Advertisement
Published: August 5th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Swimming with the Turtle!
That is me in the middle! Day 98 to the Perinthians
Got a taxi first thing and managed to share with 2 other girls so was handy, the taxi took us to the Jetty which was at Kuala Besut about an hour away. On arrival here we transferred to a Jet boat and were warned about our back and if we had eaten recently 😊 Lovely, anyway no need to worry as the seas were very calm and we were there in about 20 minutes. We decided on the smaller island Kecil as it predominately has more budget and available accommodation than it's bigger and more resort style brother Beasar Island. Besar was originally what we wanted but just could not find any decent place to stay so settled with Kecil which also has a younger crowd (so I have heard?).
Problem with Kecil is you cannot really pre book any accommodation, they only take walk-ins. So this meant labouring around the island with bags looking for somewhere to stay. After about 2 hours we found something on Long beach called Moonlight Chalets. The beach here is pretty amazing long stretch of sand with the most incredibly blue clear water. I have never seen such
Lizards
These were everywhere, this one was pretty small though. We saw one that was about 3 metres long! clear water and can understand why this is a hot spot for learning to dive. Our chalets were nothing to write home about and for the money you pay (at least twice compared to Thailand bungalows) you get something pretty basic, i.e. a bed with a fan in a wooden chalet. Moonlight did have a great restaurant though and probably the best location on all of long beach at the northern end away from the noise. Anyway we only planned to stay here until we could get something slightly better, as it was this was costing us 70 Ringgit a night or £16.
First few days we just relaxed on the beach doing a lot of swimming on Long beach which is just an awesome spot.
Day 100 - 102
Managed to move to another more central Chalet on Long beach called Matahari. The rooms were also a LOT better quality and much cleaner than Moonlight. Would definitely recommend this place, though it is very hard to get a room. We had to put our names on a waiting list the previous day and then turn up at 11 hoping someone would check out!
The following
day we joined a Snorkelling trip which is a must do when you are in the Pernthians. It was a pretty full on day and we hit about 6 spots but easily the most amazing was the chance to swim with the giant Hawksbill Turtles. They are surprisingly not too difficult to spot and only about 50 metres in from the beach. We hovered over them (probably water was 3 metres deep) and got a great view of them when they surfaced for air which was about every 10 minutes. The only problem was there were so many snorkelers surrounding this poor old turtle it was hard to get close! Also an interesting fact is these Turtles can be seen on the shore of the beach during the breeding season laying their eggs. That would be a sight; also they are a pretty endangered species.
We also went to the Lighthouse where we saw masses of Barracuda and other big schools of fish. This was really deep water just off the Coast of Kecil Island and probably the best place we found for snorkelling. Also saw Nemo (Clown Fish) at a few of the stops on the trip as
well. It is a must do if you come to the Perenthians really! Also if you are a diver you can check out the big ship wrecks nearby which are apparently world class.
Headed back to Kota Bhuru for a night to organise ourselves for the trip to KL the next day.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.099s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 26; dbt: 0.0727s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb