LOCATION:
Malang Rock (or locally known as Batu Malang) is located to the south of Tulai Island. In fact, from the Pasir Panjang Beach on Tulai, you can spot to your left the huge collection of boulder rocks that constitutes this diving and snorkeling area. Access is by boats from Tulai (5 minutes) or Salang village (30 minutes).

DESCRIPTION:
The afternoon dive was regarded as rather shallow, only to maximum depth of about 15 metres. The visibility was quite good at about 10 metres.

I descended down to an area filled with plate/column corals (Pavona clavus). It was quite a sight because its colony covers a vast expanse of the area. Drifting right above it was rather fun, while looking at other coral varieties that grow in-between its gaps, such as cabbage-like coral (Montipora hispida), sea anemones, various acropora sp corals, etc.

There were plenty of fish specie here, mostly consisted of various damselfish types, titan triggerfish (my dive master was ready with his knife, just in case), clownfish, etc.

Just like in Chebeh, my dive master brought us on another few swim-throughs. The scariest one was under a big boulder rock that had only about one metre opening. Most of us found ourselves bumping onto the boulder wall. Lurking in the distance was actually a lone sweetlip, if I was not mistaken. The fish was huge though, and I could actually see its sharp teeth. Anyway, nothing happened and we gladly continued our dive.

Malang Rock, or Batu Malang, actually means "unfortunate rock" in Malay. While many would offer their own version on how the rock derived such name, I had my own experience to relate to this diving spot. It was here that my old faithful Canon A70 died when it could no longer tolerate the amount of seawater that got into my underwater casing. The photos you see from Malang Rock were the last few shots that I took prior to its malfunction.

So much for the tale from the "unfortunate rock" eh? 

MY RATING: