It wasn't that fun as what I expected but the greatest moment of the whole adventurous trip is I saw this with my own eyes.
Taken with Nikon AW100
Isn't it amazing?
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Chapter 1 - First Night in Semporna
We arrived at Tawau around 10pm and took an hour taxi to Dragon Inn which located in Semporna.
The funny thing about that taxi ride is our taxi driver was too sleepy to drive, it's even worse because the road is totally in darkness, no road lighting at all.
He kept yelling:" Hoi! Tidak Tahan Tidak Tahan! Mengantuk!"
We talked to him non stop to keep him awake but it doesn't help at all, he seems like he's going to pass out any seconds.
My friend really tidak tahan and demands to be the driver, so the taxi driver happily agreed. Which passenger in this world pay a taxi driver to drive themselves? It's his lucky day.
As soon as we arrived the inn, we couldn't find where the inn is because the entrance was closed. We saw the staff at the other side of the inn, looked at us but didn't give a single fuck.
龙门客栈
In fact, the door isn't locked, we tried to push the door and it opened. Well, a good receptionist should greet us when customers stand at the front door right?
A very bad service rating because of that. I don't recommend this inn if you want to stay at Semporna.
There's many choices other than this inn in that town. Pick wisely.
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Chapter 2 - Day 1: Uncle Chang Dive Lodge+Snorkeling in Mabul Island and Kapalai Island
We departed from boat terminal and took an hour speed boat ride to Uncle Chang's dive lodge. We stayed there for 3D2N.
The view from a hut. Crystal clear sea with the calming blue sky.
Our rooms located on sea.
The view outside from our room.
Upon arrival, we went to snorkeling in Mabul and Kapalai Islands from 11am to 1pm.
The undersea view is not so amazing compare to what I had seen in Redang Island.
The coral is almost dead, all you can see is a lot of fishes. Small medium big fishes.
Anyway, the feeling of surrounded by millions of ikan bilis is amazing.
More and...
More and...
More and...
More Ikan Bilis around us.
Well, we spot some star fishes too.
Forever alone starfish.
That night everyone was exhausted so we took an early rest around 8pm.
It's our first night staying here and surprise awaiting us.
Out of the blue, we were woke up by a horrific sound throughout the whole chalet. It was 10.30pm.
The whole chalet was shaking.
The sound of strong wind blew through the gap of window and door scared us.
I thought I'm going to die, for real. I watsapp my friends and told them I'm going to die, so at least they are the last person to know what happen if anything happen to me.
The water was splashing through the gap and wet my bed.
It was like a tornado swipe through the chalets and we never experience something like this before.
I looked out the window and see if tsunami is coming.
After half hour, nothing else happen, the wind stopped.
I survived.
What a surprise.
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Chapter 3 - Day 2: Free and Easy Day
On second day 9am, we were ready to depart to another snorkeling trip to Mabul Island but the receptionist told us we need to pay another rental of snorkeling mask and fin.
The rental is based on daily basis which means we only paid for the first day only.
This incident was disappointing us because we didn't expect that.
Since they will go back to the same location around Mabul Island, we decided not to go again. So, second day will be our free and easy day around the Mabul Island.
We walked around the island and visited the local souvenir store and also another resort in the island.
I believe the resort here costs more than RM1000 per night.
Look at the view. Chalets located above the sea. No rubbish on the water. The water here is cleaner than Uncle Chang's water. We can always spotted floating shit on the water in Uncle Chang's place. They didn't fix the piping system and some of the chalet's waste water flow into the sea, destroying the view.
Sipadan water village resort is absolutely suitable for honeymoon.
When one of my friend's wife complained she's tired, her husband was attempting to carry her.
But that did not last long XD
Snapshot fun time! Hodouken!
上钩拳!
I had a bad landing for trying to take this picture. A real bad landing on sand.
Woot!
A hut which I really love.
The sunset is simply breathtaking. Love it.
Sunset view of the cupid hut.
Cat. I love cat.
On the second night, we decided to challenge the strong wind by sitting outside our chalets, drinking alcohol and chit chatting. We estimated the wind to arrive around 10.30pm, same as the first night but it didn't.
When we were drinking outside our chalet, one foreign guy asked where to find people in charge. He told us that his bedroom and bathroom has a gap, it's like the bathroom is started to split from the attached bedroom.
Imagine when you wake up and want to go to bathroom, but the bathroom has gone nowhere. Surprise!
After the complain, I think the staff requested them to change their room but the couple denied because the room they provided doesn't have the same sea view.
After a moment, that guy came out again, and look at his chalet. He complained that he felt the chalet is shaking. I thought he was over sensitive until I laid on my bed, I can feel the chalet is vibrating too.
It's like a minor earthquake which continue for half hour.
I didn't sleep until the shaking stop because I scare I might die again.
The next day, I asked one guy who stayed at the other side of the chalet and he said he felt nothing.
And then, I figured out the shaking might be cause by couple next to us were making love.
The frequency of vibrating is like shaking for 3 seconds, stop for 2 seconds and repeat for half hour.
Yes, I confirmed that someone is making love.
Damn. If the chalet collapse and we sacrifice in that incident because of someone is making love, I'm gonna haunt them forever. Forever!
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Chapter 4 - Day 3: Snorkeling in Sibuan and Mantabuan Islands
Day 3, it's quite unhappy because the arrangement made by UC's staff.
