I was very excited to get back out diving. Due to some health problems, I was not able to dive since my last trip to Bali and Komodo last September. I had already planned a trip to Anilao in June for a few days, but when the chance came up to join my friends for a liveaboard to Layang Layang, I got very excited. Layang Layang was always on my bucket list and I always wanted to see schools (or any) of hammerheads. Even though my wife was scheduled to have our second son on April 26th, she agreed (after a lot of begging) to let me join the trip to Layang Layang on the white manta with my two friends departing May 16th. I was so excited for this trip that I thought it would be good time to finally make the switch from a jacket bcd to a bp/w. So with much anticipation, i finally embarked on my journey, departing from Hong Kong to Kota Kinabalu on AirAsia, I actually ended up sitting next to somebody with dive equipment, and sure enough after a quick conversation, we realized we were both on the same boat. Upon arrival to the airport we shared a taxi over to the marina where the boat was docked. As our flight arrived close to the departure time of the boat, we were asked to get our own taxi to the boat.
Upon arrival to the Marina, we met Chris, the cruise director waiting for us in front and they quickly escorted us to the White Manta. Having been on the Black Manta last year, I had a good idea of what to expect from the boat and everything worked out well. After meeting my roommate for the next 6 nights and some other shipmates, we were quickly off for the 20 hour steam to Layang Layang by 2:00pm. I found the long boat ride to be no issue at all and I much prefer it to the idea of the expensive connecting flight to the resort. We had lunch, had a few drinks, got to know everybody, then after a nice massage, it was time for dinner. A bunch of us watched a movie or two and everybody was sleeping relatively early. As I am always an early riser, I was up by 6:00am to see Layang Layang ahead of us. We knew that we would have to go through navy clearance and that our first dive would not be for a while but the excitement was growing around the whole boat.
We were split up into groups of 6 or so to a guide, and Chris, the cruise director, happened to be our guide. They were very direct in explaining that the diving was very easy and if you wanted to go a different direction with your buddy, it was not a problem. Most of the time, this is what we did, but we always followed Chris on the morning dive to look for hammers and he was successful on 2 out of the 3 early morning dives. Seeing the hammerheads was great, people on the boat saw them on different times and almost everybody got to see them, some some schools multiple times, others just got a glimpse of a tail, some not at all. We were lucky to see one school of 50-100 and then two together the next day. Like most of the grey reef sharks we saw, they were deep. We would go down to 40+meters and be looking down on them. I was aware this was a real possibility and knew we were lucky to see them. The rest of the diving was ok, but fell far below expectations. I thought this was an untouched atoll, but that definitely did not turn out to be the case. There were schools or Jacks and Barracudas but they were not the huge schools that I was expecting. We did see some whitetip reef sharks and grey reef sharks, but they either were very deep or a sleeping white tip. We saw a thresher shark for a brief moment and another sighting of an eagle ray. Sure there were some reef fish around and all around pleasant dives, i just expected a lot more, especially for bigger pelagics. For such a remote location it was not worth the journey. We also heard what we thought was dynamite going off.
On the way back to KK, we stopped an dove a japanese wreck and as soon as we got in the water, we noticed that somebody was dynamite fishing there within the last 24 hours as there was dead fish everywhere. It was an awful sight. Most people on the boat decided not to do the final dive on the wreck as nobody wants to look at dead fish.
All in all, I am glad i finally got to Layang Layang and the crew of the white manta were all great. I had a great time on this trip. the food was great, the other people on the boat were great, we had one especially fun night that lasted into the early morning for 6 or so of us. I will definitely do another lob with white manta (or black manta), but I will definitely not be going back to Layang Layang (neither will the White Manta as they have discontinued this destination). I see a lot of people asking if they should go to Layang Layang or Sipadan and for me it is an easy choice. I went to Sipadan once and I am eager to return, the diving was phenomenal and you have the chance to see hammerheads there as well, if you are considering either, Sipadan is by far superior in my opinion. Layang Layang, sounds like a place that was once amazing, I read stories of anything and everything popping up around the atoll, from tiger sharks, to cetaceans (including a pod of killer whales in 2006) on top of amazing diving with sharks, rays and more. I guess like everywhere else in the world, sea life is deteriorating due to over fishing.
Upon arrival to the Marina, we met Chris, the cruise director waiting for us in front and they quickly escorted us to the White Manta. Having been on the Black Manta last year, I had a good idea of what to expect from the boat and everything worked out well. After meeting my roommate for the next 6 nights and some other shipmates, we were quickly off for the 20 hour steam to Layang Layang by 2:00pm. I found the long boat ride to be no issue at all and I much prefer it to the idea of the expensive connecting flight to the resort. We had lunch, had a few drinks, got to know everybody, then after a nice massage, it was time for dinner. A bunch of us watched a movie or two and everybody was sleeping relatively early. As I am always an early riser, I was up by 6:00am to see Layang Layang ahead of us. We knew that we would have to go through navy clearance and that our first dive would not be for a while but the excitement was growing around the whole boat.
We were split up into groups of 6 or so to a guide, and Chris, the cruise director, happened to be our guide. They were very direct in explaining that the diving was very easy and if you wanted to go a different direction with your buddy, it was not a problem. Most of the time, this is what we did, but we always followed Chris on the morning dive to look for hammers and he was successful on 2 out of the 3 early morning dives. Seeing the hammerheads was great, people on the boat saw them on different times and almost everybody got to see them, some some schools multiple times, others just got a glimpse of a tail, some not at all. We were lucky to see one school of 50-100 and then two together the next day. Like most of the grey reef sharks we saw, they were deep. We would go down to 40+meters and be looking down on them. I was aware this was a real possibility and knew we were lucky to see them. The rest of the diving was ok, but fell far below expectations. I thought this was an untouched atoll, but that definitely did not turn out to be the case. There were schools or Jacks and Barracudas but they were not the huge schools that I was expecting. We did see some whitetip reef sharks and grey reef sharks, but they either were very deep or a sleeping white tip. We saw a thresher shark for a brief moment and another sighting of an eagle ray. Sure there were some reef fish around and all around pleasant dives, i just expected a lot more, especially for bigger pelagics. For such a remote location it was not worth the journey. We also heard what we thought was dynamite going off.
On the way back to KK, we stopped an dove a japanese wreck and as soon as we got in the water, we noticed that somebody was dynamite fishing there within the last 24 hours as there was dead fish everywhere. It was an awful sight. Most people on the boat decided not to do the final dive on the wreck as nobody wants to look at dead fish.
All in all, I am glad i finally got to Layang Layang and the crew of the white manta were all great. I had a great time on this trip. the food was great, the other people on the boat were great, we had one especially fun night that lasted into the early morning for 6 or so of us. I will definitely do another lob with white manta (or black manta), but I will definitely not be going back to Layang Layang (neither will the White Manta as they have discontinued this destination). I see a lot of people asking if they should go to Layang Layang or Sipadan and for me it is an easy choice. I went to Sipadan once and I am eager to return, the diving was phenomenal and you have the chance to see hammerheads there as well, if you are considering either, Sipadan is by far superior in my opinion. Layang Layang, sounds like a place that was once amazing, I read stories of anything and everything popping up around the atoll, from tiger sharks, to cetaceans (including a pod of killer whales in 2006) on top of amazing diving with sharks, rays and more. I guess like everywhere else in the world, sea life is deteriorating due to over fishing.
