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Published: July 14th 2006
What's wrong with "First Aid?" It's got only twenty percent of the syllables and thirty four percent of the letters. Sat in the hot tropical air of a humid Malaysian wet season watching yet another tedious and overly-simplistic training video concentration was hard to come by. The only saving interest were the extremely bad actors, who approached their victims with the same wild staring intensity that Wayne Rooney would an errant linesman - "May I help you?" being bawled out at the same time as slipping on a pair of rubber gloves to avoid 'contact with fluids'. The only sane response to such an 'Emergency Firster' would be to yell 'Keep your hands off me you raving lunatic.'
We were in the Perhentian Islands off the North East coast of peninsular Malaysia and we'd come for a holiday. Having left South Asia in something of a hurry, and with only three weeks to go before returning home to work, we had both mentally given up on travelling. A week in Bangkok yielded no more exciting tourist fun than several trips to the excellent state run hospitals (vastly more efficient than the UK’s NHS) to see if we could further diagnose
Kim's recurring stomach problems. An internet search to match her symptoms yielded only the possibility that she had been exposed to biological weapons. Samples were analysed and raised the possibility of salmonella, which apparently your are 18 times more likely to catch in India than anywhere else in the world - although I've some suspicion as to exactly how they've arrived at this statistic. When not in hospitals or internet cafes we took advantage of Bangkok's recently found modernity to hang around in swanky air-conditioned malls and catch up with Woody Allen's latest. We did attempt to go to some temples one day, but it was just too hot and we scurried to the safety of the malls to browse bookshops and drink coffee.
Discussions with various divers we met suggested that the weather on the West coast of Thailand was likely to be poor, and that the famous dive centre of Kao Tao was likely to be overcrowded, particularly as this month's full moon coincided with a weekend and a major buddhist holiday. We decided to try Malaysia. An uneventful overnight train took us down through the badlands of South Thailand, where an insurgency by Islamic groups has
led to the area being added to the Foreign Office 'Essential Travel Only' list. We walked across the border, hooked up with a Canadian couple and shared a taxi to the port. The ferry was both late and slower than advertised, but finally we arrived on the Islands just as the sun was setting. It took us a day to get our bearings and find the best cheap-accommodation on the best beach - Abduls, just south of the main strip on the easternmost island offered friendly prompt service and a large beach hut on a largely deserted, largely mosquito free, white sand beach. Marvellous and quite different to the noisier, trendier 'Long Beach' where slim tanned young Swedes lazed around in bikinis at the water's edge. Quite off-putting.
But we weren't here to ogle, we were here to learn. Following our disconcerting deep water adventures in Bali and mindful that we may well want to do some diving in the challenging low-visibility waters around home, we felt we needed more training, and next up on the PADI scheme was the highly recommended 'Rescue Diver'. The course is aimed at training you to deal with the kinds of emergencies that
Petronas Towers
Built in 1998, at 1483ft the second tallest buildings in the world.are likely to arise whilst diving, plus sharpening up your own diving practices to reduce the likelihood of such accidents occurring. The PADI course notes and videos were stultifyingly dull, but our instructor more than made up for this with his typically Australian professionalism, knowledge and humour. The practical exercises were involving and challenging, including such tricks as surfacing an unconscious diver from the depths then getting them into the boat whilst maintaining mouth to mouth rescue-breathing all the while they are on the surface. We practised conducting underwater searches, administering emergency oxygen, rescue breathing, CPR and dealing with panicked divers both above and below the water. You certainly become very good at getting in and out of your gear whilst in the water, something that came in useful later in our stay during fun dives from small crowded boats. The course took us four days, and afterwards we both felt it was worthwhile, although we clearly hope we never have to use any of it, and we're certainly not overconfident about our level of training and abilities. The course took us to many of the different beaches and bays in the Perhentians - we went with the large but
Our beach, Pulau Perhentian
Taken from Abdul's restaurant, our chalet being just off the left of the picture well-run Turtle Divers who have 'offices' on three of the main beaches and seem to spend much of their time ferrying people around. There are no cars on the islands and water taxis are not cheap in backpacking terms so we were very happy with this fringe benefit.
