We have never been to Tawau before and since we have bought the Air Asia Unlimited Pass Cuti-Cuti Malaysia, our flight to Tawau International Airport from Kota Kinabalu International Airport is only RM 12. This unlimited pass is priced at RM 399 nett which enable us to redeem unlimited flights within Malaysia across 16 destination for travel up to 31st March 2021 and it's only covers the base fare of the flight. It does not include the passenger service charge (RM 11), regulatory service charge (RM 1), check-in luggage allowance or in-flight meals. We managed to get the zero base fare from Kota Kinabalu to Tawau but I was not lucky enough to get the zero base fare from Tawau to Kota Kinabalu. Instead of buying a ticket for me, my partner decided to redeem the flight ticket using his Air Asia big points. So he used up 11,000 points to redeem my flight ticket from Tawau to Kota Kinabalu.
We woke up at 6.15am, took a Grab ride (Grab fare - RM 10) to Kota Kinabalu International Airport at 7.15am and had our breakfast at Marrybrown. Initially we plan to have our breakfast at the airport lounge but too bad it only opens at 9am. I had porridge while my partner had chicken rice at Marrybrown. Porridge is nice and chicken is crunchy. However, my partner didn't really like his chicken rice as it's not tasty enough. Our flight departed at 8.30am and we reached Tawau Airport 50 minutes later.
Marrybrown KKIA
Bubur ayam (chicken porridge) - RM 6.30
Nasi ayam Marrybrown combo (chicken rice) comes with ice lemon tea - RM 12.75
Ice lemon tea
Address:
Marrybrown @ KKIA
L2A43 & L2A45
Level 2, ETB (Airside), Terminal 1,
Kota Kinabalu International Airport
Opening hours: 7am to 8pm
Right after we came out from Tawau Airport at 9.35am, Sipadan Mabul Resort already arranged a van to pick us up. At the arrival hall, the driver was holding a board with my partner's name. We were the only guests being picked up at the airport. The driver drove us all the way from Tawau Airport to Semporna Jetty. (1 hour 35 minutes journey) The van was quite old and the air conditioner wasn't cold enough. Along the way, we saw two accidents. First was an overturned vehicle while the second one was a wedding car involved in a bumper accident. It was a bumpy ride on a two-way street.
Mount Kinabalu
Air Asia plane
Tawau Airport
Our pick up van from Sipadan Mabul Resort (Sabah) Sdn Bhd
We reached Semporna Jetty around 11.10am and registered our name at Sipadan Mabul Resort (Sabah) office. We had some time to kill as the speed boat will only depart at 12.30pm to
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort. So we decided to eat! We walked over to KFC and ordered dinner combo house E that comes with three pieces of chicken, mashed potatoes, wedges and drink. We upgraded our drink to ice lemon tea and requested three drumsticks. Unfortunately, my chicken doesn't taste good. Since we still have plenty of time, we walked over to Starbucks and ordered a cup of Mocha Frappuccino. Frankly, I'm not a big fan of Starbucks as I find the drinks too sweet for my liking.
KFC
Dinner combo house E (upgrade drink to ice lemon tea) - RM 22.20
Address:
KFC Seafest Semporna
Pekan Semporna,
91308 Semporna, Sabah
Starbucks
Starbucks
Mocha Frappuccino - RM 16.30
Address:
Starbuck Semporna Seafest
1, Jalan Kastam,
Pekan Semporna,
91308 Semporna, Sabah
Semporna Seafest
Our speed boat departed at 12.35pm and there's 27 people including us. It was a smooth ride but halfway through the journey, the speed boat had to slow down and came to a complete stop as there's rubbish stuck in the boat propeller. Luckily it's not a big issue. We reached
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort around 1.20pm. We were amazed by the crystal clear water! We saw few kids rowing their sampan near to our speed boat and asked for money. One lady gave the kid some money and instead of thanking her, the kid requested more money for her siblings as well.
The resort staff escorted us to the main lobby, took our temperature and gave us a disposal towel. They served us a welcome drink and lunch. Due to Covid-19 pandemic, the resort avoid open buffets. Each of the guests were served with a plate of rice with three dishes. There's chicken kurma, stir fried vegetables and squid. I couldn't finish my lunch because the rice is too hard for my liking and the squid is too rubbery. Our dessert, pandan chiffon cake is dry. However, I like their kuih kaswi. A traditional Malaysian dessert prepared with a combination of rice, tapioca flour, palm sugar and alkaline water served with freshly grated coconuts.
After lunch, one of their resort staff gave us a quick briefing, a Celcom prepaid card with unlimited internet access and showed us around the resort. He told us not to purchase any fresh seafood from the local people that rowed their sampan below our chalet as this will encourage the kids to climb up to our chalet through the balcony. Our chalet is built on the water. When we opened our balcony door, we saw a local man rowing his sampan towards our chalet waving at us with a live crab! We waved back at him saying no but yet he still proceed towards our chalet. So we quickly close our balcony door hoping that he will just leave.
We walked around the resort and checked out their standard chalet and stand-alone chalet built on the beach of Mabul Island. Swimming pool near to the standard chalet was poorly maintained. Watched out for big monitor lizards because they're everywhere! We had our tea break at 4pm. They served fried banana fritters that are sweet but not crispy enough. The resort staff confirmed our Sipadan package for 2 person (RM 200 per person), pick up from the resort at 6am the next day. Package includes return boat ride from
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort to Sipadan Island, three snorkeling session and breakfast at Sipadan Island.
After our tea break we decided to soak in a Jacuzzi hot tubs. Unfortunately out of three Jacuzzi, only one with warm water. My partner went for a short snorkeling at the house reef after our jacuzzi session. We couldn't see any sunset from the resort. Basically, you need to walk over to the sunset bar located on the Mabul Island. We had our dinner at 7pm. They served us rice with curry beef, dry butter prawns and stir fried French beans. As usual, the rice is too hard for my liking. Luckily the portion is small. Both the curry beef and dry butter prawn is nice but the prawns are not properly cleaned. Apart from that, the French beans are too fibrous to eat as they did not remove the string that runs down the middle. I don't really enjoy our dessert that night. The cake is dry and the kuih lapis is not tasty enough. Overall, we're not really happy with our meals.
I decided to take some Milky Way photos after dinner but the light pollution was quite bad. Ended up we went back to our room and chill. So that's how we spent our first day at
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort...
Our speed boat to Mabul Water Bungalow Resort
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort
Free flow of drinking water, coffee or tea
Welcome drink
Lunch
Dessert - pandan chiffon cake and kuih kaswi
Fruits - honey dew and water melon
Buggy service
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort
Houseboat
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort
Mabul Island
Hawksbills and green sea turtles hatching ground
Monitor lizard
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort
Tea break and house cat
Reading area
Mabul Spa
Jacuzzi
Metal round swing
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort
Mabul Water Bungalow Resort
Restaurant ambience
Dinner
Dessert
Fruits
Comments
Post a Comment