The Robey's take on Malaysia Day 6

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Day 6

It was an early wake up for today's adventure of snorkeling at Pulau Payer Island. We still had time to enjoy our coffee and breakfast on our balcony watching the early morning birds on the roof of the buildings and mesmerized by the hues of the ocean before we set off. The clouds looked dark and thunder could be heard bellowing in the distance. On the bus ride over the rain began to pour, we weren't worried, having seen Malaysian thunderstorms before not lasting too long we figured it would rain now and leave us with blue skies to enjoy our snorkeling.

Waiting with lots of people for our ferry ride, the rain eased off and our journey was over calm waters getting closer to those blue skies we had hoped for.

The ferry pulled into Pulau Payer's floating cafe and we disembarked to get on another boat for a literal one minute ride to a bright blue and orange floating 'jetty' which moved with the water and our footsteps making ii feel like we were walking home after a big night of drinking.

The beach was white sands and clear aqua blue eaters dotted with dark blue where coral lay set against a background of lush green trees was almost picture perfect. The dingy little food shack and half completed buildings, the worn tables and umbrellas seemed to stain an otherwise beautiful place or perhaps it added to the charm of being an island uninhabited by too many tourists but was for the locals. Of course it was a tourist attraction and there were roughly 200 people. It didn't feel overcrowded as a quarter of the people were either diving or snorkeling off of a platform out further.

The beach was sectioned off with buoys with rope for safety reasons. At first it didn't look like there was much to snorkel out to but after exploring the area thoroughly it took up well over 2 hours.

So many fish were close to the shore and you only needed to be knee deep and view more than a dozen varieties of tropical fish in all different sizes, shapes and colours. The fish towards the front of the shore were not shy in coming close to you, it seemed they knew people brought bread to feed them.

Kym, Star and myself swam toward the buoys, watching the marine life below us, hoping to see the black tipped reef shark we were told habitated the reef. Figuring they would be out deep we were totally wrong as Kym found them patrolling back and forth along the shore line. This is pretty much where Kym spent the rest of the time in the ocean, spotting, videoing and following the sharks.

I watched for a while but was happy to mermaid around. Quite a few families who saw me got excited, Kym reckoned more than seeing the shark. They took pictures with me and videoed me swimming. Guess I'll be famous somewhere..

Lunch was fried chicken, fried rice and cold chips with an iced tea, water and an orange.

Back in the water we explored the other sectioned off bit and found there were less fish so went back to where we originally were; Kym chasing sharks and me exploring mermaid style. Star splashed around snorkelling a bit more and sunbathed for a while.

I enjoyed my alone time with nature, paying attention to the noises. My breathing sounded like Darth Vader in the snorkel and mask and I could sometimes hear faint voices or the sound like a slap against my thigh which was the water gently hitting me as it rolled over and a snap, crackle and pop just like the sound rice bubbles make when I stopped to take a breath. I noticed the play of the sunlight on the ocean floor in triangles of light waves as the sun struck the tiny rippling waves, how the fish sometimes stopped to look at me, maybe wondering what I was with a tail like them and how the clams closed their mouths and tried to shrink back into the coral when fish swam too close or the coral had formations that made think I was in an underwater mini palace of King Trident and his merfolk. I could get lost in my head and in the ocean for hours. Maybe I should become a mermaid fulltime..

Back on the ferry we went upstairs to view the ocean and lots of little islands surrounding Langkawi, a couple of dolphins followed us riding the waves created by the ferry which was the only waves around a peaceful sea.

We were all exhausted and sore from catching a bit of the sun. Kym and I opted for a swim as soon as we were back and the tepid water of the pool felt cooling on red skin.

Eating dinner at the hotel once again Kym grabbed us a couple of cocktails ( Long island iced tea) and well I don't remember much else. And let's just end with I think I fed the fishes ...

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