Refer to below links for more Semporna trip blogs:1. Executive Summary: Executive Summary Blog2. Day 1 (Semporna): This Blog3. Day 2 (Timba Timba, Mataking, Pom Pom Island): Day 2 (Timba Timba, Mataking, Pom Pom Island)
Semporna
Day 1
😍Check in hotel at noon😍Free & easy in Semporna town (seafood restaurant for both lunch and dinner all at own cost)*exclude lunch and dinner*
Check in
We reached Tawau airport, sat shuttle van to Semporna town, and then checked in Airbnb at 12noon. Elly's home is a comfortable and beautiful house which is designed and decorated with pink color. The room is spacious, we have a lot of spaces to put luggage as well. There is a wardrobe and hanger for you to use. Some amenities such as mini fridge, TV (maintenance during our stay period), kettle and hairdryer are provided. The room hygiene is clean and well maintained, not a bad choice and good for value provided the price we have paid. The only downside is it is about 10 min walking distance from here to jetty (which has a lot of Chinese seafood restaurants, spa center, watson, guardian, and etcetera). However, you can sit grab which only costs few RM per way. For those who prefer convenience, may look for jetty's hotel directly!
Accommodation Name: 仙本那爱丽家民宿 Elly's homeBooking Method: Booking.com (Link here)Stay Date: 13 Feb 2022 - 14 Feb 2022Price: RM150 for 2 nights (2 pax occupancy)
Notes: You can follow agent's package to stay at Neo Paly Hotel too, which is located at a much strategic location, nearby seafood restaurants and jetty for day trips.
Stay in room 4 for 2 nights
住了民宿两晚
Spacious space and decorated pink in color
空间宽，又是粉色调
Balcony outside (but we never use)
有阳台在外面（不过我们没有用）
Shower room
浴室
Spacious toilet and decorated pink in color
厕所空间大，又是粉色调少女心哈哈
Accommodation Name: 仙本那爱丽家民宿 Elly's home
Booking Method: Booking.com (Link here)
Stay Date: 13 Feb 2022 - 14 Feb 2022
Price: RM150 for 2 nights (2 pax occupancy)
Notes: You can follow agent's package to stay at Neo Paly Hotel too, which is located at a much strategic location, nearby seafood restaurants and jetty for day trips.
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| Stay in room 4 for 2 nights 住了民宿两晚 |
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| Spacious space and decorated pink in color 空间宽，又是粉色调 |
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| Balcony outside (but we never use) 有阳台在外面（不过我们没有用） |
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| Shower room 浴室 |
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| Spacious toilet and decorated pink in color 厕所空间大，又是粉色调少女心哈哈 |
Lunch
For lunch, we headed to a seafood restaurant nearby jetty, called Fish Village Seafood Restaurant. to eat crabs and lobster! You can order from the sea gypsies/bajau laut who catches the seafoods from ocean and sell for a living, then pass the seafoods to restaurant owner and ask them to cook for you. Seafoods can be bargained and restaurant charge you an additional cooking cost. Alternatively you can purchase the seafoods directly from the restaurant owner, if you don't like the fuss to bargain. When you purchase from sea gypsies, usually they will be a flock of them who come to you offering their baskets and tongs of seafoods, they will try to "pester" you as much so you can buy more seafoods from them haha 😂. But everyone is trying to make a living here, and if you think the cost is reasonable, it is good to purchase and support the sea gypsies. The total damage for lunch is RM142 for us.
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| Fish Village Seafood Restaurant 渔港海鲜楼 |
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| Our lunch view with the vast ocean. The floating "houses" is actually Dragon Inn, serves as accommodation and some shops available (closed when we visit due to Covid pandemic) 我们的午餐是看着这片海景。图中的水上屋其实是当地的旅馆，提供住宿还有一些精品商店给游客逛逛（我们去的时候因为疫情商店没开） |
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| We ordered vegetables from the restaurant. Both lobster and crabs are from sea gypsies, they are still fresh and living when presented to us! Sea gypsies ("bajau laut") live on sea as they don't have identity and they make a living by selling fresh seafoods to people. When you buy the seafoods from them, there will be a few people surrounding you hoping to sell the seafoods to you. You can negotiate the price with them, it is up to you whether you think the price is worth it or not, but generally I can say the seafood price here is cheap and they are all fresh and have very succulent meats, is very worth to eat! After you buy the seafoods, you can bring to nearby restaurant to ask them cook for you (at an additional cooking cost), you can order vegetables too as add on. 我们和当地巴瑶族买了超级新鲜（还活着）的龙虾和螃蟹🦀。巴瑶族是生活在海上的，靠的是卖海产为生。和他们购买时，会有一群人围着你”推销”海鲜给你，海鲜可以杀价，价格看你怎么定了，不过可以说这里的海鲜很便宜又肥美新鲜，非常值得吃！买了海鲜后，可以拿去附近的餐厅叫他们煮给你吃（额外付煮的费用），这盘炒菜是在餐厅另外点的。 |
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| Big yummy Lobster! I forgot to take the original photo of lobster before sending for restaurant to cook! The sauce is creamy butter 这个龙虾真的很大只很好吃！我忘了拍照才拿去给餐厅烹饪，太可惜啦！ 我们点了奶油酱烹饪方式 |
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| See the lobster meat is so succulent and tender! I miss this lobster so much.. (guess is the "thickest" lobster meat that I have ever tried in many places around the world, super worth it!). Holidays in island is imperfect without lobster.. 相信我，龙虾真的很大，肉也很肥美！真的好想念这里的龙虾。。（感觉这里是我去过那么多国家，吃了肉质最“厚”的地方呢，超值！）。来了海岛没有龙虾就不那么完美啦 |
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| Crab with kam heong style. Wish to get more kam heong sauce, love it 螃蟹是甘香式的烹饪手法。酱很香，不过感觉酱有点太少啦，要是多些就好啦，好吃 |
Dinner
For dinner, we headed again to another seafood restaurant nearby jetty, called Then Wang Restaurant. Again, we purchased seafoods from the sea gypsies and brought to restaurant to cook them for us. We had abalones, prawns, mantis prawn for the night. You can always ask the waitress for the cooking style. They have a book for reference, but they will provide you advice on how to cook as well. The total damage for dinner is RM120 for us.
