Diving at Pulau Perhentian

Pulau Perhentian is actually a pair of islands....called Pulau Perhentian Besar(Big Island)and Pulau Perhentian Kecil(Small Island). They have the usual pleasant beaches and coconut trees like many of the east coast islands. In comparison with the nearby Pulau Redang, one will find that Pulau Perhentian has a more "kampung" flavour. Maybe that is why more backpackers head for Perhentian rather than Redang. Coral wise, we would say that Redang is slightly more colourful.
Map showing the two islands.

Getting there
The jumping off place for the Perhentian islands is at the Kuala Besut jetty. There are daily flights from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Baru. Just outside the Kota Baru airport is a taxi stand where you can book a taxi to Kuala Besut, which is about an hour's journey away. As the jetty and the Kuala Besut town is some distance apart, you will need to tell the taxi driver that you wish to go to the jetty and not the town. It is possible to fly to Kuala Terengganu instead and then take the taxi to the Kuala Besut jetty as well.

At the Kuala Besut jetty, speedboats leave for the islands on a regular basis. Travellers need to buy boat tickets from any of the booking offices at the jetty. Most of the travellers to the Perhentian islands appear to be backpackers.

Places to stay
There are lots of places to stay. It is much easier to get a chalet in Perhentian than in Redang during peak season. Most of the better known chalets are found on Pulau Perhentian Besar(Big Island). Some comments from Lonely Planet on accomodation and diving here can be found in this link: http://www.pulau-perhentian.com/lonely_planet_perhentian_island.htm

We stayed at the Flora Bay Chalet which is located at Teluk Dalam on Pulau Perhentian Besar.
Next door is a group of chalets called the Fauna Beach Chalet. Flora and Fauna....hmmmm.

At Flora Bay The chalet where we stayed

Flora Bay Chalet has a dive centre that seems to be staffed by foreign divemasters. The last time we were there, we had a Canadian, a French and a British divemaster. We suspect that they were travellers on the backpack trail across Asia. The good thing about Flora Bay Chalet is that amazingly they do not charge for BCD(buoyancy control device) rental the last time we were there! Most outfits would charge about RM150 a day to use their BCD. Although, in the above "lonely planet" link you may be able to find dive rates among the various dive opertators, the big cost is really for BCD rental, which is usually not listed. To work out the total cost, it is better for divers to call up the dive operators to inquire about BCD rental charges.

We were not impressed with the fan cooled chalet that we had though. The fan was noisy and I was bitten by insects at night. A friend of ours managed to get the air-conditioned chalet and he had no complaints. We vowed that if we ever come back, we would get an air-conditioned unit at all costs. The food was simple but okay and the portions were adequate. We were not impressed, but we were told that this was one of the best places for food on the island. They served us tenggiri fish for almost every meal. We laid off eating tenggiri for months after that. Most guests came on a tour package with room and board. We did see quite a number of non-divers around. The landscaping was pretty cheerful and the grounds were clean. They had workers inspecting the beach every morning to pick up rubbish. Flora Bay was proud of the fact that it won second place in the Beautiful Chalet competition in 1997.

The dive spots
Sorry guys...we cannot remember where we dived. Saw the usual batfish, jacks, turtles, baracuddas and other reef fishes. Visibility was good(around 20m). One has to be aware of speedboats when surfacing. Generally, designated dive spots are reasonably safe as speedboats do know that there are divers about and will not approach at high speed. Shore dives are a different matter as speedboats will not know if a diver is going to surface in its path or not. We did take a speed boat to Redang one day to indulge in some diving there and stopped over at the beach at Bejaya Redang Bay Resort for lunch. That beach has got to rank among the top beaches in the world.
Standing at Teluk Dalam beach which has fine white sand and a bay with water so clear that it looks like a huge outdoor swimming pool. On one end of the bay is the Berjaya Redang Bay Resort.


Snorkelling outside Flora Bay Chalet
Snorkelling? .....when we should be diving? Well, one afternoon we did not feel like diving so we snorkel outside the chalet instead. It was difficult to swim as the coral grew to very close to the water surface. We found that it was safer to swim along the boat path where it was deeper. The boat path is a narrow stretch in the sea where there were no corals or rocks. As the boats have to slow down to avoid hitting the reef, we had plenty of time to move out of the way of approaching boats. At some distance from the water edge, the shoreline dropped suddenly. We found a five foot black tipped shark patrolling the drop line. It was probably a resident shark. Some of the coral in these waters take on a pinkish hue, which we thought was unusual. The corals were not that impressive, but they were unusually pink and reef fish was plentiful.

Jungle trekking
Jungle trekking Well....not really. It is possible to walk through the jungle to the other side of the island. The track was easy and well-defined. We trekked on a dry day so it was okay. We suspected that the jungle path would be more muddy if it had rained.
The jungle path behind me was quite an easy half an hour's walk to the other side of the island.
One afternoon, we walked through the forest to the other side of the island and we found ourselves at Perhentian Island Resort, the biggest resort on the island. The walk took us slightly more than half an hour of walking leisurely. We decided to have tea time at the upmarket Perhentian Island Resort and came away with the impression that somehow food is not the strong point of the resorts on this island. But, we can live with that..... after all we came to dive and snorkel rather than eat.
The Perhentian Island Resort has quite an wide beach. We were told that on weekends, there would be lots of daytrippers on this beach as well as vendors selling stuff like T-shirts and souveniors.
It is possible to swim in this bay as the water is deep enough.

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