{"id":244,"date":"2012-05-02T06:31:13","date_gmt":"2012-05-02T06:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.planetdiveholidays.com\/blog\/?p=244"},"modified":"2016-05-20T09:27:26","modified_gmt":"2016-05-20T09:27:26","slug":"dive-borneo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.planetdiveholidays.com\/blog\/dive-borneo\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Borneo Dive Sites"},"content":{"rendered":"

The third largest island in the world, Borneo divides its land between three countries: Indonesia<\/a>, Malaysia and Brunei, with the Malaysian territories forming the states of Sabah and Sarawak. Malaysian Borneo is renowned for offering some of the island\u2019s best dive-sites but quality encounters can be experienced in all three countries. For a quick guide to the regional highlights, read on\u2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Indonesian Borneo<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of Indonesia\u2019s most exciting dives can be had just off the north-east coast of Kalimantan. Within this region, the coral island of Kakaban offers some unusual scuba experiences, where a landlocked lake harbours five species of non-stinging jellyfish as well as endemic marine-life. Reaching a maximum depth of 18 metres and with 10-12-metre visibility, dive conditions here are abnormal for Borneo, to say the least. The mangroves that fringe the lake are packed with sponges and give way to spectacular sea creatures, such as blue flatworms, file snakes, sea cucumbers and gobies.<\/p>\n

But if lake diving doesn\u2019t float your boat, then try Kakaban\u2019s coastal fringe, where limestone cliffs drop to depths of 200 metres, creating wall and drift dive-sites that are visited by tuna and sharks.<\/p>\n

Just south of Kakaban, Sangalaki is the place to go for manta rays and turtles. Draped in jungle and surrounded by white-sanded beaches, shallow reefs extend from the shore and nurture turtle hatchlings as they make their way to the sea.<\/p>\n

For mangroves and macro, travel northwards to Samama – crammed with nudibranchs, frog fish and flat worms, think muck-diving without the muck; but for die-hard muck divers, the islands of Derawan and Nabucco are considered better by some.<\/p>\n

And if bigger fish are your thing, then you\u2019d be better off a touch further east at Maratua Island, where the drop-offs welcome sharks, tuna, eagle rays and barracuda.<\/p>\n

Malaysian Borneo<\/strong><\/p>\n

The best known dive-sites tend to be found around the islands of Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalay in northwest of Borneo. Overwhelmed by marine life, Sipadan is renowned for its spectacular reef drops and 2000-foot wall dives, where schools of barracudas and mackerel congregate, alongside giant turtles and big sharks. For smaller stuff, muck divers should head to the shallower dive sites at Mabul and Kapalay, where frogfish, nudibranchs, shrimps and sea horses abound.<\/p>\n

Just off the north coast, the small island of Layang Layang sits in the South China Sea, where the ocean floor drops to 2000 metres. The place for pelagics, and with visibility up to 50 metres, reef sharks and scalloped hammerheads gather here to mate and whale sharks have also been known to visit.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s whale sharks you\u2019re after, your next stop should be Lankayan Island, where these gentle giants migrate to between March and May. Turtle-lovers would also be well-advised to stick around, as the proximity to the turtle hatchery on Turtle Island means that the sea can be filled with Green and Hawksbill Turtles at the right time of year \u2013 to see the hatchlings, visit between June and September.<\/p>\n

Brunei<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scuba diving in Brunei is far less popularised, but don\u2019t be fooled, they\u2019re harbouring plenty of treasures and some of Borneo\u2019s most diverse dive sites. Amongst the highlights are Louisa Reef, where hammerhead, white tip and leopard sharks populate the abyss. Rig diving is also on offer in this part of Borneo, where 50 metre-long oil rig jackets have been placed on the seabed to create artificial reefs, which attract groupers, barracuda, sweetlips and jacks, and even the occasional whale shark.<\/p>\n

Tags: Red Sea Liveaboards<\/a>, Red Sea Live Aboards<\/a>, Maldives Liveaboards<\/a>, Maldives Live Aboards<\/a>, Red Sea Diving<\/a>, Maldives Diving<\/a>, Egypt Diving<\/a>, Egypt Dive<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The third largest island in the world, Borneo divides its land between three countries: Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei,…","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[114,200],"tags":[123,124,125,126],"class_list":{"0":"post-244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indonesia","8":"category-malaysia","9":"tag-dive-borneo","10":"tag-dive-indonesian-borneo","11":"tag-dive-malaysian-borneo","12":"tag-diving-in-brunei","13":"cs-entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdiveholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdiveholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdiveholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdiveholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdiveholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdiveholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":661,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdiveholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions\/661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdiveholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdiveholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdiveholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdiveholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}