Dive Review of SMART/Mabul Water Bungalows in
Malaysia/Borneo

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SMART/Mabul Water Bungalows, Aug, 2006, by John Sommerer, MD, United States ( Contributor 15 reports with 7 Helpful votes). Report 3483.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Mabul Water Bungalows an up-scale partner of Sipadan-Mabul Resort (SMART). Great accomodations, good restaurant, great service, nice spa. Dive operation same as SMART. Did not group divers according to experience -- we had several dives with recent certifications, which is not good for either the muck (Mabul) nor the blue diving (Sipadan). Boat crews very good, helpful, and careful with your gear. One divemaster was great (Deniah): enthusiastic, talented, and flexible. Unfortunately, we spent most of our time with another (Eddy), who was none of these. Most irritating was his impatience to get the dive over with; he'd start signaling "safety stop" at 39 minutes. After he'd made a major screw-up (and there were several, including taking a group out into the blue and then losing his direction - we were out there for 35 minutes, until I went to the surface and took a compass bearing) you might get a 50 minute dive by way of apology. Despite listings on dive board, frequently changed dive sites to places closer to the resort. Only did Kapalai once. Some major issues with Sipadan permits. One couple who stayed 12 days only got to Sipadan 5 times. We went over twice to be turned back. Second time, all divers pushed back really hard, and we ended up doing both dives there on the side of the island away from the Malaysian military post, with our surface interval on the boat. Would not recommend going here until this is sorted out. Don't know if it's a problem in general, with SMART, or with our particular dive master. Resort did not volunteer refunds of the Sipadan levy. The muck is not remotely comparable to Lembeh, so Mabul is not a destination unto itself, in my opinion. Sipidan pretty much as advertised, with lots of turtles, big school of bumphead parrotfish (usually only seen on 6:00am dive at Barracuda Point), lots of whitetip sharks, fewer gray reef sharks, and an occasional hammerhead or leopard shark (South Point seemed best for the last three). Barracuda school there, but shy, and with new divers in our group both times we found them, we didn't see them for long. We did a long trip to see Borneo wildlife, which was great, and we had very good luck in both the Kinabatangan River (3 days) area and Danum Valley (3 days). If I was just diving, I would not come here. Komodo/Manado, Indonesia, and Palau represent better diving for comparable distance from US.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Caribbean, Micronesia, Polynesia, Indonesia, PNG, Galapagos, Costa Rica
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy	Seas	calm, choppy
Water Temp	82-84°F / 28-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	30-100 Ft/ 9-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	No deco. Dives limited to 45 minutes, including safety stop
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	1 or 2	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	If you want pictures of green turtles, or bumphead parrotfish, this is the place. Good coral also.

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Dive Review of SMART/Mabul Water Bungalows in Malaysia/Borneo

SMART/Mabul Water Bungalows, Aug, 2006,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of SMART/Mabul Water Bungalows in
Malaysia/Borneo