Mabul Water Bungalow Resort - Mabul Island, Sabah
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort is a 4 star floating dive resort located at Mabul Island. There are 3 types of accommodations - standard chalet, stand-alone chalet and Mabul Water Bungalow (luxury accommodation built on the water). Both standard and stand-alone chalets are built on the beach of Mabul Island. Mabul Water Bungalow Resort only started reopening in August 2020 due to the Movement Control Order (MCO) which has been implemented from 18th March 2020 till 9th June 2020. They have a special promotion of 30% discount for booking made for July to December 2020 for Mabul Water Bungalows only. This offer is only applicable for Malaysian and Expatriates residing in Malaysia.
There are other accommodation such as home stays, lodges, hotels and resort in Mabul Island but not all resorts are allocated Sipadan entry permits. Only 176 people (divers or visitors) are allowed to visit Sipadan Island per day. Mabul Water Bungalow Resort has been allocated 12 quotas each day out of 176 people and it's subject to approval by the Sabah Parks Management. Due to the limited quotas, only guests who stay from 5 nights onward at standalone chalets or at water bungalows are allow to have one day diving guarantee at Sipadan Island. During peak season, priority will be given to divers. Entry permit fee is RM 140 (subject to 6% service tax) per person per day for divers, non divers, visitors and children.
We booked a 3 days 2 nights Mabul Water Bungalow non-diving package @ RM 3,955 for 2 person. Package includes transfer between Tawau Airport - Semporna Jetty - Mabul Water Bungalows - Semporna Jetty - Tawau Airport by van and speedboat, full board meals (excluding alcoholic, fruit juice and carbonated soft drinks) and snorkeling at dive sites (excluding equipment and guests to stay minimum 2 nights). For one night's stay, guest may snorkel at the house reef or free at own leisure.
Day trip to Sipadan from Mabul Water Bungalow Resort is available and price per trip is RM 520 per person per day. During the reopening promotion from August to December 2020, special fee of purchase the Sipadan permit is RM 200 per person per day.
The equipment rental price for each item as below (subject to 6% service tax):
a) BCD - RM 25 net per person per day
b) Regulator - RM 30 net per person per day
c) Mask & snorkel - RM 21 net per person per day
d) Fins - RM 21 net per person per day
e) Booties - RM 15 net per person per day
f) Wet suit - RM 25 net per person per day
g) Torch with batteries - RM 35 net per person per day
h) Torch (rechargeable) - RM 45 net per person per day
i) Dive computer - RM 36 net per person per day (limited unit)
We stayed in Mabul Water Bungalow comes with double bed, TV (variety of Astro channels), in-room safe, mini fridge, complimentary 2 bottles of drinking water, coffee or tea making facilities, mini bar, couch, writing table, self controlled air conditioning, ceiling fan, hot/cold shower, hair dryer and complete toiletries. There's a spacious private balcony overlooking the blue sea. Since the resort has cancelled their wireless internet access during MCO, they gave us a Celcom prepaid card with unlimited internet access and RM 6 credit per room. Basically if you want to connect multiple devices to a WiFi connection, you will have to use your mobile hotspot instead. I'm using U Mobile (one of the mobile network in Malaysia) and it's totally out of service in this island.
Our room is very spacious and clean but unfortunately the toilet lights not working. The staff who escorted us to our room explained that he has checked the room condition earlier. Anyway, the maintenance people came instantly and fixed the problem. The room and toilet looks old. Mattress is too firm and not comfy enough. Apart from that, toilet pipes are rusty. Luckily shower is hot enough with moderate water pressure as it's a tankless water heater. Remember to always latch your door because housekeeping might just barged into your room after knocking a few times. That happened to us on our last day in Mabul Water Bungalow Resort! Hotel facilities includes swimming pool (poorly maintained), souvenir shop, equipment rental shop and 3 Jacuzzi. However, there's only 1 Jacuzzi with warm water.
Boat schedule:
a) Semporna Jetty to Mabul Water Bungalow - 12.30pm
Dining time:
a) Breakfast: 7am to 9am
b) Lunch: 12pm to 2pm
c) Tea break: 4pm to 5pm
d) Dinner: 7pm to 9pm
Dive schedule:
a) Kapalai Island - 8.30am
b) Mabul Island - 11am / 2.30pm
Check in time: 2pm
Check out time: 12pm
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