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Published: April 14th 2010
Thursday 8th April to Wednesday 14th April 2010
We left Fathers Guesthouse in the Cameron Highlands last Thursday morning at around 10:30am.
We had organised with the Guesthouse a mini bus to the port and then a speed boat to take us to Perhentian Kecil (literally translated ‘Small Island’).
The mini bus journey was pretty uneventful, we wound our way down through the many mountains of the Highlands and after 2 hours we stopped at a town called Gua Musang in a small hotel mainly catering for tourists connecting between travel destinations.
After an hour’s lunch break we climbed back in to a different mini bus (thankfully with less people in) and made the further 3 hour drive to the coast.
We arrived safe and sound, were shown where to get on the boat, had our tickets checked, paid the mandatory RM5 conservation charge and clambered on board a large speed boat with about 8 other sun lovers.
The journey was a bumpy one to say the least, and everyone had to shift up towards the back of the boat and the driver so the poor people at the front of the boat could stop
being so violently thrown about (including myself!).
So after having our backs nearly broken and Phil losing his hat to Davey Jones’ locker (very sad Phil) we decided to be dropped off at Coral Bay. We didn’t have any reservation for a beach hut or hotel, so started walking towards the very small beach along the jetty.
We were stopped by a man standing outside the first hotel (Shari La Resort) and were told that they had a room available for RM50 per night (about £10). So we jumped at the chance as we didn’t fancy a walk along the blistering hot sand with our humungous back packs.
The room wasn’t great (quite dingy), but we had our own bathroom and it was clean enough so we decided to call it home for the next 4 nights.
We made our way down to a little bay by the side of the resort, at around 6pm, and couldn’t wait until the next day for a swim so decided to jump straight in to the crystal clear blue waters of the Perhentians and cool ourselves down.
There isn’t really an awful lot to do on the Perhentians,
apart from snorkelling/kayaking/diving/swimming and sun bathing, which is good for us as we wanted a nice relaxing few weeks before the manic life of travelling around South East Asia kicks in and of course we need a mandatory ‘travellers tan!’, which is coming along nicely.
Coral Bay was peaceful, a small bay with about 3 places to eat which mainly did a fish BBQ every night with tables and chairs placed along the beach. There are a few shops which are little shacks also along the beach with basic things to buy like suncream/postcards etc.
Food here does seem to be slightly more expensive than the mainland, but I guess they can up the price by a couple of Ringgits (about 25-50p - which now seems alot!) per meal/drink as there isn’t anywhere else you are going to be able to buy it on the island!
Our time on Coral Bay really was a matter of waking up at around 10am, getting breakfast then heading to either one of the small bays or the main beach for swimming and snorkelling, getting some dinner in the evening and sitting the the resorts lobby in the evening.
We
managed to walk over to the other side of the island to the larger beach (Long Beach), in around 5 minutes along a dirt track which has had the surrounding jungle cut back to make it easier for people to get across.
Our first view of Long Beach was brilliant, it seemed alot breezier there than at Coral Bay and obviously it being the large area was a much longer beach with more shops/chalets and dive schools.
We left Coral Bay on Sunday and made our way by taxi boat (no cars or roads on either island) round to the Southern part of the island to a small resort (Petani Beach) which we had booked up at the end of last year. Lucky we had, as it is fully booked throughout the next few weeks and people are turning up each day on boats asking if there are any chalets going.
It is absolutely beautiful here, no photos either of us take will really ever do it any justice. Forget 5 star resorts, this place is perfect. Our chalet is set back a few metres from the beach and there are only 5 chalets in total which
makes a lovely atmosphere as you get to know everyone.
It is owned by a South African lady called Debbie and her partner Hash. Im not sure how long they have owned it (will have to ask) but it is so perfectly set out and decorated (lots of shells and coral that has been washed up) you couldn’t ask for a nicer place to stay.
The food here is the best we have had yet in Malaysia, with different specials every night (BBQ’s/buffets/freshly caught fish) which makes things more interesting and so much nicer than having to pick from the same menu every night.
There are hammocks all along our part of the beach (the beach has another resort called Impiani right at the other end) strung up by rope to the many coconut trees. Phil and I have both found our perfect hammocks and have spent the last few days in them reading whilst going snorkelling and today we went kayaking over to Perhentian Besar (Big Island).
It’s the first time either myself or Phil have been kayaking and we were both very proud of ourselves to go that far - about 2-3 miles each way.
The water here is so clear and blue its only when it gets really deep you cant see alot, but we have both seen beautiful fish and coral. Phil even spotted an octopus which he quickly swam away from as it looked a bit scary!!
We have booked up to go Scuba Diving tomorrow through Debbie’s son, David, who works for Universal Divers which is based on the big island. We are going to be diving up to a depth of 10 metres and safety trained etc, the Perhentians are meant to be among the top dive spots in the world where you can see sharks (small harmless ones), turtles, coral and lots and lots of fish!
Diving is something that I have always wanted to do and feel very lucky to finally be doing it at last, may there be many more dives around the world to come!
So another blog will follow once we have been diving and we can let you know how our adventures of the deep went.
Hope everyone at home is well, it feels as though we have been away forever but infact it is only 2 short weeks,
only another 50 to go. We are both already starting to crave for certain foods, mine was olives (which they do at our resort) and Phils is lamb shank.....if anyone feels lamb shank would travel well to Malaysia please send us a package!!
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Helen Barnard
non-member comment
WOW
It is as I have said previously a little peice of heaven. Iam going to forward to my brother Neil, he expressed an interest in reading you blog, hope this is ok.