Saturday, June 19, 2010

Pulau Perhentian

We checked into our hotel room promptly, and took a quick hot cup lunch, as we were suppose to go for our first snorkeling trip at 2 pm.


The boat arrived promptly, and the bunch of us (7 adults and 11 kids/teenagers) went for a trial snorkeling experience at the beach. So far so good, but my daughter decided sea water didn't agree with her eyes. So needed some coaxing to get into the water. Meanwhile, my son decided to follow his friend further into deeper waters, where they could see some fishes swimming about, but they promptly rushed back to shore after seeing a clam opening its shell!

Finally hit the open sea (sort of). Halfway out, the boat stopped and the boat man announced that there was a sea turtle resting on the ocean floor. Everybody started jumping into the water, and I had no choice but to follow (note that I can hardly swim and that was the first time I'm out in open waters). Obviously, I was the last one in the water. Actually didn't see the darn turtle.

Back into the boat again, we headed out for some snorkeling. This time, there were a few other boats around, and quite a few people snorkeling. Jumped into the water, had trouble getting away from the boat, and promptly puked into the sea, which in turn attracted a school of fish. Talk about recycling. Went to another snorkeling spot, thankfully didn't puke, and finally went back to the hotel, where I just slept. And slept.

We went out for dinner at a place called Mama's Place, which was reasonably priced. Damage was ~RM78/- for 3 adults and 4 kids. We had nasi paprik, tom yam with rice, mee lakna, basically typical Malay food. As it was drizzling, we couldn't do anything else after dinner, so we just headed back to our rooms for the night.

The next day, we departed for Pulau Redang at 9:30 am. That took about 1 hour, and we landed at the Laguna Redang resort.


That was one big resort, and crowded too. We bought some stuff at the souvenir shop here.


The items were reasonably priced. After yesterday's experience, I decided to stock up on soury stuff. And had a nice refreshing ice-cream.

After that, it was more snorkeling around the resort. Apparently, there's a baby shark around there, but I never got around to seeing it. We then departed for the Marine Park, and had our lunch there. More snorkeling. I think there were more fishes here nearer the beach. Overheard some people mentioning there was a shipwreck nearby too, which was home to some other fishes. Son saw a giant garoupa, apparently a resident of that area. Me, I just paddled out some way, fed some fishes, paddled back and took a nap.

After that, we left for Lang Tengah for even more snorkeling. Also saw a fighter jet (Mig/Sukhoi?) performing some low flying exercises over the ocean. Cool. At Lang Tengah, after some while of snorkeling, puked again on the boat. That's twice in 2 days. Heh.

Thankfully, we left Lang Tengah for Perhentian after that, after which the boat man announced that they were still going for a few more spots for snorkeling, but those who wanted to go back to the resort could do so. That was around 4 pm, and back to the hotel it was for the 4 of us. This time, everybody was exhausted, and it was zzzzzzz all around.

6:30 pm, we joined my wife's friend and her kids on the beach for some sand and surf. They had continued the snorkeling trip, and had snorkeled at another 3 locations. Amazing. Then off to dinner at the Coral View Resort, which was quite nice and reasonably priced too. Damage was ~RM90/- for the 7 of us.

We then headed to a rocky part of the beach, where my wife's friend went crab hunting. Tip: wear a headlight if you want to do this, much easier than holding a regular flash light.

In case you're wondering, we did let the crabs free. Finally went back to the hotel at 11 pm, and turned in for the night.

Next day: no more snorkeling! We just hit the beach until 11 am, checked out, and headed back to Kuala Besut, which took 25 minutes again. Told you our boat was fast.

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