Sangalaki, East Kalimantan, Indonesia trip report by Nicholas Moore

Just back from a fabulous week of diving in Sangalaki (East Kalimantan, Indonesia). Here follows a brief report on the resort and the diving!

Travel was very well organized by the resort. We flew to Balikpapan, and were met off the plane by the resort's agent, who saw us on to the flight to Berau. This flight took off only 45mins after the first flight landed. We were met at the other end, with a mini bus to the boat and straight to the island, no problems. However, the boat was a tiny single-engine speed boat, and it takes 3 hours to get to the island. Very pleasant on the river, less so bouncing around on the open ocean. It also seemed that the boat was not equipped with a radio or life jacket.

The resort was quite nice, pretty standard beach huts, but quite frankly it was overpriced. The resort manager was not on the island (got the impression she had not been for a while), and the staff did not seem happy. I understand the resort is up for sale, and came away with the impression that the owners were not investing in it because of this. There were only 4 guests for most of the time, so it was rather quiet.

The biggest problem with the resort was the price of beer at $6 US dollars. Basically we refused to pay this price. They even put the price up to $8 whilst we were there. They are not going to sell any at that price.

I'm also not 100% sure the resort should be there at all. The whole island is one big green turtle nest, babies were hatching all the time, and mothers lay on the island every night, even underneath your hut. The resort partly pays for some turtle conservation, who record nest sites, the ID of the turtle laying, and move the eggs if they are in a poor location. The also patrol for egg and turtle thieves and are totally happy to take you on a tour every night to watch it all happening. This is all good news but the tourists clearly interfere with the turtles.

Turtles hatching on the beach

Before laying their eggs the turtles are very nervous, and any lights or noise can put them off. There are plenty of lights in the resort, and they ask you to keep them off, but clearly people will forget, or need to turn them on. Besides, if you wander around with no light, you will probably tread on a turtle.....So swings and roundabouts really, no resort then probably nobody to guard the turtles, but with the resort less turtles laying due to disturbances.

A the dive centre there are several dive masters, and trainees, but only a couple with lots of experience. Most of the time 4 guests to one dive master, which was fine.

The boats are fast, and in good condition. Except the electric starters were missing, hence the boat guys got very fit starting twin 85's with a rope. The resort people carried the tanks all the time. We did 3 dives a day, 4 on the days with a night dive. All dives are boat dives as the reef is too far out to walk to. All Sangalaki dive sites are less than 10 minutes by boat.

The diving, in a word is fantastic. Mantas everywhere, we saw them in ones and twos during the dives, but when snorkeling we saw dozens. They ranged from large 3-4m width up to huge 5-6m sun-blockers. There were sharks too, mainly white-tips and leopard sharks, along with plenty of other stuff.

Kakaban island is nearby, and is excellent (so good we saw it twice). The diving around the island was in strong currents, and there were lots of big fish to see, such as Barracudas and sharks, etc. We had a bit of a moment, running into deco (and low on air) in a strong current, but nothing too dramatic. Sadly did not get a photo of the huge grey reef shark.

Inside Kakaban is the famous jellyfish lake. With clouds of non-stinging jellyfish, and other weird stuff. You cannot always get to the island, as even a moderate swell stops the boat from leaving Sangalaki.

To summarize Sangalaki offers great diving but the resort was not such a great choice. It is fairly hard work getting there. There are other resorts nearby that are supposed to be better. However they are a long way from the Mantas rays and the best diving.

Images from Sangalaki

(c) 2005 Nicholas Moore

To return to zerovisibility home, click here.