Tag Archives: turtles

Malaysia, Travelinds

Semporna

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04 February 2014

Semporna is a very small city on the south eastern border of Sabah, Malaysia Borneo.  It is home to a wide range of cultural groups including Filipinos, Indonesians and Chinese Malaysians.  It relies on palm oil and tourism to sustain its economy.  It is best known for its association with some of the world’s most beautiful diving and snorkelling islands that lie just off the coastline.  Check out Travelinds posts on the gorgeous northern islands off Semporna’s coast – Sibuan, Mabul, Mataking and Timba-Timba.

First impression:

Upon arriving at this town via express bus, we were surprised to find a dirty, poorly maintained town with litter, water leaks and sorely evident poverty.  The overall vibe here was so different to that of other charming cities we had visited in Sabah and our sixth senses seemed to kick in to high alert.

Tourist attractions:

The only reason to visit Semporna is to use the town as a stepping stone across to the vast underwater beauty of its stunning coastline and surrounding islands.  Scuba Junkie are the dive operators of choice in Semporna.  The islands also boast fantastic white sandy beaches that rival the Tip of Borneo.

Getting here:

We took the Dyana Express Bus (from Sandakan MYR 40, about 6 hours, airconditioned, fairly comfortable).  The Dyana express bus terminal is only a ten minute walk down to the waterfront and boat jetty so the town is pretty small.  You could also take a taxi or intercity bus from Tawau (where the domestic airport is located), or an express bus from Kota Kinabalu.

Accomodation tips:

We stayed at City Inn (right next to the Dyana bus terminal, ten minutes walk from the jetty) for only MYR60 per night. It was clean, quiet, more reasonably priced than backpackers and comfortable. Trip Advisor reviews seemed a bit harsh for the value for money of this hotel.

Staying in Semporna and doing the dives/snorkel trips from there is highly recommended because it generally works out a lot cheaper than staying on Mabul Island.  There are also quite a few restaurant choices on the waterfront (unlike on Mabul Island) so this helps keep the budget in line.

If you are diving at Sipidan, however, you have to stay on Mabul Island or at Kapalai resort (this is usually arranged a little while beforehand though as things get booked up quite quickly).

The advice from a local dive instructor was that it was not really worth the money to stay on Mabul Island (no swimming beach, few restaurants, pricey accomodation) unless you were really into diving at a few of the exclusive spots.  For regular snorkellers/divers, like ourselves, it worked out better to stay in Semporna and take trips out to the islands every day.

Bus booking tip: 
If you are too tired or lazy to walk up to the Dyana bus terminal and book your tickets, there was a waitress at the Scuba Junkie restaurant who also does bookings for the bus from there.  She phones, books your seats, takes your cash and issues your official ticket. Helpful when it is the end of a long day of sunburn or passed office hours.
Philippines, Travelinds

Turtle Sunset

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New Year’s Eve 

Moalboal, Cebu, Philippines

A week in Moalboal was the perfect end to an exciting year of new experiences.  The Czech In resto provided a scrumptious sunset dinner of fresh seared Red Snapper and Tuna fillets – with a spectacular view of Panagsama Bay.

As the sun sank below the horizon, we watched the exquisite colours dancing across the sky.  Turtles popped their heads above the glassy water of the bay to take a breath and the swallows gathered to flit in great numbers from one side to other, as is their customary behavior around this time of the day.

Another daily scene was the groups of local children who swam and played together in the ocean, jumping off boats, paddling around the bay and having a whale of a time; while also entertaining the tourists looking on from the restaurant decks that jut out over the water.

As the sunset faded and night fell on 2013, a white yacht sailed into the bay and anchored for the night.  This was one of the most beautiful New Year’s Eve experiences I’ve had in a long time. What a perfect ending to a happy year!

Philippines, Travelinds

Chilling in Panagsama, Moalboal

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26 December 2013

There was a welcome break for one week over New Year’s, so we jetted off to Cebu for the week on a $200 return flight (Air Asia X) direct from Incheon International Airport to Mactan International Airport.

A three hour air-conditioned taxi ride later (at 2000 pesos, shared between four tourists we managed to round up) we arrived at Panagsama, Moalboal.  On the way back we took the local bus back to the Cebu City South Bus Terminal (open windows, less than 200 pesos, 4 hours) and enjoyed it much more than the crazy taxi driving. And then took a taxi from the bus terminal to the airport (220 pesos).