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| Different choices to cook the seafoods 多达15种类型的调味酱  Some of the seafoods (abalones, prawns, mantis prawn) we purchased from sea gypsies. We asked the waitress to put down nicely for us to take photo 我们和巴瑶族买的海产（鲍鱼，老虎虾，皮皮虾），我们叫服务员帮我们放在盆里给我们拍照 |
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| I am a seafood lover, yeahh! All of them are still living and moving..😱 That explains the freshness 😍.. But I not dare to touch them haha 😅 My 1st time to see abalone and mantis prawn look like this.. 我超爱吃海鲜的，哈哈！全部的海鲜都还是活的，还在蠕动。。😱 超级新鲜多汁😍。。 本来想拿皮皮虾上来拍照的，不过看到它们在蠕动，我害怕哈哈😅 第一次看到整只的鲍鱼和皮皮虾，原来是这样子的。。 |
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| Ordered mango juice and lemon juice. Love the mango juice here, it is pure and they give you mango flesh inside the ice blended drink! 叫了芒果汁和柠檬汁。超爱芒果汁的，还附上果肉，纯正香浓的口感， 喝下这杯芒果冰沙好爽！ |
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| Then Wang Restaurant is facing roadside, not directly facing ocean like the restaurant we visited during lunch 天旺餐厅是靠马路的，没有像下午我们去的看海景色 |
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| Time for dinner! 吃晚餐时间啦！ |
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| Our abalones (dried chilli style), prawns (butter milk style) and mantis prawn (steam egg style) 鲍鱼（辣椒干），老虎虾（奶油），皮皮虾（蒸蛋） |
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| Mantis prawn with steamed egg. The meat is very soft and tender. My husband enjoys this compared to usual prawn due to the softness and freshness of the meat 蒸蛋皮皮虾。肉质很软很嫩。我老公爱吃这个，多过老虎虾，他说这是他吃过最软嫩的皮皮虾 |
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| 6 abalones for only this small plate.. haha 😆 买了6大鲍鱼，切丝来炒竟然变得那么小盘了，哈哈 |
Walk Around
After dinner, we walked around Dragon Inn boardwalk, which was the floating houses view that we saw during lunch time just now. The floating houses consist of an inn for accommodation, some souvenir shops, Semporna tourism center, Le'Spa shop. Majority of them are closed during our visit. I would love to visit Le'Spa as you can see fishes swimming in the water when you do massage. The spa center is "floating" on the ocean so it is one of a kind spa experience, too bad it was closed due to pandemic. I have attached some photos extracted online for the view of Le'Spa. Even though we are not able to visit Le'Spa, we have visited another spa center on the next day, refer our Day 2 blog for more.
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| Dragon Inn |
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| Le'Spa, photo extracted from trip.com |
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| Le'Spa, photo extracted from k.sina.cn. Spa and massage while looking at the clear water below 按摩时可以看到下面清澈的海水，好酷啊 |
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| Le'Spa, photo extracted from trip.com |
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| Le'Spa, photo extracted from k.sina.cn. Get some nice sunset view while massaging. 可以一边按摩一边看日落 |
Refer to below links for more Semporna trip blogs:1. Executive Summary: Executive Summary Blog2. Day 1 (Semporna): This Blog
Day 1 Semporna wanderlust ends here! Interested to venture more of Semporna? Refer to the links for other posts! Please share with me if you have any comments or inquiries. Follow me in Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram to get updates on new videos, blog posts and photos too! Xoxo 💗
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💗 Author: Ng Mei Lian/ Adrian Yeoh Aun Hong
👉 Date: 13/2/2022
