Kapalai is one of the famous diving resorts in Sabah, after Sipadan. Built on a sandbar, on stilts, the resort was a paradise resort for any divers. The service that is provided, is beyond a 5 star accommodation. I am sure any fellow divers would agree with me.
Aerial view of Kapalai *photo courtesy of www.borneo.com.au* We started off by staying overnight in Tawau, as I wanted to catch the first boat to Kapalai in the morning so that we could maximise our number of dives. In addition to that, it'll give us time to have dinner in Tawau, the home of seafood! :)
We stayed in Promenade Hotel, which is one of the newer hotels in the town. With a shopping complex located just next to the hotel, it should be pretty convenient. A very small complex, but I do think that there was a supermarket in the complex. We only had a quick wander into the complex so I'm not too sure.
Our room - junior suite
We managed to organize with our hotel to have dinner outside, at one of the more popular seafood restaurants.
Lobsters!! *on second thought - crayfish?*
Spoiled with choices My two favourite dishes :
Crayfish
Pipis aka lala In addition to the two, we had a plate of steamed fish and another seafood that I can't seem to remember and a plate of vegetables. And it only came up to RM 60 odd. How wonderful!!!!! The fish that we had would normally cost a couple of hundred/kg in KL I was told - so dinner was surprisingly cheap!
----------------------------
We started our diving journey at about 730 a.m the following day, after breakfast in the hotel. To get to Kapalai, we need to take a boat from Semporna, which is about 1.5 hours from Tawau. And from there, about another hour to the island. All arrangements were made by our booking agent, so all we needed to do was to register our name at the jetty.
At the Semporna Jetty Even here, we were able to see crabs :) 
And soon, we were in Kapalai! :)
Row of villas
Our room 
Bathroom The chalets were all above water and were very private. Despite the next villa being right next door, with perhaps 200cm apart from each other, the villas were constructed in a way that the next room were unable to see into each others. The only way that someone could see into your room, was from the ocean.
View from our roomOn the very same balcony, we were able to see squids, turtle, pipe fishes and a string ray swimming under our villa :).
And now, dive photos :). We did a total of 14 dives while we were there, including the 4 dives in Sipadan on our last day. I remember the last time I was in Sipadan, divers were still allowed to stay on the island itself, and that was in 2003. Now, the island is only allowed to have divers for daytrips. It is really a waste in some ways, coz in 2003 all my dives were in Sipadan and being a fan of macro diving, I didn't go to Mabul or Kapalai. But then again, it is probably a better conservation method to not allow divers to stay in Sipadan anymore. Only thing was that, I only did 4 dives in Sipadan this time instead of my 9 Sipadan dives in a 2 night stay in 2003.
First dive - Kapalai Jetty Orientation Dive
And of course, being famous for micro diving - there was plenty of nudibranches
And then the many more dives and sites :)
First turtle sighting of the trip!
First turtle sighting of the trip!
One of my favourite picture :)
Spanish dancer?*Didn't move one lil bit when I was there :( *
Common lionfish
Nudi on the move :)
And another...
Giant squid*The largest I've ever seen*
Mr Squid's left profile
We spent the rest of the second day lazing in the evening, taking in the sunset. It was gorgeous! :)
Kapalai @ sunset
Villas at sunset
:)In the 2 days that we were there, we dived at :
1. Kapalai Jetty (Orientation Dive)
2. Mid Reef Kapalai
3. Mabul Lobster Cove
4. Mabul Sea Adventure
5. Mid Reef Kapalai
6. Kapalai Jetty (Night dive)
*No photos on our night dive as the camera's battery died, and we lost our orientation and returned to shore instead*
No comments:
Post a Comment