Malaysian Chronicles: Road Trip to Perhentian

We wanted to make one last road trip before we left Malaysia. Since we have moved here, we have been told that the best island to see in West Malaysia is Perhentian. With only one week notice, our options were pretty limited for rooms but we found a spot and took off. It was a thousand kilometer round trip, taking 7 hours there and 8 hours back. To maximize our sightseeing, we drove to the East Coast (Kuantan) and straight up the coast to Besut, near the Thailand border. On the way back, we went through the center of the country, along the edge of Taman Negara. It was a nice drive, including a shortcut I took on the way home that cost me 1 hour!

Perhentian was described to me as having the most beautiful water, the largest variety of fish, and the least development. From my limited experience, I would agree. It was very beautiful. On the ferry to the island, the water quickly transitioned from a very deep purple, to deep blue, and finally light blue (almost completely clear) as we reached the shore. Even standing on the sand we could see fish swimming around. By knee deep, we could see lots of clown fish (Nemo) playing in the anemone. From some of the resorts, you could snorkel over live coral within just 10 or 15 feet of the shore. There were so many varieties of fish and they were completely oblivious to our presence. We took a stroll along the beach for the kids to collect sea shells. At one point, we were standing knee deep in water and could see reef shark swimming in front of us and monkeys in the trees next to us.

On day 2, William and I took a snorkeling trip. We went to a place called The Lighthouse. It was a little ways from the island in fairly deep water, but the top of the coral out cropping was only a foot or two below the surface. From here we could see a wide variety of amazingly colorful coral. The whole area was teaming with fish. Our boat driver even took advantage of the opportunity to do a little fishing. Oddly enough, he was catching some really pretty fish.

Our next stop was to look for sea turtles. Evidently, this is just pure luck. As it happened, we got lucky. The boat just meandered around an open area with a sandy bottom about 20 feet below. Once someone spotted the turtle, it was a mass evacuation of snorkelers over the edge of the boat. The turtle didn't seem to mind. It slowly walked along the bottom, nipping at sea weed. After awhile, it swam gracefully up to the surface for some air. This might have been the highlight of the entire trip. This turtle was huge and it looked as if it was flying through the water.

As pretty as it was, I was unable to capture any images that did justice to the water or the fish...