With the hopes of seeing the resident threshers at Maratua, and some Manta action at Sangalaki,
we spent a week in the famous island quartet (Maratua, Sangalaki, Kakaban, Derawan) off Borneo
in early August.
Last time we went to this area, we stayed at Derawan, which was good; this time we stayed at
the Maratua Paradise Resort, so as to maximize the diving at the site called midreef, where the
Thresher sharks have a cleaning station...
Of course, as Burns observed about the best laid plans, we only caught a glimpse of a solitary thresher on one occasion;
and the Mantas were sparse over on Sangalaki also... but despite this, it turned out to be a fantastic
dive trip: Maratua has great diving with excellent mix of the big and the small. Maratua Paradise resort
is just beautiful -- though, despite this being high season, there were only four/six divers during the week
that we dived there.
Highlights for me were two species of pygmy seahorses among the tiny, and friendly turtles and bumpheads among the large.
The detailed trip report is here: Maratua trip report, Ajay, Aug 2011
And here are a couple of images to add color to the post.
Baby Octopus on mask:

Pair of pygmys:

Cheers,
Ajay.