Travel Photography | 59. Perhentian Island Paradise
After two days on the way, we finally found our way to a pier that had boats going to Perhentian islands. After a careful (random) examination of a map on the wall, we decided on the west coast of Perhentian Besar.
This is a story from my life during February 2012.
The speedboat ride is always fun, and a little unpredictable. This time no hassle and no big waves unlike on the return trip. (no killer hangover either)
On arrival, we were greeted by yet another paradise. This is from our bungalow terrace.
After finding a room with BOTH a functioning fan AND a mosquito net, it was time to explore our bearings. This little tile road led to the bay just 15 minutes walk away.
As it turned out, the coastal area was still ravaged by the monsoon and thus filled with garbage, broken beach kiosks and the like. Also, the waves were still quite big, which added to our fun. most of the establishments on this side were closed so after swimming, we head back to our beach.
Not the most beautiful sunset so far but it will do.
Night time the beach transforms to a big eatery. But as this is a Muslim country, beer is really hard to come by and we nearly despaired and kicked ourselves for not bringing our own drinks. Until…
…we saw this sign, the only daytime hint towards the serving of contrabands.
This sign was casually laid out after 7 pm to make things a little less subtle. The guy running the secret bar turned out to be a fantastic, well read fellow with whom we enjoyed many discussions, and of course, cold Chang!
Already happy having found the “only” shop with beer and heading home, we ran into these guys (not in the picture) making noise and having fun on the beach. They were drunk as monkies! Wait. How? We didn’t see them in the other bar. Turned out that some of the beach boys and scuba instructors moonlight as booze traffickers, bringing a cooler full of beer, vodka and “monkey juice” out from their boat around 7 pm!
Yes, monkey juice is a local brew of sorts that smells like perfume and tastes like vanilla Jack Daniels 50/50 with warm water. Yummy! Better yet, the guys were having it mixed with warm Chang beer in a huge glass bottle (on the table). Surprisingly, it was drinkable!
Although later on, we stuck to vodka.
Apparently how it works is, the police is willing to turn a blind eye to their businesses as long as it is after dark and no trouble is caused. Nice!
Breakfast with lizzards.
After kicking hangovers ass, it was finally scuba diving time! Excited to go on a dive together with Antti for the first time, we were headed for the sugar wreck. That’s a huge sugar boat sunk in the early 2000’s. Great fun right?!
Wrong.
Firstly, the descent line was lost, so we spent good 30 mins looking for the wreck. Secondly, when we finally found it, the visibility was 2 meters at best so we couldn’t see jack shit. Which by the way got me lost and made me do an early ascent. Anyhow, as they say, a bad day of diving is better than a good day of work.
Slightly demoralized by the diving day, we procured some monkey juice and made our own mix with Chang beer. Card games, hard rock & alcohol never fail to lift the spirits. ^^
I’m sure you already know but the absolute best way to rid yourself of a hangover is to go snorkeling! Nothing quite like soaking in cool water and looking at cute fishies.
Added to this was the music! Finally, thanks to my waterproof iPhone case, I could take music underwater, blaring it from the phone’s speakers. Also worked as a handy beacon in case we got separated.
Underwater the sound was surprisingly good and carried far! Above our supply for the day.
Break time somewhere after two hours of floating.
The visibility was not excellent but it didn’t matter so much this time.
Rock Rock!
This cute fish (about 1,5cm) followed us for a really long time! Right in front of our faces. Probably was digging the music.
The big squid you see in this video didn’t seem to appreciate our presence or music because it looked like it wanted to attack us!
End of the day. Actually, we snorkeled two days but I don’t have many pictures of the latter one…
Home again and this cute cat made company with us and despite our attempts of shoo-ing off the flea-nest, it persisted. I guess it just wanted to be loved. And love it we did.
Another lax-cat at a bus station on our way to our final Malaysian destination: Kuala Lumpur (through Kuantan)
Drop ’em!!
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(First published 14/02/2012 at LiveJournal)
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