(c) July 2007 Oliver Bonten
Layang Layang
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Layang Layang
July 2007 52 |
Layang Layang is a place with good diving, but they do only three dives per day, and there is not much to do in the time between dives. It is also not exactly the cheapest option and thus does not attract a lot of the kind of people I like to meet when travelling. It's quite comfortable, relaxed, and with good food, though, so I thought it may be a good choice to end a diving trip.
Layang Layang is part of the Spratly Islands , a group of islands in the South China Sea which is claimed by several countries. Layang Layang is actually an atoll with an artificial island on part of the reef that once served as a navy base but now is a dive center. They say that the navy soldiers did some scuba diving around their base and discovered that there was quite a remarkable marine life down there. The island is right in the middle of nowhere: you can basically look to the horizon in any direction without seeing other land. But this means it is also difficult to reach, and there is only one dive operator on the island, the Layang Layang Island Resort . It's quite an upmarket resort, and the location limits the number of divers (there is occasionally a liveaboard in the area) and the accomodation and food are adequate for the price. I also like their dive boats: they have been thoughtfully designed for diving and I've hardly ever had dive boats that were that comfortable and convenient. It's really a place to be spoilt.
This also applies under water: the visibility is great, and they have turtles, sharks and other interesting creatures. They have a season during which hammerhead sightings are common, but it is earlier during the year.
The resort offers three dives per day and five meals, which are really excellent and you run the risk of growing very fat. I'd liked to have a fourth dive in the afternoon, it would have fit the schedule nicely, but they don't offer this. You can do night dives in the lagoon, but they are not really exciting. There is not a lot to do after the last dive, since the island is rather small; there is no useable beach and when it is raining (as it was when I was there), you can't even use the pool. Another drawback is that because the island is reached by air, you have to stop diving a day before your return flight (even if you want to risk it - the plane is flying at low altitudes only and my Smartcom would only want about 18 hours no-fly-time anyway - they won't let you) so at the end you basically hang around doing nothing for a full day.
To reach the island, you take a flight with Layang Layang Aerospace from Kota Kinabalu to the short airstrip on the island (it was built by the navy and is big enough for a Galaxy, which doesn't mean much since the Galaxy can use amazingly short airstrips), and this is an adventure by itself. Layang Layang Aerospace seems to favour really weird aircraft - seven years ago they used a skyvan which basically looks like a minivan with attached wings, and this year they had rented out a military Antonov. Alledgedly they own a civilian Antonov as well.
All in all, Layang Layang is a nice end of an otherwise diving-laden trip (I did 5 dives per day on many days in Sipadan), and I'm probably returning in a few years, but then not during the rainy season, and preferably during hammerhead season.
My first trip to Layang Layang was in 2000, and at that time I still took chemical photographs. I've scanned a few of them, primarily to show the Skyvan. Layang Layang was pretty much the same back then but they used a different aircraft, and I think they have added a few rooms since then.
Sometimes I forget to note down the names of the divesites. There are quite a few "lesser" divesites in Layang Layang but they are still pretty good.
Dogtooth Lair is one of the more popular dive spots at Layang Layang. There should be dogtooth tuna but in this season we saw a lot of other things.
Gorgonian Forest is another popular site at Layang Layang. It is supposed to have a lot of scenery but this time the animal life was more interesting.
There are two sites named "Shark's cave" but we did not see any sharks in the cave.
There was no wreck at wreck point.
I don't recall much about The Point but most dive sites at Layang Layang aren't boring.
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