Pulau Perentians: Big Paradise, Tiny Package

After a few days in Singapore's ultra-modern metropolis, I was more than ready for my next leg – the quiet small islands called the Perentians.

You know, the holiday business and restaurants are pretty similar in one respect – a new place opens up, amazes, and the word starts to spread.  In this case, the islands have become pretty famous - one backpacker to another.  It's still pretty early days, but I'm guessing the big package tours aren't far behind.  Get there while you can...

… because they've still got the “Goldilocks” amount of development.  Just enough so there are decent beach bungalows, a bar or two, and snorkelling/diving options, but not so much that you can't get away to enjoy some isolated beaches yourself.

The other plus side about a few days on the islands is that it makes blogging much, much easier.  Pretty much every day was very similar:  wake up, grab a bit of toast/eggs on the beach, read a bit, snorkel, read some more, have some beers at sunset and then dinner.

And it was perfect.  After a ten hour overnight bus ride that turned into 13 with a traffic jam and bus breakdown, I was more than ready to chill out.  I ended up sharing a taxi towards the ferry with a gregarious Aussie couple (or is that just being redundant?) and a Polish girl who'd be travelling about and had been living on the islands for the past month or so.  Nice!

A ferry ride got us there in time for drinks and a lounge on the beach, before I called it an early night.  The next morning, I got in a snorkelling trip, which was delightfully informal – just a handful of backpackers in a boat, gettting dropped off at four spots around our island of Pulau Besar.  We got to check out everything from seriously colorful coral, to 1.5 meter turtles munching on sea grass, and even a 5-6 foot black tip sharp cruising around.  Awesome.

(And, much as I like diving, snorkelling is just so much less complicated – and you STILL get to see a lot of the same sights for practically zip.)

My pics underwater never seem to do the scenery justice – but here's a sea anemone hiding a few Nemos/Clown Fish:

That night also got a bit messy in the bar, when I met up with two Brits from Essex.  One beer led to another led to eight or nine, and soon I was taking their advice on trying some world-class chicken satay, Malaysia's signature dish.  This led to some fun with both food and cameras:

Three days of this were grand... such a nice way to relax and unwind, and the only downside is that it's very much a couple's island.   The other one, Perhentian Kecil, has more of a backpacker vibe, but also the repetitive techno music at all hours.

Alas, eventually, I had to head out again, this time to Kota Bahru and a flight to Kuala Lumpur.  Normally, I'm a bus guy, saving my limited budget for more important stuff like the odd beer or sight-seeing.  In this case, though, thanks to the business model of Ryanair and Easyjet, Asia has gotten into the cheap flight racket – and flights can be as low as $25.  Sweet.

Four days in Malaysia's capital coming up – with an ultimate frisbee tournament to boot!