Perhentian Islands - Malaysia

From Kualar Lumpur we travelled to the remote Perhentian Islands; located on the north-east coast of Malaysia - they had been recommended to us by others travellers. It took a long bus journey to a place called Kota Bharu where we were dropped off in the middle of an empty car park at 5am. Someone, a local, told us to follow him - and so with the other backpackers and a qick discussion we did! Good job as he took us to his office where they were selling the tickets for the boat to the islands. The first boat of the day was at 7.30am so we watched the sunrise and then boarded the speedboat for the 30 minute crossing. When we arrived at Long Beach (on the smaller of the 2 island) we transfered on to a smaller taxi boat which literally dropped us and our luggage on the beach - which also serves as the mainstreet for that part of the island! It was heavenly; shallow, clear turquiose waters lapped a picture perfect beach which had no more than 8 sets of challets and 6 cafe/bar/restaurants (only 2 of which served alcohol). This was it; the main resort of the island...no roads, no cars, not even a motorbike or scooter in sight, just a few people and a few parasols. The accommodation on the island was basic at all but a couple of places and you chose your accommodation by which hours they had electricity and running water (we opted for cold water all day, but hot water and electricity from 6pm - 8am only).

I'm sure if you've read some of our other blog entries youcan imagine what we did on this terrible tropical island! We went to the beach for breakfast, spotting giant lizards on the 2 minute walk, then we spent the rets of the day on the beach - reading, snoozing, swimming, playing bat and ball even - and having lunch of course. Eating on the beach 3 meals a day was essential as there wasn't any other option - our favourite meal was the evening BBQ (the barracuda was very good) - on the beach under the stars, of course.

We were really fortunate here too as some of our friends (who we met up with earlier in Cambodia) arrived a couple of days after us - and with great sense a direction walked straight in to us on Long Beach despite the fact they were staying on the other side of the island. So we were fair and ventured over to their beach on a few occasions - this meant taking a 15 minute jungle walk which was well trodden but full of jungle creatures nevertheless. It was particularly scary in the dark,and for anyone who knows Jo well you will already be aware that if she thinks any form of creepy or unknown animal may be at her heels she'll happily push you in to the direction of it so she can run past you, or maybe even tempt it in to attacking you instead of her!! A jungle walk is also made a million times scarier at night, when you are lighting up the trees and noises with torches - Blair Witch style! One particular night (circa 4am), after a few beers, we actually started to walk back through the jungle but that evening had brought a bit of a storm, and although a bit/lot of rain didn't bother, us we did feel like those silly girls in horror films who run in to dark woods in the rain and wind (luckily for us though we weren't being chased by an axe murderer) with only a torch for protection. We decided to turn back when we came to a fallen tree in our path and actually spent the rest of the night sharing our friends' bed with them (yes, 3 girls 1 bloke in a double bed and no jokes please!). The tree didn't look so big in the daylight but it was always better to be safe than sorry!

The main highlight of our trip to these islands was our snorkelling trip. For a start it cost 7 quid per person for the whole day! We were given good snorkelling equipment and taken to about 6 snorkelling sites in a small group. The first stop we saw beautiful corals and clown fish (Nemo's) as well as loads of other types of fish. Amoungst our other snorkelling spots was Shark Point; a hot spot for seeing reef sharks. Here we only saw the tail end of a shark in the distance, but a bit around the corner at another stop just as we were getting back on the boat they decided to come out to play! So I was straight back in to the water (Jo stayed on the boat) and saw a multitude of amazing black tipped reef sharks - at close proximity. They were about 1 metre long and a bit shy so they wouldn't really let you swim alongside them but they were used to snorkellers/scuba divers so they would let you get within a couple of metres of them - it was ace!!! Later on in the day we snorkelled at Turtle Beach - and just as the boat came to a stop a giant turtle (nearly 1m long and about 70cm wide) popped his head up right next to the boat! It didn't take many seconds for us to throw ourselves in to the water and the turtle was much more placid than the sharks and allowed us to swim alongside him briefly and he slowly glided through the water - it was breath taking. And as if the day couldn't get any better - a snorkel at another beach took us to turtle nests...and 2 day old baby turtles being incubated by a protection program on the island. Our guide was a local and seemed to know what he was doing when he let us set one of the turtles free in to the big sea - after all having a hold! It was really cool seeing him swim in to the waves and disappear out of sight (ah bless).

We were also there for the "Perhentian Challange 2008" which is where mainly locals compete in a running/swimming/endurance activity in the heat of the day and in the evening they have a big awards ceremony with music and dancing, food and drink and fireworks. This was on the other island so we travelled in style in our speedboat taxis (I could get used to that) and enjoyed the evening with the locals!

The islands really were paradise for us - especially with friends their to enjoy it with, and it was definately one of the highlights of our whole trip.