It was September of 2017 and I was just back from a dive trip to Pulau Tenggol in Malaysia and like every time I finish a dive trip, I was a bit depressed.
Over time, I have discovered that the best way to stave off that depression is to immediately plan the next dive trip.
The options were aplenty and since there was a chance that I would hit my 100th dive on this trip, I wanted it to be special:
- One option was heading back to Redang – where I got my PADI Open Water & Advanced Open Water Certification in 2015 with The Diver’s Den.
- Mergui Archipelago in Burma also beckoned – 10 days on a live aboard sounded blissful. I had really enjoyed my first live aboard experience in Similan & Surin Islands in March 2017.
- Philippines was another option – My trip to Cebu (Malapascua & Moalboal) in 2016 was the benchmark by which I measured all diving destinations till now.
- Sipadan is a must-do on every diver’s list and I thought it would be pretty good for the 100th dive.
I had pretty much zeroed on Sipadan and after researching various options decided to take the journey with Scuba Junkie and headed over to their website to figure out expenses and travel plans. While browsing the site I saw a the link to their new resort at Sangalaki in Indonesia and I was intrigued.
After the crowds on land and under water in Thailand, I was ready for a little off-beat place and the more I read, the more I was intrigued – Mantas guaranteed, Turtles below your rooms, Whale Sharks and Jellyfish Lake. This was it.
The only trouble was the travel – The 5000+ km trip which would be pretty much a direct trip – 6-7 hour trip if I was flying to Athens. Instead the best route I could plan was Mumbai – Singapore – Jakarta – Balikpapan – Berau followed by a 3 hour road trip and a one hour ferry ride – Exhausting!!!!!
But the decision was made and then started the correspondence with Scuba Junkie team and I peppered Dani from Scuba Junkie with a million questions which she answered calmly and with amazing amounts of patience (She must have some amazing meditation skills if even 10% of other enquirers were like me).
But as it worked out, February 2018 was perfect – dates were available, a buddy of mine could also join in and voila – there were awesome flight deals and the trip was booked.
Here are a couple of images of Sangalaki, as compensation for reading all the text so far and to convince you to continue the journey with me.
The Epic Journey which almost did not happen
Just a week before I had to travel – I had a personal emergency and had to cancel just 4 days before the trip in February and this is where I must especially thank the Scuba Junkie team, because they let me shift my travel date by a month for no charge after I explained the reason (I had to pay an additional USD 150 since my booking shifted from 2017 to 2018 rates)
I had to shift my airline for the Mumbai to Jakarta leg of the trip from Singapore Airlines to Jet Airways – A decision I would bitterly regret and if I had to do-over I would pay the difference and fly Garuda or Singapore Airlines instead of subjecting myself to the torture that is Jet Airways. And I say this as a Platinum Member of their Frequent Flier Program on Jet Airways.
After a rather uncomfortable 5 hour flight on the Jet Airways ageing A330-200, followed by a surprisingly comfortable short hop to Jakarta on Jetstar Asia A320, I was in Jakarta.
I had a layover of almost 13-14 hours and headed over to Ibis Budget on their free airport shuttle (every 90 min) near the airport at Jakarta for my layover. The room cost just under US$ 30 (Rs. 2000) for a night and included free airport shuttle and a decent bed which was good enough for me.
Just keep in mind that if you are sharing the room with a not so familiar friend, you will quickly become more than familiar since the shower area has no privacy to speak of also there is no tea/coffee kettle in the room. They do have a mini-mart on premises in case you have forgotten something.
I was super tired after the 12 hour journey so far and quickly nodded off and had to wake up at 2 am to catch the first shuttle to the airport at 3 am for a cramped Lion Air Flight to Balikpapan on a Boeing 737-900 ER. The aircraft was designed for an average height of 5ft 5 inches and anyone over that would have been severely uncomfortable.
Balikpapan Airport was surprisingly modern and very comfortable with much better WiFi than Jakarta’s Soekarno Hatta Airport. Lot of rest areas, good restaurants and super fast Wi-Fi and charging points and this would prove to be a blessing as my next flight – A Wings Air ATR 72-500 which was supposed to depart at 11 am was delayed almost 5 hours.
And the delay meant I could not cross over to Derawan Island on the same day and had to add an extra night to stay at Tanjung Batu in the Hotel Armageddon run by a nice gentleman for USD 17 or Rs. 1200 which Scuba Junkie helped me arrange since the night journey on the speedboat can be dangerous.
I helped myself to Maggi cup noodles for dinner before sleeping. I had to get up bright and early for a 6 am boat transfer to Derawan to finally complete an epic 58 hour journey to reach Derawan and start my dive adventures.
Thankfully the return journey was just about 28 hours, which seems positively quick in comparison.
