Comments on Mabul Water Bungalows, diving Sipadan, Mabul, and Kapalai: The Mabul Water Bungalows resort was nice enough, but there are tons and tons of bungalows and villas over the water. Although there are screens and plants to attempt to give a sense of privacy, there is no privacy on the private decks.
Fishermen collect the animals that divers want to see in the water such as crabs, lobster, mantis shrimp. In 5 days of diving (21 dives), I only saw 1 lobster and 1 crab in their habitat. The resort especially should not allow them to collect mantis shrimp. The treatment of the mantis shrimp is unethical! They are de-shelled alive! Then stuffed into plastic bottles w/a bit of water to keep them alive. The fishermen then paddle by the bungalows looking to sell their seafood to guests. They constantly call out and it’s is not relaxing. The resort requires that all for-sale seafood must be alive when purchased by guests to avoid illness.
This resort has few divers. There were only 10-15 divers out of the 150-200 people staying at the resort. Diving is an aside post-Covid according to staff. If you want a place that caters to divers, stay on the Seaventure or elsewhere.
We learned that the Chinese pay $300 USD per person for a day trip. They come to the resort in the mornings for photos (think Tik Tok, Instagram), have lunch, then go to another resort to snorkel. They overrun the place, staging photos in front of our bungalows (w/all their props), clogging the walkways, and more. It’s a mind boggling waste of time, annnoying, and entertaining to watch.
Also, this is the only dive resort that I have stayed at that does not have the Paul Humann fish and creature ID books!!! I have been diving 30 years and dived all over the world! Every other resort/dive boat has these reference books. We didn’t see any species that we hadn’t seen elsewhere.
Dive sites at Kapalai are not good. They are too sandy. Not much to see. Bad visibility. There must be better dive sites around. Sandy Eel and Paradise I were really crappy dive sites. There’s a ton of trash in the water. Dive sites around Mabul also are not all that great. This is not a muck diving area.
One poor Pygmy seahorse was seen in 21 dives and every dive guide knows where it is. The poor animal is never left alone. Our guide didn’t even know what species of pygmy seahorse it was. It’s
Hippocampus bargibanti, by the way.
Although the diving in Sipidan was good, there are other dive sites in Indonesia that are much better. In Sipadan, we did 4 dives over 2 days and I counted 42 divers at one site and 38 at another when I was in the water. It was appalling. Many ——— (specific nationality that won’t be named here) divers are SO aggressive! Pushing people (me) out of the way to get a photograph of something; scuba diving through a school of jacks to get a video of themselves; and scuba diving w/their GoPro facing/videotaping themselves the entire dive. It’s such a joke!
Finally, Mabul Bungalow Resort’s designated smoking area is right next to the area where dive tanks are kept and where Nitrox tanks are analyzed. No one should be smoking near Nitrox tanks.
Many places in South East Asia are like that actually... but for Sipadan diving, how about
Sipadan-Mabul resort (the sister resort of Mabul Water Bungalows) is almost empty (except during Chinese New Year and other Chinese holidays), you can enjoy the dive resort and dive center almost all for yourself, and you have access to MWB facilities such as the restaurant via the scenic wooden jetty (electric buggy brings you there). Permits fee has increased quite a bit but it's due to the official conservation and access fees. There are many permits available outside of peak seasons. Sipadan is still one of the best dive spot according to some of the very best underwater photographers that I spoke too because there can be very often some pelagics and other surprises there.
