Dragons in Paradise

In order to travel from Ko Muk to the Perhentian Islands, which are off the northeast coast of Malaysia, we had to cross back to the mainland from Ko Muk. So, we were off to the pier for our boat ride.


Bye, Ko Muk!


Hello, mangrove swamp! (This area looked a lot like Belize)


After that, we had a lot of ground to cover via a 'politically unstable' area. We debated for awhile about how we we were going to make this trip, if at all, and we finally settled on just taking a minivan all the way to the border. After all, there had only been one small incident in the past seven years involving tourists, which is a far better track record than Bali. On the way there, we passed about 20 road blocks set up to look for insurgents(yes, even in Thailand), but only two of them had armed guards at their stations. The others simply served as speed bumps.


We reached the border without a hitch.


Once we got to the border, we had to catch a taxi to the port town, Kuala Besut, that we had to leave from to get to the islands. This was about a 2 hour drive, so we found a fellow traveler to split the cost with. When we arrived in town it was well past dark, it was raining, and we were hungry. We stayed at the first place we came to and didn't leave our room until morning. Now, we have stayed in some low quality places, but, for the most part, they have at least been clean. This place was dirty, like really gross. The whole town was. So, needless to say, we were happy when morning came so we could get out of there!

After we bought our speed boat tickets to the islands, we ran into our cab buddy and he introduced us to a very popular, cheap and tasty Malaysian breakfast called Roti Canai. It's basically like a kind of fried bread served with curry sauce to dip it in. This dish became our everyday breakfast in Malaysia.

The boats that go out to the Perhentian Islands only run for certain parts of the year due to bad weather. When the boats stop running, the islands shut down and people move back to the mainland. We didn't really believe the whole bad weather thing preventing boats from crossing the short distance, but we got a little taste of it on the way there! When you get into the boat, the operators insist that you wear a life jacket at all times. Why do I need to wear my life jacket? I know how to swim and it's not like people actually just fall off the boat, right? Apparently this would be an incorrect assumption, seeing as what we were actually on was a roller coaster, with the car being camoflauged as a boat and the track as an ocean. It was fun to say the least.

When we stumbled off the boat onto solid ground, we took up residence at the Shari-la Hotel. After looking around, it appeared to be the nicest place on the island - and they gave us a good price! Good A/C, fridge, sat TV and a comfy bed in our own cottage - what more could you want!


Roti canai may be delicioius, but it isn't the most filling food, so we had to eat again. On our beach, Coral Beach, there were only about 5 options as far as restaurants go, so we stopped at the first one, Mamma's. As we were looking over the menu, the guy at the table next to us was served some sort of chocolate concoction in a fancy ice cream parlor style glass. "What is that?" we ask. "It's a Snickers Shake and it's delicious! You have to get one!" So we did, and it was indeed delicious. Along with our shake, we also ordered some kind of local noodle dishes with chicken. This would be our first and last time to order any meat on the island. It was terrible. Noodles good, chicken bad. After this meal, we had at least three shakes per day, one every time we sat down to eat... even at breakfast... it was a healthy five days!
Typical breakfast of roti canai and a shake!


The Perhentian islands are known to have some pretty good snorkeling and diving. We decided against diving because we heard the visibilty was poor due to the rough waters. So, snorkeling it was. Our trip was just the two of us in our own little boat and we went around to about 5 snorkel spots with very original names names like Fish Point, Shark Point, Turtle Point, etc... And yes, we saw fish, shark, and turtles at the points, as well as some really nice corals. The shark was too quick to get a picture of, though.














Sadly, there is no local education about the requirements for, or benefits of, preservation of the corals around the island - and there's even less overwatch to protect them. We saw groups of tourists standing on them posing for pictures and doing all sorts of damaging things while the corals suffer helplessly beneath the surface. One can easily see the degradation suffered from years of neglect and harassment.

One morning, we stumbled on a little situation that held our attention for most of the day. As we were headed to the beach, we noticed this cute little orange cat up in a tree. He was stuck and was calling desperately for help. So, his little buddy climbed up the tree about halfway to try and help him, but, having more sense than his friend, turned around before it was too late. For the rest of the day, every time we walked by we stopped and checked on his progress. That silly kitty climbed kept climbing higher! We first noticed him around 9:30 am and we last saw him as the sun was setting, still up in the tree. That night the skies opened wide and dumped buckets on the island. You could even say it was raining cats and dogs! In the morning the cat was not in the tree... We assume he made it down safely, since we saw two orange cats playing in the the hotel lobby the next morning that looked an awful lot like the cat in the tree and his buddy.


About that beach. Our island had two main beaches, as well as quite a few more smaller secluded ones. The two main ones were on opposite sides of the island and were separated by about a five minute walk. Let's take a little journey. The west facing beach, Coral Beach, is normal during low and mid-tide.
Low


Mid


But during high tide it literally comes up into the restaurants and floods them, daily. This is not a tsunami, its an everyday event.


Here, its not quite all the way up, but its encroaching on us during our shake dinner.


Ok, so now we leave Coral Beach and head to Long Beach, on the other side of the island.


Past some construction


Up to the jungle


Down from the ridge


Into the plains


Water in sight!


Onto the beach!


Straight out


Looking left


Looking right


And finally, into the ocean!


Coral Beach was a nice, calm bay, whereas Long Beach was rough and had some really nice waves for surfing. Between the two of them, there was something to keep everyone happy.

One thing we have failed to mention about the island is the abundance of these.


They are huge, they look like crocodiles, and they are everywhere. Cousins of the nearby Kimodo Dragons, these are called Monitor Lizards. The biggest one we saw was about eight feet from tongue to tail. Although they are non-aggressive, they have great camouflage for the jungle, so they appear in the damndest places. Along a trail, at a restaurant, wherever. We hadn't heard of them before we arrived, so the first time we saw one it gave us quite a start!

We were extremely fortunate with the weather, as a week-long rainshower ended upon our arrival and was followed by abundant sunshine. This provided us with plenty of time to spend on all of the beaches. Our resort actually had four little beaches of its own, with chairs and umbrellas provided.











We split our time pretty evenly amongst all of the beaches depending on our moods.

We had a really nice time on the islands, but like everywhere else, it finally came time to leave. We weren't even sure where we were headed next, as the idea of going to Borneo had recently crept into our minds. Regardless, the first thing we had to do was get back to the mainland and figure things out from there, so off we went once again!

- Mattie and Julian

Random Pics
























MSG is even in the salt!


Oh, and as we left, we found out why the chicken was so gross. We saw a boat drop this off on the pier from the mainland. It was just in these bags on the boat in the sun, no refrigeration, and then it sat on the pier for half an hour before it was even picked up.

Location:Perhentian Islands, Malaysia