Check out the expenses tab at the bottom to get an estimate of how much this journey will cost you.
The Diving Begins - Day One - Derawan Islands
I met Deb at the jetty and was shown to my room. After a quick shower I went to the rest area to meet my fellow divers. Three of them were bursting with excitement after just having come back from snorkelling with three whale sharks at dawn and one of them almost took a ride on the shark’s back when it surfaced below her suddenly,
Talk about a story to take back with you.
Do check out Scuba Junkie Sangalaki to know more about the resort and the diving.
One of the most awesome things about diving is meeting really interesting people from different parts of the globe and this one was no different.
John and Deb, a lovely English couple took care of the dive briefing in a very professional manner and I got to meet my fellow divers – an eclectic mix from different parts of the world.
The first day diving was in Derawan island itself with Deb leading my group. This was my first dive after 7-8 months and it is always better to acclimatise in easier dives.
Little was I know to that Derawan was bent on surprising me with strong currents on first dive and I struggled to keep up finishing my dive in just 40 minutes. The other dives on that day were better.
Derawan has good macro-diving and we managed to see quite a few turtles, titan triggerfish, shrimps, batfish, jawfish, snappers and my favourite nudibranches.
For you land-lubbers – nudibranchs are sea slugs but unlike their ugly and boring land cousins, these are flamboyant creatures who come in amazing colours and designs and are rightfully called butterflies of the sea. Their bright colours are not always easy to spot on the colourful tropical reefs and you really need to peer into crevices and crannies in the coral to find them.
Here are a few of the beauties:
In addition, there were some other colourful residents – Boxfish, Gobies, Snapper, a large male turtle and the rather aggressive titan triggerfish – who most divers always give a wide berth.
And of course I these yellow trumpetfish, who along with banner fish and batfish are among my favourites of the regular reef species.
The diving day ended and we ended up on the charming little island of Derawan for the first time. It is just a small 2-3 km strip of road with little children playing all over, who will smile at you and happily share their names and practice your unfamiliar names for the fun of it. Some of the happiest kids I have ever met in my travel and without access to iPads and iPhones and high tech toys which we think are necessary to their happiness.
Dinner was at a warung (a small restaurant attached to a home) and prepared fresh after you order and hence a one hour wait after ordering your food is very normal but you can always pop by to a small shop nearby and purchase a beer to keep you company, while you wait.
There is a little green warung just at the left when you exit the Scuba Junkie jetty, which had the most delicious chicken satay I have ever tried and the other place was this little stall which you reach after walking 5 minutes to the right from the Scuba Junkie Jetty – where only three things are available but each is delicious – I especially loved the Mee Goreng.
Dinner was followed by a night of poker – The first time I played and managed not to be the first one who was out of the game but the winner of that night was indubitably a Taiwanese gentleman named Lee who had the perfect poker face and though he claimed it was his first time, he wiped the table clean of all other more experienced players.
Unfortunately, he left the next day without sharing any of his tricks.
Day Two – Snorkelling with Whale Sharks
Day Two began bright and early at 5 am when we went off to the fishing platforms of Derawan Islands to snorkel with whale sharks.
We reached the platforms where the whale sharks come to scoop out the small fish caught in the nets and are also fed by the local fishermen who thanks to scuba tourism see these sharks as revenue opportunities rather than nuisances.
Unlike Oslob in Philippines where this is very commercialised, at Sangalaki the fishermen treat the sharks with respect. It was just us and one more boat and we all had strict instructions not to touch or harass the sharks.
The minute we reached the jetty, I saw my first whale shark swimming just below the boat and I was a bit petrified to jump in since it was pitch dark and you could barely see anything in the water but I jumped in anyway and saw a beautiful 4 metre long whale shark just swimming by and before I knew it – there was a second one just visible in the murk which was also fairly big.
As the sky lightened, things got more interesting with a beautiful baby whale shark joining the group and when I say baby keep in mind that it was longer than me and quite a curious chap, who used to come quite close.
These three were soon joined by a 6-8 metre long whale shark and that is when things got really interesting. You had to be alert constantly since when you were watching one, all of a sudden another shark could turn up right next to you and you had to paddle furiously to get out of the way.
Whale Sharks have eyes at the side of their heads and hence do not see the front very well and you must take care not to be in that blindspot or they will barrel into you as one of the Czech divers found out, when one of the mid sized sharks bumped into the back of his head but luckily he had his hood on. Their skin is also very abrasive hence you must take care and not brush against one with your bare skin.
These guys were accompanied by a couple of blacktip reef sharks which in any other situation would have been the highlight of a dive but here were just ignored as a passing attraction.
After an exhilarating couple of hours, getting up close with these gentle giants, it was time to head back to the dive centre and get ready for the trip to Sangalaki island to dive with Manta Rays.
