Well I have had some really bad dives that I wish I am back in the office...

Taking advantage of season-opening Early Bird Promotion (see another post here), I visited Redang Island again from 28~30 March 2009. No diving this time, only signing up for the standard 3D2N snorkeling package, but nevertheless as tired if not more.

Redang Island, a beautiful tropical island retreat, is located 45km off the coast of Terengganu state, about 400km from Kuala Lumpur. It can be reached either by air (http://www.airasia.com, http://www.malaysiaairlines.com) or by road. Either way, you will en route Kuala Terengganu, the state capital of Terengganu. Besides that. Berjaya Air operates Dash 7 flights directly touching down on the island from Subang Airport, Kuala Lumpur.

Sharing some of the transportation details from my March 2009 Redang 3D2N trip:

Getting There & Around

Kuala Lumpur (Putra Bus Terminal ) -> Kuala Terengganu Bus Terminal:

• The bus departed on-the-dot at 10.00pm from the Putra Bus Terminal near PWTC, streaked through the night with its air-conditional at full power as usual. I was shivering under a thin jacket. The bus stopped at a rest area at around 1:30am, for 30 minutes or so. We reached Kuala Terengganu Bus Terminal at 4:30am.
• Whole journey: 6.5 hours.
• Bus operator: I used Trans National. There are many other operators plying the same route, some have better repo than the other. But do expect the bus, regardless of which operators, to be heavy on the right foot at night trips. Just sleep it through or you will start to have weird thoughts.
• Cost: RM 38.00 one-way
• On the final day of the trip, we took the 1pm bus from KT back to KL. It was boring. Too early or bright to really sleep.
• Notes:
  • warm clothing is required to survive the bus trip for normal human beings
  • long distance bus runs on schedule. Be on time or see your bus leaves without you on board. 11pm bus might be better for this route so that you will be reaching at 5:30am. The Redang resorts operator normally arranged ground transport to reach Kuala Terengganu Bus Terminal at 6:30am, so the wait tme is shorter. Do check with resort operators before booking.
  • There is a McDonald’s just beside the KT Bus Terminal, and now it starts to serve breakfast at 4am – what a godsend! Just order some food and take a nap there waiting for the ground transport to arrive.

KT Bus Terminal -> Merang Jetty (ground transport):

• the resort can arrange this, but this normally is not included in the published package cost.
• The journey from KT to Merang takes about 45mins.
• Cost: depends on the resort, as the resort helps to arrange this. Redang Holiday Beach Villa charged RM20/person for two-way transport.
• Note:
  • Some resorts are not using Merang Jetty. Best is to leave this to be arranged by the resort.

Merang Jetty -> Redang Island (boat transport):

• resort package includes this.
• Boat journey: around 1 hour.
• some resorts are using better boats than others. The resort that I was staying with overloaded both ways to and fro. Worse yet, no life jackets were distributed! People have started to forget about the Oct 2007 Bluewater ferry incident where it caught fire and sank near Pulau Tioman killing 4. Government has vowed to enforce strict regulations, but WHERE???

Snorkeling Trips (fishing boat transport):

Snorkellers swam to embark the boat

• Redang Holiday Beach Villa uses probably the worst type of boat for the snorkeling trips – it looks like one of those fishing boats. Due to its size, it can’t be moored to the beach, not to mention it travels so damn slow. All other boats zoom pass it.
• To embark an disembark, we have to swim to it, about 20m from the beach.
• Standard 3D2N package includes 3 snorkeling trips where 1 of them is scheduled at the Marine Park (Park Fee: RM5/person)
• I envy those resorts that use catamaran…

On the Long Beach (Pasir Panjang):

• Stroll. Enjoy the beach. And anything on it.
• From one end (Redang Holiday Beach Villa) to the other (Laguna Redang, Redang Reef Resort), it takes less than 20mins.

Long Beach - white sand, pristine water

Redang Holiday Beach Villa - Seaview Semi-D Bungalow

Visited Redang again last weekend, 28~30 March 2009 to be exact. No diving this time, just 3D2N snorkeling pacakge. This write up is not really about the trip as a whole, but just about the resort we were staying during the trip – Redang Holiday Beach Villa.

This resort is the at one of the extreme ends of the Pasir Panjang, while another grand resort, Laguna Resort, is at the other end. The Redang Holiday side of the beach is more laid back while at the Laguna side, there are stage set up for live bands at Laguna Resort and Redang Beach Resort. The music runs late into the nights especially during weekends.

We chose the Seaview Semi-D Bungalow, which offers arguably the best view among all Redang resorts.The bungalows are built at the side of the hill slopes. The view up here is superb – half of the Pasir Panjang Beach and the unlimited sea view just outside the doorstep literally. On top of that, the semi-D bungalow units are built among the woods, making one feels really close to the nature. Can’t say the same to the grand Laguna Resort – it is huge, contemporary, classy and happening, but I just don’t see it fit into the Redang settings. Maybe it is just me, or sour grapes – I can’t (and won’t) afford the Laguna pricing for seaview rooms.

