My Perhentian Paradise

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Once again I'm playing catch up with my travelblogs!

James and I spent about six days on Perhentain Kecil Island, one of the two main Perhentian Islands. We arrived in early July and we would probably have spent longer there if we had not had to make our way up to Bangkok for mid-July. Nonetheless, six days was time enough to recharge from the exertions of mainland Malaysia and to generally just chill out on this small isolated beach.

I doubt I'll ever find a beach and sea that I like more than this one. In the six or seven weeks that have passed since my time there I haven't found a place that can challenge its number one spot on the 'Chris List', although some have come close. It's also pleasing for me to have an overwhelmingly positive travelblog entry after some of the ranting and raving that I've been doing in recent blogs!!

What I liked about Perhentian Kecil:

> Uncrowded, a community feel, no hawkers, no roads, few families (i.e. loud kids), amazing marine life, more women than men, the wildlife, visual beauty, warm shallow waters, a refreshing evening breeze and the tangible calmness of the place.

What I didn't like about Perhentian Kecil:

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We arrived on the boat that we'd booked from our previous destination, the Cameron Highlands, and straight away I knew that it was going to be a good place to unwind. We had attempted to book a room in one of the bungalows on the island from an agent in the Highlands, but we weren't able to confirm anything as he hadn't been able to contact anybody on the island by phone. This wasn't surprising as the island has no electricity and intermittent mobile phone reception; the people there use generators for their power. Anyway, he hand wrote his name and something like 'one twin room' on a small blank piece of paper and then assured us that this was as good as a confirmed booking. No money changed hands so we had to take his word that it would be ok as this 'booking' was the best that we were going to get. We were keen to book ahead as there aren't many rooms on the island and we had heard stories of people arriving and having to sleep on the beach!

We got off of the boat and trundled up to the reception of our bungalow complex where it transpired that our bit of paper (unsurprisingly) meant nothing! They had just one room left and it was a double. We looked at the room which was a tiny, hot place with small holes in the walls and barely any room at all around the very small and grubby double bed. As much as I like James, the idea of waking up in a sweaty embrace with him wasn't doing too much for me! The room was cheap, so we decided to reserve it as a backup while we attempted to find somewhere more suitable. At that stage, the night under the stars of common lore was looking like our most attractive option!Fortunately though, we found a much dearer, but infinitely nicer, air-conditioned room with twin beds which we snapped up without hesitation.

The next day of laziness started a trend that would last for the duration of our stay; it's remarkable just how quickly a day spent doing nothing can pass. The highlight of the day was wading out alongside the rocks at the end of the beach and being surrounded by hundreds of small and curious tropical fish.

I learnt a valuable lesson (the hard way) that afternoon when I trod on an anchor while James and I were playing frisbee. I was running to try and catch a wayward throw TM James Howe and I was paying no attention to where my feet were landing as I focused upon the errant flight of the frisbee. I suddenly felt a sharp pain on the sole of my foot and I fully expected to see a lot of red sand when I looked down. I was fortunate as I'd only bruised my foot, but I hope that by recounting this story you won't ever make the same mistake that I did.......... playing frisbee with James.

That night we had our first, and by no means last, barbecued fish meal. I went for the black tip shark as I'd never had shark; it was very nice and had a similar meaty texture to a tuna steak. Yum Yum. On later nights I munched my way through clams, dorado, blue marlin, squid and snapper.

The next day was scorching, so we decided to go out and do a dive. It was our first dive since qualifying in Bali and we found the reef, marine life and visibility to be much better around the Perhentians. I got some unwanted underwater attention from a Ramora fish, which is a type of cleaning fish, like the ones that you see feeding from the gills of bigger fish. I didn't find any of this out until I got back onto dry land, but at the time I was wondering why this little thing was chasing me around for over a minute while I was doing my best to knock its block off! I'd scraped my leg on some coral (being the novice diver that I am!) earlier in the dive and I think it could smell the small traces of blood. Either that or I'm a filthy git that needed a good clean!

