So my job had again required me to go to the island of Mabul on the far East corner of Sabah. Flying into Tawau from KK on an early morning Air Asia flight, a bus was there to pick me up at the Tawau airport and took me to the town of Semporna where I had to get onto an hour of boat ride before reaching the beautiful island of Mabul.
It was my second visit to Mabul after my first visit back in 2018 so I basically already knew what there was to expect. I stayed at the famous Mabul Water Bungalows Resort – at a chalet on the island and not on the floating portion of the resort which was probably too expensive for me to stay in. But then, the chalet was located at my favourite spot of the whole island. I remember during my first visit to Mabul when I got so fascinated by the landscaping of the very spot which was dominated by coconut trees and well-tended spread of sandy beaches. It really reminded me of some tropical-themed filming set of a movie that I had watched or something.
The chalet was quite spacious, and the bed was made for at least two persons – but of course there was nothing wrong with having the bed all to myself. Not that I was not used to it anyway. At least I had some extra space to roll myself around – half or fully unconscious. The room opens up to its own veranda – and the veranda faces down to a dirt road which is the route of the buggy car service that transports visitors from the chalet area on the land to the floating portion of the resort. The beach was not immediately reachable from the chalet. In fact, I needed to do a little bit of walking before I could reach it, which was good because I remember staying very near to the beach at Tioman island where I could hardly bring myself to a decent night sleep against the continuous sound of the splashing sea waves. There had to be some distance from then on.
My stay at the Mabul island was a mixture of activities. For the first time in my life, I got to do some diving, albeit a closely guided one. We started off with a little bit of briefing on the diving techniques, the safety and the do and don’ts. Then we did some basic practices at a pool before moving on the real diving. Being a first-timer like most of the rest, things were quite messy, but it was easier than I had expected. I kept telling myself that if I were to do my first diving, I’d do it at Mabul, and that was exactly what happened. We were guided to do the diving up to 12 meters deep only, yet I caught sight and was visually mesmerised by so many wonderful things that the famed Sulu Sea had to offer, although I was quite sure it was only a very tiny portion of the whole lot.
Then of course there were the snorkelling sessions. It was not my first time doing it, in fact I had already done it quite a number of times – at the Andaman Sea in Thailand, then at Perhentian and Tioman islands on the East coast of the Malaysian Peninsula etc. – and yet none of those had had me mesmerised as much as the ones in Mabul had. I mean, the visual experience as I swam slowly across the azure clear water was amazing. To say it was visually captivating was an understatement. And it was only the training ground I couldn’t imagine how much more the underwater in the wider and deeper areas could offer. The world-famous Sipadan island which is located quite nearby is known to offer the sight of some of the most diverse marine life in the world. It all reminded of my long overdue plan to get myself a diving license so that I could go diving at the Sipadan island at least once in my life. I really hoped I could get myself around to it sooner than later now.
I also made my time doing a full circle around the island, walking across the villages and be enchanted again by the friendly locals just like they did when I first visited the island. Nothing much seemed to have changed, and it still came to my thoughts that the locals really deserved better. I mean, the island is raking in a lot of incomes from the booming tourism, and the locals are a very part of it so it is only right to give them what they deserve. It’s very saddening to see how a big portion of the villages still looks quite of a slum, and a majority of the locals still seems to be struggling with their day-to-day lives.
So the visit and stay at Mabul island was wrapped up with half-day island-hopping, during which I climbed again to the peak of Bohey Dulang to enjoy one of the best island views that anyone could probably get in the whole country. Probably still in the process of bouncing back from the after-effects of Covid-19, it was a lot less crowded than it was when I first did the climb to this beautiful island peak. It was a continuous stream of people back then, right from the bottom to the top and back. It was also a lot less crowded at the peak this time, so taking a picture without the crowds inter-framing wasn’t really much of a struggle this time.
Well, all in all, the trip to Mabul Island and the islands around it turned out to be a very enjoyable one. I mean, it was always a good feeling coming back to a place knowing that there is no guarantee there will ever be another (visit) to it in the future. One thing for sure though is that – Mabul will always be there, waiting for anybody who is lucky enough to get a chance to come to it and enjoy what it has to offer. Thank you Mabul!
