Perhentians

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22 July 2008 Perhentian Island

Early flight to KL and then on to Kota Bharu with Air Asia, the (better) asian equivalent of Ryan Air.
While waiting for the boat transfer over to the islands, we realise we've left a handluggage bag ont the flight - containing snorkels, swimming gear, suncream, in short everything essential to our 5 days on the islands. A couple of hours later we hear they've located it and will get it to us the next day, amazing!

The Perhentian Islands look just like tropical paradise islands should look. Palm fringed white sand beaches with a few wwoden huts on them with dense jungle rising behind. The sea is an amazing colour.
Tuna Bayresort is a low key but well run bungalow resort, the rooms have aircon and hot water but are ffairly basic. The beach bar and restaurant area are lovely as is the beach with great snorkelling just off shore.

We book a snorkelling trip to three different sites the next morning, see some fantastic corals, two sharks and two turtles as well as the usual shoals of parrotfish, angelfish, damsel and the odd triggerfish, bannerfish and of course nemos.
Alex and Oscar do a refresher course with a dive instructor to boost their confidence. Alex in particular isn't very keen to dive again but Simon, a very enthusiastic divemaster manages to motivate him.
Alex has now decided he not only wants to become a dive instructor but also an underwater photographer!
Klas and I do a double dive on Friday morning, the first around a huge natural pillar sretching from 20 m up to sea level but out in the open sea where there's quite a swell that day. The second dive is a wreck dive, but by this stage Klas is so seasick that he chucks up just before our descent - visibility was awful and we don't know who to blame, Klas or the rough seas!

We meet a Swedish family on the beach who have two girls, Hanna 10 and Elsa 12.Max finds himself instantly drawn to them when he finds out they've been crabbing and they are soon inseperable.

We spend the rest of our time at Tuna Bay just chilling out, on the beach or at the bar, and snorkelling of course. manage to get the energy together to do a jungle walk, which is sticky and steep and we don't see any wildlife. It's warm, but not particularly sunny and on our last night a storm threatens, bringing lots of rain and winds with it. Hope our boat can leave tomorrow!

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