After our glorious few days in Bali, we flew to Malaysia to complete the second part of our honeymoon trip. On the recommendation of Hellen, an old friend of Kelvin’s, we had booked accommodations at the Perhentian islands, a pair of two islands (Pulau Perhentian Kecil, or “small island,” and Pulau Perhentian Besar, the “big island” [where we stayed]) off the northeastern coast of Malaysia, not far from Thailand.
To get there from Indonesia, we flew Air Asia to Kuala Lumpur and then, with a two-hour layover, had to clear immigration, claim our bags, get money (Malaysian ringgit) from the ATM, clear customs, and check in again for our domestic flight to Kota Bharu (thanks, Joneses), but we made it safely, with ample time (and with bags!). It took another 1 hour car ride from the airport and then a 30 minute boat-ride from Kuala Besut (thank you, Nickelsons!) to actually reach the islands, which are 20 km off the coast, but the journey was definitely worth it.
"Fast boat" ride to Pulau Perhentian Besar
We spent three and a half relaxing days on and around the two islands, which have perhaps the prettiest stretches of coastline I have ever seen anywhere in the world. I have never seen water this clear nor this particular color of turquoise. It was really an island paradise!
Our resort, Flora Bay, had a full service and very good restaurant, where we ate virtually every meal (which cost us about $4-5 per person, per meal, half of which was from drinks [tasty fresh fruit juices and shakes]—we could get a tasty seafood entrée prepared Malay-style for just $2-3!). While we didn’t meet any Americans, the islands seem to be popular with European tourists.
On our first full day, we took a half-day intro scuba diving course (thank you, Char/Thad, and Tia/Rob)!! Scuba-diving was new to both of us, but on the encouragement by some of our friends, we decided to “take the plunge” and give it a try. Wow!!!! Fortunately, we had a very patient instructor, Dalton, who was excellent and very thorough in explaining the basics (of breathing, of “equalizing” your head pressures, of making yourself appropriately “neutral/buoyant” underwater [so as to not sink or float up and away], of removing water from your mask while underwater, of using your buddy’s air supply should yours run out, etc..). Kelvin and I were both a bit apprehensive at the start and thus did not sign up for the full dive-certification course (in case we hated it), but definitely got great instruction and experience should we ever want to do the full deal.
We started with practicing in (not a pool, but) the shallow part of the ocean off of Government Beach. I actually had a very hard time initially with the breathing… I think I was hyperventilating and not taking enough time to exhale, so my breath started to stack and I felt like I couldn’t get any air in. Then, when we were practicing tilting our masks up and blowing out our noses to get water out of our masks, I got a full nose of seawater and came up sputtering. I actually was starting to get so nervous and frustrated that I almost called it quits, but thanks to Dalton’s patience and understanding, and the fact that I’d never live down being a “wienie” and not completing the dive (Kelvin was making it look waaay too easy!), I was able to calm down, get my head straight, and go on.
I am soooo glad I did! We continued on and were completely and freely underwater for close to an hour, down to a depth of somewhere between 12-18 meters, and it was so fascinating! I couldn’t tell you the names of all the types of fish we saw darting in and out of the coral reef, but they included angelfish, parrotfish, gobis, and even some scorpion-fish near the bottom (glad I was not bumping my knees on the bottom then, as they are apparently quite poisonous). I thought I might get cold down there, or freak out again with the breathing, but I did neither—I think the fact that you are seeing so many beautiful creatures really takes your mind off of other things and makes you never want to come up! We both are so glad we tried scuba diving and look forward to going again sometime!
I know a "picture of a picture" is kind of lame, but we took this photo (diving evidence!) with K's camera so as to not jeopardize getting mine (housing all of our trip photos) wet... but we don't have the connector to upload photos from his camera... and I wanted to show you our diving get-ups!
The next day, we did some exploring of the small island, which is a bit cheaper but also a bit more crowded than the big island where we stayed. Although most people get around different points on the island or from island to island by water taxi ($3-10 per person per ride), there are trails which also cross or encircle most of the island. We wandered around the popular stretch of Long Beach, and then were able to do some jungle hiking to see quite a few different critters. We saw lots of pretty butterflies and many types of tree lizards. On one hike, a huge monitor lizard scurried across the path in front of us, and I nearly jumped out of my skin! At another point on the path, we had some sneaky bats swooping towards and around us, which also was met with quite a bit of shrieking. Believe it or not, some people explore those trails at night (which is not something I would ever consider!).
Some pics of our jungle hiking adventures....
Yes, those are tevas; don't you think I can rock them?!)
Lil' brown lizard (can you spot him?)
Glad we were not staying at these chalets:
Water taxi ride
On our last full day on the island, we took a few-hour snorkeling trip at some popular spots on the big island (D’Lagoon, Turtle Point, K.K. Point, and Shark Point). It was amazing! The fish were swimming right around us, and we saw hundreds of types of different ones (not that I knew what most of them were), including some massive tuna. We watched and followed sea turtles as they surfaced for air and then dived back deep again. At Shark Point, true to its name we swam among black-tip reef sharks which were at least 6 feet long (and “vegetarian,” we were assured by our guide [don’t worry; we were aware that there were sharks before we jumped in!]). It was a fantastic trip for memories, and we left only wishing we had an underwater camera to capture the beauty below the surface.
Black-tip reef sharks (from google images; no underwater camera from us!)
And, of course, despite my infamous reluctance to "relax" on some vacations in the past, I had NO trouble at all doing so here. There was a lot of this going on...
(wave-gazing)
... and this (hammock-reading and napping)
Sigh. Off the islands and onto peninsular Malaysia (a.k.a the road from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore!)
