Perhentian Kecil
MALAYSIA
Trains, Islands & a Tripod
By AARON
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Arriving to the Perhentian Islands from Kuala Lumpur includes a metro ride, followed by a train ride, then 2 buses and 2 boat taxis to boot. In some other countries, that spells headache, but in Malaysia, everything went smooth as silk and after an amazing night train, we soon found ourselves on Long Beach in Perhentian Kecil. The Perhentian islands are right off the coast of Malaysia and Perhentian Kecil literally translates into “Small Stopping Point”. Used as a docking point for shipping boats and traders between Bangkok and Malaysia, the islands are now a stopping point for tons of tourists from all over the world.
After our accommodation scare on Pulau Tioman Island, we made reservations at World Café where we got an air-conditioned dorm bed for about $10USD/pp. Long Beach is one of the more popular beaches among the tourists, and is a nice blend between restaurants, bars, beaches and places to book diving and snorkeling excursions.
It is also home to an interesting taxi racket where the big boats will transfer you to a little boat (taxi) about 50 meters from shore where you have to pay about $0.80 cents per person to get to shore. What makes it interesting is that there is a boat jetty on one end of the beach that absolutely no one uses. That’s okay, I’m all for free enterprise and scamming a bit more cash from tourists, but the jetty is now just a giant eye-sore on an otherwise beautiful stretch of beach.
Our days on Perhentian Kecil were spent doing what you do on a beach – laying out, swimming, snorkeling and diving. Here are some of the highlights of our time on the island:
1. Our snorkeling trip to three sights was not only cheap ($10USD/pp), but crazy crowded as every company from every beach on both islands seem to leave at the same time and go to the exact three same sights. The result? Constantly getting kicked in the face by hordes of Asian beginner snorkelers (wearing life vests for this extreme water sport), while other morons stand on the coral and kick up silt. And god forbid you see a turtle at Turtle Cove because this will cause mass hysteria amongst all 300 people in the water as they all kick in unison and try to catch up and ride the turtle. Ever watched a bunch of little kids play soccer/herd ball? Something like that if the turtle was the ball.
2. On a lighter note, the snorkeling was good as we saw spotted sea rays, turtles, and tons of black tip reef sharks among other beautiful coral and fish.
3. Panorama Guest House – home to some of the best food on Long Beach and some of the worst movie showings in the entire southern hemisphere. With blockbuster hits out now like Transformers 3, Harry Potter 7 and Ironman 2, they choose to show “Wild Cherry”, a story of a high school senior girl who is trying to figure out whether she should lose her virginity or not. It stars Rob Schneider and a girl from “The Hills”. I think that speaks for itself.
4. Don’t eat at Matahari’s – they suck. They also employ a 26 year old local who if he doesn’t get his way on the beach volleyball court, will literally take his ball and the volleyball net and go home. I’m not kidding – he pulled this in front of about 50 people and his friends as well. Quality stuff.
5. Beers are expensive ($2.50 for a CAN of beer), Monkey Juice is a great alternative – it’s 375ml of rum that when mixed with coke tastes like vanilla/rum/coke. At about $6.80USD per bottle it’s the best deal on the island.
6. Diving was great, but unfortunately it was on the weekend which brings in all the “weekend warriors from Malaysia”, which translates into “some real idiots in the water”.
We did see “Tripod”, the resident 3-legged turtle and Lyndi was assaulted yet again by inexperienced divers who were literally shoving past her (try to picture that taking place underwater) to catch a glimpse of him. Thank god Tripod is used to seeing divers because there were literally 75 divers in one area all trying to get as close as possible to him. Probably to try and ride him.
7. Nothing beats finishing the day with a beer in hand, sitting on the beach by candlelight and listening to some reggae music from the closest bar. No matter how many bruises you may have from snorkeling and diving with hundreds of other people, a cold beer is a nice salve for those wounds, and while the fire dancers are a bit hippy, they are entertaining to watch.
So as we boarded our water taxi to take us 50 meters out to our other water taxi, we left refreshed, a bit tanner, and also a bit glad to get away from the crowded beaches of this popular tourist site.
