Lankayan Island, Borneo
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Like the photo of the beach at top of the page? It was taken at Lankayan, a paradise island off the coast of Malaysian Borneo that has also become a conservation haven
A lot of people click the picture of the beautiful beach and sky at the top of each page on Travelhappy, so I thought it might useful if I explained a bit more about where it is and what you can do there. The photo was taken at Lankayan, a small island off Malaysian Borneo. As you can see from the pic, it really is a paradise island with beautiful beaches and amazing vistas of the sea and sky. The hut you can see in the picture is the beach bar which opens at dusk each night. There is only one resort on the island which holds about a maximum of 30 people in basic but comfortable accommodation, so it doesn't get crowded at all.
If this image looks familiar from somewhere else besides Travelhappy, it's also because Malaysia's tourism authority are really going all out with TV advertising at the moment to encourage more visitors to their country - and many of the ads end with a still of the Lankayan beach hut from pretty much the same perspective as this photo.
Lankayan is mainly a scuba diving destination because it boasts some fantastic reefs around its deeply picturesque beaches, although I think there's some good snorkelling too. (You should doublecheck that on travel discussion forums if it's of interest). I've been to the island twice and been incredibly impressed by the diving there both times - the reefs are teeming with life like leopard sharks, jawfish, massive puffafish and groupers and even the occasional whale shark.
The reason the reefs are so healthy is because Lankayan was declared a conservation zone a few years ago after being systematically overfished by the locals. The resort has a resident marine biologist and patrol team who work with the police to continually patrol the waters around Lankayan which are a no-fish zone - it's a never ending task, but they are definitely succeeding in protecting the waters. And the abundance of fish means that the fishing outside the zone is becoming much better too, which helps both fisherman and the resort. There's also a turtle sanctuary on the island as turtles like to come and hatch their young and the island's undisturbed beaches. (You can read more about Lankayan scuba diving and Lankayan's conservation efforts on my other site Divehappy.com).
Lankayan is about an hour's speedboat ride from the city of Sandakan. The Sepilok orangutang sanctuary is also located near Sepilok, so it's possible to visit both Sepilok and Lankayan within a couple of days. If you like diving, definitely spend three or four days out at Lankayan if you can - it will definitely be worth it.
If you are looking for islands elsewhere, have a look at Malaysia's Perhentian Islands which are near the Thai - Malay border, and also Koh Tao in Thailand, one of my favourite places anywhere.
Other Travelhappy posts of interest:
- Storm Coming To Lankayan, Borneo - Photo Friday
- Koh Phi Phi Island Post Tsunami
- Borneo: Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary
- Lonely Planet Borneo
- Koh Phi Phi Under Threat From Tourism
