Mabul Island > Kinabalu Park (16km, 30min by boat + 600m, 10min by car + 472km, 8h by bus)

As planned, well… not really, we stayed another night. I did not want to spend money on diving or snorkeling at first. The thing is there is no much else to do here. I’ve hesitated and finally paid a snorkeling session for 50Ringgit. Too bad I did not bring the GoPro with me because there is so much different fish here with amazing shape and colors.

Map.

We don’t even have to go really far to see starfish. They are just down the living room at our feet.

Many tiny fish stay or rest along the submerged pieces of wood that support the living room.

That’s how it’s looks from underneath.

Breakfast!

Ok, the snorkeling start at 10am. What can I do then? another lap around the island. Sounds like the best idea.

We walk anti clockwise again and start with the resort.

Houses in the shade with a nice breeze. How come you can not become lazy here?

We are now on the northern side where, I guess, the staff of the resorts live. That’s a nice plantation style.

We’ve seen a sign with that says “filtered water station” or something like that. Seems interesting to see how they collect water and take care of it on this sush tiny piece of land.

Well… this is not gonna work this way… They might use those tank a while ago.

That’s the workshop where they fix everything. Nice :-)

Oooh, that’s a big one! It is not moving at all.

Let’s go back next to the “coast”.

This pier leads to another resort where we are not allowed to go. It looks like this.

Few! That’s pretty nice :-)

This is going towards the local villages.

And this way towards the resort. Maybe I can try to walk a bit on it.

Wow, that’s a nice view of the island from here. We can realise how small is it.

Let’s take another way today through the village, not around on the beach.

Actually it’s not that dirty here compared to yesterday. The rubbish might come from the sea and no one bother cleaning them. I don’t know.

There is different shops and restaurant. The colours are outstanding here.

I’m now on the western part of Mabul, not far from the public school which is next to the backpacker.

Lots of house are made with different pieces of wood and other material.

Boats and houses cooperating with each other as it is the main transportation here. They take care of them.

Bric-a-brac, That what’s come to mind when I see this kind of place.

These are huge water containers. That must be something recent I guess. Let’s come back to the backpacker, it’s nearly 10am. The boat is leaving soon for the snorkeling.

---

Here we are :-)

The water is wonderful!

We arrived at Sipadan Kapalai, the snorkeling and diving place.

The colours are crazy here :-)

---

An hour and a half later, we came back “home”. We have so many different fish like a barracuda, many starfish, two turtles, a 50cm long swimming peacefully and a 90cm one sleeping under some coral. That was very nice. ‘Wish I had my camera…

That’s lunch time now ;-)

Know more to say, that view is wow :-)

This is our mother ship ;-)

4pm came on and that’s time to leave Mabul. We’ve planned to catch a bus tonight from Semporna to get to Kota Kinabalu park expecting that the summit is open. An earthquake happened last june and killed 18 person… This was the biggest earthquake since 1976! This is very unfortunate for those people. The track is normally opened since the first of December. We will see…
We met Bert from Holland on our way to Mabul yesterday. He is a cyclist too :-) He has done a trip from his home country to China four years ago. He now works in Vietnam and expect to do another cycling tour in South America in about two years. We all planned to go to Mount Kinabalu so we will travel together for the new few days.

Bye bye Mabul.

Short video of the travel back to Semporna.

We got back to Semporna, found a place where to eat and got on the bus as we wanted to. The trip from Semporna to Kota Kinabalu cost us 75Ringgit per person.

3:30am… The trip last 8 hours. We left yesterday at 7:30pm. That bus was too fast. It drop us off at the entrance of Kota Kinabalu Park but it’s 3 o’clock on the morning… And this is cold here! Well, there is not much things open now and nothing to do. Let’s find a spot where to finish our night. Stephane and Bert found two bench where to lay down, kind off. Myself, I’m just sleeping on the ground, on my mattrees, front of the toilets. I get use to it ;-) Good night!