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I have found a little paradise called the Perhentian Islands in northeastern Malaysia. There are two main islands here called Besar(large) and Kecil(small) which I have spent the last 6 days on. They both have plenty of stunning beaches, snorkelling and diving spots, and decent accommodation. I am on the smaller island which attracts mainly young foreign backpackers whilst the larger island has more local tourists as well as more up market places to stay at.
It was quite easy to get to, on wednesday I took a two and a half hour local bus from Kuala Terengganu and then a 40 minute speedboat ride to the island. I found it a little bit hard to get cheap accommodation so ended up staying the first night in a bungalow with shared bathroom and limited hours of electricity. That evening I went for a swim in the beautiful water at Long Beach and then had a very tasty fried rice with chicken for dinner.
Thursday morning I moved to a new guesthouse which is on the path that links both sides of the island. I liked the location, five minutes walk to either beach, quiet in the evening, and
a good deal at $13 a night with my own bathroom, power all day, and free wifi. Once settled in I hired a snorkel and mask and hit the small beaches just north of Coral Bay. Within a few minutes I had seen a group of 8 black tipped reef sharfs and heaps of colourful fish. I spent a couple of hours in this area and in between snorkelling I would lie on the sun lounges that probably belong to the more exclusive resort I wasn't staying at. I then had a rest for a couple of hours before having a late lunch at Long Beach, and then snorkelling at the northern point next to the jetty. Unfortunately there were no sharks or turtles here but great visibility and lots of fish. That evening I went back to Coral Bay to return the mask and snorkel and to have dinner whilst watching the sunset.
Friday I decided to do the snorkel tour which was a great deal at $11 including a small breakfast. We ended up snorkelling at five spots around the island and having lunch at the fishermans village, which is where most of the locals live. I
was a little dissappointed with the visibility of a lot of the sites and the state of the coral but we ended up seeing heaps of fish, some turtles as well as a couple more sharks.
Saturday I didn't do much at all except go for a swim in the afternoon at the north end of Long Beach. On sunday I took a taxi boat over to Perhentian Besar to go snorkelling at a few places. After a minute in the water I saw my first stingray which I was pretty rapt about and after being out of the water for a couple of minutes I saw a baby black tipped reef shark about 2 metres from shore. I grabbed some lunch and then went snorkelling on the other side of the bay where I saw another couple of stingrays, a large reef shark, an eel, and a large grouper. I then caught the taxi boat back to Long Beach in the evening and had indian for dinner. Not a bad day. Monday was very relaxed, just hopped on the internet for a couple of hours, and then went snorkelling in the late afternoon.
I have really loved
my time on these islands and would love to come back sometime. I found the visibility and state of the coral not as good as Tioman but the beaches and the beauty of these islands more than make up for it. I am off to the mainland tomorrow, the main reason being that I have almost run out of money and there are no ATMs here.
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