Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We woke up early on Friday 31st October and grabbed a much needed hot shower yay! We had our first authentic Malaysian breakfast in T'kafe, 'roti' with egg and cheese which was basically like a pancake mixed with eggy and cheesy goodness served with a small portion of curry sauce and a small portion of peanut satay, delicious! Sam had a lime tea and I had a freshly squeezed orange juice. We then wandered over to the jetty with our bags and waited for our speedboat over to the islands. Our boat arrived, on it with us were a Russian version of Will out of the Inbetweeners freestyle backpacking alone, a Malaysian couple; she was a medic during the week then went diving on the islands every weekend...s*** life, a few other Malaysian locals and a family from the UK; the wife and two teenage kids live in Cambridge where she home schools them, the husband owns a company in China and lives there then the wife and kids spend a month at a time in each; a month in the UK and a month in China. They were in Malaysia with their Malaysian lady friend from the UK and her daughter and were visiting the Perhentians together. After a 45 minute speed boat trip we reached the first stop, a small local fishing village, we then stopped at the livelier Long Beach before arriving at our chosen stop of Coral Bay on Perhentian Kecil (small Perhentian). The islands were like something out of a film, they were idyllic, white sands and crystal clear waters! We had a bit of a monsoon shower while we were checking into our new crib 'Shari-La Resort' where we would be staying in a wood shack in the islands lush jungle. Because we came in the low season all accommodation on the island is limited to half electricity; there's only power at night time so that was interesting trying to organise ourselves in a room with no power for light and no natural light because it was surrounded by trees haha! We walked to Quiver Dive School where I signed up to complete my PADI Open Water Diver qualification; because I did the five theory modules and the two confined water dives in the UK in September I only have to do four open water dives to be a fully licensed PADI Open Water Diver. So I signed up to do these on the following two mornings. We then walked the ten minute walk across the island through the lush jungle to Long Beach where we swam in the sea, it was a lovely temperature, a welcome break from the intense South East Asian heat. You could see Perhentian Besar (big Perhentian) from the beach, it looked less than a mile to swim it. After chilling for an hour or so in the sea and on the beach we walked back through the jungle where we saw a Monitor Lizard which was about a metre and a half long and huge flying beetles that looked way too heavy fly! We were starting to get attacked by pesky Mosquitos so headed back for a quick rinse off and to reapply repellant. We then had some local Malaysian cuisine for lunch; I had a vegetable fried rice dish and Sam had the shari la chicken noodles. After lunch we headed down to a little cove called Romantic Beach and had a tiny beach all to ourselves for most of the afternoon, it was soooooo beautiful! The coral could have been no more than 50 metres away at most. We went for a paddle and even at just above ankle depth were surrounded by about 50 fish. I freaked out and let Sam continue much to my delight after he got his leg and arm nibbled by them. A big fish then turned up with what Sam described as 'human looking teeth' then he freaked and joined me on the beach. We settled ourselves on two sunbeds for a bit and went for frequent paddles with the fish, even I braved it after the fish used Sam as a snack, it was weird! We had such a relaxing afternoon just chilling and snoozing on the beach...perfecto! We watched the sunset on Romantic Beach then went back to freshen up before dinner. For dinner we tucked into deep fried squid for starters and sweet and sour squid and vegetable rice for main mmm mmm mmm! We then retired to our little wooden shack in the jungle and donned our mosquito head nets for an early night ready for our day of underwater adventures in the morrow.
We woke up on Saturday 1st November and grabbed a quick light breakfast before heading to the dive school. I then got my scuba kit ready and headed for the beach with my instructor for my first two open water dives. The first was a shore dive at a dive site called Golden Bay. Here we simply explored the dive site to re-familiarise myself with the scuba equipment and techniques. I did a 35 minute dive to 12 metres and saw lots of fish and coral. We then had a quick 20 minute break before heading for the second dive. This was at a dive site called Coral Bay; we entered the water off the jetty using the giant stride technique. Here I did a 20 minute dive to 8 metres; we had to end this dive earlier than we would have liked because the current was really strong and we were being pushed too far away from the boat but I had completed more than the required skills for the first two open water dives and the visibility was good for both (around 5 metres) so I was happy! I then rejoined the Doylemeister for some lunch. We spent the afternoon on a snorkelling trip around the islands with two French speaking Italian guys and two Malaysian girls we met while staying on the islands. It was soooooo good; we had four snorkelling stops; fish point, shark point, turtle point and the lighthouse. We were lucky enough to see a few sharks including a baby one, a few giant turtles and lots of other different fish…all of which Sam got pictures and videos of on his GoPro…it was the best 10GBP we have spent so far! Heading back to the room we saw another Monitor Lizard amongst some rocks along the shore, Sam went after it like Bear Ghrylls haha! We got back to the hotel and tried to check out the photos and videos but half of them had corrupted…Sam was not a happy bunny! Luckily the Italian guys we had made friends with had a GoPro too and they let us take a copy of theirs…phew! We ended our fab day with chilli chicken and rice and a few games of s***head before bed
Sunday 2nd November, our last full day on the Perhentians…big sad face! Today I had my last two open water dives for my PADI Open Water Diver qualification. They were both boat dives and Sam came along with me and the instructor this time. We got the boat to our first dive site Tanjung Basi. Sam just snorkelled for this dive and took some pics and videos on his GoPro camera, I dived with the instructor for around 40 minutes at a depth of 18 metres and completed a few more skills. The visibility was exceptional at this site, around 15 metres, even though we were deeper! The only thing about this site was trigger fish!!! Huge fish around twice the size of a human head with pointy teeth, the instructor said they are more of a threat on these islands than sharks. However the instructor was armed with a pokey stick thing that they seemed not to like so I just stuck close to him. We saw six of the nasty buggars over the whole dive. Sam joined us armed with his GoPro for our second dive site Batu Layar (Sail Rock). Here we dived for around 45 minutes at a depth of 16 metres, completed the rest of the skills and continued the dive until I was low on air. We then ascended and that was it…qualification completed…I'm now a fully certified PADI Open Water Diver…BOOM baby! This means both me and Sam can explore the depths anywhere in the world without an instructor…exciting stuff! We then headed for a spot of lunch and spent our last afternoon sunbathing, swimming and just generally chilling out on Romantic Beach. After a spot of dinner and a few more games of s***head we settled down for the night ready for our day and a bit long transit to Thailand…by the way we are both gagging for a nice cold beer…being on an island with no bar to have a nice cold beverage of an evening has been a bit weird. This has definitely been the BEST bit of this trip so far…we are both very sad little beans to be leaving! Ciao for now folks! Mwah!
- comments