Seahorse Sipadan Lodge

I honestly don't understand these great reviews. The staff of this place did nothing but lie to us and make fun of us from the very first moment. Let's start with our arrival.. they tell us that the low priced rooms are not available. We are about to leave and someone has canceled a reservation. We ask if it's possible to have just the room without having the meals included.. cleverly they pretend to call who knows which boss and obviously it can't be done. In fact, the head of the structure pretended to be a guest all the time, except before leaving when he rubbed his hands very well with our money, even teasing us by saying that we would meet in Italy! As soon as we arrive he cheekily asks me in front of my boyfriend to dance and sing as if I have to entertain him and the rest of the staff. In fact, not even one room was actually occupied by guests, but only by the "staff/family" of the place. We were assigned the first room at the entrance, probably the ugliest and the head of this structure cleverly placed himself in the room next door. The walls are basically cardboard. So zero privacy and kept under control all the time. One evening we leave our food outside the room (because **** cockroaches) and the next morning obviously disappeared, the "boss" justifies himself by saying that some children will have stolen it. We also had the impression several times that they made noise outside our room to annoy us / wake us up. The very spartan room and the very repetitive meals that don't justify the approximately €55 per night of this place. As you will read in other reviews you will not have access to the beach (almost in any structure on the island) and you will have to pay 30RM daily entrance to the nearby resort. Overall Mabul is a tourist trap, prices way out of proportion to the rest of Malaysia. Enchanting sea view but unusable beaches full of plastic to vomiting levels. I've read reviews about the nearby village, please don't give money to the children you find on the street, don't take pictures.. we are not at the zoo. If you don't want to spend much, go to backpackers mabul, the prices are similar and you will certainly be treated much better.