Has anyone dived from Maratua Paradise resort?

[Waterbaby09]

Hi all,

We are considering a trip to the Kalimantan area and can't decide which resort to stay at - there's Maratua, Nabucco, Sangalaki and Derawan. HAs anyone been to Maratua Paradise? If so can you share your experiences?

Or if you have been to one of the others recently, that would be interesting too.

Thanks.

 

[Kaltim Diver]

WB09, did you get any information about Meratua? I haven't dived it yet but did get some information a while back, as I saw it when I was diving/staying on Nabucco (great, but very expensive). KTD

 

[Waterbaby09]

Hiya, yes we went! It was very enjoyable. here is the review I posted on another thread

We booked Maratua Paradise resort as we had read some real negative stuff about Sangalaki. Then we saw a review written on Tripadviser about it and were horrified that maybe we had a made a huge mistake, but not so. Maratua Paradise may not be the best resort we have been to in Indonesia (and we are comparing with around 20) but it certainly isn't as awful as the other writer says. The resort organises everything from your arrival at Balikpapan airport to return. This involves a flight to Berau, a taxi to the boat and then 2.5 hours on a speed boat out to the island. The system was faultless. All the staff and crew friendly and helpful. OK, the boat was a little shabby but it was safe. The bungalows at the resort were huge and airy, air-con, fan, fridge, comfy bed. The dive centre again was pretty good, all the crew were charming and helpful, and the system well run. Food at the resort is far better than we thought, mostly fish or seafood, chicken once or twice but lots of vegetables and fruit, snacks free and available all day. Beer and soft drink prices were reasonable, much cheaper than in Manado where we spent our last trip.

The diving here is pretty good too. Sadly the corals are not in great condition but this is a mixture of natural and man-made causes. The water is too hot at 86 degrees and the corals are staring to bleach in some of the shallow areas. But the marine life is great - turtles everywhere, thresher sharks on the house reef and the dive at the Channel is outstanding for schools of big fish. We also dived on Kakaban, and both wall dives there were stunning, The jelly lake was good, not as good as Palau's but great all the same.

So that just leaves Sangalaki. Boy... were we disappointed. Bleached coral, Crown of thorns everywhere. We did 6 dives and no mantas. Over a 10 day trip, Maratua took a different group to Sangalaki almost every day and only one group got to see the mantas and only once. Loads of fishermen there too.

We really loved this area, great variety of diving but I wouldn't go just to see the mantas which was what we hoped. Maybe someone else has some more info on them, perhaps this is seasonal?

** Some extra info for you... I hear that the mantas can be seasonal so I guess we were just unlucky with the month. October. Nabucco dive on the east side of the island and Maratua on the west mostly so if you went again you would get different dives I think. Also, if you do go to Maratua, make sure you get a water bungalow. The beach ones were similar but lovely being over the water.

 

[Kaltim Diver]

WB09, thanks mate. I live only 300km from Meratua (between Balikpapan and Berau/Tarakan) and dive every week but it's not as good as up there - too much bomb damage and locals fishing around the place. I've seen three mantas in 4 years of diving, very little big stuff. Anyway, a bad dive is better than a good day at work any time.

I will give Meratua a go, as you say Nabucco is on the other side of the island and the only thing unique there would be the "channel" or Big Fish Country.

We also went to Sangalaki (from Nabucco), I was guarenteed Mantas until two days before we went when they said there might not be any about. And there wasn't. It was another couple of hundred dollars on top of the day rate, an hour or so to get there, I had my wife and 10 year old son diving with me so we pointed out that we couldn't go below 12m - and we had a drift dive in murky water over about 16m. We did see a reasonably sized shark, and some of the snorkeling was OK for my other kids and sister in law, but definitely not worth the effort.

Let me know if you're coming over this way again. I should write up something about Nabucco, it was good but very costly. Package was all in but exclude things like soft drinks, and when you've got three kids they can go through a few of them. And at 1.50 Euro per can, it added up very quickly.

Cheers,

KTD

 

[Waterbaby09]

Hiya, sorry for the slow reply, was chasing mantas in Mexico - yes, great!!

I think you would like Maratua, nice place for the kids, lots of space and a decent beach. The water bungalows are a bit nicer than the beach ones but those are good if you want to keep costs down. I don't recall the price for soft drinks but the beer was cheap. Lots of free snacks like bananas for the kids too. The only thing for them is the best dives are deeper then 15, and there's some strong currents. They would need supervision in the water at some times of day.

And the staff were fab, I think they would love having the kids in and you could go off for some of the dives. Top of the reefs a bit messed up here too, but the turtles!! YOu can see them in inches of water. All in all, it was a good place. Not Manado or Komodo, but good.

Any questions, will do my best to answer.

WB

 

[CarolineSDL]

In december and january manta sightings on Sangalaki were awesome. Our guests were delighted.

 

[DrBubbles1]

The channel on the east side of Maratua is a blast. If you dive it just as the tide has changed (starting to fill the atoll) and the whirlpools above the channel have started up, and provided you can get a good grip on the rocks below (negative entry from way out or you'll wash down the channel before you reach the ledge) or to the side of the ledge at the entrance, you get a great show watching the food chain in action. When you get tired just let go and fly down the channel; make sure you have a sausage and tell the boatman as you'll go a long way. (you can see it quite well from google earth). If you are with one of the resorts they should be familiar with the drill.

 

[Kaltim Diver]

Dr Bubbles 1, Channel or Big Fish Country is an awesome dive. You need to time the tides right as you said, we dropped in north of the channel, negative entry, down the wall to about 30m then snuck up over the edge and used a reef hook to hang on. There's a cave at about 40m and a few other holes in the channel that I haven't seen yet but I'm told are good. Big schools of pelagics, rays, sharks and Napoleown Wrasse as well. One of the best dives I've ever done.

WB09, sorry, forgot to say thanks for the info. Might try to get there in July or September this year.

Cheers, KTD