Maja Nordlund

Taxi, boat, nightbus, boat. Perhentian Island. Paradise. Starting to regret calling Langkawi Paradise. Compared to this, Langkawi is Sweden. Perhentian Islands consists of two islands very close to each other; a big (Besar) and a small (Kecil). We start on the big one, since it's there SSI has a divecenter, named Alu Alu. Otherwise it's PADI everywhere! But since I started taking my Open Water with SSI in Cairns I'll have to finish it with the same company.

Our breakfast view

We're let off right on the beach with our backpacks and end up staying in one of the divecenter's chalets. It's really nice, especially compared to that shitty place in Langkawi called Daddy's, from which we got kicked out..! Anyhow, I get to start my course the same day, and will finish it the next day. Yeeey!!! So Evelina lay down on the beach and I'm putting on my wetsuit. On the first dive we dive at Tangjung Basi, where we see heaps of nemos, some blue spotted rays, get attacked by a group of triggerfish and I cut myself on a coral (which I tried sooo hard to avoid!!). The next day we go out early and make two dives to start with; at D'Lagoon and Police wreck. Here I become like a little girl who just spotted some new princess-Barbie in the toystore, cuz I see a turtle!! :D and then get bitten by a small (but still very angry!) fish!

When I finally got my license it feels unreal, since it was sooo easily done here compared to Australia. Maybe because of the extreme weather, but I mean, there it was 13 of us and here it was only me and my diveinstructor, Johanna, who acctually appeard to be Swedish! Felt like I was taking a private course or something. :p But that means less divers in the water, so I was pleased! In the afternoon we went for the last dive, which was the best of all; the deeper down the more unreal it feels. And since I'm a natural talent (Johanna's own words!) in using the air wisely, each dive lasted for almost an hour!

 

And after been diving from 9 am to 5 am, me and Evelina decided to go snorkeling. We went in from the beach since the reef was so close. After a while of only seeing parrotfish and wassles Evelina screamed "Did you see it??!!! It was a shark!!! I'm scared!!" I started panic a bit, but since the place we were in was called "Shark Point" we soon calmed down and enjoyd meeting some more of them. Or enjoyd maybe is the wrong word, you don't enjoy swimming around in obscure water one meeter from the coralcovered bottom with nothing to protect yourself from the sharp-teeth creatures who's hiding somewhere around you... Okey, enough about diving and snorkeling, I wanna have some space left to make you jelaous of how sunny and beautiful the other island was.

Water-taxi is the way to get around here so after ten minutes of feeling like you're facing a giant hairdryer (the boat was tiny, had no roof, moved in ultra-mega-super-speed!) we arrived in the same classy way as before: feets in water, backpacks on, struggle to reach land. Here on Kecil we found a not so fancy place, but it was supercheap so it didn't matter. Or well, the so called chalet was full of ants, we only had electricity between 7 pm - 7 am and we could feel the giant varan walking around on our ceiling, but like I said; it was cheap! And when we walked out the chalet-door we were right on the beach! The water was so stupidly clear that you started to wonder if it acctually was any water there?! No roads, no cars, no internet (but we're like wifi-dogs; we find it in the most desolate places!) and no travelagent or information. Left to our destiny. And the beach bar. In which they had live music and happy hour! :) We met an English couple with which we had a great conversation about travelling; they'd been to all our comming destinations so they gave us lots of advise and showed us amazing pictures! And off course we told them to visit Australia and NZ! ;)

 

Just can't get enough of sunsets..!

Okey, it's not so much more to tell about the stay here, we lay in the sun, took a swim, lay in the sun, took a milkshake.. Oh, I would really recommend you to try the oreo-shake at a place called Ewan's, which lies between the two beaches Long beach and Coral Bay, it's amazing! And visit the Fishing Village! There's a path from Coral Bay that will lead you there. But if you're not a fan of Indiana Jones-kind-of-stuff you shouldn't even try walk it. Cuz after 10 minutes it's no longer a path, it's djungel. Until you reach a tiny beach, then it's djungel again. You and the lizards. And squirrels. And on some places it's some djungeltree all over the "path" so then you'll get to crawl.

 

Anyway, after half an hour we reached the village and had a look around. In some places there were signs telling you to put on more clothes on your body then the ones you swim in. We ignored them. Hadn't walked and crawled all this way just to be banned from entering. No one seemed to care anyway. We ate a roti (thin, warm, bread) and I drank a strawberry milkshake. I should maybe tell you if you, like me, are a huge fan of milkshakes; you'll get what is says: a milk-shake. No ice cream, but a lot of mixed ice, and flavoured milk. Good, but not the thick,creamy shakes they drank in the US in the 50's!

 

Well, that's all for now folks. If I havn't made it clear, (sometimes it's hard to tell what my point is...) you should really visit The Perhentian Islands! And if you like diving and snorkeling, it's a must! Cambodia is our next destination, guessing I'm already there when you read this! Thanks to you, Evelina, for letting me borrow your photos! :)