Borneo [Malaysia and Indonesia] - July 2009
Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic translation made from a post originally written in French. My apologies for any strange sentences and funny mistakes that may have been generated during the process. If you are reading French, click on the French flag below to access the original and correct text:
Français A new little film for lovers of manta rays ... I finally got down to editing my videos, brought back from Sangalaki ! This small Indonesian island, located off the coast of Borneo, is part of the Derawan archipelago, where I stayed for about ten days last July.
Video: Sangalaki's manta rays
Mantas are easy to observe and almost guaranteed in Sangalaki! Both on the surface with fins and mask, and underwater when diving.
They are the big attraction of the area, with the turtles of Derawan and non-irritating jellyfish from Kakaban.
Excursion to Sangalaki
Well, obviously, Sangalaki is a bit of a world away. To have the chance to observe these wonders, it is better to have time in front of you ...
The easiest way is to stay on the neighboring island of Derawan, as I did (there are a lot of guesthouses at a cheap price in the village), and organize a day trip to Sangalaki, renting a boat.
There was a very chic and expensive resort before, on Sangalaki itself, but it is closed and abandoned.
On the island, there are nothing but dragons hiding in the bushes, and some guards, who take your name in their register when you disembark to picnic, between two plouffs. They live in a building at the back of the resort and look after a small WWF turtle conservation center. as in Derawan.
Sangalaki maps
To locate Sangalaki, some maps below. Starting with a Google Map for a global view:
Display Sangalaki on a larger map
The location of islands and dive sites, found on LombokMarine.com (attention, on this site, the information concerning the accommodations are not up to date, in particular on the resort of Sangalaki, now closed):
And this one, very precise, for the different islands of the archipelago, borrowed from the excellent site Starfish.ch :
Sangalaki on Small Bubbles Elsewhere
Finally, on this blog, the different posts where I've already talked about Sangalaki :
► Mantas and nudibranchs
► The mantas rays of Sangalaki
► Dreams of mantas
🙄
