Into the Deep - Perhentian Islands

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If the fact that we were in Malaysia was a surprise to us, even more so was the fact that we spent around 10 days on the Perhentian Islands, two small islands located off the coast of Western Malaysia. We made the definitive decision to set course there when an old friend from Poland, who was now training English teachers in Malaysia, let us know that he was going scuba diving there for the weekend. We hadn’t seen him in around 10 years and, since we were planning on obtaining our scuba certificates anyway, though the initial inclination was to do our certificate in Thailand, we wondered if there was a good reason not to visit the islands. Unable to think of one, we caught a night bus – in my opinion, the best we’d been on thus far on our travels, with comfortable, fully reclining chairs with plenty of leg room between each seat, not seating more than twenty individuals on the entire bus – from KL to Kuala Besut. When we arrived in the morning; after an hour wait, we got on a speed boat to the islands. Our initial plan was to stay on Long Beach on Perhentian Kecil, or the “Small Island”, as we’d heard that it was less expensive, in spite of the fact that we’d also heard it was a younger, more boisterous crowd inhabiting it. Once we’d arrived, we realized just how maddeningly boisterous it was going to be: muscle-brained douche bags, the likes of which you’d find knuckle-walking out of bars on Garnett Avenue in San Diego, stumbled along the beach, grasping beer cans with one hand and scratching their genitals with the other - it was 8 am. What was worse, they were Europeans in speedos. The women, of course, were pretty, but I’m a married man, so not much good that does me. Moreover, upon further inspection, we discovered that the price of lodging wasn’t that much cheaper than it was on Perhentian Besar, or the “Big Island”. The one guesthouse we finally did locate had bungalows for a reasonable price, but they were in shambles, unlivable shacks with filthy walls and muddy floors, owned by, we learned later from lamenting locals, the islands’ only Chinaman and representative mobster and drug dealer. We took a boat taxi straightaway to Perhentian Besar to be amongst our old, boring kind.



The Big Island was, without a doubt, more our style, though we had difficulty in securing lodging: first and foremost, our planning was faulty as we’d arrived during a Malaysian 3-day holiday. This, however, gave us the blessed opportunity to walk up and down the pretty beach of the island, quickly acquainting ourselves with some of the locals, of which there are probably no more than 100. Yes, it would be quiet, with no loud music or loud-mouthed youths to interrupt my peace. We just needed a room, as we literally inquired in every hotel. We finally concluded our lengthy search, which included a sweaty walk through the jungle along a trail over a steep hill, by booking nights in a couple different hotels based on availability, complete with a couple nights in a fairly expensive one… like Marriott expensive. It was certainly a nice room, with clean towels and bed sheets, beautiful, nautical art hanging on the walls, and a lacquered wooden patio just outside the door – a place to laze around on, with direct access to the beach and coral reef. This was serious luxury, but I was glad rooms were not available for our entire stay.



Since we were able to secure lodging, we also booked our Open Water Scuba Diving course, and have been looking for dive spots during our travels ever since. Actually, we enjoyed it so much that, as soon as the course reached its conclusion, we’d allowed our instructor – a Dutchman who used to work as an Account Executive for a large advertising firm and who quit his job about 3 years ago to travel with his girlfriend, having not returned to the Netherlands or a “real job” since – to talk us into the Advanced Open Water course. It’s been some of the best diving we’ve enjoyed so far.



One of the primary features of what makes the diving so delightful at the Perhentian Islands, beyond the beautiful coral and variety of sea life, like the elusive whale shark and hundreds of cuttlefish (my favorite), is the proximity of the islands to all the dive sites. Unlike other diving experiences we’ve had - such as in Thailand and Vietnam, where we were forced to buy a package deal with two dives and lunch, then spend upwards of two hours on the boat reaching our dive sites - at Perhentian we were able to purchase individual dives, jump into a speed boat with our gear on, speed off on the gentle waters, arrive at our dive site within minutes and flip ourselves right over the edge of the boat into a fascinating under water world. The only real drawback was catapulting ourselves out of the water and back into the boat, but that at least resulted in some amusing contorted movements from inexperienced tourists, especially the overweight ones. Next, being out on an island in the middle of the sea already, course exercises are not preliminarily conducted in some silly little swimming pool, consequently forcing students to patiently wait for their opportunity to get into the deep: we were right in the action at the outset, which permitted our exercises to easily coincide with our dives.



Our first dive occurred at a site called Batu Nisan, a coral garden just off the coast of the Small Island. After some initial instruction and exercises that included getting into our BCDs, we took a few breaths into our regulator above water, became accustomed to the sensation of oxygen dryly shooting into our lungs, and knelt down below the surface. A few more exercises with our masks, which Klaudia and I were able to adroitly demonstrate, and we were off into the coral garden, spying on an immense number of sea life: blue-spotted fantail rays, batfish, cleaner wrasse, the ubiquitous clownfish, sergeant masors, an assortment of sea cucumbers and angelfish, turtles, lionfish, and a large school of humphead parrotfish, which we learned afterwards was quite an extraordinary sight for a first dive. Of course, barracudas were present as well. We were hooked and, nine consecutive dives later, we’d obtained both our Open Water and Advanced certificates. Not that we really feel advanced in any way, not having earned the prerequisite experience, but we had loads of fun.



By far, our favorite dive – and first fun dive - was at Terumbu Tiga, or T3. The rock formations there were as thrilling as they were intricate, impelling us to improve our nimbleness and buoyancy was we navigated our way in snug swim throughs, periodically coming face-to-face with some curious fish, including a Titan Triggerfish, which we only noticed after an unusually vigorous tap-tap-tap from our instructor’s metal pointer hitting his oxygen tank. The Triggerfish, an especially territorial and aggressive fish, has been known to force some divers to seek medical attention, and this one was not too pleased to see us, as evidenced by his erect first dorsal spine. Happily, no difficulties ensued as our instructor was able to cautiously and safely maneuver us away. Again, the greatest difficulty was still jumping back into the boat after an exhilarating dive – luckily, that exercise is not part of the course. What was a part of the course, though, was a swim test, which our instructor surprised us with after a dive.



“Ok, everyone, hang on to the side of the boat and give me your fins,” he called in a Dutch accent. Klaudia and I looked at each other curiously.



“Alright, part of the Open Water PADI course is to demonstrate your ability to swim. So, give me seven laps around the boat, which is about the required 200 meters.”



I looked at Klaudia in alarm: “But I don’t know how to swim,” I whispered to her. That statement may not be entirely true, I suppose, as I believed that I could swim a few meters in the kiddie pool if my survival depended on it. But 200 meters? We held on to the edge of the boat as the three others in our group began to swim expertly; Klaudia gave me a concerned look as our instructor walked over.



“Everything ok?” he asked inquisitively.



“He doesn’t know how to swim,” Klaudia answered shyly.



“He can’t?” He looked at me incredulously. “You have to demonstrate swimming ability in order to pass the course.”



“Whatever…” I said, glancing over to Klaudia, “…I’ll just try. If I fail I fail.” And, with that, I let go of the boat, floated away from it a tad, and, threatened with the thought of failure, I learned how to swim on the spot (although I’m a bit embarrassed to admit considering I’m a full-fledged adult now).



“You’re doing it!” my instructor exclaimed. “Good work. You pass.”



Diving has opened up a whole new world for us, a sentiment I’m sure is shared by most first timers. Klaudia has gone so far as to say it was another dream come true for her, as she has wanted to obtain her certificate since her first introductory dive in the Red Sea a few years ago. I learned that it is possible to laugh underwater as I clearly noticed Klaudia doing while swimming next to a big sea turtle.

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