Surfers do it Standing, Divers do it Deeper

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Kuala Lumpur
Good to be on hols again if only for two weeks, we set off early from the Gold coast airport bound for KL. Arriving about eight and a half hours later it was straight into the hustle of the busy city. Only having two nights in Kuala Lumpur we straight away hit the streets after checking into our hotel which was only a couple of stops on the LRT to Bukut Bintang (and hidden amongst an Indian Marketplace) which is where most of the action is. After working out the train systems and where you were it was pretty easy to get around, we scoured all the restaurants and bars and after having a beer in an Irish bar (only to get some air con action - the humidity was nuts!I know, not very cultural of us) we just toured around taking in the sites getting to see the Petronas Twin Towers and the KL Tower within the Golden Triangle, both very impressive at night when all lit up. As most people know, KL is a bit of a mecca for shopping - not what we were there to do but very strange is the contrast between the dingy little local shops and Gucci/Dolce & Gabbana etc - there is something for everyone here thats for sure.
The next morning we got up early and took a bus about 2 hours out of the city to a tiny little town called Langchang and from there as there were no taxis, we had to ask a local for a lift to vist Kuala Gandah National Park, home to the National Elephant Conservation Centre. The only one of its kind in Malaysia, the team that work here are dedicated to locating, subdueing and translocationg elephants from areas all over Thailand, India and Myanmar where their habitats are encroached by plantations or other human developments, if it wasn't for this centre, most of the elephants who reside there would have been killed by poachers and farmers, it is estimated that there are only 1200 wild Asian elephants left in Malaysia. There are also a number of orphaned elephants being taken care of in the sanctuary, we participated in feeding them, having a ride and also bathed with them in the river. The centre has come under scrutiny in the past for mistreatment and exploitaion of these animals, but we found that being there and seeing for ourselves how they take care of the elephants and also taking into consideration the alternative they would have faced if not rescued, it is clear to us that this was not the case at all, there were no circus tricks being performed, we feel that the centre does a fantastic job in raising awareness and looking after these magnificent creatures. That is our opinion anyway. That night we were pretty beat so we had an early one as we had to be up at 4am the next morning to catch our flight to Langkawi.

Langkawi
Only about an hour to get from KL to Langkawi it was one of our easiest transition days to date, again the humidity was pretty intense as we got off the plane and Langkawi being a duty free island, it was straight to buying the important stuff for the holiday, Sam manged to buy cans of San Miguel for 30c each and I schnavelled 2 litres of voddy for $12 - happy days! We stayed 5 nights in a lovely air conditioned room only steps from the beach. We waisted no time getting to the beach for a cool down only to find that the water was like a hot bath and so we didn't spend too much time in the sun on the first day as we had to bulid up a base tan of course! The visibility was not the best for snorkelling also just off shore, we decided not to go diving here as unlike the Perhentians being smack bang in the middle of a marine park, it was a little further out to get to the dive sites from Langkawi which Im sure were wonderful but we thought we would wait. On the second day we did an Island Hopping tour which took us out to the Dayung Bunting Geoforest Park, home of the Lake of The Pregnant Maiden (and many cheeky monkeys wating for idiot tourists to pull out bags of food). There is a legend surrounding this freshwater lake, it is said that couples that drink from the water will fall pregnant, so many that are wanting children make a pilgrimage to this beautiful lake in the hope to become pregnant - no, we did not drink the water!! You can also hang your feet into the water and all the catfish appear out of nowhere and nibble at the skin on your feet, its just like having a catfish foot spa!
After a few close calls of being attacked by monkeys that prey on tourists to feed them - believe it, people think its cute to feed them which of course makes them viscious and not shy to have a go at you if you pull out anything plastic from your bag, luckily we were smart enough not too of course after seeing the first victim! We then cruised around to an area where the boat drivers throw out fresh meat and the local eagles swoop down for a feed, pretty cool to see and we managed to get a couple of pics of them which is no easy feat. Our last port of call on this tour was Beras Besah Island, home to many more hungry little monkeys and an awesome place to relax and swim.
We hired a car for $50 for the day and it was quite a shitbox but it had aircon so I guess thats all that mattered! We set off to the Langkawi Cable Car which gives a great view over the Andaman Sea and the Langkawi Island group, as well as breathtaking sights such as overhanging cliff walls and pinnacles, the ride itself is super scary with a length of 919.5m and it has been recognised as the 'Longest Free Span Single Rope Cable Car' by The Malaysian Book of Records. We have been up some pretty hairy ski lift chairs in our travels but this one makes your guts fall!! There is also a 125m suspension bridge which is a remarkable feat of engineering, you can tell by our piccy how impressive it is.
After returning to sea level we ventured just up the road to the Seven Wells Waterfall, aptly named because the cascading waters are broken by a series of seven natural pools. We did an exhausting trek pretty much to the top and cooled down in the pools to escape the humidity. Sam also spent some time cruising down a natural rock slippery slide like a big kid which kept him amused for a while. Then it was off to the town of Kuah which was about 30mins away, there was some more shopping centres here but it is also the place where we were to catch our ferry to Penang Island in order to get over to the Perhentians in a few days time. We found there was not much to do in Kuah but on the Kuah Jetty sits a magnificent statue of an eagle majestically poised for flight. According to local folklore, Langkawi derived it's name from the eagle, meaning 'Reddish Brown Eagle'. The next day before returning the car we took a trip out to a different beach called Pentai Kok, a strangely situated beach, you have to walk through a construction site and quite a lot of rubbish to get to it and once you are lying down enjoying the sun you are joined by the local cows/bulls that are grazing nearby, one little fella was not shy at all and came up for a pat.
Most afternoons we spent drinking and watching the sun go down, the locals set up nets to play beach soccer which I drunkenly joined in one day. The sunsets are exqusite and it doesn't get dark until about 8pm, after that we would enjoy either a beach BBQ meal or we would go to a restaurant in the main street. We also took advantage of the cheap massage services, so many spas on the main street, I got half an hour of reflexology and a half hour neck, back and shoulder massage for about $25 and I finally talked Sam into getting his ears candled all ready for our diving. Pentai Cenang has watersports going all day long from sun up to sun down and just being out of season, everything was cheaper than ever, Sam enjoyed his first parasailing experience for only $15 - all good. Overall we did enjoy Langkawi, apart from the intense humidity and the odd sewerage smell you get to enjoy whilst walking along the main street, it is a good place to relax and enjoy water activities, oh and really stock up on the duty free goodies!

