Go ahead, oogle at the pictures below. Drool. They’re beautiful; just like the five days we spent on the smaller of the Perhentian Islands. We’re leaving tomorrow and it’s bittersweet. This island offers many great treats such as views, beaches, Monitor lizards, swimming, snorkeling, friends, parties, a few jungle trails, and cheap food. It also offers to make sure your clothes never fully dry and always stay salty and sticky.

We didn’t have a plan on how many days were were going to stay here, and didn’t even know where we wanted to stay on the island. When we (Osama, Leah, and I) arrived by boat from the Malaysian mainland, we walked down Long Beach and asked for pricing and availability at a handful of places. We finally found a good fit and paid for one night in case we wanted to change places the next day. We did this on each of the 4 days, but we never changed places. Each morning after breakfast we’d decide if we were going to stay another day or not and pay as needed. Earlier today, we booked a bus ticket from the mainland to Cameron Highlands, so it’s official that we’re going to leave the island tomorrow morning at 8.

We spent a lot of time sitting on the beach and swimming, or relaxing at the common area of the hostel which was a beautiful, large porch on the second story of a building set up on a hill. Everyone told us we need to start scuba diving while we’re in this part of the world, but we have no idea if scuba diving is something we’re into. We decided to go snorkeling to see if it peaked our interest.

We bought a guided snorkeling tour one day and were boated to 5 different areas around both islands to see the best of the coral and wildlife. Our first stop afforded us the opportunity to swim around a giant sea turtle. We were really lucky and found one right away. It swam from the floor up to the surface and poked it’s head out for a bit before going back down. Even when it was on the floor we could swim down towards it to get some good views. Our next stop was sharks. Yeah, baby! The guides got in the water with us then and would point out the sharks as they came near. This was really nice because we were in deeper water and may have missed some of them without the help of the pros. They would also make smacking noises under water and explained that they were mimicking the noise of a certain dying fish, which would peak the curiosity of the sharks. I’m not sure if we saw the same two sharks a handful of times, or we saw 15 sharks. Either way, it was really cool. The guides had to explain to a few in our group that the sharks were not dangerous to us and would avoid us at all costs. We stopped near some elaborate coral to explore, but what we found was lots and lots of dead coral. There were still plenty of colorful and beautiful fish, and an occasionally a small piece of colorful coral, but for the most part, it was all white/brown and dead. That was pretty sad to see because you can really imagine the way it used to look. It was rainy during our entire tour, which I thought would ruin our fun, but it didn’t affect the water visibility enough to matter to us. The boat rides between locations, however, were cold. Our driver liked to haul ass through the choppy water which left us shivering and bouncing all over the place. So much fun! We’re still not sure if diving is the right thing for us, but we definitely loved snorkeling and we will be doing it again!

During the day, the beach is dotted with people laying out and swimming while lots of people are out on scuba or snorkel tours. During the night, everybody is back on the beach and partying. Every night at 9:30 there is a fire show in the center of the beach. Balls on fire. Sticks on fire, fire limbo, surprisingly no people on fire. This show brings a lot of the people together in one spot for socializing and dancing. We were watching it one night, but the party was a bit intense. It was very loud clubbing music and we can’t be having that in our old age. We walked further down the beach each night to hang out at a small bar hut with specialty cocktails. Luckily we stumbled upon this hut our first night here. It’s owned and operated by a Malaysian man named Jordan. He has become a wonderful friend of ours. We spent time at his bar each night, meeting new people and being silly. Two days ago we asked him if there were any trails on the island because we wanted to go running. He said yes, he would show us. He said he used to run, but doesn’t own running shoes anymore, but he would just go barefoot and show us around. He wasn’t kidding. We met this morning at 6:30 with headlamps and water and he took us on a loop around most of the small island. He did just fine with his bare feet, but there were a few times he had to stop and smack ants off his toes, “What the banana fuck?!” He would exclaim. We stopped for coffee halfway though, just after sunrise, at the fisherman’s village-which is where most of the locals live. In the village you will find a school, police station, a clinic, and a whole lotta fishing boats. We certainly stood out here, but it was so awesome to have such an authentic experience. Most of our trail to the Village was made of an old brick path and dirt. The second half was a joke of a modern trail. It used to be a trail. I would assume no more than two people have walked it in the past year. A lot of it was the same brick trail, but the previous monsoon seasons had destroyed a lot and there was no upkeep of bushes. We pretty much bushwhacked through jungle for the next few miles. We found an area with police tape and Jordan explained that somebody had died there a while ago and it took months for anyone to find the skeleton. I feel like that’s a good indicator of how dense the foliage is. Jordan said that when he can, he likes to bring alcohol out to the spot to provide the spirit with some fun. Jordan is a badass and we’re going to miss him and his Pina Coladas.

On our first visit to Jordan’s bar, we met two wonderful women named Jess and Ashley. They were staying on the other side of the island at Rainforest Camping. We made the trek over there one night and had dinner with them. They only get electricity from 7pm to midnight and everybody sleeps in tents on small platforms scattered throughout the trees. They have a common area around a fire ring which is used more for mosquito-repelling smoke than for warmth. We sat around the fire before dinner and listened to one guest play his guitar and some sort of maraca, which was tethered to another maraca, and they’d bang into each other whilst making normal maraca shakes. Cool stuff. Another guest came out and played a homemade didgeridoo, which I didn’t know was a real thing, and it was pretty impressive. We hope to cross paths with them again someday, and Jess said we could come stay with her and her boyfriend in Rome anytime we wanted. I hope they realize we’ll go anywhere for free crash space!

That’s most of the good stuff I wanted to explain. The bad isn't much, but it really is hard for our American selves to get used to. Electricity is so spotty here. The islands businesses mostly run on generators. I’ve heard people talking about solar power here, but not to the extent that it’s powering much of anything. A lot of lodging options only get electricity from 8pm to 8am, so you can sleep with a fan or AC if it’s available. Our hostel only loses power between 10am and noon each day. We’ve got it pretty good as some are much worse. Leah has come across a terrible case of bed bugs and has red bites all up and down both legs and feet. This has caused her to not be able to shave her legs in over a week and I’m not sure how much longer I can stand it. Send help and steroid cream.

Tyler

The Perhentian Islands

Contact Us