Perhintian bliss

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I stepped off the plane this afternoon in Kuala Lumpur, my sandals still damp and sandy from the morning rains on Palau Kecil in the Perhintian Islands. I visited the little group of islands on the north-eastern coast of Malaysia with the intension of a short stop of 2-3 days. I stayed for more than a week and couldn't find any reason to leave.

A week earlier I had stepped onto the bus at 09:00, traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Bharu. Apparently there is a large national reserve along the way, however as far as I could tell the whole of the interior of Malaysia is thick untamed jungle. Except for a couple of small settlements and the odd palm plantation, trees and jungle vines spread in every direction. The roads were very good apart from the Transit Authorities' obsession with rumble strips. In a car these small bumps are barely noticeable but in a double axle bus the noise and shaking generated by these strips in the road is enough to loosen teeth. And they are everywhere - a curve in the road, a pedestrian crossing, a town, an intersection - cue long sections of yellow rumble strips. The only note worthy event on the 9 hr bus trip to Kota Bharu was when the bus driver pulled over to the side of the road at 15:30, stood up and said "Perhabat geraden isa binadenadin," or something to that effect. It sounded very important, whatever it meant, and next thing he stepped off the bus and started to walk down the road. Clearly we were going nowhere, and then 2/3 of the passengers also disembarked and followed him down the road. My bewilderment soon dissipated when they turned left and walked into a mosque - it was time to pray and we would not be moving until that duty had been fulfilled. Our journey resumed 20 - 30 mins later and I arrived in Kota Bharu just after 18:00.

I can find nothing to recommend Kota Bharu. It is a small frontier city that serves as a staging post for the tourists traveling between Malaysia and Thailand or the Perhintian Island resorts. Nestled in the heart of one of Malaysia's most conservative Islamic provinces, I couldn't even buy a beer that evening. I spent the night in a small hostel near the bus station, the fan doing little to cool the dorm as we all perspired restlessly through the night. The following morning I jumped in the first taxi south to Kuala Besut to catch a "ferry" to the islands. I say ferry, but I actually mean a 4 m speed boat with large outboard engines which powered across the choppy sea, slamming relentlessly into the swell. I arrived at Long Beach on Palau Kecil (which literally means "Little Island") thankful that the bone jarring ride was over, and checked into the first dorm I found. It was very basic - mattress on a broken base, non-flushing toilet (you use a bucket filled with water) and an anemic shower, and a ceiling fan - but for $5 a night I had no complaints. It's not for everyone though, and few people spent more than two nights in the dorm. Fortunately there were plenty of alternative options for accommodation on the island, from basement budget to luxury resort. We had a resident rat in our dorm, one of the girls discovered it had eaten right through her backpack to get at the packet of biscuits in her bag and I had a gecko in my bed one night. This is a lot more alarming than it sounds when you consider that the geckos in Malaysia are 40 cm long! That's a serious amount of lizard to have running over you in the dark! They grow their bugs big in Malaysia and the predators grow larger to eat them. While on the island I also saw a couple of large monitor lizards and a small snake that fell from the trees as I sat on the porch reading.

The main attraction for me however, was the scuba diving on offer from this group of islands. I didn't know much about the dive sites before I arrived, but I know now that I picked a fantastic spot. There are about 20 dive sites around the Perhintian Islands and they offer good variety in this little location. From shore dives, coral gardens, deep reefs, submerged boulders, sea pinnacles and two ship wrecks there's plenty to see. The Sugar wreck is one of the top wreck sites in Asia - a large cargo ship (~ 85 m long) sank in 2001 after taking on water during a storm (so it's still very much in tact). Lying in only 18 m of water the side of the hull is only 5 m below the surface and with good visibility it makes for a spectacular dive sight - you can see the ship from the speed boat before you enter the water. Wrecks serve as a mecca for fish on an otherwise barren sea floor and we always saw huge schools of fish around the wreck.

My existing Open Water certification did not permit me to dive the wrecks nor attend the night dives, so I immediately signed up for the Advanced Open Water course. Over the course of 3-4 days and 5 training dives (Navigation, Night, Deep, Photography and Wreck) I completed my certification - much easier than the Open Water course. I filled in the time in between with fun dives, tanning on the beach, volleyball and the evenings were spent enjoying fresh seafood BBQs and local Malaysians & guests singing folk songs with guitars near the bonfire on the beach.

The diving was good - Malaysia's tropical reefs have some of the highest fish species diversity in the world. Visibility was about 10 m, sometimes more and sometimes less depending on tides and the severity of the thunder showers the day before. I saw several turtles, barracuda, anemone fish, trigger fish, squid, wrasse, parrot fish, rays, sharks etc. Too many to list them all and the water was like a bath it was so warm (28 - 30 degrees C). A very satisfying week, so relaxing.

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