Pulau Perhentian Besar
From the port of Kuah we took a ferry to the island of Penang (our initial way to get to the otherside of Malaysia by bus was all booked up so we had to go a little out of our way). Penang Island is pretty built up and is joined to the mainland, we waited about 6 hours for the bus to leave bound for Kuala Besut from which we would take a fast ferry over to our first island stay in the Perhentians. The bus trip was an overnighter on the bumpiest roads I think we have ever endured and we have covered some country by bus in our past! No sleep was had due to this so by the time we got off the bus in Kuala Besut and waited a couple of more hours for the ferry to leave for Pulau Perhentian Besar we were so happy to be able to check in by 12pm and hit the beach for a swim and snorkel. This is what we had both been looking forward to so much - to be in the beautiful Perhentian Islands which lay in a Marine park, there was much snorkelling and diving to be done! There are two islands that make up the Perhentians, Pulau Perhentian Besar (the big island) and Pulau Perhentian Kecil (the small island). In Besar we stayed at Coco Hut Chalets, aircon, mini fridge and TV for about $70 per night, they were cosy little chalets and only about 10 metres from the shore. A restaurant also only about 6 metres away at which we ate every dinner at. The Perhentians are pretty much dry islands as most places are owned by Muslims and if there was alcohol for sale it was at crazy prices so we were smart enough to bring over all of our alcohol from Langkawi and saved ourselves quite a bit of coin. Just outside our doorstep was a live coral reef, as you can see by some of our pics (not the best quality pics I know, kick ass underwater camera is the next thing on the list to buy) all of this was only about 2 metres underwater, and only a taste of what was to come when we properly went deeper! That afternoon we wasted no time in booking our first dive, Due to my back operation in April last year for my slipped disc, Sam and I hadn't been back under the water in about 18 months so they took us out on a pretty shallow one at first only about 12m, all was good and already it was clear to us that this was going to be some of the best diving we have experienced to date. All up we went on six dives over the course of five days, out of those six we had Hawkesbill Turtles with us for three of them, Sam caught a glimpse of a reef shark on our second dive but I missed the elusive little buggar! So much to see and to name a few - Blue Spotted Rays, Mooray Eels, Damsel Fish, Clownfish, Nudibranchs, File Fish, Scorpionfish, schools of Barracuda, Batfish, Angel Fish about 60cm in diameter, Trigger Fish and some of the most beautiful corals, soft and hard in all colours - it was a true delight to be under the water again after so long. We managed to do the two most famous dives in the Perhentians, the Sugar Wreck and also Tokong Laut (also known as the temple of the sea). The wreck was eerie as there was only about 5m visibility and the water was thick with plankton, we went all around and through it as well as surfacing up into an air pocket underneath the ship which was rife as the air in there was ten years old - no regulators were removed whilst in here! Everyday we trekked to a different beach on the island to have lunch, Flora Bay was one of our faves, spending a whole afternoon there basking in the sun and the place was practically desserted. We got to know all the crew at Seahorse Divers pretty well and after we spent our three days on Pulau Perhentian Besar, they were happy enough to come and pick us up by water taxi on the small island so we could keep diving with them. So after days of diving and laying in the sun and snorkelling on Besar, we packed up and headed for Kecil to spend two nights there.

Pulau Perhentian Kecil
The small island is more of a backpackers paradise, well Long Beach is anyway - we chose to stay on the other side of the island, Coral Bay which is a little more low key but we could trek about ten minutes over the island to where all the cool beach bars and music was going on in Long Beach and then retreat to the quieter side where we were staying. We stayed at Senja Bay Resort on Coral Bay for the remaining two nights, about $50 a night, we found it to be in dire need of some renovations for this price but we spent hardly any time in the room anyway. We did our last two dives with the Seahorse crew whilst staying on Kecil and spent our last night watching the sun go down sitting at the Shangri-La Restaurant eating a BBQ Dinner and trying to get through the rest of our Duty Free voddy. We left the Perhentians well rested, well tanned and with a new drive to get back under the water as soon as we can.

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Comments

[Stevo]

Holidays
Glad you 2 enjoyed yourselves. Looks like a very nice place for a honeymoon....