Perhentian Islands

14th October - 22nd October

After an exhausting 17 hours on the road, including one overnight journey from Johor Bharu onboard the coldest bus in the world (the air con was stuck on the lowest setting and even Ady’s teeth were chattering), our speedboat arrived at Long Beach on Kecil Island. The Perhentian Islands are situated 19km off the North East coast of peninsular Malaysia and are a mecca for divers and snorkelling enthusiasts due to the crystal clear turquoise waters and numerous reefs and wrecks just a short boat ride away. The water is normally so clear that even from the boat it is possible to see schools of fish and sometimes even turtles and sharks several meters below the surface.

Two islands make up the Perhentian Islands – Kecil Island (small island) and Besar Island (large island). We opted to stay on Kecil as the beaches are supposedly more beautiful here and the scene is more backpacker oriented, lacking the luxuries (read expensive prices) of the upmarket resorts on Besar.

We checked into the Chempaka Chalets at the far end of the beach. Our mistake became immediately apparent as we realised that not one breath of air was circulating in our hut and within minutes Ady was completely saturated with sweat; sweat poring off his forehead, nose…I’ll spare you the details of the rest! He ripped off his clothes and sprinted for the sea (the white sand had already reached scorching point!) leaving a puddle of sweat on the floor! That night we were joined in bed by a giant cockroach, how the bugger managed to crawl through the mossie net we don’t know! A second offending bug in the bathroom was the final straw for Sam – that morning we checked out and into the much breezier, impeccable Lemongrass chalets, complete with outdoor showers!

The vibe on Kecil was very chilled, there were no large hotels at all, just a couple of smaller places and a whole heap of beach huts like ours, set back just metres from the beach, so it wasn’t necessary to wear shoes at all. There were a handful of restaurants offering fresh fish and BBQ type fare, and the one bar – Buffalo – serving up Jungle Juice and a good mix of tunes was the only place to spend the night under the stars. There is no mains electricity on the island so small generators are used at night to supply power for essentials, such as ceiling fans in the huts and of course the sound system! Hence most of the lighting was by candles and the bonfire that was lit outside Buffalo each night, a good source of entertainment in itself as the locals would throw petrol onto it and light their majorette-style batons to begin some flame throwing!

We spent a peaceful 8 days in this little piece of heaven, enjoying lots of swimming, snorkelling and sunbathing and some yoga by the rocks – our sessions soon became well known with other travellers joining in! We spent a few mornings diving, taking advantage of our newly acquired Padi Diver status by exploring the amazing Temple of the Sea, and sending Padi some more of our money as we became certified “Deep” and “Wreck” divers by diving the Vietnamese and Sugar wrecks. Both were great fun, though the visibility wasn’t the best. We even swam inside the large cargo holds, in low light, something neither of us would have wanted to do just a few weeks ago! Our deep dive was a very slow descent to 24 metres (ear problems again, but at least we take as long as each other) to see the Vietnamese wreck but now we’re qualified to go down to 30 metres on future dives.

I think that if the season wasn’t drawing to a close with the imminent arrival of the monsoon, we would have stayed even longer, living this simple dreamy beach life! As it was our favourite restaurants were starting to shut down and the need for good food was enough to drive us back to mainland. Besides, Buffalo was running out of Jungle Juice!