouper, grey drummer, painted spiny lobster, trumpet fish, broadclub cuttlefish, yellow boxfish, yellow clown frogfish, white spotted pufferfish, map pufferfish, sea cucumber, blue spotted stingray, yellow margin moray eel, juvenile ribbon eel, choc chip starfish (the white one, other colour morphs possible), feather star, brittle star, blue sea star, granulated sea star, cushion star, black longspine urchin, banded sea kraits (snake), spotted garden eel, various angelfish, various butterfly fish, clown fish (Nemo), moorish idol (also in Nemo), pinnate batfish, various unicornfish, various surgeonfish, various triggerfish, various snapper fish, various groupers, various parrotfish, various wrasse, banana nudibranch, stick pipefish, various dartfish, trumpetfish, cornetfish, crocodile flathead, various pufferfish, various corals and sponges.
Thank you Scuba Junkie Sipadan for a fab time!
After a full three days on Mabul Island, we transferred back to Semporna for one night before moving on to Kuala Lumpur back on the mainland for a last few days before heading back home to HCMC.
See you next time for more on our adventures in KL!
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