Hari Raya @ Mabul

It's my favorite! I can't help it! Sabah is just the BEST Holiday spot for me! I LOVE it! Everything about this trip was fantastic. I'm writing this a month later and I still think I could have done without the Kampong Style living.... I have no idea how to describe it. Pretty much mixed feelings about it now. I definitely learnt a lot from it, but wouldn't want to experience it again, you know what I mean?

Day 1 was a loooooooooooooong day! We were up at 4am, checked in at 6:20, rushed through McD's breakfast at 6:50am, almost missed our flight at 1:10am, arrived Tawau at 10:30am, got to Mabul at almost 3pm!!! We were exhausted and just wanted to sleep, but our homestay didn't have electricity until 6pm!!! We paid RM20 per night to upgrade our room so that we had our own private bathrooms. I can't imagine it otherwise! I shall not go into details. I would like to focus on the positive experiences!

After a short 'nap', we came out for sunset... beautiful! The waters are amazingly clear! Dinner was served at 7pm, after which we headed back to near our room to watch the starts and drink some Vodka Ribena (Dom's mix). Slept at 10ish.

Electricity went off at 6am and I was wide awake by 7am! hahahah... I know! awake at dawn on a holiday! LOL!!! We had breakfast and took our boat to Kapalai Island... our first snorkeling trip out! Before I start talking about that, let me just say that we felt so inferior! Everyone there came for diving... after all, it is a diving paradise! Anyway, a resolution for us (maybe next New Year) is: Learn to Dive! We have to make another trim there for diving. Ok... back to Kapalai: the resort is amazing! We saw really good corals and a huge variety of fishes! Such amazing creatures!

After Kapalai, we went back to Mabul for lunch and to the rooms for an afternoon nap. I still couldn't sleep much so I sat outside on the bench and read my book (The 5 people you meet in Heaven). Once everyone was up (around 4ish) we changed and went to the other side of t he island where we found a better beachside. The water was nice and warm. We couldn't really see the sunset from where were, but we still had a few more days... no issues!

By the end of the night, we could do with some baileys... we had it by the jetty! Every night at the jetty, we kept seeing this HUGE turtle coming in. We couldn't wait for Sipadan, knowing we'll see a lot more of them!
By the 3rd day, I figured out how to keep cool during my afternoon nap! Have a nice shower, wash my hair and change into something cool (the kaftan was my best friend!). I then used the wet towel as my blanket and left the windows open for the breeze to come in! Feels so heavenly... slept like a baby!!!

By evening, we walked to another part of the island and found one of the high end resorts. Got a whole lot of great sunset picture (which I'm selling, if anyone's interested to buy). Saw a baby sting ray at the water bungalow as well as a water snake! That night, we finished out bottle of Vodka by the beach watching the millions of stars above us and almost dozed off listening to the sounds of the waves. The 4th day, we all woke up with excitement thinking and dreaming about our Sipadan trip! a quick breakfast and off we were for our 8:30am boat to paradise! Never in my life have I ever seen that many sharks beneath me!!! Honestly, I was freaked out initially... then I realized they don't do much but swim around (wasn't lunch time... yet!). At the 2nd snorkeling point, we saw more turtles! So huge & beautiful! Sipadan has so many varieties of fishes! Their corals are AMAZING!!! It was almost mid day and we burnt ourselves nicely but it was sooooo worth it!

On our last day, we went back to Kapalai since we didn't want to waste time hanging around for our afternoon boat back to Semporna. I have to admit, after Sipadan, Kapalai was rather a disappointment! We still had a good swim anyway and saw this BIG blue spotted sting ray hiding among the corals. After a little encounter Dom & Guna had with the baby Tiger fish, we headed back to Mabul for lunch, packed out things and time to head home!

I would recommend this trip to anyone who loves diving, beaches, relaxing and the sea!