Kakaban

Making arrangements

If you’re wanting to dive in Derawan, it is best to come with friends.  Diving around the different islands in the Derawan Archipelago can be expensive and difficult to organise for the solo traveller.  It helps to split the cost of long distance boat hire with a friend, unless you’re happy to dive only at Derawan itself (which is good for the small stuff, ie. macro) … which isnt’ me.

Pricing works per dive or for a bundle of three dives. The boat is either not required or free if diving around Derawan itself. For going diving off Kakaban, Sangalaki or Maratua (or a combination of them), the boat is a pricey add-on in view of the 1h (or more) journey each way.

The actual prices are about the same amongst the different villager-owned operators. As at July 2016, they are IDR350K per dive and IDR1.5m for a small boat and IDR2.0m for a medium boat (to one island only, more for combinations). Prices at the Derawan Dive Resort and Derawan Dive Lodge (aka Lapauta) are higher.

Where there are variations in price amongst the villager-owned operators, it would be wise to check for like-for-like, eg. is one operator quoting a bigger boat?

Key points:

• Work hard to get what you want!  I spoke to every foreigner and potential diver on Derawan in order to get the trips that I wanted, ie. Kakaban and separately Sangalaki. It would have been pricey to go by myself.  Don’t rely on the diveshops will work on your behalf to form a group. Eg. Kedek at Danakan Divers said he would put me and my new friends with a Japanese group. But in his absence, his second-in-charge didn’t seem interested. My phone calls and TXT messages went unanswered.
• Come with a friend.  Don’t assume that the more people you have, the cheaper it will get. Eg. a small boat takes 2 people and dive gear while a medium boat takes 3 people and dive gear. The cost per person is nearly identical. Some coming with one friend is good enough.
• Don’t leave it till the evening before.  Don’t assume that they will be able to take you when you want to go! For example, we went to Manta Diveshop in the evening asking for a particular combination of islands, for a certain number of people. By the time, they made the phone calls to get the required boat and the dive guide, it was late. And the dive guide was unavailable.  That left us with an awkward situation of going to Derawan Ocean Dive at 2100 asking to dive in the morning. The boss Osland declined as there had been no prep done for equipment, tanks and boat. We managed to negotiate a 1000 departure in order for him to prep.

The diving experience

I did two dives today with Derawan Ocean Dive, whose boss is Osland.  Dive mates today were Simon and Karen, both from Netherlands.  I chose to dive off the island of Kakaban today which is famous for its jelly-fish lake, so it would save me a pricey trip on another day to swim with the stingless jellyfish.

It was a leisurely start with a 1000 departure from my hotel pier. I got there slightly before and was surprised Osland needed a PADI form. I thought it would be less official out here in the middle of nowhere.  We were on the boat in no time and the ride to Kakaban was very smooth. The water was like glass in parts.

First Dive:  We got to the SW end of Kakaban and did our first dive at Barracuda Point (as opposed to another one called Barracuda’s Point supposedly). It started as a bit of a shelf with quite good coral, a shark, and finished with a large school of barracuda. I love barracudas! The current was strong where they were hanging out (exact reason why they hang there) which meant it was a struggle to make our way to them. We got close enough and that was more or less the end of the dive for me. I finished about 10 minutes before the others (usually 5 minutes) as I had a very small leak from my regulator in addition to my heavy breathing.

Surface interval:  We parked up and walked up to the lake on Kakaban to swim with the stingless jellyfish. The water was brackish (slightly salty); I guess it is leftover from the days when it was part of the sea before it was cut off. The jellyfish have evolved to be stingless due to lack of natural enemies.  No fins were permitted. We had to go deeper into the lake to get a good concentration of the jellyfish. I think I had been conditioned to avoid contact with them. After a while, when I knew I had been in contact with them from paddling around, I did touch a few just for the thrill of it. I tried not to overdo it in case it causes them to rekindle their sting in the future. LOL!

Lunch:  We had lunch a lunch of very nice fried chicken (served cold) topped with chilli sambal, seated on the jetty. The Dutch had their sauce on the side, fortunately for them, as they don’t like spice.  In all, the surface interval at 2h was more than the required. Setting off from Kakaban, Osland told some local visitors to swim over the coral and not walk on them, explaining that it takes years to grow and they could kill it just like that.

Second dive:  We returned to the sea for our second dive at the “Wall Dive” site. And what a wall it was! The coral was absolutely glorious. There were some nudibranches and an orang-utan crab which I didn’t see. No big stuff for me until the end when we saw a turtle. I had some buoyancy problems this time. I was overweighted probably due to changes in my body weight and the old two piece full suit having less buoyancy than a good one. There was also some current pushing me against the sea wall which meant I had to keep my distance using my outstretched arm, trying to touch only the hardest surface with my nail tips.

After

On the journey back we encountered a pod of dolphins. We slowed down to watch them jump before continuing to Derawan. As we were pulling in, we saw a huge turtle. Simon & Karen have seen it in their snorkels near the island. They think it likes the seagrass. I wonder if it likes the discharge from the toilets from the overwater cottages.

After a rest, we met up to pay Osland. I met Doris from China who had just arrived. We managed to agree on a plan for Sangalaki and tentatively advised Osland that we’d go on Wednesday. Another sigh of relief as it looks like I’m getting to do what I want here in Derawan.