Perhentian Islands

Hi All, it's a long one so you may want to grab a drink!

We arrived on the Perhentian Islands without a reservation and stumbled across a cute wooden beach hut just meters from the sandy shore. While it is probably one of the most basic/ falling apart sheds we’ve slept in, it’s location somehow made it seem cute as opposed to a complete dive. We were staying on the smaller of the two Perhentian Islands - a dense jungle surrounded by beautiful idyllic beaches and teal green waters. The relaxed vibe and beach side cafes are a lot quieter than those in Thailand. We think this is largely due to the lack of bars, owing to the majority Muslim community here. We are currently in a Malaysian school holiday so it is refreshing to see more domestic tourists than foreign ones (even if that means it’s a challenge to find a beer).

We spent the next morning relaxing in hammocks as it rained (apparently very unusual for this time of year) and went snorkelling that afternoon once the sun has reappeared. The following day we organised a snorkelling trip which visited five locations across both islands. The first stop was turtle beach, our captain said we would definitely see one as they feed here every morning. We jumped in and looked down, sure enough, about 6m below the surface we could make out the silhouette of one below. We swam above it for 10 minutes hoping it might surface for air. The shadow began to get larger and before long we were swimming along the surface with a huge green turtle! After around 30 seconds it dived back down to continue grazing on the bottom. The next stop was shark point, we swam around for half an hour with no sharks. As we swam back to the boat we spotted two! Both black tip reef sharks around a meter long. They darted around for a moment but were way too fast for us to keep up. The next few stops included a fishing village for lunch and couple more snorkelling spots with clown, angel and parrot fish.

On our ‘last’ day Ross sought out a fishing trip and caught 20 red snapper (all be it small ones!). We paid the restaurant next door the equivalent to a pound to use their BBQ and had another feast.

Just as we were meant to be leaving after 4 relaxing days, we made the spontaneous decision to enrol on a 3 day PADI open water scuba diving course! Having bumped into a guy we’d met earlier on our trip and hearing what a great time he was having, we decided that it was now or never if we were to learn to scuba dive. Previously we were adamant that snorkelling was good enough but curiosity got the better of us and at such a good price we couldn’t let the opportunity pass us by. The dive centres here are not just gear shops, but restaurants, bars and hostels. Included with the course was a private room with sea view and balcony as well as breakfast - we couldn’t believe our luck!

We were handed a PADI exercise book and watched 4 hours of educational videos, filling out questions as we went. By this time it was too late in the day to get started in the water so we relaxed on our balcony and had a rich Malay chicken and mango curry for dinner on the beach. The following morning we met our instructor Mika who talked us through the various apparatus and what we would do on our first dive. Excited and a little nervous we heaved on our weighty tanks and waded into the water. We began with some basic surface skills and knelt down, respirators in mouths. The feeling of breathing underwater is difficult to describe unless you’ve experienced it for yourself. It was surprisingly easy and came naturally to us both. We put on our fins and swam under the pier through a shoal of small fish before kneeling again, this time two metres below the surface. Some more skills, focusing on removing and clearing the respirator, sharing air (in case of emergency) and hand signals (obviously we couldn’t talk in our usual loud enthusiastic way under the water). Then we set off over huge corals and schools of fish on our first open water dive; we spotted a saw a blue spotted sting ray and a huge trigger fish among many other tropical fish. We followed our instructor through the water to a depth of 11 metres, staying under for 44 minutes. We’ve always wondered how this was possible without divers having awful ear ache. The secret is to depressurise your ears by pinching your nose and blowing gently, like you do on a flight but no where near as hard. We headed back to the surface, where we were picked up by our boat. The moment we surfaced we both had huge grins, we knew we’d made the right decision and loved feeling so immersed in the marine life.

Our second dive that afternoon was entirely skilled based and carried out in 3m deep sandy, calmer waters. We went through mask clearing (incase it fills with water) and various serious air supply malfunctions. The last part was focused on finding the spot at which we were neutrally buoyant, only rising up or down as we breathed, adjusting the air in our BCD vest (a kind of inflatable life jacket). The feeling of weightlessness was a bizarrely pleasant sensation. We practised ascending to the surface while sharing air and boarded the boat, before a relaxed evening at the dive centre. The following day we got in another two dives. The first involved more skills, and buoyancy changes for ascending and descending, making our way down to 11m. We disconnected some gear underwater and reassembled it then followed our instructor to explore the reef. We found a lion fish and then a threatening looking moray eel! It poked its head out of a crack, baring its teeth and looked huge! Mika later explained that this is just how they breathe and that things under water can look 30% larger and closer than they actually are.

The second dive that day focused on navigation. We started with a backwards roll entry off the side of the boat, which looks a bit tricky but is actually very easy as the weight of the tank does all the work! Using the mooring line to descend into 15m deep water and then a compass to swim to one point and then back to where we started. After this we continued with a ‘fun’ dive swimming along the reef and spotting puffer, angel and clown fish as well as a blue spotted ray. That evening we finished a quiz on everything we’d learned so far then sat the multiple choice exam and passed! Assuming nothing went wrong on the 4th and final open water dive (5th time in the water) we would have completed the open water course. We celebrated with pizza and beer and went to bed.

Our final ‘graduation dive’ was brilliant, taking a speedboat to the wreckage of three retired police boats. The visibility was poor but as we descended to 18m the wreck loomed out of the blue as we descended. We took care not to bump into the rusty hull and circled it before swimming over the top. This time there were crabs, clown fish, a puffer fish the size of a rugby ball and some striped cleaner shrimp. More poisonous were the cool stingray (which are diamond rather than circular) and a scorpion fish which disguises itself as part of the boat (only its eyes clearly visible). The boats were eerie yet intriguing, seeing where coral had began to grow and fish making the darkness their home. With no problems as we surfaced Mika congratulated us as PADI certified scuba divers qualified to 18m!

Scuba diving had previously never appealed to us but having completed the course we can say it is definitely worth it. We felt so immersed in marine life and despite preconceptions it was remarkably intuitive. We hope to get the opportunity to dive again with a guide in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Love R and D xxx