The story of an island boy and a friendly male dugong (named Nicky) in Mantanani was once featured in Discovery Channel. Besides their touching friendship, viewers are also impressed by the beautiful scene of the island. Due to the mysterious and human-like appearance of dugong, the people call it “mermaid”. Mantanani consists of three islands, namely, Mantanani Kecil, Mantanani Besar and Lungisan.

Click Here to see more photos of Mantanani >>

Two years ago, I had a 2-day-1-night trip in Mari-Mari Dive Lodge on Mantanani Kecil Island. Earlier this month, I decided to have a day trip to Mantanani Besar Island this time. FYI, as of this writing, the accommodation (Mari-Mari Dive Lodge) of Mantanani Kecil is destroyed by storm and will be open in later date.

Above: jetty at Abai Village
There are a few tour operators such as Mari-Mari Backpackers Lodge on Mantanani Besar. You need to book the tour with them for day / overnight trip on Mantanani, they will arrange the land transport and boat transfer for you. First, a tour bus will bring you to jetty of Kg. Abai (Abai Village) in Kota Belud in the morning. The land transfer takes about 1.5 hours. A day trip to Mantanani costs about RM300 (about USD90), which includes return transport, lunch and 2 snorkeling (with gears).

Then you will take a boat at jetty to transfer to Mantanani. The boat ride takes about an hour, depend on the sea condition. It’ll take longer time if the sea is rough during bad weather. I know it’ll be a good day when I see the face of Mt. Kinabalu is clear of mist.

Everyone on the boat is in happy mood and we enjoy the ride and breeze. The ride took less than 1 hour.

Click Here to see more photos of Mantanani >>

Probably most are first-time visitors. I heard lot of WOW and WAH when they saw the crystal blue sea of Mantanani Besar. Many stood up and took photos like crazy and they couldn’t wait to get out of the boat to take a dip. The visibility is so good that we can see the corals deep in the water. You can watch the 2-min video below:

Unlike the yellow sand we see in other beaches, the sand on this island is white and as fine as powder.

Click Here to see more photos of Mantanani >>

The place we have our tea break is “Sayang-Sayang” (means Lovely), which is an area next to Mari-Mari Backpackers Lodge of Mantanani Besar Island.

Frankly, I don’t mind resting in this little hut and watch the sea all day long. You may watch the 40-sec video below to see the surrounding:

Click Here to see more photos of Mantanani >>
You can see Mt. Kinabalu and mainland from this side. What’s better than having blue sky, peaceful sea and our iconic mountain in one open view?

Above: Sayang-Sayang, the place we have our break and lunch.

Above: toilets nearby Sayang-Sayang

Click Here to see more photos of Mantanani >>

Above: a friendly cat

Above: a cattle asks for a share of our lunch. It’s from a nearby village of islanders. It doesn’t swim all the way here from mainland.

Click Here to see more photos of Mantanani >>

Above: The Mari-Mari Backpackers Lodge of Mantanani Besar looks really nice. Too bad I was on a day trip. There are about 10 of them and each house can host 4 guests. The starting price is about RM80/night per person. They will build more houses like this at Sayang-Sayang soon.

Above: reception counter of Mari-Mari Backpackers Lodge

Above: Cafe of Mari-Mari Backpackers Lodge. We collected our snorkeling mask, fin and life jacket behind this cafe.

Click Here to see more photos of Mantanani >>

Our day trip includes 2 snorkeling. You may go for Diving Package instead, which costs RM500 (about USD150) and includes 2 discovery scuba diving (no diver license required) in water of 3 to 7 Meters in depth.

Our first snorkeling site is near Magic Rock, an area near Mantanani Kecil Island. Though our snorkeling sites are far from shore, the depth is only 2 to 3 Meters only. The sea there is quite choppy and we were being tossed around by rough waves. At first I was having fun, then I started to feel dizzy after 10 minutes. All of us got seasick and felt very uncomfortable.

Click Here to see more photos of Mantanani >>
After returning to island for a lunch break, our boatman took us to second snorkeling site near the sand bars. This time the sea is calmer, but the water is quite cool and the current is strong too. Instead of fighting with the current, I just stay relax and let myself flow with the current and I was sent to a warmer zone. Then I felt something stinging me like mosquito. I look carefully and find that I’m in a swarm of translucent jelly bug! Their stings are very light so no worry. I saw a few tiny flashing jellyfishes, so cool..

Above: I wonder what is on that sand bar. Too bad we didn’t explore it. There might be tons of seashells and corals on it?