The Seaview bungalows are built in woods, providing a nature setting.

The Redang Holiday Beach Villa, like most of other Redang resorts, offers Early Bird Promotion annually. From mid February to end of March (some resorts even runs into mid of April), the package price is 20~30% cheaper. This is to attract more business as the island is just opening up to tourists after the monsoon close-down period (November ~ mid February), and the sea is still relatively choppy during this period.

The buffer-style is OK, not excellent but adequate. One of the 2 dinners is BBQ buffet dinner, and I love the BBQ lamb chop!

Service from the staff is great, they wear the smiles more often than not. There are a couple of India-national workers too in the restaurant. However, the snorkeling trip is a bit messy – the resort uses a big fishing boat for snorkeling trips. Due to the size of the boat, it can only anchor about 20m from the shore. This makes getting on and off the boat a havoc, especially some of the tourists are not good in swimming. Luckily no big incidents happen, but this can certainly be improved by using catamaran or smaller boats.

At the surface, Redang is still great. But down under, corals are bleaching and damaged...

On top of the package price, here are the extra costs

• RM20 for 2-way Kuala Terengganu Jetty -> Bus Terminal van transport
• RM5 for Marine Park entry (applicable if joining snorkelling or diving trip to Marine Park)
• RM10 for life jacket rental (for the duration of the stay)

Redang Holiday Beach Villa - Early Bird Promotion Package Price

To me, a really nice resort is those that can blend well with the local settings, but in the same time contains the ‘nature’ factor, as well as make it simple. Rhetoric is unnessary.

3 words for Redang Holiday Beach Villa: Keep it up!

4 words for Laguna Redang: KISS! (Keep it simple, Stupid!)

But… it is not all that rosy for Redang Holiday Beach Villa as a whole…

The boat transfer to and fro the island is overloaded, and making matter worse, it doesn’t have enough life jackets. The boatmen don’t even make an effort to distribute them anyway. This is really bad. Tioman Bluewater ferry case in Oct 2007 came into mind.

Another shortfall is that they are using fishing boat for snorkeling trips – see my other post here with further details.

So, make your own informed decision whether to select this resort. I love the place but hate the attitude to not go fix the boat/life jacket issue even after the Tioman tragedy.

Sipadan Island - Tiny but Famed

It’s been a while – 6 months to be exact – since I came back from my Sipadan trip, but it is just like yesterday, that I can still remember details of the trip. I had my best dives, not saying a lot as I have just over 50 in total, but the memories of this trip will not go away for a very long time. Because the trip is very special to me.

So, I am obligated to write down some notes about this trip, on one hand to record down my memories, but on the other hand promote our own little Malaysian islands – Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalai – to the rest of the travelers and divers. Not that these famed islands still need any more promotion, though.

Some trip information for my 5D4N Sipadan trip last August (8/82008 ~ 12/8/2008):

Getting There, Around and Away

• Airasia has daily flights plying between Kuala Lumpur (KUL) to Tawau (TWU). The 3-hour fight cost me RM225. Budget airlines’ ticket fare varies greatly depending on the timing of booking – either book well ahead, or wait for one of those frequent promotions.

• Tawau -> Semporna: Van transport was pre-arranged with dive shop of our choice, Scuba Junkie. The 1-hour undulating journey costs RM20 per person one-way.

• Semporna -> Mabul Island: The dive boat dropped us at Arung Hayat Longhouse @ Mabul Island after the 1st dive day, and this island was where I stayed for the next few days. Sipadan has no more resorts since a few years back where the State Government decided to do the right thing. Mabul Island is the prefect spot to stay in order to dive Sipadan. However, the return trip from Mabul Island to Semporna is not included, and it costs RM50/person for a speedboat trip arranged by the Longhouse.

• On Mabul: well, use legs, i.e walk. It takes less than an hour to walk to whole island one round. There are some villages scattered on the island with LOTS of kids running around. Some souvenir shops can be found among the villages too. For us that stay in the budget longhouse, the dive boat will be waiting for us at the other site of the island. We will need to walk for about 10mins across the island to reach the jetty, no big deal.

Accommodation

Village on Mabul Island

1st night: Stayed at Scube Junkie’s Backpackers at Semporna Seafront. Budget accommodation, standard room costs RM40/night if dive with Scuba Junkie, with air-conditional but share toilets. There are only limited number of rooms so do book ahead of time. The rooms are not numbered, but by marine life like turtle, barracuda, clownfish etc. A simple breakfast is included.

