Semporna the Gateway to Diving Heaven Sipadan

Semporna

For most people, a stay in Semporna is just a stepping stone on the way to the marvelous islands in the Semporna Archipelago. So our recommendation is stay as short as possible and find a place on one of the amazing islands around.

How to get to Semporna

Getting to Semporna is rather straight forward. There are buses from all the major cities in Sabah, such as Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan and it is possible to hop on/off these buses along their path, for example if you wish to visit Dannum Valley or Kinabatangan river. Flights from Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur etc land in just 1 hour away by car/bus. We tried to use buses as often as possible to reduce our impact on the environment.

What to do in Semporna

The city of Semporna itself is rather uninteresting. Most of the tourist facilities are situated near the pier and there is really no good reason to venture out of this area. Nested among the hotels, restaurants, bars, dive shops etc, you will also find a big supermarket and a large fish market with lots and lots of sea food (if you are into that kind of thing).

Semporna Market

Semporna Fisherman

As we are vegan we were very sad to see all the fishes on the fish market. We prefer to see them underwater during diving.

Semporna Fish Market

Where to stay in Semporna

There are plenty backpacker hostels which are very cheap just pick one. If you are diving you can get discount for the room if you book through your dive shop. You can also use this link to get 19EUR discount we will get the same. Click.

Vegan Food in Semporna

For dinner we found a restaurant which had amazing Thai Tofu on the menu and plenty of vegetable choices, its situated along the main pier rather at the end. This was quite delicious. For breakfast we bought some cereals and soy milk in the supermarket and had it with fresh papaya in the morning.

Vegan Food in Semporna

From now on I will always bring a reusable straw on our trips its just impossible to drink a coconut without a straw.

We also found some very cute cats 🙂

Semporna Cat

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