Sipadan Water Village or Mabul Water Bungalow

Hi All,

Would appreciate your recommendations.

Need the highest quality for a non diver.

Thanks

Ron

Sipadan water village does not have air conditioning, I believe MWB does; you may want to check this for the benefit of the non-diver.

Kapalai, on stilts, is romantic but isolated. There isn't that much for the non-diver on Mabul, if truth be told, so a non-diver will need a large bribe or to be in a very tolerant relationship! The spa in MWB is reported to be good, but I spent all of my time on Mabul diving, so what do I know?

Tim

Sipadan Water Village is a beautiful resort built over a coral reef on stilts with individual cottages, each with its own lei. Other then sun bathing, enjoying the vista, reading a book and surfing the internet there is basically nothing for a non-diver to do except maybe consuming alcohol to pass the time. There is a village on Mabul that supports the resort and local fishing, it is very poor with many huts without electricity or running water. One can walk the beach of Mabul and visit the village for maybe one day, but other than that there is nothing else to see on Mabul since you are land locked.........but the diving is excellent at Sipadan island!! Be sure to dive the house reef at SWV, both the shallow and far sections.

MWB is very nice, food is good and they give you bicycles to go around the island - You can also use the pool at the SMART resort (same owner), which is on the other side of the island. They do have aircon and satellite tv in the rooms.

Can't comment on SWV.

Cheers

Either choice would be fine in my opinion. SWV is slightly more tailored to their Japanese clientele, but is a decent resort nontheless.

In any case, better get there quick before the whole area, Sipadan and Mabul, becomes spoilt by poor local governance and planning. Click here for more info.

do not expect to dive sipadan every day as there are now very tight restrictions in place and the number of divers allowed to dive sipadan per day. in the past these numbers were not very well enforced ( or perhaps back handers were given ).

from what i have been told, there is a new army officer stationed at sipadan and he is sticking to the rules. obviously the diving at mabul and kapalai are great but dont be too disappointed if you only get a couple of dives in at sipadan.

as for the non diver, i would suggest plenty of books or a padi course.

have fun, stew