This is the third time we have dived in the Sangalaki/Maratua/Derawan area, and the second time staying at the Maratua Paradise resort (MPR). The resort itself is little changed form teh last time we were here, but the diving is a little different. Surprisingly, even though this was just before Christmas, i.e. holiday season, we were the only two divers in the resort this trip. I suppose the staff at the resort are feeling the low-traffic crunch.. we felt that the crew and staff were a little apathetic compared to the previous trip. The room itself is a beautiful water bungalow, very comfortable and with sufficient space for managing all the camera/housing etc. The weather was mostly great, with occasional rain on couple of days. One point of interest is that MPR now gets dozens of turtles grazing in the shallow water around the water bungalows every afternoon. Apparently there are fewer turtles left in the Derawan area these days, and they have all migrated to Maratua.
The Food
The food was typical of the area -- mixed Asian and western breakfast with toast, eggs, and plenty of fruit; three or four dishes for lunch and dinner, with local styles of fried and curried fish, shrimp, beef dishes,
together with one or two steamed veggies and rice.
Diving:
The diving was easy and comfortable -- almost no currents, warm water, and fair visibility. However, I think the diving itself has gone down
a notch or two since the years past. The dive guide straight refused to go to sites like gorgonzola and light house (I think the coral has been killed off by climate or dynamite).
We made 3 day dives on each of the five diving days, and perhaps made (self-guided) four night dives, for a total of 18 or 19 dives.
Only one dive was made at the channel, where we saw some nice shark action, a school of jacks, and some nice stingrays.
Most of the time we dived in the dive sites along the outer reef outside the resort, ranging from eel garden to batu selatan.
Didn't really see any new critters, although the diving was generally enjoyable as always.
About the photos
Gear: Sony Nex7 with stock 18-55 lens with a subsea +10 macro lens; Sea & Sea YS-01 strobe in slave. Kitty dived with a Canon G1x Mark II in Canon housing and an AdventureX 1200 lumen video light. If you'd like the originals of any of these images, email me.