My friend booked a schedule of going to Mantabuan Island for snorkeling and Boheydulang Island for jungle trekking trip.
When we get on the boat, the boatman told us we are going to Sibuan and Mantabuan Islands. We were surprised and afraid that we got on the wrong boat.
My friend called that UC's staff and asked her what happen. She told us that the schedule had changed. My friend said why no people inform us about that?
The respond of the staff was disappointing us. She blamed us like this:" Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
We were like what the fuck?! As soon as we arrived the terminal, they told us to get on this boat, no people inform us anything before this. She changed the plan without inform us but still blame us for that.
Anyhow, the boatman comfort us by telling that jungle trekking isn't safe because it's raining that morning and the path will be slippery. We not sure that's true or not but since we were on the boat already, we might as well as enjoy ourselves.
We went to snorkel in Sibuan Island first.
Lots of lots of coral here, but mostly in white colour, some of them are still in blue or purple colour.
Yellow and blue fishes.
Coral close-up.
Today snorkeling trip is definitely better than Mabul Island.
After that, we went to Mantabuan Island.
An unknown sea creature discovered.
Which look like penis ~_~
Divers spotted.
For your info, entering Sipadan Island will costs RM500 per person but they said the coral there is prettier than anywhere. Next time, I want to go there and have a diving course.
As I mentioned before, the highlight of my trip is spotted a cute sea turtle. I was lucky enough by following the boatmen who brought another group of people snorkel around the island.
Suddenly the boatman signaled me to look down, and I saw this forever alone turtle.
Actually not forever alone, he got a blue fish named David who accompany him.
They said he's eating coral. Really? Turtle not only eat jelly fish but coral?
At last he dived into deeper sea and gone.
I love sea turtle.
And here's the end of our trip.
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Uncle Chang Dive Lodge Review:
Compare to what I ever experience in Redang Pelangi Resort in Redang Island, Uncle Chang provided a really bad service.
1. No schedule - They didn't tell us or gave us the schedule of 3D2N stays, we need to go and ask the receptionist about our schedule. By the time we asked, they urged us to be fast because the boat was going to leave. WTF? Why not inform us earlier?
2. No chinese receptionist - They don't have chinese receptionist at the counter. One time, a Chinese couple who don't understand English asked me to translate the conversation of the receptionist, because they didn't know what's their schedule during their stays too.
3. Food is lousy - Guess what we eat for our lunch and dinner for everyday? It's squid and chicken. For 3 days, we ate squid and chicken every meal except for breakfast. It's my first experience that I felt no appetite to eat when I'm extremely hungry. We were exhausted and starving after snorkeling activities, we will eat everything gave to us but the squid and chicken meal disgusted us. My friend chose to eat cup noodle because of their lousy food. On the second night, we were so pissed off because we saw their kitchen staff and crews eating chili crab, seriously? Crabs? Why not squid and chicken?
4. Night is boring - In Redang, the resort will play music in their pub while we can enjoy ourselves in night time. In UC, nothing to enjoy. They have speaker but they didn't play anything. We can only buy beer to drink. It's boring as fuck.
5. Rental of snorkel mask - It's daily basis. When I stayed in Redang Pelangi Resort, the gear can be used for all period of staying there.
6. Floating shits on water - You can always see floating shits on the water while you enjoy the splendid sea view outside the room. Some of their toilet pipes were broken but they didn't fix it.
7. Snorkeling spots - The snorkeling spots is same everyday, not sure the spot is limited or they are just being lazy. A China girl who stayed there for a week, complained that the snorkeling spot is same as everyday, she requested that whether can change or not. The diver coach replied her in a bad manner, saying that even it's same location, we will see different surprises everyday. Well, it seems like there are no surprises for a tourist who already stayed there for a week.
8. Diver couch is fucker - Yes, one of the foreign couch is fucker. I will definitely not going to dive with UC's crew after I saw this incident. The coach asked a diver jumped down to the sea before him, and we saw that skinny guy was panic when floating on the sea, he was nervous and struggling on water. He must drank a lot of sea water. And guess what the coach did? He shouted at him and asked him to grab the rope beside him but it didn't work. The skinny guy still struggled on the water, and the coach laugh out loud with the boatmen. Seriously? LOL? Why they laugh? Why? The coach then slowly wear his diving suit and jump down to teach him to breath. I think usually coach should be the one who jump down first so that he can rescue or grab inexperienced diver when he's panic in water but what I saw is shocking me.
9. Unfriendly staff - As mentioned, their staff changed our schedule without inform us. We didn't get what we paid for. The real schedule is stated in the receipt, there's no way they didn't know. Really disappointing.
So, if you plan to visit islands around Semporna, I recommend you to look for stays at Semporna town for 3days 2 night, they got plenty of hotel or inn in that town. You can find various of restaurant and activities during night time. For snorkeling or diving in islands, I recommend this guy who is one of our guide during our last day trip, he's friendly and the preparation done by them is satisfactory. Look for Jin by contact 0198509221.
Don't stay in Uncle Chang, you have been warned :)
Cheers.
Keywords: Tawau, Semporna, Dragon Inn, Mabul Islands, Bohaydulong, Sibuan, Mantabuan, Mataking, Kapalai, Water Sipadan Resort, Uncle Chang Dive Lodge
1 comments:
The lodge you stayed is for backpackers and professional divers.
They went to islands for marine life not for comfort.
You chicken snorkeling pretending to be professional divers. I recommend you to stay in the Water Village.
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