Mantanani Island, Sabah

Mantanani Island, Sabah - Day 1

- February 11, 2020

Exactly one year later I'm back to Mantanani Island. This time instead of staying at Mari Mari Backpackers Lodge, we decided to try out Sutera Mantanani. Shyan and Leo were here for a holiday and we decided to bring them to Mantanani Island for a short island getaway. We bought a 3 days 2 nights package (RM 1,040 for 2 persons in a deluxe room) includes land, boat transfer and full board meal. This package is exclusive for Malaysians and Permanent Residents (with my PR card) only. You can read more about Sutera Mantanani by clicking on this link.

We had our early breakfast at Fook Yuen Cafe and Bakery before we went to Sutera Harbour Resort. We parked our car at the Magellan Sutera Resort and assembled at the Magellan lobby before 7am. Our tour bus came at 7am sharp, picked up everyone and left after 5 minutes. Our tour bus then stopped at three pick up points - Padang Terminal, Gaya Street and Nexus Karambunai. Approximately 2 hours 45 minutes later we reached Rampaian Jetty.

We need to sign a liability release form before we board the speedboat. Our boat departed at 10.10am and 35 minutes later we have reached Mantanani Island. The boat ride was slightly bumpy but not harsh. We were greeted by a gong and escorted by the resort staff to the lobby. Welcome drink was served and the resort staff assisted us with the checked in procedure. However, our room was not ready yet so we left our luggage at the hotel lobby. My partner and Leo joined the 11.30am snorkeling session while me and Shyan decided to walk around the resort. Both of us went for our buffet lunch at 12pm while waiting for them to come back from snorkeling at 1pm.

Lunch was okay but dessert was too sweet for my liking. There's chicken, beef, prawns, vegetables, soup and fruits. Finally we're able to checked in at 1.45pm. We took a nap until 3pm since we woke up so early this morning to catch our tour bus. We had our tea break at 3.30pm and it was good. Love the red bean soup and curry puff. We continued with our nap after tea break and ended up we missed the sunset village tour. We only managed to see partial sunset at Sutera Mantanani beach as the weather was quite cloudy.

We had steamboat dinner at 7pm. Prawns were fresh and sweet. After dinner we waited for the blue tears tour at 8.30pm. Blue tears is a form of sea algae living on the seabed that glows in blue. I didn't manage to see it last year and was hoping to see it this year instead. Luck was not on our side and we saw none. However, we were lucky enough to spot some fire flies and a sea turtle! Some of them got a bit too excited and started flashing their torch light on the sea turtle's face! In fact one of the tourist went and touch the sea turtle. In the end the sea turtle got scared and quickly went back to the sea. I have a feeling that this sea turtle won't be coming back for quite some time... how sad...

There's not much activity to do at night except star gazing and blue tears. The sky was a bit cloudy hence we can't see the stars. So we decided to rest early and call it a day.