Customer Name: Sarah and Colin Newman
Date of travel: August 2010
Destination: Borneo, Malaysia
Holiday description: 10 nights at the Sipadan Mabul Diving Resort, 4 nights in Sandakan with 2 days Sandakan Safariv and 7 nights at The Reef and Dive Resort in Mataking Island.
Customer Comment:
Thank you so very much for organizing such an amazing holiday for us. You gave us just what we wanted unlike other travel agents.
We had a fantastic time at Sipadan Mabul Smart. It is just like their website. The people are just so friendly and if you ask for anything it is done straight away. The food is great and tea, coffee and water are available 24/7. The diving was fantastic with Nitrox available too. I had Yusari as my dive master and he was great, I also got to dive at Sipadan on two days. An early start, leaving there at 5.30 am!! But well worth while the only extra cost being the 40 Malaysian Ringits for the park permit. What a place to dive with four dives offered and all meals there. I got the chance to dive with sharks, turtles, bump head parrot fish, Barracudas and so many other amazing creatures. The second day I went Colin came and really enjoyed the beach and relaxing.
Then it was of to Sandakan for our jungle adventures. The Sandakan hotel was just perfect right in the centre of the town. A very friendly hotel. We had meals at the sea front, very cheap and very tasty.
Then it was time for Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary. It was an amazing place and we were lucky to see several Orang Utans. Then it was time for our Jungle and river trip. We went by boat to the Abai Jungle Lodge. It was a fantastic place and the food was great. The accommodation was described as “Basic” but it was perfect. While there we went on a river trip and were lucky enough to see some wild Orang Utans as well as other monkeys, birds and a crocodile. Then later a boat trip to see the fireflies followed by a night time jungle walk. The next morning we went to the Ox bow lake by boat and had coffee there on the lake. What an experience! Then it was breakfast in the jungle with an Orang Utan nearby. When it was time to leave there was a baby Orang Utan in the trees. After that we returned to Sandakan by boat and went to the Puh Jih Syh Temple. It was very beautiful with beautiful views over Sandakan . Then on to the Hotel Sabah for lunch and then back to the Hotel Sandakan. It was nice to be back. They had kept our main luggage for us while we were in the Jungle.
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Next we flew to Tawau to go on to Mataking. What an amazing place again just like their website. Very friendly staff, good food and great accommodation. The diving was fantastic with the visibility being a lot better than Mabul. Here I got to post a post card at 24 metres as you do !!!!!! The dive masters Hardy and Apong were great fun and good at spotting the creatures. While there we got to see turtles being released and also adopted a turtle nest. I also got to do some batik painting.
Thank you for organizing all the many flights (6) and all the transfers. I managed to fit in 44 dives on holiday. I would recommend this holiday to anyone and the timing in each place was perfect.
From Sarah and Colin
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