The pictures are grainy due to plankton in the water, which the Mantas feed on.
Along with some beautiful schools of fish and a couple of stunning nudibranchs which were spotted by our awesome divemaster Adie, who could spot the most well-disguised critter.
Unfortunately, I developed a bit of a ear equalisation problem on my last dive and had to end the dive early in less than half hour and that was a pity especially given the beautiful location.
The ride back home led to another round of beers, followed by the awesome chicken satay and a general chilling out time after a long day and I got the honour of naming a dive site at Sangalaki after HighGarden in Game of Thrones.
The next day promised to be equally thrilling as we were going to one of the highlights of the dive trip – Kakaban
Day Three: Going Kakabananas with Jellyfish
Kakaban is one of the marvels of nature, where a group of jellyfish have got isolated when an island was formed creating a salt water lake in the middle of the sea. There are four species of jellyfish in this lake which never evolved the ability to sting , since they were never in danger. This phenomenon can also be observed in Palau in the Philippines.
We got to visit the lake after the first dive after a short walk through a jungle and man was it a surreal experience just swimming with the jellyfish and even letting them touch you without being worried about having to pee on yourself later (Remember the F.R.I.E.N.D.S. episode where Monica gets stung)
There is a small charge to access this island for the day and it is quite reasonable for the experience.
The diving at Kakaban was all wall diving – which for a non-diver means that there is an underwater cliff filled with corals and you swim along the wall searching for nice stuff on the reefs or look back into the blue. If there is a current one can just ride the current, which can be a lot of fun.
The waters off Kakaban were rich in many different colourful reef fish like anemonefish, surgeonfish, oriental sweetlips, dartfish and we even managed to see 3-4 blacktip and white-tip reef sharks as well as a school of chevron barracudas.
While we did see a couple of nice nudibranchs, I missed the Banana Nudibranch, which gives one of the famous dive sites of Kakaban its name – Kakabanana – this rich yellow nudibranch looks just like a ripe banana. But we had lots of other company.
I managed to dive with John, Deb and Adie at different times over the day – as i kept switching teams.
We reached back for another awesome meal at a local warung with Mee Goreng, Satay and a couple of rounds of Bintang before settling down for a game called Undercover.
Day Four: Back on Derawan
Day Four dawned on a bitter-sweet note as we bid good-bye to 4 divers – and I realised I am halfway through my trip as well.
The resort was also welcoming 4 new divers and the day started a bit late since we were going to dive on the island of Derawan itself.
This time, unlike the first day – the dives were relatively more relaxed and for the next 3 days – I was diving with John for the rest of the trip.
Like the previous dive, we did not see much of the big stuff (sharks, rays etc) but we did catch some lovely nudibranches, shrimps and crabs. Unfortunately, the GoPro is not great at capturing these smaller creatures.
We did manage to meet a Flying Gurnet, which unfolds its fin to resemble eyes of a much larger fish.
There were 4-5 of the heavily camouflaged crocodilefish – which blend in so well that you could be right next to them and not spot them. This was one of the relatively less camouflaged specimens
We also spotted a stonefish but try as I might I am just not able to find him in the photograph.
We followed this up with a night dive on Derawan itself, which was fairly cool but frankly the night dives at Redang and Malapascua, were far better.
We did spot a couple of octopus, cuttlefish and a few crabs on this dive but nothing to write home about.
I was wiped with 4 dives on the day and pretty much crashed soon after dinner.
Day Five: Riding the currents in Maratua
Day Five and we were off to Maratua on one of the most bumpy rides that I have ever experienced with overcast skies and the threat of rain.
Surprisingly, while the surface was bleak and rainy, the water was crystal clear and this was by one of the most amazing days of diving.
The first thing we saw on jumping into the water was a thresher shark, which is a rare sighting except in Cebu, immediately followed by a large and beautiful honeycomb eel, a small tornado of barracudas and an eagle ray which relaxed in the current, even as we held on to the reef to be able to stay in one place and take a look at the lovely creature.
Even a few yellow-fin tunas came to check us out as did schools of snappers and fusiliers and trevallies.
Check out my Instagram and Facebook pages for some of these videos, since I cannot upload videos on this blog without paying WordPress. (Links available on home page)
Maratua is turtle paradise and we saw almost 30 turtles on a single dive, which must be a record.
The Scuba Junkie Team also removed a fishing net which had dropped on the reef and was a danger and took it up to the surface and destroyed the net. I was rather saddened to see the amount of plastic ending up in the pristine waters and do wish all countries across the world start recognising the hazards of plastic.
Luckily by the time we were heading back to Derawan, the skies had cleared out.
