any info for SMART Divers resort on Mabul?

[HonuHank]

I'm heading there this May and would like to read about other peoples experiences with them and any good do's/don'ts tips. I went to Lankayan Island last year and fell in love with Malaysia but did loose some weight from the quisine. Does SMART have good food?

Thanks for your time.

 

[ssra30]

I was at Smart Dive resort about 18 months ago and would highly recommend them.
Ben was my diveguide and he was very good at spotting all the little critters.
The accomodatoin was basic but clean and comfortable.
Food was plentiful but nothing special but not bad either. Sunday barbecue night is the best by far. They do have no gloves policy but after a few dives when our diveguide saw that we did not touch anything then they were ok with us wearing gloves.

 

[HonuHank]

Hi ssra30,
that's exactly the kind of stuff I wanted to hear so thanks much. Should I seek out Ben when we get there and snag him for my group? Also did you do 2 morning dives at Sipadan and then the 3rd at Mabul/Kapalai?

 

[OrcaBlue]

I'm heading there this May and would like to read about other peoples experiences with them and any good do's/don'ts tips. I went to Lankayan Island last year and fell in love with Malaysia but did loose some weight from the quisine. Does SMART have good food?

Thanks for your time.

Hey HonuHank, you won't go wrong with SMART. I operate a LDS in KL, Malaysia and have used their services for a long time. They offer very personalised services and they really take good care of you. The most important thing is that they charge the same prices for everybody, unlike the other resorts who give different rates to locals and expats. I think this is more fair anyway..

 

[ssra30]

Hi ssra30,
that's exactly the kind of stuff I wanted to hear so thanks much. Should I seek out Ben when we get there and snag him for my group? Also did you do 2 morning dives at Sipadan and then the 3rd at Mabul/Kapalai?

I don't think you can go wrong with Ben but other diveguides were pretty good as well from what I heard. There were 2 Bens at Smart. The one I dove with was Ben Loyola. The usual schedule was 2 dives in the morning at Sipadan then 1 afternoon boat dive either at Kapalai or Mabul. However we had our own group of 8 divers so we got our own boat and they pretty much let us choose whatever we wanted to do including doing a dawn dive. Also Ben was very accomodating with our requests of what we wanted to see and took us to the various spots. Smart also offered unlimited unguided jetty dives at no extra charge. Night dive at the jetty was also free but night dive elsewhere was extra.

 

[scubashooter]

Been going there since 96. I like the resort for the EAN although they did lose my favorite dive guide to another ops in 2002. I've never had a complaint about the operation. However I've had friends who went there without me and felt the operation was a bit disorganized and rigid on dive times. Then again you can never please everybody.