Mabul Water Bungalows

[jedah]

Hi!

Has anybody stayed at the Mabul Water Bungalows recently? These are not the Sipadan Water Village (SWV). I understand they are owned and operated by SMART, which has gotten good reviews on this board.

Any good / bad impressions/experiences?

We are thinking of going there for New Year's, so any comments on the diving in Mabul / Sipadan that time of the year would be appreciated!

Thanks!

J.

 

[ScubaJoel]

Hi!

Has anybody stayed at the Mabul Water Bungalows recently? These are not the Sipadan Water Village (SWV). I understand they are owned and operated by SMART, which has gotten good reviews on this board.

Any good / bad impressions/experiences?

We are thinking of going there for New Year's, so any comments on the diving in Mabul / Sipadan that time of the year would be appreciated!

Thanks!

J.

You mean - you are planing your trip for New Year 2005/2006? Ups. That's pretty in advanced. ;-)
Bad impressions? Hm, I have been with Smart two times and I never saw this big cuda-school. Nore I saw the hammerheads, Sipadan is known for.
But everything else was great.

I never stayed at the Waterbungalow part of it. It's very new - build up since it was confirmed Sipadan have to be closed. As far what was shown to me, it's VERY comfortable. Since this bungalows / restaurant is new, you might feel a bit lost out there in the evenings.
It will change soon, I'm sure about his, but at the moment you are with max. 15 people over there.

Stay there if you like high standards, but use your bikes and have a look to the other side. It's fun to watch the underwater movies which are provided and have a talk with the other guests about what you have seen.

Last time I have been there was new year 2004/2005. After what happend on december 26th you can imagine this was not the time for having a big party.

Please find your way throught my Site for malaysian / mabul pics.

 

[Tassie_Rohan]

Hi there Jedah - I'll be staying in the mabul water bungalows in May - if you havn't recieved any feedback from anyone then PM me late May for the full rundown,
Cheers,
Rohan.

 

[jedah]

Thanks Rohan!

PJC will also be staying at MWB in April, hopefully s/he'll post a report after coming back!

J.

 

[Tassie_Rohan]

Well – I’m back. I can recommend the SMART water bungalows.

The bungalows are clean, comfortable and are surrounded by a large private balcony. Although more expensive than the accommodation on the main island the setting over the water makes for a very memorable holiday (and keeps the mosquitos at bay). Food was average to good however service was outstanding – the staff really go out of their way to help you.

The dive operation is professional: dive boats depart from the water bungalow on time and they will consider all requests (we were doing 530 am starts for a small additional fee: too much diving is barely enough). You won’t have to haul your gear around at any point in your stay. Typically 3 dives a day: two sipadan in the morning and a third afternoon one at Mabul/Sipadan. More dives available on request. There is also a nice little house reef off the water bungalows that makes a pleasant shallow pre-dinner night dive (shrimpfish, cuttlefish and a frogfish or two). Boat dives are limited to 45 or 50 minutes: however this wasn’t a problem as the big fish (greys and hammerheads) tended to lurk around 30-40+ m.

Diving at Sipadan is very good, but I would not consider it ‘the worlds best dive site’ (a very personal decision if there ever was one) – ‘one of the worlds better dive sites’ should suffice: nice walls, lots of turtles, large schools of jacks and bumpheaded parrot fish, rare sightings of hammerheads and greys at depth, and some unique critters in the shallows to keep your eyes open for. However the appearance of barracuda schools on the last 2 days of 7 days diving blew me away, and I can see why people love the island when the barracuda are running (they have been largely absent over the past year but the local dm’s stated they have been coming back in recent months). Mabul offered excellent critter diving (ribbon eels, common frogfish, nudibranchs, assorted invertebrates) in <20 meter reefs.

All up a big thumbs up.

Other operations: the bungalows are adjacent to the Sipadan Water Village (which is very popular with the Japanese), which in turn is fronted by an oil rig platform that has been converted into a dive operation. The fairy lights on the platform do not help it blend in with the surrounding tropical environment: however it’s the place to be if you wish to be hermitically sealed away in air conditioned comfort. Borneo divers have a resort in the middle of Mabul Resort and also appears to be a very professional organisation.