Day 6: Back to Sangalaki
Unlike the last time, this time, I managed to see atleast 10-12 manta rays over the course of the three dives and in addition, we had a number of white tip and black tip reef sharks.
I did get one decent still image of a white tip reef shark. They tend to be so fast otherwise that it is pretty much impossible to get a good still shot.
We also met quite a few Batfish over the course of the dive. These friendly and rather curious minded fishes are like dogs and will happily follow you around a dive site.
I also spotted three species of Lionfish. This one was the most beautiful of the lot.
Overall, this was the perfect way to finish the diving days at Scuba Junkie Sangalaki.
It was time for one last round of Bintang with Chicken Satay while enjoying the wonderful sunsets of Derawan
Day 7: The Return to Reality
Saturday morning,
I always hate the sight of the rest of the dive group heading out for a day of dives, while I have to get ready to head back to land.
And soon enough it was time for me to say goodbye to Scuba Junkie Sangalaki
An awesome dive trip in every way – A great and professionally run dive shop with excellent dive instructors and dive masters, beautiful diving and made some interesting friends.
The only regret was that I did not hit my first 100 here (the dive count stopped at 96 ). So the next trip needs to be even more special.
It is time to start thinking of the next dive destination.
The list is already in my mind – Bali, Komodo, Sipadan, Burma, Egypt or should I do a quick trip within India itself to the Andamans.
Hmmmmm …. time to start the research again.
In the meantime, if you want any information on Derawan or Sangalaki, feel free to ask away and I will get back as soon as possible.
Expenses & Budgeting
For the experience, the trip was completely worth it.
- Scuba Junkie Sangalaki – US$ 950/Rs. 62,000 (for 8D/7N with 18 dives, all equipment rental and breakfast and lunch included
- Return Flight from Mumbai to Jakarta – US$ 400/Rs. 26,000
- (Again I would recommend you opt for Garuda, Thai Airways or Singapore Airlines and avoid Jet Airways if the fares are competitive)
- Return Flights from Jakarta to Berau – US$ 150/Rs. 10,000 on Lion Air/Wings Air
- I am pretty sure I will not fly Lion Air again after this trip. Do yourself a favour and choose Garuda or Sriwijaya
- Travel from Berau to Sangalaki (car and ferry) – US$ 120/Rs. 8000 for the return trip
- Dinner – US$3/Rs. 200 for a mee goreng or ikan bakar.
- Beer – US$ 2-3/Rs. 150-300 per can (Bintang is cheap and there is a local Guinness Beer can which is nice but nothing like the original Guiness)
- Whale Shark Snorkelling – US$50/Rs. 3300 per boat of max 4 people
- SIM Card with upto 4 GB data – US$20/Rs. 1200. Purchase only Telekomsel SIM card at the airport since recharge is easily available on the island. I ended up with an Axiata SIM card which worked on the island but could not be recharged.
Notes & Musings
I am just a hobbyist and have not really invested in high end equipment for photography or diving.Having said that all the content and images in this blog are mine unless explicitly stated otherwise. Please ask for permission before using any of the images.
My iPhone 6S Plus is my companion for most of my land journeys along with my trusty old Canon EOS T6i with a regular 18-55 mm lens and a 55-250 mm zoom lens.
My underwater pictures are with the GoPro Hero 4 Silver and while the videos are fine, the camera is not really the best for macro (small creatures) and still photography. Hopefully next year, I will get something a bit better, but underwater cameras are frightfully expensive I have zeroed down on the Sealife DC2000, which seems like a good yet affordable option.
As regards dive equipment, I have a prescription mask (since I have a high number and an aversion to contact lens) and I need to buy a new mask because in case this one breaks, I will be stuck during my dive trip, since I will be almost blind underwater.
I also purchased my first dive computer a couple of years ago – A Cressi Leonardo but if you are planning to buy a dive computer – please evaluate carefully. While the Cressi Leonardo is competent, tough, simple to use and has Nitrox capability.
It does have some cons – It is a bulky and is known to be a conservative dive computer (along with the Suunto Zoop). This means that when you are doing repetitive diving, especially deeper than 20 metre repetitive dives – you will run out of NDL much faster than others and will be forced to go shallow or do a deco stop. And since every reputed dive shop will insist you follow your computer instructions, it does tend to be a bit of a bummer when you gain more experience and are able to conserve air better.
However, since this one is less than 2 years old and in good condition, I will wait before replacing it with something else.
The next on my purchase list are a pair of fins, since if you don’t get a good pair of fins from the dive shop on rent, it impacts your air consumption as well as ability to enjoy a dive. Thankfully, I have been lucky enough on this front so far, except for one trip. The ScubaPro Seawing Nova is on the shortlist here (after a strong recommendation from another diver I met during this trip)
overland&undersea 