Even though we had only been back at work for one week after our summer in India and England, the long holiday weekend to celebrate 52 years of Malaysia’s independence was too good to pass up. So off to the Perhentian Islands to chill after a gruelling working week!
This was actually our third trip to the Perhentian Islands so that in itself tells you it is worth visiting. It’s not an extensive archipelago with most of the smaller islands basically consisting of jungle clad lumps sticking out of the sea. The two main islands are Kecil (small) and Besar (big) and both have been developed for tourism. The smaller island attracts backpackers as it is a livelier place with cheap guesthouses. While the larger island has more upmarket accommodation with long, wide beaches suitable for families. Whichever island you choose to stay on you are guaranteed turquoise seas and beautiful white sand beaches backed by jungle covered hillsides.
On our first visit we chose to stay on Pulau Kecil but only stayed for 2 nights before moving over to Pulau Besar. The accommodation was invitingly cheap but turned out to be too shabby for our liking. There comes a time when you have to admit that you’re not a 20-something on a gap year! Besides which, it was assumed that you were one of the diving crowd and, not being underwater people we felt decidedly out of place.
Usually on a holiday, or just a weekend away, I avoid children at all costs so it must sound strange that we chose to move over to the more family orientated island. The beauty of Besar is that there are more bays and lots of beach for people to spread themselves along. So, you can always find a nice quite spot under some natural shade to while away an hour or three. Not all of the accommodation is expensive and there is a good choice of restaurants, especially if you use the sea taxis or jungle paths to get from one bay to another. For us, Besar wins hands-down as the marine and land loving wildlife is quite literally on your doorstep.
The second time we visited the islands we stayed on Flora Bay that has a lovely long swimming beach, but you need to go on a boat trip for snorkelling. This will cost around RM35 for a half day trip and you’re taken to 4 sights. At Shark Point you really will see said ultimate fish; the Coral Garden area truly is impressive and if a turtle is spotted along the way, it’s possible to leap out of the boat to observe these wonderful reptiles in their natural habitat. The last port of call is an area of reef further out to sea, and here the currents are much stronger. The boatman didn’t warn us and I was horrified, on looking up after a matter of moments, to see the boat rapidly receding. Flippers are a must here to allow you to fight against the current in order to be re-united with your boat. Unfortunately I was bare-footed and even on swimming with all my might the boat was not getting any closer. Being in deep water I panicked and needed to be rescued!
Although Flora Bay does not have snorkelling available from the beach the land activities are more accessible here. The jungle treks are longer and clearly marked and when we used them we saw plenty of animals. When staying on Flora Bay we took the jungle path over the island to Coral Bay to take advantage of the beach side snorkelling. We then returned using the headland jungle paths that link the various bays. It was a great way to find out what else in terms of accommodation and eateries was available.
For this third trip we stayed at Coral View Resort, on Coral Bay, that offers a range of room styles, from basic fan rooms up the hill side to a luxurious suite right on the beach. Yes – we were in the cheapest option! There may not have been a sink or hot running water, but our chalet was in-among the trees and boasted an enormous balcony. The only drawback with being in the jungle is that the mossies are fierce, but luckily they do not venture into the rooms. The only discomfort was when trying to chill on the balcony. We were constantly being attacked by these miniature monsters – we’ll be taking DEET next time not our namby-pamby citronella!
However these nasty beasties were soon forgotten on spotting some of the gentler inhabitants; flying lizards, monitor lizards, tree shrews, squirrels, frogs and toads, bats and fruit bats, dusky langurs and colugos (flying lemurs). With the exception of the amphibians we saw all of these creatures from the comfort of our balcony. The highlights were, watching the colugos gliding between the trees, and spotting a baby langur that was still in its bright orange fur stage.
The main reason for going to Perhentian is to take a look at the marine life. The beauty of this picture postcard island is that the reef is literally meters away from the shore. Perfect for me, as that means no embarrassing moments trying to get in and out of boats or even worse, being too scared to go in as I’m out of my depth. Granted in order to get to see the best of the corals in the bays I should have swum out further than I did, but that’s not to say I missed out. At low tide (in the afternoon) it is possible to reach an area of, still beautiful, coral within a few strokes and I like to have a quick exit route. Steve said a little further out the corals were better but not significantly so. Both of us saw loads of different types of fish and one of these days we’ll get around to trying to identify some! Steve said that further out the fish were in greater numbers and he saw some truly huge specimens. He was most dismayed to hear that I’d been watching a small black-tipped reef shark – he’d not. Our next foray into the ocean was further down the coast and yet again I pottered around the shallows and saw a baby shark.
The next morning we had to have another snorkel as Steve was determined to spot a shark. We’d not gone much deeper than waist high before we were surrounded by a small shoal of fish. People have started feeding them (wish they wouldn’t) so the brave ones are attracted to you. The trouble is if you haven’t got any food they nip at your legs and they’ve got strong coral chomping jaws – little buggers! Luckily they stay in the shallows – even shallower than me! – so we were soon off their radar. Again Steve and I investigated different areas and again we came back with similar stories of the quantity and types of fish and coral we’d seen. We saw some different varieties this morning and I was lucky to spot a type of butterfly fish we’d not seen before. I’m pleased to announce that Steve returned with a big grin as he’d seen a couple of fair sized black tipped reef sharks.
Since we were visiting the island during Ramadan, and Terengganu (the state in which the Perhentian Islands lie) is strongly Muslim, we had to time our evening’s entertainment with military precision! We had to fit in; balcony glass of wine, find somewhere showing the football and have a meal before kick-off, in between the restaurant opening times. Since the majority of the staff was observing the Ramadan fast, they needed to eat as soon as they could of an evening. Understandably all the restaurants were closed for a while to allow the staff to refuel. We slightly miss-timed things the first night as there was nowhere showing the football on our bay and it started raining. We weren’t going to let that stop us so it was a case of grabbing the torch and walking over to the next bay in the rain and dark.
It felt like we’d been jungle trekking for hours before we made it to the next bay and Cosy Chalets’ restaurant. Fortunately they not only had a big screen already showing the Chelsea game but it was bar-b-que night too. Unfortunately the food was not as good as it could have been but the night ended well with Liverpool scraping a win against Bolton. We timed our run much better the second night for City’s game – got over the headland in daylight and ordered food from the menu which was very tasty. Yet again a happy trek back by torch light as City had bagged 3 points too.
A fantastic weekend break. You can’t beat sitting on your balcony one minute watching colugos and langurs, then descending the steps to go snorkelling with sharks the next.
Travel Information
Air Asia (www.airasia.com) and Firefly (www.fireflyz.com.my) fly to Kota Baru daily. From there it costs around RM80 (one-way/ 1 hour) in a taxi to get to Kuala Besut the jumping off point for the islands.
A boat will then cost another RM70 return ( 30 mins). They set off at regular intervals throughout the day but the return times are 8am, 12noon and 4pm – inform your guest house the day before you want to leave so they can pick you up.
We stayed at Coral View island Resort and they have a range of different chalets in the forest or on the beach. http://www.coralviewislandresort.com/