Cheers,
Rohan.

 

[DontLieToMe]

I stayed at the Water Bungalows in March. They were great. I am headed back in August. I really like the bungalows and the large deck offers a great place to sit in the afternoon.

 

[Scuba Susie]

I stayed at the Water Bungalows in March. They were great. I am headed back in August. I really like the bungalows and the large deck offers a great place to sit in the afternoon.

Hey y'all,
I just returned May 28th from Mabul SMART. While we didn't stay at the SMART water bungalos we did get to view them. They were beautiful, I will agree. But I like to feel the sand beneath my feet, here the waves hit the shore and NOT have a television in my room in paradise. But hey! That's just me! The whole SMART dive operation is great. And I would call it one of the best places I have ever dived! (over 150 dives logged for me) We saw the pigmy seahorse, the sperm whales, the tornadoes of cudas, the walls of jacks, the mating mandarin fish and the mating leopard sharks and oh....did I mention the biggest mola mola in the entire world????
We had a blast, can ya tell?
I would highly reccommend SMART and ask for Haris as your Instuctor/Dive Master. He showed Jacques Cousteau around Sipadan way back when.
Go to mabul...you will love it!
Susie

 

[tzeyap]

Susie ,
Wow !! You saw a mola-mola !!!!!!! this is the first time I 'heard of a mola mola sighting around Sipadan . You're very fortunate. i must have done close to a hundred dives ar ound Bali and Lombok hoping to catch a glimpse of one but yet to get lucky. did you manage to get any photos ?

 

[Scuba Susie]

Susie ,
Wow !! You saw a mola-mola !!!!!!! this is the first time I 'heard of a mola mola sighting around Sipadan . You're very fortunate. i must have done close to a hundred dives ar ound Bali and Lombok hoping to catch a glimpse of one but yet to get lucky. did you manage to get any photos ?

I wish we had not been so excited about aour MM discovery and we had gotten pics. By the time we saw it, realized it was not an alien from outer space and then tried to remember the underwater sign language name for it...it was gone! But we did get veriication from our Haris, our DM that indeed it was the "Mother" Mola! They say they haven't spotted one there in over 12 years! I concider myself very lucky to have seen half the stuff we saw on that trip! The mating leopard/zebra sharks were so very cool. I love to catch a glimpse of animal behavior underwater instead of just swimming by. They must have been exhibitionist as they didn't seem to mind our company. The mating Mandarin fish is something I was dying to see and was not dissappointed with our sightings! So much sex underwater! Who knew????
I would highly recommend Sipadan/Mabul to anyone who wants to see a huge variety of stuff ...on every dive!
The only bummer was all the trash in the water. The removal of all the dive operations on Sipidan has caused a lot of trash to be floating around. They did let us do our surface intervals on the island but not sure how much longer that will last. You were ony allowed to roam in a very small area on Sipidan during your break and the military were there to make sure you didn't step over the barriers. Still, it was a wonderful place and i would go back in a heartbeat!
Susie

 

[Tassie_Rohan]

Hey y'all,
I just returned May 28th from Mabul SMART. While we didn't stay at the SMART water bungalos we did get to view them. They were beautiful, I will agree. But I like to feel the sand beneath my feet, here the waves hit the shore and NOT have a television in my room in paradise. But hey! That's just me! The whole SMART dive operation is great. And I would call it one of the best places I have ever dived! (over 150 dives logged for me) We saw the pigmy seahorse, the sperm whales, the tornadoes of cudas, the walls of jacks, the mating mandarin fish and the mating leopard sharks and oh....did I mention the biggest mola mola in the entire world????
We had a blast, can ya tell?
I would highly reccommend SMART and ask for Haris as your Instuctor/Dive Master. He showed Jacques Cousteau around Sipadan way back when.
Go to mabul...you will love it!
Susie

I'm jealous that you found a pigmy seahorse! We went hunting for the little fellers on several dives - where were you, and more important: how deep were you?

Good to hear the whales and cuda were still around: other divers before us saw none: I guess you have to stay at Mabul for a week or so to make sure you see a barracuda school - if we had only spent 5 days on the island we would not have seen any either.

Cheers,
Rohan.