Relax - Perhentian Islands

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We got a luxury night bus from Penang on the west coast of Malaysia to Kuala Besut on the east coast and got some sleep thanks to the very nice adjustable first class seats (woo hoo!). We arrived at the harbour in Kuala Besut at 5.30am and in plenty of time to get the first boat to the Perhentian Islands. Fast boat set off at 7.45am and the ride was very bumpy but very exciting. We asked to be dropped off at quiet Coral Bay on Perhentian Kecil (aka Small Island) and were pleased to see only one other couple also looking for somewhere to stay (we'd heard many stories about the stressful search for acommodation first thing in the morning). We found a very nice and cheap chalet (Fathima's Chalets) very close to the beach with WIFI for 45 MYR (9 pound) run by a friendly guy who was looking after a new litter of kittens! Perfect!

We spent 8 days in total chilling out of this beautiful island. We have never seen sea water so blue and crystal clear like a swimming pool. The weather was mixed this time of year. Three days were grey, overcast and raining. We were woken up one night by the sound of an almighty tropical storm and have never seen so much rain fall before. Sheet lightening lit the sky and the thunder actually shook the chalet, slightly worrying at the time. The other days were scorching sunshine though and we spent our days on the beach and snorkling! The food here was good but we mostly ate cheap and yummy roti cannai........like flaky buttery naan breads dipped in curry sauce!

We went on a snorkling day trip organised by our chalet. Us plus 8 others spent a brilliant day zooming aound the 2 islands on a speed boat going to the well known snorkling spots. Shark Point, Fish Point, Turtle Point, The Lighthouse and Romantic Beach looking for stingrays, sharks and Green turtles. What was left of the coral was very beautiful (amazing shapes like concrete brains, brocolli, fingers, space stations and open rose petals in many pastel shades) but much of what we saw was damaged, dead and grey. We saw loads of colourful fish, a couple of small stingrays and we got to swim with lots of young Grey Tip sharks (about 1 foot long). The highlight for us was when our boatman, Jay, found us some Green Turtles. These locals are experts at spotting the dark shapes on the bottom of the sea but we could also see them when they came to the surface for air. Jay found a few and we were able to swim down to the bottom and see these wonderful creatures up close. The Green Turtles we saw were about 1 metre in diameter and slow moving as they nibbled on seaweed on the sea floor. Unfortunately, the other boat drivers and their snorkling customers saw that Jay was good at finding the turtles so followed us and by the end we were joined by 30 more people. It was like snorkler soup out there, all frantically trying to get a look and thrashing about so much it scared the animal off (doh!).

For our last days we explored some deserted beaches and hired a kayak to make our own way to Romantic Beach early to avoid the crowds. It was so beautiful. We went snorkling again with an underwater camera and found more sharks and followed a cute small green turtle for a while. We got some great photos of the turtle as it came close to have a look at us.

We were very sad to leave the beautiful islands, the lovely people who work on Perhentian Kecil and the kittens. We decided that this island was nicer than Koh Phi Phi and Koh Tao, which were our favourites in Thailand. We got the lunchtime boat back to the mainland and then waited around for a boring 9+ hours to catch the night bus to Singapore and to see my Mum................

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Comments

[Chris]

Paradise found!
Wow! The photos Perhentian Island looks amazing in your photos!!! And I bet it is even more amazing in "real life"!!! Enjoy Singapore and hugs from your mum!!!!