Day 88 – Day 97, 16-25/5/2012
I was leaving with a minivan at 8am from Taman Negara to Perhentian islands, so I spent all day in transit – Taman Negara was almost in the very centre of Malaysia, and the islands are in the North, close to the border with Thailand. We changed from one vehicle to another 3 times, and almost the only sight I could see through my window were palmoil plantations. They were everywhere around the national park (I bet the park is shrinking every year) and all the way up to the north. That’s what our consumerist demand for palmoil has done – destroyed rainforests in Malaysia so we can have our chocolates and cosmetics.
By 5pm we had reached Kuala Besut, a town that provides the connection to the islands – and we got on the last boat that was leaving on that day (it was supposed to leave at 4pm, but it was waiting for us). The speedboat took only half an hour and we were at our tropical paradise. I had gathered so many advices from other backpackers about the best places were to stay on the island, that I knew perfectly well where I wanted to stay. Though I assumed that the best value dorm on the island (with air-con, 24 hour electricity (!) and free wifi) would be full, there was no harm to ask as the fancy resort (that has these good dorms that they don’t advertise anywhere – you have to know that they have them!) was right next to the boat jetty. Surprisingly, they had 2 free beds, so I was all set for my stay.
There are 2 islands that form the Perhentians: the small island (Perhentian Kecil) and the big island (Perhentian Besar). The small one has more of a backpackers vibe, while the big one is more resort-ish, and it’s more strict (some people said booze is not available on the big one). Needless to say, everyone I had met had stayed on the small island. That’s were I went. Then, the small island has 2 main beaches: the Coral Bay and the Long Beach. I knew that the island is small and the Coral Bay beach, facing the west (read: the best spot for the sunsets), is the shorter and quieter of the two beaches. But you know, I did not expect it to be this short! Honestly, it’s about 5 restaurants long and takes less than 5 minutes to walk from one end to the other. It’s lined with fishing and snorkeling boats, there are a few diveshops and every restaurant/guest house/convenience shop offers snorkeling trips (same places, same prices +/- 5 ringgit).
But can you believe it – I have a diver’s certification but I had never snorkeled before? This had to be changed, so I went on a snorkeling trip with my resort on my first full day here. If I can, I’d suggest the Shari La’s snorkeling trip for sure, because it costs the same as other trips on the Coral Bay (the trips from Long Beach are 5-10 ringgit more expensive), but you get a free buffet breakfast as well. Plus, the snorkeling boat has a ladder which makes getting back into the boat a piece of cake (you’ll see later why this is important to me now). On my trip there was another German guy and 4 Malaysian ladies. Good that I had taken a t-shirt with me for the protection from sun – well, I might not have needed it that much for sun as to feel decent in the water as the Malaysian women were snorkeling dressed head to toes. Literally, even with headscarves on their heads.
As I hadn’t snorkeled before, I had no idea how easy or difficult it would be, and as I cannot swim long distances and I saw majority of people wearing life jackets, in the first stop I wore one myself, only to realize that a life jacket really really is not necessary if you have a snorkel and fins – you can easily just float in the water, rest and enjoy the view under you. The life jacket stayed in the boat for the rest of the day. What I also discovered is that I’m somehow unable to dive with the snorkel. I just stay on the surface. When I was trying to dive, I always exhaled all my air too quickly and next thing I knew – I was inhaling water and I was back to surface. One more thing to practice. :) But what an awesome day this was! In the first place, called Coral Garden, I saw so many fish in so many colours that I hadn’t seen in any of my previous dives. It was really indescribable! All the colours of the rainbow, sometimes even on one fish only (later I discovered that the name for the rainbow fish was rainbow parrotfish). Nemos, angelfish, butterflyfish, an odd moray eel, and many many other fish. The water is so clear that you can see the bottom from the boat. Even if the sea is 20 metres deep there!
The next stop was the turtle point, but the visibility in the water there was very bad. Our boatman had somehow spotted a turtle and made us get in the water – but I couldn’t see any turtles. I could barely see the fins of the German guy who was, supposedly, following that turtle. After some minutes of blind chasing I finally spotted the turtle. It was huge! At least 1 metre long! And… this was an entire bliss for me. I was thinking at myself, as I was trying to keep up with this beauty, that my trip is now complete – I might as well go home now, I’ve seen the turtle. Little did I know about the marine beauty I’d discover in the upcoming days. :) Some other snorkelers said that at the same spot the day before the water had been clear and they’d seen a few more turtles, but I was happy with this only one. Next, we stopped at a shark point, and spotted some blacktip reef sharks (they are not big – 1-1.5 m long). Then a lunch in the fishermen village and some more snorkeling. The last stop was supposed to be a beach for a bit of beach time, but none of us wanted that, so the boatman just let us swim – not much interest in that as well. But then – then he spotted another turtle and I was back in the water in an instant, chasing a small hawksbill turtle again. He was so cute I cannot describe! 2 turtles in one day – could my first day on the islands be better?
