Tag: Semporna

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Semporna

June 7, 2016 Comments Off Interesting Places

Si Amil Beach, Semporna

Located nearby Semporna as the main town, Si Amil’s Island lush forest and abandoned World War II structures it a fascinating spot to investigate between dives. It is the main island in the region that provides a home to an expansive group of monkeys, they’re verifiably charming, yet be cautioned – these little critters can be somewhat of an irritation when they show up all of a sudden and start annoying you on the shoreline! While on the beach, an old 1930’s Japanese fish factory can be found.
Right next to Si Amil’s jetty is the old boilers from a World War II Japanese ship jut out of the ocean. Today Si Amil is not inhabited but Malaysia’s army does keep a base on the island not far from an old lighthouse built in 1952. Although no one calls Si Amil home, you can find 1,500 of the Bajau Laut or also known as sea gypsies living on nearby Danawan Island.

The island of Si Amil is absolutely uninhabited, so you can go for the day, yet it’s positively certainly justified regardless of a visit. You can arrive by boat from Semporna, which takes 60 minutes, or from Mabul, which half amount of time. After Sidapan Island, this is said to be the best spot for diving, specifically because of the boilers from an old Japanese wreck which extend out of the sea.

Be that as it may, you don’t need to be a diver to value this spot. Things are pretty much as fascinating ashore, where you’ll discover the remaining parts of an old fish processing plant that was worked as a cover for surveillance activities during World War 2.

There are various dives you can do around this island with a shifted experience to adjacent Sipadan. Sites include East Point, Celebes Reef, Maratua Reef and Jeffery’s Reef. The are all generally comparable and you can expect to see the same kind of stuff at every site. The life around Si Amil Island is macro so you need to draw near the reef and look closely. The reef is gently sloping with coral heads, bommies and sea fans dotted around. Divers can do Maratua Reef as a night dive and if you are lucky enough to see a bamboo shark in the shallows as well as basket stars, coral shrimps, decorated crabs and a slipper lobster.

Expect to see sea dragons, egg cowry shells, table coral, trunkfish, millions of nudibranchs and scorpionfish around this island. Taking a day out from Sipadan allows you to get your breath back again and look at a different type of interesting marine life.

February 14, 2016 Comments Off Interesting Places

Bohey Dulang Island, Semporna

About Bohey Dulang
Bohey Dulang (or also known as Boheydulong, Bohaydulong) with the size 313 hectares is the second largest island of Taman Tun Sakaran Marine Park. It is located 23 Kilometres away from Semporna.
A legend that told by the locals says there lives a beautiful princess named Salamia from Bum-Bum Island. She was hidden by her family there to avoid a forced marriage from a Sultan in the southern Philippines. Unfortunately after a few days, she vanished and believed to be hidden by the spirits of the island and turned into a pixie. Local claimed they can hear her singing and her dog will bark during the full moon. And sometimes she is seen walking around the island.
Bohey Dulang got its name from bohi(bohey) which means water and the word dulang meaning pools or depressions in Bajau language(natives people). This may refer to a series of oval rock pools, around 2-3 metres across, along the small waterfalls and main stream on the eastern side of the island.
Local says that these pools are the source for Princess Salamis for her drinking water. There is a large cave which is 40 metres high and over 20 metres long is located on the east side of Bohey Dulang too.

How to get here?
From Kota Kinabalu, you may need to take a bus from Terminal Inanam to Semporna which the journey will take around 8-9 hours. Or you can choose to go there by flight to Tawau which will take around 75 minutes of journey. And from Tawau you need to take another bus to Semporna.
From Semporna, you have to take a boat and it will take another 35 minutes before reach there.
But believe me! You won’t regret once you reached here. The island itself will welcome you with its blue ocean.
The Best Time to visit Bohey Dulang are from February to April (the dry months). If you visit during wetter months like July, August, December and January, your trip would have higher chance of being spoiled by heavy rainstorm of monsoon seasons, or not, it depends on your luck.

Things to do

Hiking
You need to climb a 600-Meter nature trail to reach the peak with a height of 265 Meters, which normally takes 40 minutes. The climb can be a bit challenging after rain, because some steep areas will become slippery and muddy. If you plan to climb this hill, please bring a proper walking shoe. And bring some drinking water as it is warm and humid in the forest and hot on the peak.

Bird Watching
In 1933, Bohey Dulang Island was declared as a Bird Sanctuary, a status that was revoked as a preliminary for the establishment of the marine park. Nowadays, Bohey Dulang is still a bird paradise for the bird watchers where species like black-naped fruit doves, owls, hornbills, partridges and babblers are freely roam the area.

Bajau Laut (Sea Gypsies) Village
Most tourists that come to the island come to catch a glimpse of the Bajau Laut settlements set amid the majestic backdrop of the mountainous Bodgaya and Bohey Dulang Island.

Snorkeling & Scuba Diving
Tun Sakaran Marine Park is located in Coral Triangle also known as Amazon of the Sea, which it supports one of the richest marine ecological zones in Malaysia. There are 528 species of coral reef fish are found in the park which it is much more than Sipadan Island(409), Redang(209), and Tioman (233). Full with over 320 species of hard and soft corals, and variety of sea creatures such as eagle rays, barracuda, and turtles, this park is well known as a scuba diving and snorkelling site

Accomodation
There are no any hotels or resorts on Bohey Dulang or on any of the other island within Tun Sakaran Marine Park.
Most visitors to the island stay in the coastal town of Semporna, where accommodation and dive packages are cheap.

