Moving on from the Cameron highlands, we headed by minibus to the small town of Kuala Besut, on the NE coast of peninsula Malaysia. From there we boarded a boat bound for Perhentian Kecil, the smaller of the two Perhentian Islands. When we booked our tickets to the islands, the advert had said by minibus and fast boat; what they didn’t say was just how fast (the sight of two 200bhp engines was probably a bit of a giveaway). Anyone with a weak stomach would be better off taking the slower option, or at the very least hoping the sea was a little calmer than it was for us. Debs spent most of the journey hanging on like a limpet and trying not to be sick; for my part I quite enjoyed the ride. After about 45 minutes we arrived at D’Lagoon cove, where we had to transfer to a small dinghy as the water was too shallow for the larger boat. Transferring ourselves and our luggage proved to be no mean feat, as the sea was quite rough and we received no real help from either captain!
Arriving safely on the beach we headed up to D’Lagoon resort to check in. We had arranged our accommodation through Gil in the Cameron Highlands and it had come highly recommended as being the best place to snorkel from on the island. Unfortunately we were not greeted with the welcome that we have come to expect from the Malaysian people; to be honest it all seemed like too much trouble. Putting it down to just a bad day, we headed to our beach hut, quickly got changed into our swimming gear and set off to explore the reef. Our introduction to the island may have started badly, but the reef was truly beautiful with a huge variety of fish and coral.
Our first evening on the island started well, when a huge 2 meter long monitor lizard turned up outside the restaurant causing lots of excitement. Nobody was terribly keen to get too close and for the lizard’s part it didn’t seem remotely wary of us. After a photo session we returned to the restaurant to wait for our evening meal, and that’s where we sat for the next two hours foodless. The food did eventually arrive but it wasn’t anything to write home about; the tropical storm that accompanied the food was certainly very dramatic though.
Waking early in the morning on our first full day, we hired some flippers and a life jacket for Debs and headed through a small stretch of jungle to Turtle beach. A notice on the restaurant wall had advertised ‘swim with friendly sharks 7:30am to 9:30am at Turtle Beach’. As we approached the beach we were really surprised to see several baby black tip reef sharks swimming right close to the shore. Quickly putting on our masks, snorkels and flippers we set out to try and get a fish eye view of them. We did get to see lots of fish and I caught the odd glimpse of the sharks as they shot past, but the previous night’s tropical storm had stirred up the water making visibility poor. Nevertheless, we left the beach happy with the intention of returning again tomorrow.
With the sea still quite rough, we did a little bit more snorkelling in D’Lagoon cove spending the rest of the day reading and catching up on journals etc. We returned to Turtle beach later in the evening to watch the sunset and spent a pleasant hour gathering interesting shells and coral. The sunset wasn’t particularly spectacular, but it was very nice to spend some time together on a completely deserted beach.
Setting off even earlier this time, we once again returned to Turtle Beach with the hope of swimming with some sharks. Knowing that previously we had seen most of the sharks near the shore we decided to stay as near to the beach as possible. While floating near some rocks I spotted a small ray swim off into the distance and while attempting to follow it came across about 5 small reef sharks. Quickly calling Debs over, we allowed ourselves to drift over the rocks and were amazed to see at least 20 sharks swimming in a group. We stayed back for a while so as to not frighten them away, but it soon became apparent that they weren’t overly concerned by our presence. Very shortly we were drifting amongst them while they circled us and came right up close to our masks. The whole experience was totally amazing and we both felt really privileged to have been amongst such graceful creatures. We are not overly convinced that we want the same experience with the 2m long fully grown adults though!
With the poor weather still hitting the east coast of the island, we decided that it was time to leave and head back to the mainland. The D’Lagoon staff again outdid themselves, with absolutely no help on how to move on from the island, instead telling us “you have a phone, just ring a travel agent!” After an extended telephone call, handled magnificently by Debs to a non English speaking travel agent, we arranged our escape from the island. The original plan had been to head straight for Kuala Lumpur, but that involved an overnight bus journey that would get us to KL at about 5am which we didn’t want to do. Knowing that transport to Kuala Lumpur was really easy from the Cameron Highlands, and being quite happy to return there, we decided instead to head back to Tanah Rata and Daniel’s Lodge.
