Search for Mantas @ Derawan Island Resort

Yes the Eightsome are back from Derawan.. Here's my bit to share with all of you dive bummies.. Please don't fall asleep reading!!

Pre departure we had our usual preparations in mind ie. dive gears, camera gears. Some of the smarter ones had other preparations in mind - food! Sebastian and Linda, though both of you had the BIGGEST suitcase and the MOST bags, you also ensured that we had LOTS of yummy snacks and MILO! Thank you sooo much!! We will never leave on a diving trip without both of you for sure!

On 20th Sept, dive bummies Eric (our organiser - thank you Eric, if not for you we wouldn't have visited Derawan/Sangalaki), Caryn, Elvin, Eugene, Sebastian, Linda, Toon and myself gathered at Brunei International Airport @ 1800 hrs to board our 1930 hrs flight to Jakarta. Someone left their passport at home and we nearly left him behind!! Luckily, he was sent to the airport earlier and was able to get his passport sent over in plenty of time before check in (email me to verify if your guess is right).

A two hour flight to Jakarta (1 hr behind us) we stayed overnight at the airport hotel. Rising bright and early 0400hrs the next morning, we boarded Air Asia @ 0630hrs for another two hour flight to Balikpapan. From Elvin's research and experience, we were extremely dismayed to find out at Jakarta airport that the check in counter and manager on duty had no knowledge of the 10kg allowance granted to divers (ie. 25kg instead of 15kg per person). Our arguments and persuasion was useless. We ended up at the excess baggage counter paying $600,000.00! That would mean a $75000.00 loan for each of us!! Can you imagine how and where we were going to get the funding for such a great amount?!? We were traumatized! (By the way, that was in rupiah ie. BND$100 - hhaha gotcha!) But anyway we are extremely disappointed that Air Asia did not live up to their words. Not only that, the aircraft was less than a quarter filled!!

Arriving Balikpapan at 0930hrs (back to Brunei time), we were greeted by DM Tohir from Derawan to catch the Kalstar flight to Berau @ 1030hrs. This time, we were greeted with open arms, a mere fokker aircraft with a seating capacity of half Air Asia and a full flight, we checked in with no excess!! An hour or so later, we landed at macro Berau airport. Nope, no conveyor belts, nothing.

Next, was a twenty minute car ride ermm what was it? A mini van? ermm the door didn't close.. hmm.. well it got us to the boat! Nearly there... just another two hour boat ride (one hour on the river, one hour on the sea)... roughly 1430hrs we reached our destination - Derawan Island. Our home for the next seven days.

Our first orientation dive was a boat dive @ 1600 hrs to Darma site. According to DM Tohir and Adhi, we were the luckiest group in three years to sight a manta at Derawan and on our first dive! Water was 28 degrees celcius, a two or three notch difference from home waters, Caryn and I were freezing during our dive and upon surfacing our lips had turned blue, we were both shivering. Thats it! we decided tomorrow, we are going in with a hood/vest!!

Oh, did I mention, we had the whole resort to ourselves throughout the entire stay??

Dinner was buffet style, unfortunately i dont really have much to comment on the food (though i was told that a dive bummie, diving at derawan in 2006 said the food was great!.. hmm. well dont blame you entirely.. different people have different taste.. or was it a bias opinion?). A typical day on Derawan Island (home to 700 people) - sunrise dive, eat, 830am boat dive, eat, 11am boat dive, eat, 3pm boat dive, eat, sunset dive, eat, shit (not for some of us who accumulate til pregnant with shit), sleep.

What did we see? EVERYTHING! From macro to pelagics:-

Manta rays, Eagle ray, Purple fire goby, Red fire goby, Metallic ray goby, Seamoth Devil scorpion fish, Squat lobster, Sharon shrimp, Black tip shark, Grey reef shark, White tip shark, Hammerhead @ Kakaban!! ,Turtles Barracudas, Jacks, Spanish Dancer, Cuttlefish, Octopus, Jaw fish with eggs (if we stayed an extra five days we could have seen them hatching), Two eyed lion fish, Decorative crab, Blue spotted stingray, Honeycomb moray eel, Stingless jellyfish (four types), Ambonian (sexy) shrimp, Oranghutan crab, Ghost pipefish, Banded pipefish, Juvenile Tang and many many more!

Diving at Sangalaki (one hour boat journey) in search for manta rays, with its beautiful white sand beds gives great opportunities for beautiful wide angle shots. We spent our surface interval snorkelling with the mantas - much more than we saw on the dive itself!

In Maratua (one and a half hour boat ride), we got to experience our first extreme dive in search for sharks - strong currents and I mean STRONG, holding on to monkey whips with our masks very close to flying off our faces! If you ever considered trying out a current dive, this is the place, HIGHLY recommended! Eugene's mission after this dive is to search for a similar current dive in Brunei (good luck!). Before our dive we visited Nabucco Island Resort - very nice and catered to the European market.

On Friday 28th Sept, we said goodbye to Derawan @ 5am to board 0830hrs flight to Balikpapan, leaving behind DM Tohir & Adhi, many wonderful memories and Elvin's red filter lens (lost @ Tuturga). We later found out that Elvin also left behind his polo shirt! Let's hope he gets it back somehow..

Arriving Balikpapan an hour later, we were not prepared for a four hour delay!! Guess who the culprit was? You guessed right! AirAsia!! We killed our time by eating to our hearts content at the executive lounge, foot reflexology, massage, hair wash and watching movies (thank God for the invention of laptops!!). After the long wait we finally arrived Jakarta @ 1950 instead of 1540, shopping was off our list!

We arrived back in Brunei on Saturday 29th Sept @ 1830 hrs. I was glad to be back - home sweet home.. I am so grateful now for my home.. Its a luxury compared to the past few days..

For photos, please visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/underseaserenity/

divebumsadmin said…: Thank you fellow dive bummies for making this trip a wonderful and memorable ones! :) *CLIM*

sebastian ngo said…: Thank you 4 d Great shoot of me Sebastian d handsome molesting Sexy Lady Manta....... Wahkahboommmm......... N not 4getting d rest of my sayang Derawan buddies.......you guz r the greatest n really enjoyed your companion....lets do it again.......Tis time i'll make sure Tat n Anny will join us. LOVE U GUZS!!!!!!!!! MUAKKKKKKK

Elvin Hii said…: Thanks to Cha Lorry, who tookgreat picture of me with the Manta...
I like the place just that water is bit cold for me, it next time DM can increase the temperature by 2 more degree celsius, then I will luv the place more! By the way, the DM found my red filter that was lost underwater, they still searching for my burberry t-shirts in my room, der......!