The diving around the islands was excellent with two dives in particular standing out. Sugar Wreck is a small Vietnamese freighter that sunk some ten years ago with a cargo of sugar. Lying on its side the top is about five metres down and the bottom about twenty-four metres. As we descended down off the side the clear water turned murky and I felt a great thrill of entering the “deep unknown”. Having inspected the base of the ship we swam around to the clearer waters on the lee-side, which were teeming with ocean life - a lot of which had very poisonous spines so care with your arms and legs was paramount.
The Pinnacle is, unsurprisingly, an underwater pinnacle, the base of which lies between 18m and 24m. Exploring the rocks yields bamboo sharks, giant moray eels, turtles, scorpion fish, stingrays and tiny white-eyed moray eels that swim into
the gills of larger fish to clean them. Huge shoals of fish surround the pinnacle and much of our two dives there were spent just floating amongst them, watching the hunters and the hunted going about their daily rituals. A further highlight was the large school of Bump-Head Parrot Fish that seem to live just off Long Beach, some of which reach a metre in length and half a metre in height. They were perfectly happy to let us swim amongst them as they crunched the coral with their sharp beaks but their shear size made this something of a nervy venture at times. We finished our diving for the trip happy and wanting more, now with fifty-one dives under our belts.
The Perhentians had possibly the best opportunities for underwater photography of anywhere we had dived, with the visibility at shallower depths being excellent. Sadly the O-Ring on my camera case had fused to the case as a result of the paint throwing during Holi. When I came to remove it it stretched, and that was the end of that. Note to self - always carry spares. In fact I had some difficult motivating myself to take any
The next bay down
Pulau Perhentian. I guess it's all pretty much like this. pictures at all whilst there - above the water it was just too hot to do anything really. Forced by Kim I took a stroll down the beach on our penultimate evening on the islands and got a few quick shots for the blog, coming back tired and sweaty but reasonably happy with the results.
A couple of words of warning - there are two ferry ports to the islands and the taxi drivers on the mainland tend to take you to the nearest, which actually takes a lot longer by boat. They'll try to sell you a return ticket - don't buy one, as you may well want to come back on a different boat. I also noted when I got back that an attempt was made to hack into my internet bank account whilst on the islands.
Deciding our onward travel posed something of a dilemma. It proved impossible to book a Thai train from outside of Thailand so we came up with the cunning plan of taking a train to Kuala Lumpur and a cheap flight from their to Siam Reap in Cambodia, home of the spectacular Angkor temple complex. This had the extra advantage
Fishing boats
Pulau Perhentian. of helping us avoid the busy weekend by hanging out in KL rather than on the beach.
In Kuala Lumpur we continued our tour of South East Asia's best air-conditioned malls, although we did stop in for a sizzling steak at the legendary Coliseum Cafe. Time, and seemingly legal considerations, has toned down the serving of the signature dish in this colonial classic. No longer do they pour the gravy over the incandescent steel plate on the table in front of you, covering both the table and you in hot bubbling gravy - sadly this is all now done from a safe distance rather cheapening the experience. The service remains rudely efficient and the waiter's vain attempts to get a tip from me after already adding some 20% in charges to the bill caused me great hilarity and him much scowling. The steak was, of course, fantastic. It seems rather sad to say that this lump of meat was better than almost any we had in that home of the cattle-fed honcho, South America.
Afterwards we visited the Petronas Towers, which were, well, very large towers. We couldn't get to the top so we mooched around the mall
Between the Islands
Looking towards our bay and the narrow gap between Perhentian Kecil (on the left) and Perhentian Besar (on the right). Pulau Perhentian. waiting for sunset to get some nice photos.
And that was it. The only other comment I'd like to make about Malaysia was how helpful the people were away from the tourist areas. You'd only have to look slightly lost and someone would approach with a smile and helpful directions. Taxi drivers were also often very friendly and interesting to talk to. Whilst predominantly a Muslim country there is a strong and influential Chinese presence. The Chinese Taxi driver who took us to the airport was quite complementary about the Malaysian government, saying that, whilst of course the Chinese were a minority and on occasion suffered because of that, the government had allowed a good degree of integration and that he personally felt welcome there. It's nice to hear something positive for a change.
And finally, another plug, this time for Kim's new
Sheffield physiotherapy practice - although most of the people in Sheffield who read this already seem to have been. Orienteers, what a lot of crocks!
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Jess
Jessica
Photography
Hi Sausages! Love the blog. Just wondering if you could tell me about the camera that you use. Your photos are beautiful and the colours so vibrant.