We flew from KLIA and landed in Kota Bharu airport in Kelantan early in the morning. It was like stepping back in time - reminded me a lot of the old Subang airport. It was tiny and had only one small restaurant as far as I could see. We hopped into a waiting van and were driven to the jetty. A one-hour drive ... my stomach was growling. Hadn't eaten since I woke up at 5am that morning!
Once at the jetty, we got into a speedboat and sped off to our intended destination: Perhentian Island Resort (PIR) on Perhentian Besar! Just a side note: Perhentian Islands are made up of Besar (read: Big) and Kecil (read: Small) ... a vast difference between the two, as you will see. Neways, we were booked into PIR on the bigger island ...
After a while of dropping passengers off at various points, we were finally there at PIR! First impressions: gorgeous clear blue water,narrow strip of beach, ah ... so welcoming.
We lugged our bags (actually, Andrew lugged our bags while I pranced around bag-free) from the jetty and walked along the path, past all the quaint little chalets, to get to the 'lobby' to check in. After checking in, a bit of exploration was in order ...
One thing we quickly discovered was that there's nothing to eat at PIR. And I mean nothing - apart from the resort's in-house restaurant, that is. But one look at it and I decided no way was I going to pay crazy amount of money to eat food that resembled the kind of stuff we could get back in KL. Everything was buffet-style and the spread, honestly, didn't look all that great la. So to get to where the food is, we had to walk down to the jetty and make a left turn ...
... and walk up this rickety old staircase that would bring us to the other side of the island. Wait, I wouldn't even call it a staircase. It was more like a few pieces of wood loosely nailed to other pieces of wood in a "design" that kinda sorta looked like a staircase. Wah lau. Later that night when we wanted some food, we'd realise that this staircase got no lights! I'm not kidding. You'd be groping around this dilapidated "staircase" in PITCH DARKNESS, hoping to high heavens that you wouldn't slip and fall through the huge cracks to an untimely death.
Some more, I tell you, the 'stairs' were steep and sparse ... the steps were very far from one another and some planks were shaky too. Very dangerous especially for old people like us!!
We survived the first journey across the staircase ... there would be more to come - several times for the next few days that we were here. It's either the rickety old stairs or the PIR buffet. I'd rather risk it and take the stairs.
On the other side were budget chalets that were going for less than RM100 per night ... way cheaper than PIR. There were also a number of restaurants along the short strip. That was about it. Oh yes, and some tour operators, of course. There wasn't a 7-11 or anything like that but some of the restaurants did sell stuff like bottled water and ciggies and torchlights (which we bought the next morning!).
Well, there was one bookshop selling second-hand books in case you got like bored of the beach or something. We pretty much spent the first day bumming around, swimming and trying to get a tan. In the evening, we went back to PIR to change and get ready tor dinner.
When dinner time lolled around, we decided to cross back over to the other side for makan. Cheap seafood ma ... We had such a hard time using the old stairs because we simply couldn't see anything! And feeling about wasn't pleasant cos you could get splinters in your fingers or worse. But luckily, we made it across! Unfortunately, the food wasn't that great. We expected better ... but oh well.
See la! These people should install lights la ... ouch!!!
For Day Two, click
here.
There aren't many things in life that can beat having breakfast by the beach. It just makes me feel happy to be alive - there's nothing like it. The sound of the waves, the cheerful rays of sunlight, cool breeze ... everyone in T-shirts, shorts and slippers ... a hot cup of coffee and the knowledge that you have the whole day stretched out ahead of you. No schedule, no emails, no nothing.
After a leisurely breakfast, we took a water taxi over to Perhentian Kecil, the small island. As far as the big island's concerned, it's very family-oriented, nice and quiet ... but the small island is completely different. It's backpacker heaven. It's crowded, noisy, bright loud and colourful, packed with beach bums and budget accommodations. This is probably where you wanna be if you plan to hang around on Perhentian for like a month or two ...
I loved the character of the place ... there's so much more energy here compared to the more sedated Perhentian Besar. But I guess it depends on the kind of holiday you want and what kind of budget you have. But I must say this, I wasn't impressed by the beach. It was way too narrow and not particularly clean - aiyo, don't throw plastic bottles on the beach, people!!!
We headed out for a spot of snorkelling. First stop: Shark Point. I don't know why they named it Shark Point - there were no sharks (thank god) but there were plenty of fish!!
There was so much coral and some of the most brilliant fish I'd ever seen. It was like being in a huge aquarium! We were probably in the water for over an hour ... it was great! The good thing was, it was deep enough so there wasn't any risk of accidentally bumping into a coral with your butt.
We made another stop at Teluk Keke (whatever that means) - not much fish here but damn, there were some monstrous coral. They looked eerily like a flesh-coloured brain matter erupting out from a seabed of smaller coral. I actually felt a little intimidated and honestly, kinda scared. Couldn't swim anywhere without coming close to bumping into them.
All in all, we spent about four days at Perhentian and all in all, we really enjoyed it. When the last day lolled around, I was a little bummed out about leaving. So here I'm posting a pic of the last dinner we had there ... god, I so need another holiday ...