Sumisid lodge was everything we had hoped for and was well worth the trip.  With clean rooms and cosy facilities, it is a lovely little place with its own strip of beach sand and snorkelling spots right off the shore.  There are tables, chairs, sofas and beach loungers available and the adjacent dive center offers alternative activites, as well as motorbike hire options.  The breakfast options at Sumisid Lodge were great and the american breakfast (with REAL, crispy bacon) was our main preference for the week.

As this was a week between the end of semester and English Winter Camps, we literally did nothing for the entire six days. Two novels, a nice tan, plenty of delicious food and a lot of sleep left us feeling completely refreshed and ready to head back to work the next week.

We did take a walk along the coastline from Panagsama towards White Beach, but could only get as far as the Kasai Resort (read more here).  We didn’t do the trip to the nearby waterfall, or snorkel, or do any other ‘day trips’ that can be done to other parts of Cebu. We did take a short motorbike trip one morning to see White Beach, but after seeing our accomodation options (New Year’s week is quite full so not much was available), we quickly retreated back to Panagsama to lounge around at Sumisid lodge. Next time!

Panagsama strip is a great place for restaurant choice too and top three were:

1. Czech In (European cooking, fine-dining, high price) – try “fish of the day” and the tuna steak. The desserts were really delicious too!

2. The Pleasure Principle Resto (Mixed cuisine, reasonably priced) – great for lunches and excellent mango shakes!

3. Chilli Bar (Mixed cuisine, reasonably priced) – don’t miss out on sunset drinks and dinner to look over the bay at the turtles popping up all around.

Panagsama really impressed us with its chilled out vibe, friendly locals,reasonably priced restaurants and lodges and the many options to either relax or do a range of different activities.  We definitely hope to be back there soon!

Philippines, Travelinds

Turtle Point and Virgin Island

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22 January 2014

Balicasag Island

Part of our snorkel tour included a couple of hours at Balicasag Island (off the coast of Bohol).  We started out with snorkelling and then headed on to the deserted stretch of beach in front of the island lodge to wile away a few hours of sunshine.

Balicasag Island has a tiny local population most of whom thrive off the tourism to the island by selling trinkets and running the small local food stalls where tourists can grab a bite to eat.  There is also a lodge on the island which looked quite peaceful. It is a very small island and you could walk around it in under an hour. There are shallow reefs right off the beach which means you have to take a boat out to the drop-off to be able to snorkel.

This is, of course, another money grabbing scheme (not only to ‘protect the reefs’) because you need to pay a local boy to take you out to the spot on his tiny boat.  He supervises you and then returns you to the shore where you can go back to your original speedboat.  We had to pay the boatman to take us out to turtle point (he rows) in this TINY two man boat (three of us) against a very strong current. Interesting, and fun.  And we were happy to be supporting his monumental efforts at transporting at least 160kgs of us to the Turtle Point.  It didn’t look that far, but it took a long time to row out there.

The snorkelling choices here were one of three places (we could do more than one if we paid an additional fee per snorkel spot). We chose to go to “Turtle Point” as it seemed the least likely spot to be filled with boatloads of tourists. As we had hoped, we were the only ones snorkelling there, probably due to the very strong currents that abound off that particular point.  H held on to the boat for a while to try and stay in one place longer to admire the underwater beauty and R managed to read the currents a little better.

The main thing is that we actually swam with turtles, H for the first time, and we saw at least 15 turtles altogether.  It was super exciting! Turtles are really the most graceful creatures and despite looking like slow-pokes, it was impossible to keep up with them. It was an amazing experience!

Virgin Island

Virgin Island

The next stop on the island hopping tour was Virgin Island (it’s nickname only) and this was truly one of the most beautiful islands I have ever seen.  White sand and the bluest water colour of any bay I’ve seen around the world – it is so difficult to describe that clear-sparkling-blue-cobalt-turquoise-perfection!

The island has no shade whatsoever, so take suncream, hats and sarongs to cover yourself.  You can walk across a shallow sandbank to a mini island with a few mangrove trees.  Be careful, the sun is hot and the walk is way longer than it looks! Dodge the sea urchins and marvel at the beautiful pansy shells and starfish that lie strewn across this stretch of sand.

It was the perfect place to end the day with an afternoon snack of bananas and bread rolls our well-deserved reward for reaching the other side of the sandbank. Stunning!