The other bit of unwanted attention could have proved to be quite painful as I was warned off by a triggerfish. Click on this link for a picture of one (although there are many different colour variations of this fish in existence): Triggerfish. The fish are generally docile, but when they are nurturing their young they get very territorial. Divers can inadvertently swim into their territory, which scares the fish into attack mode. You can tell a fish in this state because the dorsal fin raises, much like a trigger. It would seem that I had been swimming close to their patch as one of the fish swam quickly out of nowhere to within a metre of me and then darted back to a safe distance, before coming and having another warning swipe. I was fortunate not to get bitten, especially because I was largely unaware of what was going on!

After this dive I was told that I could do with some work on my underwater buoyancy. In fairness, I would have been more shocked if they'd have told me that the sun comes up in the morning and goes down in the evening - it was blatantly obvious! I did a Peak Performance Buoyancy dive later that day and this was a course that helped me to hone my buoyancy skills. I was definitely improved, but it still needs some practice.

Later that evening we were having a quiet drink when James got a text message saying that there had been bombs on trains in London. I was naturally worried, especially as I had no more information than that. It was a fair distance to the nearest internet place, but we ran there and managed to boot somebody off of the computer so that we could check up on everybody and learn more about what had happened. It didn't take us too long to get in touch with everyone and thankfully everybody that we knew were safe. The remoteness of the island really hit home at that time and I felt a long way from home. Even now I can't quite fathom how it must be to travel on the underground after these events.

We went on a snorkelling trip the next day and it was another beautiful day out at sea. I saw barracuda, a spotted stingray, a big white jellyfish, giant clams, and many porcupine and puffer fish, amongst other things. I even got to swim alongside a giant sea turtle for about twenty minutes which was great fun. After some morning snorkelling we had lunch at the fishing village on the other side of the island and were paid a lot of attention by the sheep there which were obviously used to being fed by visiting day trippers. James realised that he had lost his engagement ring in the sea and was furhter unamused when our boat driver took two hours to come back and fetch us. It was hard to stay angry at him though because he was such a smiley and easy-going bloke. Our last stop was at the beautiful uninhabited Turtle Beach where there were lots of baby turtles. They were put in a sand filled polystyrene container and all they did was try to climb over each other and get out. Labour in vain!

I was due to do a wreck dive the next day, but it was cancelled after lots of people didn't make the early start. I'm glad that it didn't happen because the dive that I did that afternoon around the 'Temple of The Sea' rock was remarkable. I saw black tip sharks, bamboo sharks, sea slugs, squid, razor fish, a rare lion fish, puffers, and a giant eel, as well as all of the usual suspects. That night was a very heavy one and after spending most of it drinking on the beach I rolled in to bed at about 5.30am. James got in at 7am and we were startled when we were woken by persistent knocking on our door at midday. It was our hotel owner and he told us that our room had been pre-booked for that night and that we had to get out asap. It was our fault for assuming that we could stay a night longer than we'd booked and just pay the extra when we eventually checked out. Fortunately we'd gotten to know some long term island residents and we had no trouble finding a decent enough place to stay for our last night there.

I was weary and hungover that day so I spent most of it relaxing on the beach. I'd been keen to go to the banana plantation that was visible from the beach since we arrived and as it was our last day I eventually braved the heat (and hangover) and climbed up to it. The banana trees themselves were unspectacular, but the views from up high were very nice. After nearly breaking my neck in my flip-flopped descent I spent a further three hours vegetating in the warm shallow waters and late afternoon sun.

It was a real shame to leave the Perhentian Islands, but we knew that we'd go back if we had time. I liked it so much that I'm sure that it won't be the last time I see the place, although I'll probably return years in the future to find that development and the other effects of tourism have spoilt the place. I can be glad that I've visited the island when I did though, and I strongly recommend a visit there (in their dry season) for anybody who likes the idea of a quiet beach holiday away from computers, televisions and transport.

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Photos

Long Beach (Perhentian Kecil)
White sand, hot sun, warm turquoise water. Nice.

Arriving on the boat
Pleasantly surprised at how tranquil it seemed

Monitor Lizard
This one was about four feet long

Fish Supper
A wide range of freshly caught fish and seafood, with rice and vegetables for 2-3GBP.

Gecko
About ten inches long, this one was completely unalarmed when I got close to take the picture.

Feeding the Sheep
They eat cucumber.

Turtle Beach
Undeveloped and stunningly beautiful

Dinner
Just kidding

Long Beach from up high
On my way to the banana plantation

A Banana Tree
The culmination of a knackering journey!