The Perhentian Islands
Eddie was the manager of daniels lodge, he place I raved on about in my post about the Cameron highlands. Like alot of malays, he is of chinese descent and is a dead ringer for Ho Chi Minh. In my opinion he ran a really good shop in daniels, allowing the guests to make themselves at home – stay up as late as they want, not pushing any of the local treks on people etc basically he was a master at making you feel at ease and I reckon me over staying in the place had a lot to do with this laid back atmosphere. However business in the lodge has taken a bit of a battering, tourist numbers in malaysia on the whole are down from other years. The unfavourable review in the last lonely planet which was plainly untrue if nothing else contributed to the end of eddies tenure as the manager. Before he left he told me about D’lagoon, a resort on the perhentian islands owned by a friend of his that he highly recommended. He said he was going there himself for a couple of weeks before he gets a job elsewhere. So with this in mind I took the bus from panang to the port of Kuala Besult where a 30 minute speedboat deposits you on the island of your choice.
There are several islands that make up the perhentians but just two are inhabitable and go by the names of big and small island. D’lagoon is on the small island, on the north east coast of the island the resort virtually commands most of the north of the island with easy access to two larger beaches (Adam & Eve and Turtle beach) on west coast. The islands are designated national marine parks so they are flush with wildlife and some excellent diving spots which are quite importantly under protection of the malaysian government to ward away any poachers or illegal fishing by dynamite, practices which have ruined formerly great dive sites in the philippines.
The boat that gets you there only really gets you most of the way there, each resort has its own fleet of small fishing or speedboats which are summoned from the shore to come and collect you at the mouth of the bay. Switching boats can be alittle hair raising, getting the bag across with your passport and electronics is obviously the most important action, hate to disappoint you all by informing you that I made a dry transition myself also.
After signing into the place I got myself some well needed if not earned sleep before taking in what d’lagoon had to offer me. The resort is a collection of tree houses and chalets which make a reasonable effort at blending into the background, there is very little concrete on show which is always a bonus. The beach itself is small, barely 50 yards across and awash with dead coral washed up by storms there is a scattering of hammocks and plastic chairs there is even a pet monkey there to keep you amused incase you get bored reading a book or snorkling.
I did a hell of an amount of snorkeling while I was there. I must have gone out 3 or 4 times a day, I swam miles, getting good at the swimming. The snorkling gear myself and bob picked up in manila has more than paid for itself. Underwater the amount of wildlife is dazzling. There are sharks, turtles, sting rays and obscene amount of other multicoloured multisized fish that I couldn’t even begin to name or describe. The sharks are scary little feckers, they are just reef sharks so they measure only a couple of feet in length but when they whip past you at such speed it gives you a bit of a hop.
On dry land there is no shortage of wildlife to keep you amused also. Just lying back in your hammock it is only a matter of time before a snake crawls up your tree to have a look at you (its frightening), the island is full of monitor lizards which can grow up to well over 2 metres in length. The biggest one I saw was under two metres but an impressive beast nonetheless. One morning early, far too early the owner of the place woke everyone up to get out onto the beach, there was a turtle laying eggs on the beach. It only happens once a year and he was able to predict it, something to do with the moon that or he is some kind of nostradamus with a certain speciality in turtle cycles. I was there with a completely dopey head, not really grasping the specialness of such an occasion. I took a few snaps and let the turtle get on with business, I mean its not exactly the thing you would appreciate a crowd to gather for. I would imagine it was difficult enough for the poor creature as it was. It only really dawned on me how special it was to see it happening the next morning.
I stayed here for 4 nights, I would’ve stayed much longer if I had have given up my lonely planet boycott and read that the island has no atms – I had 300 ringit which is about 80 euro. With no drink I was able to make it stretch, life on islands is always pricier than the mainland. A couple of negative points about the place, there’s very little to complain about… but its an island, well at least the resort is geared for couples and thats what frequents the place mostly. You get feck all craic from them, twas only when eddie arrived that I had someone to eat dinner with and discuss various things. Later on a lovely scottish couple, steven and sam arrived. Hung out with them on my last night and we chatted about our past adventures, pity they didn’t arrive earlier. The bugs there are also a major issue, for me anyways who was too dumb/tight to invest in a mosquito net and was dumb enough to lose my mosquito repellent I was eaten alive by the little bastards. One night I couldn’t sleep at all with the humidity and the sheer itchiness of the bite makes left by the little cretins. When I did manage to source some repellent it made life so much easier, I recommend anyone going there to deet up to the max as soon as the sun sets. Oh by the way, the sun sets are amazing out in the western beaches. Oh those western beaches, you really do get a gilligan island feeling out there. So often, for hours on end you get a pristine white beach tinged with palm and coconut trees completely to yourself with the bluest of blue waters just a couple of feet away. Screw the thai islands if your idea of paradise is a beach then this is the place for you….
Running out of cash I had to bail out to the mainland and the town of kota baru where I waited one night for the jungle train to take me all the way down south in preparation for my trip to mighty sumatra.
ciao for now,
Phil
Tags: Malaysia, perhentian islands
Phil Gill
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