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Published: April 14th 2012
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It's Easter break for Leslie and Tiffany, so one more time we are on the road. First was the week-end in KL for the 10th birthday party of travelblog. On Monday we first queued for 90 minutes to get visas for Leslie and Tiffany, than we spent our day at the Sunway amusement park, going through the wildlife park, the amusement park as well as a waterpark. Nice to get busy for few hours, but really not much to write about.
And by 8.30pm, it was time to get on the road again. First a taxi to PWTC bus station. There, we met Jo one last time as she was going on another night bus to Perenthians. For us, it was first the little town of Dungun (Terrengganu), before boarding a speed boat to Pulau Tenggol. Our bus left KL at 10pm, for a very comfortable ride arriving in Dungun just before 4am. Our boat was not due before 7.30am, so we were more than happy to settle in a McDo for the few hours awaiting us. They even had benches for Leslie and Tiffany to "finish" their short night.
Pulau Tenggol is just an
hour by speed boat from Dungun. I'd first like to thanks Ali for mentioning this place! Well, Ali saw whalesharks here, so we had some expectations...what we didn't know, is that the last sighting was back in September 2011....no great for us, and indeed, in three days, we did not see any whaleshark.
The place is impressively beautiful and tranquil. One hint, it is not even mentioned in the Lonely Planet, and I hope it will stay like this. There are three resorts on the only proper beach of the island. Well, one is closed for the moment, and the other one doesn't seem to have any licence to operate. So this leaves you with only one proper option, I name the Pulau Tenggol Beach Resort....how original is that!
Do not come here during the week-end...I repeat, do not come here during the week-end. As each week-end, hordes of around 40 divers come here from KL...and by Monday, the place is empty. We arrived on a Tuesday morning, and left by Friday morning. First night, 6 guests including the three of us, Wednesday night up to 15 guests...the place looked crowded...before getting down to
a nice 10 guest on our last night....nice!
Pulau Tenggol has a beautiful beach. That's for sure! And there is not much else to do than...diving...coming back to this further down. Our room was nice...but can somebody explain me why they put aircon, a fan would have been way enough. The meals are included in your package, and we enjoyed amazing Malaysian food. Do bring your own drinks with you...nothing beside beer (expensive), tea/coffee and powder based juices. Oh yes, and forget about an internet connection, no wifi around here! The power is also on only from 6.3-pm each night...here it's generator time!
So what we did is...we dived! Leslie is going even a little deeper (won't give you the exact figure)....but he is now at 26 dives logged...and Tiffany continues with her own bubble maker shore dives.
What we saw....well....never spotted that many nudibranches. Don't ask me about the names, but the macro life down there is pretty amazing. Nudis above nudis...all over the place. Sadly my camera housing is finding his own limits. Did more than 200 dives with it...and when I go below 25 meters...it simply has the
tendancy to freeze...meaning I can forget about nice macro shots....well, I still have my eyes!
We saw also eels, napoleons, bumped head giant parrot fishes, turtles and rays plus few barracudas. Did try to find them, but couldn't attract any shark this time.
This place is simply amazing. We met divers who were either locals (hey, those guys know their garden), or who had done some proper homeworks in order to come here. The place is not cheap, but it's neither expensive...just be ready to dive. I limited myself to 2 dives a day, but they propose three everyday. We were diving with Robin and Irwin. Don't know how they do when this place is fully booked, as they have not many staffs around. Here you carry your own tank, and change it after your dive.
But wow, thanks Ali for the advise. If it's for the diving and the tranquility, this place beat hands-up Perenthians...and diving is way better too!
No more diving for now...well, at least not for today, but more coming pretty soon...
Still in Malaysia for the moment...but not for much
longer...
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Kerry
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Nice Blog
Pulau Tenggol is really a beautiful place. You can also visit Kerry Ireland for more beautiful sceneries.