Click Here to see more photos of Mantanani >>
But to be very honest to you. I’m very disappointed with what I see during snorkeling. Even though I still see quite a number of fishes, most corals are dead and the rest don’t look healthy, a huge degrade compared to my last visit 2 years ago. Most of the time I saw carpet of white coral fragments in the sea bottom and soft corals are nearly nonexistent. I suspect the coral reefs of Mantanani is destroyed by blast fishing (fish bombing). Before I went here, I was told that the police on the island doesn’t stop fishermen to bomb the corals. The fishermen even share the bombed fishes with the police! No enforcement?!! I advise the government investigates this matter before all the corals are gone!

Besides, I don’t understand why Fishery Department allows Vietnamese Fishing Boats operate in our water. Those foreign fishermen are thieves, they hunt our sea turtles and steal our corals, then they smuggle out these illegal caught via a mother boat on the sea. I know a few anglers and they tell me that Mantanani is no longer their favorite fishing place like before, as there are less fishes now.

Anyway, Mantanani is still a beautiful island to those who only want the sea view and don’t care about the corals under the water.

Click Here to see more photos of Mantanani >>

Related Post
Mantanani Kecil (Mari-Mari Dive Lodge)

Photos taken in Kota Belud, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Lankayan Island is a tranquil tropical island in Sulu Sea off Sandakan. Situated within the Sea Turtle Corridor and Coral Triangle (a.k.a. “Amazon of the Seas”), Lankayan is also declared as Sugud Islands Marine Conservation Area (SIMCA) by Malaysia government in 2001. After visit orangutan and pygmy elephants in Kinabatangan, you must not miss the turtles in Lankayan, to complete your wildlife adventure tour.

Turtle Hatcheries

Lankayan Island is a nesting and foraging place for Green and Hawksbill Turtles. You have a chance to see turtles laying eggs and hatched baby turtles being released to the sea, especially in peak season from July to October.

As nesting occurs mostly at night, an overnight stay is recommended. You can request the staff to knock on your door when turtle nesting or hatching takes place. The egg-laying can take about 1 to 2 hours. The clutch size varies between 40 – 200 eggs but batches of 50 – 80 are most common.

Above: the tracks left behind by mother turtle

Above: the turtle nesting is growing over the years, thanks to the conservation effort!

For better rate of survival, the staffs will promptly collect the freshly laid eggs and transfer them to the hatchery, where the eggs are buried by hand into 75-cm-deep pits, covered in sand and surrounded by plastic wire mesh. The hatchery will protect the eggs from predators such as monitor lizards and snakes, as well as soil erosion.

Above: each nest has an information plate displaying a serial number, collection date and number of eggs.

Above: as you can see, the peak season of nesting is from July to October

After 50 to 60 days, the hatchlings will emerge and the guests would have the opportunity to witness the release of baby turtles.

Above: newly hatched baby turtles. Do you know temperature of the sand can determine the sex of the turtles? Higher sand temperatures result in more females.

Above: Green turtle has one pair of prefrontal scales and rounded beak

Above: Hawksbill turtle has two pairs of prefrontal scales and sharp hawk-like beak

Diving

What makes Lankayan Island an excellent diving destination is the following 3-in-1 diving deal.

1. Reef & Macro Diving
It’s a colorful world under the water of Lankayan. Besides lettuce coral, staghorn coral, jawfish, seahorses, flying gurnards, mimic octopus and porcelain crabs, other pelagic such as scads, barracudas and jacks are found all year round. Lucky divers will see hump head parrotfish, large rays, guitarfish and even manatees.

2. Whale Shark
Lankayan is also famous for sighting of gentle whale sharks. You have a better chance of seeing it from March through May.

3. Wreck Diving
Lankayan has four wreck diving sites, where divers can observe different types of marine life living there. The highlight is Mosquito Wreck, a cargo ship of Japanese’s Mosquito Fleet during World War II and its main structure still remains mostly intact, include its bow gun.

Above: dive map of Lankayan. Click Here for more detail.

Resort

Lankayan Island Resort is the only accommodation on Lankayan and it offers modern amenities, comfortable rooms, and excellent dive facilities. The seafront wooden chalets are well-equipped and attached with private balcony for a breath-taking, open view of white sandy beach and turquoise colored ocean.

For more information or booking of diving tour to Lankayan, please contact Asia Diving Vacation or visit their website at: http://asiadivingvacation.com/resort/lankayan-island-dive-resort

Photos taken in Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo