The Malaysian government is pushing through a large concrete development on Perhentian Kecil, Malaysia. Let them know your feelings here:
Perhentian Kecil, 20km off the northwest coast of Malaysian is pretty much my idea of paradise. Unlike most of the islands in the area it's lacking in serious development, it's in the middle of a marine park, the diving is amazing; I know many of the travelblog visitors have been there.
Long beach is one of the best places for a backpacker to visit period.
Reasons;
Beautiful beach, no hawkers, no dogs, no cars, no motos/tuktuks - and no massive concrete buildings...
Least not at the moment: there are plans to put up a two storey, 100m x 30m building in the middle of long beach, in front of Coral Sky Divers (for those that know) - this is right on the sand, in an area that floods during the monsoon. There is only one concrete development on the beach, BuBu's, set back out of the way, this is totally different and would spoil one of the worlds gems...
Anyone else feel about this the way I do?
Websites to complain at are: www.tourismmalaysia.gov.my, www.heritage.gov.my, www.motour.gov.my, www.kplb.gov.my
Let me know your thoughts and if you have any questions I'll do my best to answer - based on the knowledge of the people living and working on the beach right now...
Reply to this Yea i was there when they were talking about it three years ago. I will go to the websites you suggested so thank you very much. This is my haven I would be sincerely disgusted if they gi ahead with the plans...but to be honest - i think it is (unfortunately) inevitable.
If they really do need to have to build up the place at least do it on Long island.
Ali: Are you there right now? Did you know a guy called Limie? He got married recently! He worked in one of the cafe's infront of Matahari. Ineed an update on what;s going on there.
Reply to this Yeah - I'm in the Perhentians - working as a divemaster...
A few days ago a 100m huge barge pulled up on Long Beach... really ugly, and there is now a JCB a lot of concrete and constrution is started. For those that know the area, Mini-Mart and Nora's Cafe were pulled down (on illegal land) - Coral Sky Divers, Starbarts and Gen Mart had the fronts taken off their buildings... they'd extended about 10m without permission.
Well - I don't know wht the final buildings will look like - but possibly the end of paradise... I'll try to get some pictures.
Reply to this Ali,
I CANNOT BELIEVE IT. WTF are they doing? The whole reason why people go there is to get away from that SH!T. So what is gonna happen to Coral sky? How are they gonna run a business like that? I really don't undertstand. I'm honestly heartbroken. I lived at Matahari for 5 months and worked at a restaurant near it.
Please show us the pics when you get a chance.
ML
Reply to this Cheers for that. I have shown the pics to a friend who also stayed there. WT feck are they doing? It looks so ugly. It's not even to the side of the beach...just slap bang in the middle of it.
Man, where to go now for the perfect beach? I travelled to Fiji and even though the beaches there were 'perfect' they didn't have the atmosphere i love there at Long beach.
They should have done it on the other side of the island - the uglier part where the beach is made of pebbles!
Which diving school do you work at? Does that Swedish guy still run Coral Sky? Etc etc. Is Panaroma there still? I used to work there..ahh the memories. How long you planning to stay there?
ML
Reply to this Noooooooooooo, I was in Kecil a few years ago diving with seahorse divers (sp?) and it was great and unspoilt, I was thinking of maybe going back next year.
Can't believe that they're doing this especially as they had the marine conservation centre on the island, oh hang on, it's the Malaysian Government what was I thinking Doh! 😉
Reply to this > seahorse divers (sp?)
On Kecil - Sea Dragon - Ravi and Amber and Dee, on Besar - Sea Horse - Claudia and Yan and ... - least this year the people will change next year for sure.
Update: A little out of date - mid July - I left on the 14th, the barge was gone, construction had somewhat halted - some kind of something in the Malaysian planning authorities... the huge barge - apparently the same kind as one that damaged a serious amount of reef at Sipadan a few months before... Malaysia truely Asia? - well if the stereotypes of corrupt government officials and environmental bungling are true...
> Which diving school do you work at? Does that Swedish guy still run Coral Sky? Etc etc. Is Panaroma there still? I used to work there..ahh the memories. How long you planning to stay there?
I worked at Dive Tribe on Perhentian Kecil, Coral Bay. Coral Sky - Eve and Erika (french/dutch) are running it - have been for the last 10 years. Panaroma and the best pizzas in Malaysia is still there... just to the side of the new construction. I planned to stay there the whole season - but... internet access was getting worse and worse - due to my real job of running websites this became a problem... so had to leave 😞
Reply to this 
