Perhentian Islands

Pulau Perhentian Kecil and Pulau Perhentian Besar are the two islands that make up the Perhentian Islands. We had our trusty guesthouse sort us out a bargain NZ$20 taxi to take us South to Kuala Besut, the port town that leads to the Islands. Here we boarded a speed boat for the mad 40 minute trip to Palau Kecil, where we arrived at Long Beach, a large stretch of golden silt sand and crystal clear water dotted with bars, restaurants, boats and umbrellas, not unlike Sihanoukville in Cambodia.

After transferring from the speed boat to a smaller taxi boat, we waded our way up to the beach in intense searing heat in search of a guest house. We found ourselves a fan bungalow with a deck and a view of the beach and settled in. We spent four nights on the Island and found the heat almost unbearable to sleep in. Like most accommodation on the Island, we only had power late afternoon – mid morning, and the water in our cold water shower was so hot in the afternoon that we had to let it run for five minutes before we could stand under it. Soon enough we discovered a resident in our bungalow walls – a rather large lizard had found itself a home, entertaining for us when it we would hear it scrambling and sliding down the walls when it slipped! There really isn’t a lot to do on the island apart from the beach and snorkeling, so between the two of us we are slowly reading our way through the James Patterson and Jodi Picoult series’.

We booked ourselves in on a day long snorkeling trip, where we were ‘guaranteed to see sea turtles and sharks’ and headed out to the open sea. I asked about the possibility of being nibbled on by the sharks but was assured by the guide that they (I kid you not) were ‘vegetarian.’ This did absolutely nothing to make me feel at ease. The Wikipedia article on black and white tipped reef sharks however, did.

First stop was the middle of the sea where our boat driver searched us out some sea turtles, and we snorkeled with them. They were huge, with shells about 1m diameter, they were scrounging algae off the barren sea floor (the water was about 10m deep). They were amazing to see in the wild. Matt swam down quite deep to touch one of their shells which were quite slimy, and they had a couple of fish swimming with them that feed of the algae on their shells. It turns out that Sea Turtles are one of the only creatures in the world immune to jelly fish stings, and use this wee gem to their full advantage; they are number one predator of jelly fish. A few jelly fish incurred blisters later, we decided that maybe we had had enough, but it was definitely worth it!

Next up was a stop at Coral Garden then onto Shark Point, where we were surrounded by about 100 other tourists out on snorkeling trips. Our guide took us on a 20 minute swim around the reef where depths varied between 1-20m deep. We swam with sharks up to about 1.2m – pretty neat experience. They weren’t nearly as curious as what I though they would be, instead they were kind of skittish. We managed to see lion fish (eek!) as well which was neat, although we had to be pretty careful with what we did with our feet!

Next up was a coral reef where we saw parrot fish, clown fish, swordfish and loads and loads of tropical fish. I’m still convinced that this is where they filmed Finding Nemo – we saw the whole cast!

Then it was onto a beach where we saw a turtle-egg-laying conservation project. It was a fantastic day and an absolute steal at NZD$20 each(!)

Now, back to relaxing at the beach…