Later I went to the Long Beach to find a diveshop. There’s a short path through the jungle – a 7-10 min walk – from the Coral Bay to the Long Beach. And surprise, the Long Beach is… not that long. Well, it’s far longer than the Coral Bay, but at first I was shocked. Later on I would get so used to it that it felt like home, and anyway, there would be only 3 places I’d spend my time in. I had looked up a diveshop in the internet – Turtle Bay Divers. It seemed fine from the reviews and it had a “turtle” in its name – I felt it would be the right place for me. As soon as I spoke to some of the divemasters and instructors in the shop, I knew this is the right place, and next thing I knew I was enrolled in an Advanced Open Water course starting the next day.
All my days in Perhentians followed more or less the same pattern – waking up in the morning, going for a dive sometimes at 9am, sometimes at 11am, lunch, another dive in the afternoon, chilling in the diveshop, sunset on Coral Bay, dinner on Long Beach either in Ohlala (ultra-delicous pizzas and pasta!) or in Panorama, accompanied with a comedy or some stupid movie, chatting with other divers and backpackers, promoting Latvia (I’m telling you, tourism will flourish thanks to the people whom I’ve convinced that Latvia is the best destination) and navigation walking back to Coral Bay. 9 days were so not enough for this!
Yeah, about the navigation walking back. On my first night I had been so smart as to leave my flashlight on my bed, so when I decided it is time to go home, I faced a problem: the path back to Coral Bay is dark as hell – as there is no artificial lighting on the path and it was almost new moon. I was laughing at myself that as the second dive I’d do the next day would be a navigation dive, I might as well prepare with a navigation walk through the jungle.
Oh yes, there are plenty of monitor lizards in the Perhentians. Some are small, some are bigger, some are huge. Seems that everyone sees the huge lizard within their first 2 days of the stay, except me. I heard that that there was an enormous one (in the size of a well-built 6 feet tall guy) living nearby the Matahari Chalets – and I went looking for it there, every other day, but to no avail. I saw some other big lizards, but not THE big one. Eh, sometimes you are lucky, sometimes you are not.
There are no ATMs on the islands, so you have to withdraw all your cash before leaving the mainland. Some places take cards, but often with extra commission on the payment. However, I also know people whose money was stolen from their dorms. So that’s a note – be careful and not leave valuables in a dorm if there’s no locker. I was lucky enough to be able to leave my things either at the reception in my hotel, or at the diveshop, so one thing less to worry about.
Overall, I can say that the happiest people I met on my journey where the divemasters and instructors in the 4 diveshops I dived with. Divemasters especially. They have this happy, relaxed and satisfied (and tanned) glow about them – and I can understand, they get to spend their days in a dream-holiday location, they see the white sand and blue water every day, and they get to dive – do the thing they love so much – every day and for free/getting paid for it! I did notice a slight difference here: when they were having one of the rare days-off, one the divemasters was going on a fun dive, because now she would not have a group to lead, so she could enjoy her time with photography, but the instructor said – “Oh no, today I just want to stay dry”.
In the middle of my stay, to take a break from diving, I and my diving buddy decided to take another snorkeling trip with one of the boats from Long Beach. We borrowed good equipment from our diveshop (the masks they give in those snorkeling shacks are mostly terrible). Note to self: in the future, before signing up for a snorkeling trip, it is better to see the boat first, because we didn’t. And we got a small boat, without a roof and with a small ladder, but the boat was almost toppling over when people where getting on it. Eh, sometimes you are lucky, sometimes you are not.
We saw a huge (really – huge) Moray eel, a lot of blacktip sharks – too many, as at one point I had 3 sharks in front of me – one ahead, one on the left and one of the right, and I had to choose, which I like the most and which should I follow. We saw 2 turtles during their lunch break, munching on sea grass, a school of 8 super-relaxed bumphead parrotfishes scrubbing rocks and corals, and a variety of baby butterflyfishes – and when they are tiny, they are even cuter than the grown-ups! There was also a Michael Jackson fish – half black and half white. Ok, it’s not called MJ fish, but I couldn’t find it in the books, so I gave it my own name. At one point I found myself floating above this gorgeous and colourful fish with big eyes and while I was admiring it, I slowly realised that this was a triggerfish and I probably should not be right above it just in case it decides it can brighten up its day by attacking me. While I cannot dive with the snorkel, I can do backflips and frontflips though. :)
Perhentians simply are too beautiful to be true. I tried watching sunsets almost every night, but you know you’ve been doing too much of fish ID when you start seeing parrotfishes and barracudas in the clouds!
Chapatis, curries, rooftops and holy cows 