Dragon Inn Floating Resort owned by Datuk Seri Panglima Gan Sau Wah. Gan is the president of Sabah United Chinese Chambers of Commerce (SUCCC).

Other Facility :
conference/function room, credit card facilities, tourist information center, car rental/limousine service, mailing/courier service
 

The Dragon Inn is a floating resort built just off the marina at Semporna.

Dragon Inn is not an island resort by itself.

Opened in 1985, it is a popular pit stop for travelers heading to the world famous Sipadan and Mabul.

It offers a very distinguished resort experience not many places in Malaysia can offer.

The rooms are built on stilts and they have an amazing view of the ocean, Bajau Laut's lepa boats and sunsets.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE INN

Dragon Inn Floating Resort is a cluster of hardwood structures darkened with age sitting atop beams piled deep into a shallow seabed. It is not floating on water, and never float.

Wooden boardwalks lead to rooms, chalets, restaurants and a community hall with more walkways to viewing galleries fronting tree clad islands to the south and east.

Its the place overlooks the bay of Anjung Lepa (Balcony of Boats)
 

This floating resort looks amazing and the rooms are very spacious, great view from your room .

Outside your room you can have a nice walk on wooden boardwalk and look around the shops while still being inside the resort.
 

The Inn was not constructed by cement but build with eco-friendly materials. The room wall, for example, are covered by cutting from palm trees.

Rooms have some gaps on the wall,  certain gaps have sunray passing through to the room from outside.

The room is built on the water and when tides are strong, guest can feel slight vibration. This is part of the experience being living on a "Floating Hotel".

When you see big fish  below your room, you feel like in aquarium below your feet.

THE ROOMS

Rows and rows of hotel room look great from outside. Widespread, above the water and near some diveshops.

As the rooms are build of light weight Palm Board,  it is not sound-prove inside the rooms!

You hear every word and sigh inside neighbor rooms.

Being build above water and stand on sea water all year round, guest can expect the rooms to be warm and humit all year round.

The smell of Semporna sea is definetely different from the smell of Mount Kinabalu.

The experience of sleeping on water with the sound of waves crashing gently onto the inn's foundation columns is exciting especially for children.

The room floor cover with  wood planks, sometimes have cracks in it, so you good look straight at the water and fishes below.

Never mind about the GARBAGE drifting on the water, this is unfortunately a general problem of Semporna).

The bathrooms are 'open-air' so beware of mosquitos - and curious lurkers ;-).
*) This hotel stands just on the water! It's funny and interesting. You feel yourself in real nature when in the night you feel the punches of the waves at the pillars.

This hotel has a great location if you are in need for a place to sleep while waiting for transfer to Mabul or the other dive resorts.

We stayed several days in Semporna for snorkeling and diving. "Dragon Inn Resort" was our first try due to the late time. Our "Budget Room" is 80RM plus 50RM for the key's security deposit. It has a big room but VERY VERY POOR equipments. One worst part is the "bath area" (not a bathroom).
For a budget hotel, you get budget bathroom.

For foreign tourists, get the Rooms and keep the Dormetory for holiday student who could not affort. batter.

 

AQUARIUM

DIVERS' STOP OVER

This hotel is excellent stop over before leaving for diving spots. Very affordable inn for divers to spend the night before heading down to Mabul, Kapalai or Sipadan Island in the next morning.  Because divers' final destination is the dark blue sea, they do not expect too much out of a budget hotel where they merely spend over night.

BREAKFAST

Every chalet include with breakfast for 2 but the breakfast so funny because they just serve 1 set of toast + 2 hardboiled egg + Tea/Coffee per person so I think this is my worse breakfast that I had ever....!!!

*) The breakfast, included in the price of the room, is poor.

Do not expect full breakfast though in here cause you only be getting hard boiled eggs and toasts. It's good if you are diving in the next couple of hours.

Breakfast was included but really kind of a joke: two very soft boiled eggs and pre-prepared white sandwich with someting looking like jam.

Breakfast consisted of two slices of bread and a pack of jam.

DIVING COMPANIES

Most of the majour dive company have their offices also in this resort.

RESTAURANT

The restaurant is very expensive, and stuff there not enough polite, IMHO. Hahahaha... At night I and my famliy having our dinner at Pearl City Seafood Restaurant inside chalet area. The price for seafood I think its quite expensive. Total cost for 11pax is RM600!!!! Eventhough the price so expensive but the taste of food and the service + the enviroment its so great!!!!

INTERNET ACCESS

Absolutely no internet.

PVC POLLUTION

Some pollution in the sea water under your chalet.

LOCATION
The location is about 10 mins from center town. When we finished our dinner at night, it was really dark to walk back.
 

FACILITIES:
In total, there are about 70 rooms scattered throughout the floating resort. There are 6 VIP rooms, 7 family suites, 33 singles, 16 doubles, 3 longhouse units (each can fit in 18 pax), and 3 dormitory-style units (can fit in 4 pax per unit).

The longhouse and dormitory units are only equipped with fans, but the latter only have shared bathrooms. The single and double rooms are air-conditioned and come with hot shower (though the water pressure was rather abysmal during my visit).

The family and VIP suites are definitely larger and located on their own floating chalets. When I stayed at a family room, I also noticed the unit had some sort of a living room with wooden sofa and adequate windows that you can open to enjoy the immaculate sea breeze.

The resort also has a conference hall, a multi-purpose hall, a fabulous seafood restaurant called Restoren Bandar Mutiara and a number of natural aquariums where various types of ocean fish are reared for visitor showcase.

 

ATTRACTIONS:

Actually, there is almost no reason for anyone to come here except for the world-famous diving spots in Sipadan, and to some extent, Mabul and Kapalai.

Daily dive trips can be arranged from Semporna to Sipadan and the boat journey takes about 1 1/2 hours. Considering one usually pays through the nose to stay at Mabul or Kapalai, staying in mainland Semporna isn't exactly a bad idea, especially for yours truly.

Other than that, the daily lifestyle of the local Bajau Laut tribe (or sea gypsy) is worth mentioning. I am always smitten by their exotic lepa boat design and how they associate themselves with the bountiful ocean surrounding them.

A quick stroll to the nearby fishing harbour as well as the wet market is quite a spectacle, to say the least. Also, just right before sunset, you can witness the dozens of lepa boats parading themselves home, bringing back daily catch.

A short walk away out from the resort brings you to Semporna town with cheap bargains but the town itself is not entirely clean and organized.

At night, you MUST try the floating seafood restaurant (Restoran Bandar Mutiara). Cheap lobster and coral grouper taken fresh from the water and specially cooked for you. Lobster goes for RM50-60 per kg, while grouper goes at about RM40-50 per kg. 4-5 people can enjoy 1-kg of grouper.
 

Basic rooms, air conditioning, attached bathroom, local TV channels...