Last April,  my husband and I had a whim of a travel to Semporna, Sabah. Semporna houses the service to various of beautiful islands along the coast of Sabah. Read: Mabul Island, Tatagan, Bohey Dulang, Mantabuan, Mataking, and many more!

Our travel was such a last minute decision, we paid almost MYR1,000 for the flights alone. If you had ample time to plan, you can get a return flight to Tawau from MYR300+. And the accommodation left was not neat either. We booked our accommodation on the main island instead of on the small, beautiful islands since there were not many options available. 

Upon arrival, we took a Grab car to Semporna from Tawau Airport. The ride costs us approximately MYR92 and the journey took around 1 hour.

Semporna is a fairly small town, but equipped with basic facilities such as hospitals, numerous schools but it lacked Muslim eateries. You could see a few Malay-based restaurants, however due to mainland's Chinese tourists overflow, the market are catered to Chinese populations instead of Muslims. 

On our first day, we arrived so late in the afternoon which left us very little time for island hopping. We decided to went for a short hike instead - at Bukit Tengkorak or Skull Hill in Semporna. It was a 10-minutes ride from the town via Grab car. 

The hike was a breather but it was worth it. On top of the hill, you could see the magnificent turquoise water of Semporna and the smaller islands. The high grasses, the sea breeze, it actually does make you feel as if you don't want to leave. Bring along some food for a short picnic overlooking the magnificent open sea. 

Our second day consisted of several island hoping. We were scheduled to visit Tatagan Island - where the sea gypsies live, Bohey Dulang Island, Mantabuan & Sibuan Island. Bohey Dulang Island was where you could hike and see the formation of hills connected underneath the sea, but it was raining heavily prior to our arrival at the island. So we could not hike as the trail was closed. 

We did however snorkel in Mantabuan & Sibuan Island - the sea bed offers thousands of beautiful corals and unique fishes. Too bad we do not have underwater camera to actually capture the memories. But it's okay, pictures often do not do justice anyways.