Visited: August 26-29, 2024
After nearly two weeks in the hot and humid rainforest, we went to Semporna in the south of Borneo for a couple days of island hopping to picturesque beaches and snorkeling. Semporna as a city is not considered an attractive destination. However, there are multiple islands off the coast that are renowned for their beauty, beaches, and snorkeling and diving opportunities.
There are many islands and even ocean bungalow (literally built on stilts in the water, not connected to land) accommodations. However, they are expensive. So, we decided to stay in a hostel in Semporna and take the popular daily island-hopping boat tours. After staying in two consecutive shared dorm rooms, we were excited to have our own private room. Unfortunately, the triple room we booked was so tiny – a shoebox – where we barely even had room to put our stuff. Oh well, we’d have to make do for another couple of days – on the upside it was incredibly cheap!
In the afternoon, we walked around town for a little bit, but there wasn’t much to see. It was hot so we went into a cafe to have something refreshing. I had a local shaved ice dessert and Nate had a milkshake and spring rolls.
In the evening, we did laundry which was a urgently needed as we had no fresh clothes left. Then we went to McDonald’s for dinner to satisfy Nate’s craving for a good American burger after a couple weeks of mediocre, repetitive food. I never eat at McDonald’s in the US, but I have to say it was really good and hit the spot!
Day 1 of Island Hopping: Timba Timba, Mataking, and Pom Pom Islands
We booked our first island hopping tour through our hostel for the next morning to visit three islands: Mataking, Pom Pom, and Timba Timba Islands. Dive Monster, our tour operator, picked us up in the morning and took us to the jetty to board our boat. We were on a small boat of about twenty people. Besides us, everyone else was Chinese. In fact, Semporna seems to be 95+% Chinese tourists. It was fascinating to see such an overwhelming majority of tourists from just one country.
We sped along in our boat for about an hour before we reached our first destination – Timba Timba Island. Timba Timba is a small island with a narrow white sand beach. Our boat was one of the first to arrive, giving us some time to enjoy it almost alone. We took obligatory pictures with the big Timba Timba sign and walked the length of the skinny beach. By the time we walked back, the beach was full of people. We stayed on the Timba Timba for about 45-mintues before pulling out to a snorkeling location offshore.
Nate was ready to go – snorkeling is one of his favorite activities. He was the first to jump off of the boat. I followed second. This snorkel experience was a milestone for me because it was the first time I snorkeled without a life vest. I enjoy snorkeling, but I cannot do it for long because I get so nauseous. Our hypothesis was that the life vest makes me bob more in the water, causing motion-sickness. Nate assured me that it was easier to float in saltwater, so I decided to try, and he was right! I was surprised how easy it was to float around. I enjoyed it more and was able to snorkel longer. I thought the snorkeling was quite good. Nate even saw a sea turtle deep in the water.
After an hour or so, it was time to get back on the boat and head to Mataking Island for lunch. Mataking is a bigger island and there was a large area with picnic tables for the many boats of tourists to have lunch. Our tour company had provided a box lunch for us which was pretty tasty. Then we went offshore to snorkel again. It was unfortunately a cloudy day so all of our pictures from this day look quite gloomy.
Snorkeling at Mataking was absolutely incredible. The coral reef was dense and full of activity. It was shallow so we snorkeled so close to the coral. It felt like I was swimming in Finding Nemo land. I saw so many Nemos and Marlins in sea anemones, Dory’s swimming around, and various other fish I recognized from the movie. Unfortunately, I eventually started feeling nauseous so had to get back on the boat before our time was up. But it was so cool. Nate says it’s one of the best snorkeling spots he’s ever been to.
Our last stop was Pom Pom Island, but we didn’t actually go on the island. We stopped by the island and snorkeled one more time. Here, the snorkeling wasn’t great. The reef was too deep to see much. I was feeling pretty sea/motion sick by this point, so I got out of the water pretty quickly.
Then we headed by to the Semporna jetty. I was ready to be back on land, as was Maddie. Unfortunately, the journey back was long and delayed for reasons unknown to us as at one point we just stopped for half an hour. Eventually, we made it back around 4pm.
We had a nice dinner at Sea Breeze Café next door to our hostel. The entrée, a noodle soup, was decent, but my peanut butter and chocolate waffle, was the scene stealer. We booked another island-hopping tour for the next day and went to bed, exhausted for a full day.
Day 2 of Island Hopping: Bohey Duhang, Mantabuan, and Sibuan Islands
We set off again the next morning for a day or islands and snorkeling. Our first stop was the gorgeous Bohey Duhang Island. Bohey Duhang is primarily known for a hike to the mountain top. Our hostel told us that due to rainy conditions, that the hike was cancelled. The hike is an additional fee, so we booked the tour without the hike. To our surprise, when we got on our boat, our guide said that the hike was happening. We asked if we could hike, but he said that it was not possible as we needed to register for the hike the day before per the national park policy.
When we got to the island, we tried to register on the spot, but were told it was not possible by the park officials. So, we just needed to wait around for the rest of our group to finish hiking. Impatient and bored, Nate was pacing around. Our tour guide noticed and offered to take us snorkeling, which was very nice of him as he didn’t need to do that.
This impromptu snorkel ended up being the highlight of the day. It was incredible. Snorkeling at Bohey Duhang is not in the standard itinerary of the day tours, which made this experience more special. The reef was so vibrant but also different from Mataking. There were so many sea urchins and sea stars. We were the only ones snorkeling. Unfortunately, I started to get tired and nauseous and tried to turn around to the boat only to find that the boat had left. Our guide pulled me on this tube the rest of the way to our boat. I was quite tired. We then got to sit on the boat admiring the beautiful views of the island for a while before we docked to pick up the rest of our group. Though we started with disappointment that we would not be able to hike, we were glad ended up snorkeling instead.
Next, we went to Mantabuan Island where we had lunch. Unlike at Mataking, there was no built up eating area, so we ate our box lunch sitting on a log. Mantabuan is on the border with the Philippines so there were soldiers stationed on the beach. We did not stay here for very long before we headed to the last island of the day: Sibuan.
Sibuan is a beautiful island also on the border with the Philippines. We could see a big patrol tower on one end of the island. We pulled onto a stunning white-sand beach on the other side of the island. It was gorgeous with the clear blue water against the white sand and the mountains in the background. It was my favorite beach over the two days.
Everyone went wild taking pictures. As I mentioned earlier, 95% of the tourists are Chinese. So, the picture taking was on another level. Most of them, especially the women, were here fully made-up and dressed for their Instagram photoshoots, in stark contrast with our unfashionable but practical outfits. Watching them doing photoshoots with the variety or poses and angles put me to shame. I watched in fascination trying to learn some poses from them, but I could not bring myself to mimic the poses and failed miserably. Nate though, was inspired and did a pretty good job! We did, however, still take plenty of our normal boring pictures.
Our last activity was snorkeling off of Sibuan Island. It was a stunning view of the island from our boat out in the water. The snorkeling was decent with a mix of shallow corals and deeper waters. However, it did not compare to Bohey Duang.
We then returned to the jetty and luckily, the ride back was smoother and quicker this time. After showering, we went back to Sea Breeze Café for dinner. Then packed up to get ready to go to Kuala Lumpur the next day. As much fun as everything had been on Borneo, we were all very ready to be in a big city with nice amenities and western comforts.
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