Alternatively, visitors also stay in Mabul, Pom Pom, Mataking or Singamata and are brought in by boat.

January 30, 2016 Comments Off Interesting Places

Mabul Island, Semporna

Mabul is a little island off the south-eastern shoreline of Sabah in Malaysia. The island has been an angling town since the 1970s. At that point in the 1990s, it first got to be prevalent to divers because of its closeness to Sipadan island.

Mabul island is administered by Semporna, Tawau district.

Located 15 km from Sipadan, this 20-hectare piece of land surfaces 2–3 meters above sea level, consists mostly flat grounds and aerial view is oval-shaped. Surrounding it are sandy beaches, perched on the northwest corner of a larger two square kilometre reef.

Mabul is moreover prominent for its staggering display of full-scale life, making it a submerged picture taker’s dream zone to get a segment of the rarest natural species on film. Flamboyant cuttlefish, spike-fin gobies, blue-ringed octopus, moray eels, and frogfish are just a rate of the awesome critters you will encounter underneath the waters of Mabul.

Whether you’re arranging a laid back family occasion, sentimental venture or dive trip, you’ll discover a lot of activities and things to do in Pulau Mabul suitable for all age of groups.

If you come to the island for a vacation and not to dive, you can choose to stay at the resort that can provide you other activities such as swimming in a swimming pool with a sunken bar or you can enjoy the beauty of Mabul in a jacuzzi. A conventional massage is an unquestionable requirement on the off chance that you truly need to unwind, accessible at all the resorts (exception for Seaventures), or you can enjoy a full Spa treatment which available in Mabul Water Lodges.
Those that need to be more dynamic can investigate the island on mountain bicycle or oar around it in a kayak, both for rent at the Sipadan Mabul Resort. There is additionally the alternative of a session of beach volleyball.
**Note that every resort provides a different kind of leisure activities to attract their tourist 🙂

How to get here?
From Kota Kinabalu, take a 55-minute flight to Tawau and enjoy the view of palm oil plantation during an hour drive to Semporna. From here, Mabul is an additional 45 minutes by speedboat. Make sure to pre-arrangement transportation with your tour agent/dive operator.

January 29, 2016 Comments Off Interesting Places

Pom Pom Island, Semporna

Pom Island is a little coral reef island in the Celebes Sea roughly 30 km North East of Semporna town, Sabah, East Malaysia.

The island is level sand with the best ascent of under 2m over the HT line. The reef level is only 50-75m wide toward the west and a couple of hundred meters wide around a huge part of the island. The island has a white sand coral shoreline and is an imperative settling range site for Green and Hawksbill turtles. The island has no town, irrelevant human impact, no pollution and is one of the pervasive dive destinations in the Semporna district.

Pom Pom island is thickly lush with little trees, particularly from the pandanus gang. There are no screen reptiles or snakes despite the fact that these are found on other islands.

Marine Diversity
The marine biodiversity of Pom Island is astounding with numerous uncommon and remarkable species. The district is a piece of the coral triangle which has 500 or more coral species

Giant Frogfish can be seen everywhere - giant, painted and clown frogfish are routinely seen alongside just about the entire scorpion fish family

Giant Frogfish can be seen everywhere – giant, painted and clown frogfish are routinely seen alongside just about the entire scorpion fish family

Pom Pom island is a vital settling and nourishing site for Green and Hawksbill turtles.
The Green turtle settles lasting through the year yet crest settling is May to September. The Hawksbill homes in little numbers. Both turtles are available on the reef during the time with a normal of 7 green turtles seen every hour on a dive or snorkelling. The hawksbill is both not so much basic but rather more regional with the same people being routinely seen at Lobster divider, the North tip and Magic rocks.

Activities
The reef is on the edge of the mainland rack and the seabed encompassing the reef inclines out to 100 to 130 m deep.There are profound – close vertical – dividers beginning at 27-30m profound situated at the Northern tip, Eastern plateau and lobster wall. Depends upon tide the flow at these areas can be solid giving amazing float plunges with numerous sea fans and pelagic fish.

There are two dive resorts that available in Pom Pom Island
→ Pom Pom Island Resort & Spa
→ Welcome to Celebes Beach Resort

You can choose either 2 of the resort for you to enjoy your day there on the island.
A lot of activities that you can do while you are there,

For ocean lovers, there are;
→ Diving
→ Snorkeling and swimming, either from the shoreline or the wharf
→ Kayak Rental (It takes around 1 hour to kayak around the island, the best times are either at an early in the morning or after 4 pm at night to keep away from the warmth of the day and appreciate cool ocean breezes)

For wearing devotees, you can;
→ Play beach volleyball
→ Appreciate a session of football with the local people
→ Bicycling/Running (Appreciate bicycling or circling running/bicycle track where you can see the vegetable gardens and organic product trees or you can watch the dusk and appreciate sentimental strolls on the beach.)

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