Sipadan Mabul Water Bungalows (SMART) - We just had the pleasure of spending 8 nights at the water bungalows and I have to say it was wonderful. The over water bungalows are great, no complaints about anything. Plenty of hot water for showers and air conditioning at night to sleep comfortably. Quiet, nice view, nice outdoor patio to relax on and dry some swimsuits on the laundry line. They seem to have thought of everything. Even had a TV
I wonder if it worked???
Staff the entire staff at SMART was excellent. The girls in the dining area were very efficient and incredibly pleasant and polite as they took care of cleaning up after us. The boat captains and boat boys were quite helpful ..since we do most of our diving in Bonaire where we take care of everything ourselves, it was a shock to have it all done for us. Gear was always on the boat ready to go, tanks swapped between dives, camera was always handled very carefully, all the gear rinsed and hung up after the dive .nice. Whether it was the bartender, the girls cleaning the room, the guys watering the plants, they all had a smile on their faces and always a pleasant greeting every time you passed one of them.
Food - Everything is served buffet style and they have a fairly good selection at each meal and plenty of it. Lots of fruit available. Of course, you dont like everything but there was always enough selection to be very satisfied. We were pleasantly surprised at the quality.
DMs this was the only hot and cold area we experienced. None of the staff was bad, just some obviously better than others. As it turned out we had a different DM every day. Normally you will pretty much have the same one during your stay but a lot of folks are there for less than 8 days so it may be somewhat easier to stay with one on a shorter trip.
Diving First things first, we did 25 dives, 11 at Sipadan. Believe it or not, we turned down 4 dives at Sipadan because we were tired and the 5 AM departure was too much. Life is harsh. This was our first trip to the far east so many of the critters were all new to us, which makes for a great adventure every dive. Constantly seeing new fish, corals, nudis, worms, etc. etc. is pretty exciting. The visibility was a bit less than hoped for but that is a function of the time of year I think. The weather was pretty good. Only raining on one day, rained a couple of nights while we slept and sunny about half the time ..no complaints. The muck diving around Mabul had anywhere from 15 feet vis to 40-50 feet on the walls depending on where you were. There was always a lot of crud (technical term) in the water everywhere on this trip. Vis was better at Sipadan, maybe 60 feet but still a lot of floating stuff in the water. The critter life at Mabul is amazing and the reefs at Sipadan were in great shape with a lot of turtles, sharks, and the obligatory chevron barracuda and bumphead parrot fish. On first glance, the house reef, at SMART, almost all man made, looks disappointing ..until you start really looking at what is there. Its pretty phenomenal! We saw a bit of everything including a goliath grouper as big as I am. The best Nemo picture I got was taken directly under the lounge beside the bar!
If there was a negative on the trip, it was in the quality of some of the other divers.......or more importantly, the lack thereof! I have to say it has been years since I have seen divers that bad, no buoyancy control, no concern for the reef, touching everything, standing on the reef, you name it we saw it. I am a photographer and i don't touch the reef, I don't harass the critters, I don't move them, I don't lay on the reef, I don't rest my camera against the reef to keep it still, I don't every wear gloves so that I can conveniently touch anywhere without worrying about something stinging me. On the second or third dives of the day with these groups we simply asked the DM to drop us off first and then take the thundering herd to some other part of the reef. They were quite accommodating to do this......but I would much prefer to have NOT had to make the request just to keep from getting pi$$ed off.
In case you didnt figure it out, we had a great trip at Mabul/Sipadan. We heartily recommend the SMART water bungalows, you wont be disappointed.
Staff the entire staff at SMART was excellent. The girls in the dining area were very efficient and incredibly pleasant and polite as they took care of cleaning up after us. The boat captains and boat boys were quite helpful ..since we do most of our diving in Bonaire where we take care of everything ourselves, it was a shock to have it all done for us. Gear was always on the boat ready to go, tanks swapped between dives, camera was always handled very carefully, all the gear rinsed and hung up after the dive .nice. Whether it was the bartender, the girls cleaning the room, the guys watering the plants, they all had a smile on their faces and always a pleasant greeting every time you passed one of them.
Food - Everything is served buffet style and they have a fairly good selection at each meal and plenty of it. Lots of fruit available. Of course, you dont like everything but there was always enough selection to be very satisfied. We were pleasantly surprised at the quality.
DMs this was the only hot and cold area we experienced. None of the staff was bad, just some obviously better than others. As it turned out we had a different DM every day. Normally you will pretty much have the same one during your stay but a lot of folks are there for less than 8 days so it may be somewhat easier to stay with one on a shorter trip.
Diving First things first, we did 25 dives, 11 at Sipadan. Believe it or not, we turned down 4 dives at Sipadan because we were tired and the 5 AM departure was too much. Life is harsh. This was our first trip to the far east so many of the critters were all new to us, which makes for a great adventure every dive. Constantly seeing new fish, corals, nudis, worms, etc. etc. is pretty exciting. The visibility was a bit less than hoped for but that is a function of the time of year I think. The weather was pretty good. Only raining on one day, rained a couple of nights while we slept and sunny about half the time ..no complaints. The muck diving around Mabul had anywhere from 15 feet vis to 40-50 feet on the walls depending on where you were. There was always a lot of crud (technical term) in the water everywhere on this trip. Vis was better at Sipadan, maybe 60 feet but still a lot of floating stuff in the water. The critter life at Mabul is amazing and the reefs at Sipadan were in great shape with a lot of turtles, sharks, and the obligatory chevron barracuda and bumphead parrot fish. On first glance, the house reef, at SMART, almost all man made, looks disappointing ..until you start really looking at what is there. Its pretty phenomenal! We saw a bit of everything including a goliath grouper as big as I am. The best Nemo picture I got was taken directly under the lounge beside the bar!
If there was a negative on the trip, it was in the quality of some of the other divers.......or more importantly, the lack thereof! I have to say it has been years since I have seen divers that bad, no buoyancy control, no concern for the reef, touching everything, standing on the reef, you name it we saw it. I am a photographer and i don't touch the reef, I don't harass the critters, I don't move them, I don't lay on the reef, I don't rest my camera against the reef to keep it still, I don't every wear gloves so that I can conveniently touch anywhere without worrying about something stinging me. On the second or third dives of the day with these groups we simply asked the DM to drop us off first and then take the thundering herd to some other part of the reef. They were quite accommodating to do this......but I would much prefer to have NOT had to make the request just to keep from getting pi$$ed off.
In case you didnt figure it out, we had a great trip at Mabul/Sipadan. We heartily recommend the SMART water bungalows, you wont be disappointed.
