Lankayan Island

Sandakan · Sabah · Malaysia

Lankayan is a speck in the Sulu Sea, a private island barely three hundred metres long surrounded by coral reef and white sand beaches where green turtles haul themselves ashore to nest. Located roughly ninety minutes by speedboat from Sandakan on Borneo's northeast coast, this tiny island operates a single eco-resort that has created one of Malaysia's most intimate and rewarding dive destinations through a combination of reef protection, turtle conservation, and the accident of geography that places it in the path of migrating whale sharks. I arrived on a March afternoon and was in the water within an hour. The house reef begins at the jetty, a gentle slope of mixed hard and soft coral descending to a sandy base at twelve metres. Within five minutes of entering I had encountered my first hawksbill turtle, a sub-adult feeding on sponges encrusting a coral bommie. By the end of a sixty-minute shore dive I had counted seven turtles, both greens and hawksbills, at various stages of rest and feeding. They are utterly habituated to divers, allowing approach to within arm's reach. The two wrecks near the island add diversity. A small wooden fishing vessel at fifteen metres has been colonised by lionfish, frogfish, and a community of nudibranchs that made it a macro photographer's playground. The larger wreck, a steel-hulled vessel at eighteen metres, supports healthy soft coral growth and hosts resident bamboo sharks resting beneath the hull during daylight hours. On my third morning the resort manager burst into the dive centre announcing whale sharks had been spotted two kilometres north. We were on the boat within minutes. Two whale sharks were feeding at the surface, their enormous spotted bodies filtering the plankton-rich green water with open mouths the width of a small car. We snorkelled alongside the larger animal for twenty minutes, its body easily eight metres long, before it descended beyond visibility. Night diving at Lankayan is exceptional. The reef transforms after dark, with hunting cuttlefish displaying rapid colour changes, decorator crabs emerging from their daytime refuges, and blue-spotted ribbontail rays cruising the sand flats. A Spanish dancer nudibranch performing its swimming display was the highlight, its crimson body unfurling like a flamenco skirt as it pulsed through the water column. What Lankayan lacks in dramatic walls or strong currents it compensates with intimacy and reliability. Turtle encounters are guaranteed, the reef is healthy and protected, and the whale shark season provides a spectacular bonus.