A Night In Semporna

We checked in one of the rooms in Dragon Inn Hotel, Semporna. The room’s not bad for the price at RM66.00 per night. Anyway, I don’t think me and Inda will care that much about the room after the tiresome journey from K.L to Tawau. Moreover, only at Tawau airport, then I realized that I didn’t make any transport arrangement from the airport to Semporna. Thanks to Mat Tawau (driver of a minivan for one of the hotels in Tawau), he took us to Tawau from where we boarded a minivan to Semporna (one-way trip cost RM10.00 per person).

After a short nap and fully recharged body, we walked around Semporna town and bought the necessities that we probably need before reaching Kapalai. Be mindful of the pearl sellers at the Dragon Inn jetty. Honestly, I didn’t see anybody buying any pearls from them, something wrong perhaps?

The night scene at Dragon Inn is nothing less than picturesque. Lots of photography opportunities for bidding photographers. After checking our emails at the front office, we called it a day.


Since, there’s plenty of time before the rest of the gang arrived, we wondered at Semporna again the morning after. We stumbled upon the local franchise of the famous Kentucky Fried Chicken but had ‘roti canai’ instead. Most of the morning, spent looking for Inda’s head cap. Finally, she settled with one.
Semporna wet market is always bustling and don’t bother to bring any bag to stuff your purchases because they’ll be plenty of entrepreneurial kids ushering you to buy plastic bags.

By the time the rest of the gang arrived, we were already in our room, packed and ready to go. So, when time came, we walked to the Sipadan-Kapalai Resort jetty which is only a whiff away if you’re not carrying anything. But, with a bag full of clothes and scuba gears, it involved a lot of huff and puff, especially on my part.

We decided that this would be the best way to go for dive trips to the Sipadan area, one night in Semporna before the boat ride to any one of the islands. Fresh mind and energized body is the way to go.