Layang Layang: A Paradise in the South China Sea [Joshua Burke]

Layang Layang is what the title says, a paradise in the South China Sea. Layang Layang or swallow atoll is a natural atoll about a whole day (24 hours) sail from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Like most atolls Layang Layang used to be a volcano millions of years ago. But the volcano sank and reef grew up around the edge. In that time between then and now, corals have flourished and the marine life that is attracted to the coral has made the atoll a simply amazing place.

 A beautiful sunset over Layang Layang.

Your probably wondering how we got inside the atoll. The military blew up a section of the reef to make a channel so that their frigates can come inside. We stayed on a mooring the size of our dinghy that were built for frigates/destroyers. There was no fear of the mooring breaking because of our weight while we were there.

The artificial island and giant mooring. 

On the atoll the Malaysian government built an artificial island. The island is 1 km long and a third of the island houses a navy base with a runway, the next third houses houses an eco resort, and the last third houses a government marine research station with a bird sanctuary. There is also a bird island but I will talk about that later.  

One of the warships that patrol around the island. 

A plane landing on the runway.

The military base here is the main base in the area and all the warships in the area operate out of the base here. As you probably know from the news China, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Taiwan are all laying claim to the tiny islands in the South China Sea.  The military base is here to protect Malaysian claims to the islands. Having the military base here is also a good thing for the reef. It keeps all the fishermen out of the area. Greedy fishermen = DEAD reef.

What makes Layang Layang so unique is that all around the atoll there is a +2000 meter strait drop to the bottom. On the “walls” surrounding the atoll vast amounts of fish, stingrays, dolphins, mantas, and sharks call this place home. Even whale sharks visit the atoll from time to time, but unfortunately they are not permanent residents. Also on the few rocks that jut out of the water and the artificially made bird island there are many types of birds.

The Diving

 Diving is obviously the main thing to do at Layang Layang. The diving and snorkeling is amazing wherever you go into the water. We used the eco resort for diving. They made diving so much easier. After a dive they would refill your tanks so that they were ready for the next dive. Every dive, a dive boat would take you out to the dive site and would be a live boat while you were diving. And I can’t forget Victor, our amazing dive master. He was worth every penny and I wouldn’t have seen half the animals if he hadn’t pointed them out. 

Jumping off the dive boat. 

There were multiple dive sites on the outside wall on Layang Layang. All of the dive sites were wall dives and the wall went 2000 meters strait down to the ocean floor.  On some dives the wall went down gradually while on other dives the wall was sheer.

I did 7 dives in 4 dive sites in 3 days!

Having some fun at our safety stop.

Wrasse Strip

Wrasse Strip is a dive site that is located on the NW side of Layang Layang. During one dive on Wrasse Strip I saw 4 hammerheads, a green sea turtle, a huge manta ray, a puffer fish and 5 grey reef and white-tip sharks.  I saw all of that in ONE DIVE!!!! AMAZING!!!! It was the first time I had seen hammerheads in the wild.

To find the sharks you had to swim away from the safety of the wall and out into the open water. It is a bit scary at first when you swim out into the blue because you have no point of reference but you get used to it. It especially helps if you keep your eyes on the dive master. Besides from seeing sharks in the blue, you can also see schools of huge fish, such as barracudas, a big-eyed trevallies.

It is a bit hard to see, but this is one of the hammerheads we saw.

Wreck Point

Wreck Point is just off the artificial island and hence the dive site name has a wreck. The ship is there and I would have loved to explore it. The only problem is that the wreck sank down to +2000 m….

We did a night dive there and I saw 6 turtles varying in sizes! Most of the turtles were sleeping in holes in the wall and we accidently woke them up when we shined our lights on them. One huge turtle swam so close to me that it rubbed its fin against my dad and me. That dive was defiantly the turtle dive.

A TURTLE!!!

Shark Cave 2

This dive site was quite amazing but ironic because I saw more manta rays then I did see sharks. This was the second shark cave at Layang Layang and was smaller then shark cave 1. During the dive I saw 2 white-tip reef sharks and 3 manta rays.

Manta rays always amaze me. Maybe it’s how they seem to fly in the water, or maybe it is just because they are so big. You can’t go to a specific spot in the Layang Layang reef and find them like you go out into the blue to find sharks. It is luck when you cross one. While at Layang Layang I never saw more then one manta at a time, in other words they were not in groups. And they never really stuck around for long, one minute at the most.

A big manta gliding through the water. 

The Point

The Point was a cool dive site and this is where the sharks went from cool to scary.

We were out in the blue looking for sharks and Victor pointed two grey reef sharks out to us. Then another showed up, then another and another until there was six grey reef sharks swimming around us! These sharks were quite big in size. One of the sharks swam about 10 meters (30 feet) away from me. Sounds like a pretty fair distance but under water it is close. Especially with an animal like a shark that can turn directions and come at you in a blink of an eye.

Luckily we were near an atoll were there is tons of fish food for the sharks. If we had been in the middle of nowhere it could have been a different story. 

A sleeping shark.

Layang Layang is the best dive site I have EVER BEEN TO, PERIOD.  I would defiantly recommend coming out here if you ever you have the chance. 

A stunning hot pink coral piece. 

Bird Island

Bird Island is a small artificially made island. Well I wouldn’t call it an island, more like a bunch of rocks stuck together. Terns and boobies are the main birds that are here.  But I have also seen some cormorants.  It is currently the beginning of the breeding season and little chicks were running all around the small beach screaming, “where is my food!”. While at Bird Island you could barely hear yourself talk over all the birds squawking to each other.  The entire island was covered in birds.

The amount of birds for the size of the island was quite amazing.

Most of the birds just stay here for the breading season and then go back to the mainland during the off-season. But some tough birds stay here all year round and endure horrible weather during the off-season.

This place was simply awesome and I wouldn’t have experienced it without my mom’s wanting to go here. Special thanks to Mom, Dad, our dive boat captain and Victor for making my experience at Layang Layang unforgettable.

Victor and our dive boat captain. 

Thanks for Reading 

Happy Travels

JOSHUA