Perhentian Islands, Malaysia; Tropical paradise or over priced tourist trap? The later was my first impression, yet that is not fair. Coming from Thailand we were not ready for the higher prices here (food, accommodation and internet) yet upon crossing the border Malaysia is evidently more affluent than their northern neighbours. The food is pricey but good (I soon found myself addicted to the Roti Canai – Indian style bread with curry sauce). The cheapest resort we could find was a steep walk away from the beach; mosquito infested with very basic huts and horrible shared bathrooms. Although there was electricity, to turn the dim lights off we had to remove the light bulbs. This, however, was more than made up for by the huge lizards than wandered passed our wooden hut on several occasion. The two islands are indeed beautiful with Long Beach being the best of the pick with soft white sand. By the time I reluctantly left my I was siding with the first answer, tropical paradise.

During our six days on the smaller of the two islands, we did six dives with Turtle Bay Divers. Despite how clear the water looked from the beach, we were unlucky. We encountered strong currents and bad visibility (down to two metres on one dive!) yet along with several regular dives we still managed a wreck dive and a night dive (I love night dives, my best dive in Spain was a night dive with Chris. The darkness adds an adventurous feel, you see more detail as you focus on a small area and you see things that don’t come out during the day) and learned a lot from the experiences. Espe is really getting a feel for it too.

I’m still amazed at the underwater life every time I go into the water. It is so far removed from the world above the water and there are so many weird and wonderful creatures, big and small. I started reading through some of the books they had at the dive center and was fascinated to learn more about what I’m actually seeing. I was very impressed with Turtle Bay Divers, they are very laid back without being slack or lazy and the staff really made me feel welcome. Paul and Amelie (our second Swedish DM on this trip) in particular.

The highlight of my stay on the Perhentians however was the snorkeling. Several of the beaches have good coral reefs within reach but the best experience was on the remote Turtle Beach (above), which at an hours walk from Long Beach was unsurprisingly deserted when we got there. Before we even entered the water Espe exclaimed, “Shark”, and there it was. A tiny shark swimming less than two metres away from us in the shallow water by the shore. It soon disappeared so we set of snorkeling in the deeper water.

I was photographing some Clown fish in their anenomie when Espe pointed out a blue spotted stingray. I followed this for a while and was taking a photo of it (above) when suddenly I spotted something in the background heading vaguely in my direction. Closer inspection revealed a large black tip shark that swam past me at speed. At over 1.5 metres this was not as cute as the tiny one we saw from the beach. With my heart beating I tried in vain to follow the beast. They are so fast, sleek, purposefully and mean looking. So cool, and without a doubt my favorite animal on the planet.

We stayed out snorkeling and there turned out to be at least two large black tips with us. At one point they swam a large circle around us while searching for food. After an hour or so we headed back in to the beach, only to spot four or five more black tips in the shallows. These were the tiny ones we had seen from the beach, each one being about 50 cm long. Once out of the water we watched them swimming about. Real grin facto stuff. This photo, I achieved by dunking the camera into the water and snapping a single frame while standing on the sand. Impressive huh?