The Jungle Book: Pulau Kecil, Perhentian July 9

Pulau Kecil, Perhentian

The long road trip to the Perhentians were worth every tiring second. On arriving by boat, we approached a small island with some of the clearest water I've ever seen in my entire life, surrounded by dense jungle! You could easily see the bottom of the ocean and not only this the water was 88 degrees!! The first day there we caught up on some rest during the day, despite the heat (the island only has limited power so the fans weren't working during the day and only went for about two hours at night). The first night there we met up with this Swedish couple that Kevin had previously met (and were the most hilarious and awesome couple I've ever met) and a German named Till. We packed it in early the first night to catch up on some sleep.

Our first full day there I decided to go for two dives, as I heard the diving was spectacular there. The morning dive we went to Tokong Laut (Temple of the Sea) which was one of the best dives in the Perhentians. Some of the highlights included: a bamboo shark, scribbled filefish, yellow boxfish, blue spotted rays and two eels that were completely out from the rocks. Aside from the great underwater creatures, the water temperature at 24 meters deep was a wopping 85 degrees! In the afternoon we went to Sugar Wreck which is usually a nice dive spot but today there was an extremely stong current which limited the visibility. There were many pufferfish and bannerfish but unfortunately it was only a 35 minute dive as some people (not including me) took in their air too fast b/c of the current. In the afternoon I met back up with Kevin and Till and we went off to an all you can eat bbq for $5 and a bit too many drinks at the Black Tip beach bar.

On Sunday we didn't do much except sit on the beach all day and prepare for the World Cup final at 230am. After a late BBQ dinner we headed for the beach to find the big screen on Long Beach for the match. I never thought that I'd ever watch a world cup final on a beach on a tropical island off Malaysia! It wasn't a bad place to be for it!! The place was full of Dutch which was class but unfortunately they were the worst Dutch fans ever - not a peep out of them for the whole game!! With the game going into extra time it meant a very late night / early morning and it was well and truly bright by the time we trudged back to the shack around 8:00am. The next day was pretty worthless, but what better place to be at then on a beautiful beach!

Tuesday was our last full day in paradise so I decided to do one more dive at noon. I was debating whether or not to go but realized how amazing the first dive here was so decided why not. The dive site was sail rock which had some of the most beautiful coral and was an easy, relaxing dive which turned out to be the longest dive I've ever done (a bottom time of 63 minutes). Again I saw a bamboo shark, as well as schools of yellow tail barracuda, bat fish and porcupine fish. However, the highlight was an Indian Ocean Walkman (Spiny Devilsfish) which was the first of its kind I'd ever seen. It's a poisonous fish which remarkably doesn't swim. They have claws on each side of its body that they use to crawl across the seafloor to hunt prey. When you get too close they open up their tail that looks like a fan to ward off any prey. Certainly an amazing animal to see!

The rest of the day we spent relaxing on the beach. At night we had dinner with the Swedish couple and ran into a group of Irish girls I had met a few weeks back in Langkawi. We spent the night hanging out with them and saying our goodbyes before Kevin and I took off in the morning destined for Cherating.