2nd ~ 4th nights: Stayed on Mabul Island, and more specifically, the Arung Hayat Longhouse that Scuba Junkie has affiliation with. The longhouse, situated at the southwest of the isand, extends out from the stony beach to swallow sea on top of wooden stilts. There are probably less than 15 rooms so advance booking is recommended. Sipadan Island can be seen from the longhouse.

Arung Hayat Longhouse’s air-conditional room with attached bathroom costs RM80/person/night for twin sharing room. Rooms without attached bath room costs RM60/person/night. All meals are included, and free flow of coffee plain water and breads. Dinner is nice with local food, and having dinner under the gusting sea wind is definitely icing on the cake with Sipadan in sight.

There are a few other longhouses in Mabul that provide budget accommodation too, as well as some luxurious ones (list not in any particular order):

Mabul Island's Resort Locations

• Sipadan Water Village (SWV), an up-market dive resort built over shallow sea – expect to pay upwards of RM2500/person for 5D4N trip. A friend of mine just got back and really enjoyed it. Basically you get what you paid for. The resort’s house reef is the so called “Artificial Reef” dive site. And unlimited house reef diving! 2 URLs:
  • http://www.sipadanwatervillage.com
  • http://www.swvresort.com

• Borneo Divers

• Sipadan Mabul Resort (SMART)

• Mabul Water Bulnglows, same owner as SMART, has the chalet built above the sea

• Uncle Chang’s Sipadan Mabul Dive Lodge, longhouse lodge similar like the Arung Hayat. Heard some good reviews from friend that went snorkelling with them, and I met Uncle’s Chang’s nephew (as a dive master) when go diving in Tioman last year.

• Seaventures Dive Resort (converted from oil rig), 1km away from the beach near Borneo Divers. Offers unlimited house reef dives too! This platform/resort sounds interesting and unique, but I would prefer to stay on Mabul to see the villages.

• Arung Hayat Longhouse (Scuba Junkie): This is the one that I stayed, with view of the Sipadan Island some distance away. Sipadan Island is located at the south of Mabul Island.

Kapalai Island, or should I say, sand bank, has a very nice resort/water chalet – Sipadan Kapalai Dive Resort - built on it too. Have a glimpse of the resort when I was having my 2 dives near Kapalai. The latest copy of Sport Diving magazine (issue 132) has an article about this nice resort. Unsure about the rate but definitely upmarket stuff. (I just found out that the article is free to view: http://www.divetheblue.net/pdf/132_Kapalai.pdf)

Alternatively, it is possible to stay at Semporna, and having daily diving trip to Sipadan, Mabul or Kapalaim but you will have to endure a longer boat trip, of ~45mins to 1 hour, in order to reach your first dive site, and as long when you have done for the day, heading back to Semporna. There are plenty of budget accommodation choices in Semporna, but I’d strongly recommend to stay in Mabul Island. It is much closer to the actions – dive sites are literally on the door step if you stay in Seaventures or SWV, and the tiny island with its villages is really fun to explore.

Expenses

Sipadan Expenses

• Fun dives pricing (Scuba Junkie), as of August 2008:
• 3 dives, Mabul/Kapalai: RM250
• 3 dives, Sipadan: RM300
• Equipment Rental: RM50/day
• Sipadan National Park Fee: RM40
• I lost one of the fins and was made to pay RM150…

Dive Sites

Many great dive sites around these 3 islands, but here are the ones that I dived:

Sipadan:

1. South Point
2. Barracuda Point
3. Hanging Garden

Mabul:

1. Artificial Reef
2. Froggie
3. Seaventures

Kapalai: 2 unknown dive sites.

Marine Life

Devil Scorpionfish flapping its colorful 'wings' when disturbed

Lots of stuff, but my first ever sightings are:

• Great Barracuda
• Ribbon Eels, both adult and juvenile
• Crocodilefish
• Devil Scorpionfish
• Juvenile Many-Spotted Sweetlips – the little dancing queen!
• Leaf Fish

I love Mabul and Kapalai for the muck dives, but Sipadan is unforgettable, with the many sharks and turtle sightings, the schools of Barracuda, and of course, the trill of unlimited deep blue below me.

Tips

1. Mabul/Semporna gets dark early, at about 6:30pm
2. Bring enough cash. No ATM facilities on Mabul AFAIK. Semporna has a few banks and ATMs.
3. Electricity on Mabul is not a problem. 220~240V, 50~60Hz.
4. Book advance with your choice dive operators if you want to dive Sipadan, because there is a daily quota. No such problem for diving in Mabul and Kapalai.
5. Stay longer – I did 3 dive days, and it is far from enough once we start tasting. Stay as long as you can (or your money allows)
6. Diving is all year long.
7. Walk the island if you stay in Mabul – villages, local childrens, serene Sipadan Water Village, view of Seaventures, and also enjoy the gentle sea gull at the end of jetty in the evening while admiring those having night dives just beneath you.