M’sia – Pulau Perhentian

When we were in Malaysia, the fiance and I decided to spend a couple of days in Pulau Perhentian, which is located on the east coast of the peninsular. While we’d been to Pulau Redang before (40 minutes away from Perhentian), some of our friends were saying that it was getting too commercialised, and that it wasn’t as good as before so we thought, why not try someplace new. While Perhentian isn’t exactly untouched territory, it’s pretty good for a start.

(Lots and lots of pictures – similar pictures – to come, but since I don’t usually post scenic views here, it’s not really that many if you consider it in terms of average per post kinda thing)

There isn’t much structure to the way in which the pictures are organised, so I’ll do my best and tell the story as the pics come along. Sound good? OK.

This was a boat we saw on the way from the jeti to the resort. I’ve seen quite a few fishing boats before, but none which look as colourful and highly-stacked as this one.

The view from where I was sitting on the speedboat to the resort. There were dolphins near the front apparently, but of course I missed that, being in the middle looking out to the back of the boat and all that.

Something else I saw while missing out on the dolphins.

And then when everyone had had enough of the dolphins, I took a little stroll to the front, saw no dolphins, but continued to perch on the front looking into the boat. Kinda for dramatic effect or something.

Here’s another picture I took for effect while I was at the front of the boat. It’s not too often I bring the camera out to sea, so while I had it there, I was going to take as many pictures as I could.

The boat transported not just us holidaymakers, but also some eggs and what looked like a lot of fruits. Someone said they also took rubbish back from the island onto mainland.

After about 40 minutes on the boat, we neared the island. This was what we saw from the boat as we were approaching Tuna Bay Resort – one of the best resorts on the big island – although that’s not implying that it’s five stars or anything.

Dudes waiting to pull the boat in.

While I went slightly nuts snapping about 50 pictures before we even stepped onto the island, it turned out to be a good thing as we didn’t have sunlight like this for the next 3 days while we were there. It didn’t quite rain continuously either, but the skies were kinda grey and so, not the greatest for photo-taking.

Don’t actually have much to say about these pictures, but because I like them, I’ve posted them here.

The water taxi which took tourists either around the Besar island from one resort to another, to the tourist spots, and also from the Besar island to the Kecil island, which seemed to be the party-island where most of the backpackers go to, apparently.

This was the boat that took us from mainland to the island.

Water taxi prices.

The boat which took scuba divers out to sea. We didn’t go on this one as we only went snorkelling.

Another one.

The resort workers taking our luggage (joke) from the boat to the resort.

The deck chairs where we spent quite a lot of our time, mainly snoozing.

This was what the chalets looked like – not quite out chalet but as ours was next to a construction site, I decided this one looked better.

Snooze …

Seriously, how can you not wanna snooze when you have the heat, this view, and not much else to do?

On the first day there, our lunch which came as part of the package deal was some sort of cheese baked pasta. Surprisingly nice, though it was slightly weird how no one told us what we were having, but just kinda nodded at us as we sat down, said the food was coming soon, and then it was there on the table. I know we didn’t have much choice as to what we were having, but they could have at least told us what it was surely?

The next day, we had a buffet breakfast at the same place, and that was quite tasty also.

No matter where you are, even if you’re on a secluded island in the middle of the South China Sea, there is always … baked beans on toast.

Boots buy one get one free. Not the sunglasses.

The weather was kinda grey after the first day.

Pancakes and sausages on the second day.

We then went to feed some fishies by the pier. They go nuts for mushroom buns.

It was an amazing trip, despite not having much to do (and no TV). We went snorkelling (first day snorkelling was interesting, with us mainly trying to keep afloat and not go towards the huge rock covered with barnacles), we went kayaking (work those shoulders) and had nice walks by the beach. Saw lots of fish, really enjoyed ourselves, and would really recommend anyone to go there for a long weekend.