Sanghyang and Tempurung Islands: The Alternative Jakartan Divers Playground

During my early days in the diving world, Pulau Seribu (Thousand Islands) was a place I look forward to spend my weekends at least once a week. Up to 2003, Pulau Seribu was pleasant to dive with reasonable fisibility (during good days, it can reach 15-20 meters).  I remember doing my dive at the Papatheo shipwreck, I can see the ship from the surface. Now, it is quite difficult to see the wreck unless you are 2 meters close to it. 

These days, the visibility at the Pulau Seribu islands are getting worse.  This is due to the reclamation of the Jakarta Bay, where all the silts are sent to the Pulau Seribu waters. Of course this has effects on the reef and the health of the corals; the suspension inhibits sunlight to enter the water. The best visibility you can expect is now down to 8 meters.

Several activities on preserving the corals and making the Thousand Islands attractive has been done by divers. I remember the building structures for reefs near the Kotok Island, sinking a wooden ship (front of Kotok jetty) and VW combi at Kotok Kecil (all directed by Daniel Abimanyu, the founder of Bubbles Diving Center). Beach clean ups were done. But this is not enough to counter what Jakarta Bay sends. It is only up to the governor to do something about the reclamation to keep the reefs healthy and preserve the corals.

 Diving in Pulau Seribu is also now considered expensive.  A lot of divers, especially those who are advanced, prefers to save their money to dive somewhere else like Bali or Menado. 

So, other than Pulau Seribu, where is the Jakartan Divers playground?

The choice is to drive up to Anyer and go by boat to Sanghyang, Tempurung or Krakatau.  Krakatau is now quite active, Tempurung has unpredictable current (lots of stories here!) so this leaves Sanghyang as a place where beginners can safely dive. 

From Jakarta, it takes approximately 2 hours to reach Anyer, and about 1.5 hours to reach Sanghyang or Tempurung and 2 hours to Krakatau.  You can do up to 4 dives, drive back to Jakarta and arrive at 7:00pm.

The last time I dove Sanghyang was in June 2007.  At first, I was reluctant to go there because waking up early in the morning on Saturday is not appealing and I thought it was not worth it.  But I wanted to try out my new camera housing and I haven’t been diving for quite a while so I accepted Agung (Planet Diving), Alex and Kiat’s invitation.  What I found was quite different than what I expected.

Kiat and I did 3 dives during this trip, while Agung and Alex did 4 dives.  Our first dive was at Tempurung.  I buddied up with Kiat and planned our dive, but our plan was tinggal kenangan: we decended and the visibility was poor and the current was strong, we were drifted apart.  After 30 minutes (don’t try this unless you are experienced!), we surfaced and decided to move to Sanghyang.

It was only about 10 minutes by boat to Sanghyang.  Again, we planned our dive and this time it worked: Kiat went deeper, while I just stayed around 15 meters.  The visibility was not perfect (around 8 meters) but the current was none or mild if any.  Sanghyang has a gentle slope covered by soft red and pink corals with mushroom corals and some staghorn corals as well.  There are fair amount of fishes as well, which shows that the reef ecosystem there is healthy.  I was quite impressed because I wasn’t expecting anything as pretty as what I saw.   Sometimes you see groups of fusilier swimming, as well as some trumpet fishes.  I also spotted a lobster in a little hole.  No current and mild temperature made the diving quite pleasant.

Our third dive was more interesting.  The visibility was poor but I found a big bommie at around 12 meters depth with lots of small fishes.  I also saw some nudibranches and cute pipe fish.  I realized that if I look hard, there are some macro stuffs at this location.  Still, gentle slope covered with soft pinkish red coloured corals.  Reaching the end of the dive, I saw a turtle swimming across me. 

Alex and Agung continued their fourth dive, while Kiat and I ate kwaci on the boat enjoying the volcanic outcrops (well, as a geologist I enjoyed it, I don’t know about Kiat).  On the way back to Anyer, I confessed to Agung that I didn’t expect Sanghyang to be that pretty.  It was probably just the timing where the visibility was not that clear, but Agung said that you can get 20 meters vis at Sanghyang.  I also remember one diver spotted a whale shark while diving at Sanghyang.  The more I thought about it, I begin to appreciate Sanghyang more and more, and now I think waking up in the morning is worth having 3 dives at Sanghyang.

There were also 2 other boats full with Jakartan divers during that day.  Most of them were recently certified divers but also some experienced guys.  They were all having a big smile on their faces.  Like me.  So, Sanghyang was not that bad after all! 

I am not saying that Pulau Seribu is not worth diving anymore, but I have to be honest that I go there only to teach.  There are still pretty sites, but unless the reclamation at Jakarta Bay is reduced, the silts are still going to be sent to Pulau Seribu, and eventually damage the reef ecosystem.  And honestly, it will take the government to make a meaningful change to Pulau Seribu.

But we can still preserve Sanghyang and treat it like our playground.   It is still beautiful and there are about 4 or 5 sites worth diving into.  I would recommend newbies to try diving Sanghyang.  Trust me, it is worth waking up early in the morning!