By the time it came to get on the fast boat bound for the mainland, the weather had improved so the return journey was not as eventful as the first. We left the Perhentian Islands with mixed feelings; the staff at D’Lagoon were too unfriendly and unhelpful for us to recommend it as anywhere to stay. However, the snorkelling is undoubtedly excellent and if your idea of paradise is a basic beach hut on a very quiet island then it could be exactly what you are looking for.
Next: a brief return to the Cameron Highlands
Arriving safely on the beach we headed up to D’Lagoon resort to check in. We had arranged our accommodation through Gil in the Cameron Highlands and it had come highly recommended as being the best place to snorkel from on the island. Unfortunately we were not greeted with the welcome that we have come to expect from the Malaysian people; to be honest it all seemed like too much trouble. Putting it down to just a bad day, we headed to our beach hut, quickly got changed into our swimming gear and set off to explore the reef. Our introduction to the island may have started badly, but the reef was truly beautiful with a huge variety of fish and coral.
Our first evening on the island started well, when a huge 2 meter long monitor lizard turned up outside the restaurant causing lots of excitement. Nobody was terribly keen to get too close and for the lizard’s part it didn’t seem remotely wary of us. After a photo session we returned to the restaurant to wait for our evening meal, and that’s where we sat for the next two hours foodless. The food did eventually arrive but it wasn’t anything to write home about; the tropical storm that accompanied the food was certainly very dramatic though.
Waking early in the morning on our first full day, we hired some flippers and a life jacket for Debs and headed through a small stretch of jungle to Turtle beach. A notice on the restaurant wall had advertised ‘swim with friendly sharks 7:30am to 9:30am at Turtle Beach’. As we approached the beach we were really surprised to see several baby black tip reef sharks swimming right close to the shore. Quickly putting on our masks, snorkels and flippers we set out to try and get a fish eye view of them. We did get to see lots of fish and I caught the odd glimpse of the sharks as they shot past, but the previous night’s tropical storm had stirred up the water making visibility poor. Nevertheless, we left the beach happy with the intention of returning again tomorrow.
With the sea still quite rough, we did a little bit more snorkelling in D’Lagoon cove spending the rest of the day reading and catching up on journals etc. We returned to Turtle beach later in the evening to watch the sunset and spent a pleasant hour gathering interesting shells and coral. The sunset wasn’t particularly spectacular, but it was very nice to spend some time together on a completely deserted beach.
Setting off even earlier this time, we once again returned to Turtle Beach with the hope of swimming with some sharks. Knowing that previously we had seen most of the sharks near the shore we decided to stay as near to the beach as possible. While floating near some rocks I spotted a small ray swim off into the distance and while attempting to follow it came across about 5 small reef sharks. Quickly calling Debs over, we allowed ourselves to drift over the rocks and were amazed to see at least 20 sharks swimming in a group. We stayed back for a while so as to not frighten them away, but it soon became apparent that they weren’t overly concerned by our presence. Very shortly we were drifting amongst them while they circled us and came right up close to our masks. The whole experience was totally amazing and we both felt really privileged to have been amongst such graceful creatures. We are not overly convinced that we want the same experience with the 2m long fully grown adults though!
With the poor weather still hitting the east coast of the island, we decided that it was time to leave and head back to the mainland. The D’Lagoon staff again outdid themselves, with absolutely no help on how to move on from the island, instead telling us “you have a phone, just ring a travel agent!” After an extended telephone call, handled magnificently by Debs to a non English speaking travel agent, we arranged our escape from the island. The original plan had been to head straight for Kuala Lumpur, but that involved an overnight bus journey that would get us to KL at about 5am which we didn’t want to do. Knowing that transport to Kuala Lumpur was really easy from the Cameron Highlands, and being quite happy to return there, we decided instead to head back to Tanah Rata and Daniel’s Lodge.
By the time it came to get on the fast boat bound for the mainland, the weather had improved so the return journey was not as eventful as the first. We left the Perhentian Islands with mixed feelings; the staff at D’Lagoon were too unfriendly and unhelpful for us to recommend it as anywhere to stay. However, the snorkelling is undoubtedly excellent and if your idea of paradise is a basic beach hut on a very quiet island then it could be exactly what you are looking for.
Next: a brief return to the Cameron Highlands
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