Day 1, 17-Apr'04: Reached Jerteh by bus from Penang (left the island 9:20PM last night) at about 5:30-ish AM. From the bus station, the sleepy trio got onto a taxi to Kuala Besut... and boy was that a ride!
The taxi-dude drove as though he was in an F1-car... and his speedometer wasn't even working. Along the way we passed a police check point... but the cop was sitted in a chair was obviously in lala-land.
Still way early at 6AM... we sat and wasted some time in a coffee shop near the office of our "travel service". It's called Cocohut Travel by the way... and no... they aren't overrun by coconuts all around the place. XP
At about 8AM - we started our 30 mins boat ride to Pulau Perhentian Besar after doing all the necessary registrations. Arriving on the island, my pals and I put our luggage under the care of the chalet management coz we don't get to check in til noon... and headed for the sea!! Woo-Hoo!!
Clear, cool waters... we dipped into the water for a while... then we suddenly realized that it'd be better to get snorkels from the chalet ppl first. That was the beginning of it all... first reef area in front of the chalets... hmm... nice... 2nd spot... even better!
HelloOoo Nemo! Okay... so I saw a bright fluorescent orange clown fish playing among the anemone... mwuaaaahhh!!! I happily swam around some more until I saw a jellyfish somewhere in the water... arrgh!!! I'm too chicken to stick around... bubbye!!!
Meals were included into our holiday package... and our first meal there was a real shock. One huge and scrumptious fried fish, a dish that looked like kung-pao squid, large plate of vege & a huge serving of tom yam soup... enough to feed 5 ppl but there are only 3 of us!! Gosh... that's a lot of food
After lunch... and a short rest... the REAL snorkelling trips began. 1st drop point somewhere off Perhentian... the reef was the most beautiful among all the others that they took us to. A close look at the corals sometimes reveal a camouflaged fish... most often - the stonefish that pretty much matches the coloring of a type of hard coral.
I started to have a headache after getting out of the water and into the boat to leave for our next destination.
2nd drop point (also off Perhentian)... we went looking for turtles. Decided to hit the water again despite my headache... and yup! I had a good look at the turtle - big fella but it's a shy one...
3rd drop point... decided that I better skip it... accumulative effect from lack of rest + going under the heat of the sun is not a good thing. Siew Hooi said that there were more anemone and plenty of clown fish there... and btw... by now... we noticed that no matter where you go... you can always spot sea cucumber (many different species of them too).
Back at the chalet... it was some rest before dinner... and again... huge servings. Night time, we did some star-gazing while lazing on the beach enjoying the breeze. By now, we were quite buddy with our "tour guide" and a few people who are our partners in crime during this trip. In short, we are in the same activities group.
Day 2, 18-Apr'04: Mmmm-mmMMmm! Another day of blue skies, clear sapphire blue waters across the horizon. Along with Lyne, Siew Hooi and the group we've been joined with... it's off to a trip around the Redang group of islands.
A few minutes after we left Perhentian Besar, our boatman received a call to turn back. Seems our guide forgot to take our packed lunches into the boat... patah balik!!!
We had good laugh about that as we journeyed to our 1st snorkelling stop. Dunno where it was except our guide, Andy, told us the place was called Teluk... to which I replied "Teluk what?!". Great view though.
Next, Redang's longest beach... Pasir Panjang... place with white sandy beaches, part coral graveyard nearer to the beach and regenerating/surviving reef further off the beach.
Sea life here is diverse... and the fish are very used to people... mush out some water soaked stale bread and they come around you like a swarm of bees. We also get to see a few small groups of coral sharks here. Yup! The same kind that Richard Hatch caught in one of the Survivor episodes.
Swimming further out, I managed to see a fish that looks like a brown-yellow giant version of the whatever-horn fish that was so popular... my guess is - it could be about 4 to 5 feet long from head to tail.
Final snorkelling stop for the day - Redang Marine park. But before we hit the water again... it's time to grab some lunch. It was probably one of the best nasi kandar meal I had outside Penang.
We each had rice with squid, cabbage, a kind of roast chicken, and some sambal... on picnic tables and benches under the shade of some beach front trees. Yes... that includes coconut trees. ;P
After washing our hands at the facilities that were built on the island, we swam to have a look at the sunken ship first. Corals have grown on and around the structure... and fishes have made it their home too. We then swam within the perimeter heading to the jetty and saw this really big school of white pomfret somewhere further out.
Taking my head out from facing underwater for a while... I heard Siew Hooi saying "Mmm... yummy!" - I couldn't help but laugh as I myself imagined having a nice, sweet, and juicy bawal putih for dinner. Not long after that, I spotted what looked like a fish that was about 10 t0 15 feet in length somewhere about 50 or so feet below the surface... wow...
However, the corals around here were different. They were more dull and it was not hard to see that there were plenty of spots of dead corals here and there. I also remember following a garoupa that had glowing spots on it for a while before it ducked into the corals to hide from view.
The area where I was at that time kinda freaked me out though. The coral reef couldn't have been more than 3 inches below me and I didn't want to get myself scratched all over. I swam as fast as I could back to the beach in a sort of panic while trying to keep myself as high on the surface as possible. Getting to the beach felt really good after that.
Before leaving the marine park, we took some pictures to remember the amazing view around the place. Siew Hooi and I concluded that Lyne was a really bad influence. You see... our friend Lyne hung on the tree with her hands and feet clinging to a tree branch (we took a photo of that), and some others in the group started doing the same a bit later.
It was amazing the the branch didn't break when one of the heavier folk got on the branch ala orang utan. Bless them all for not getting hurt.
On the way back, we dropped by Pulau Lang Tengah. Our guide just left us there to enjoy the beach. There's not much to do there actually since the waters off the beach were very shallow and quite rocky. All there was to do there was to relax and enjoy the view... :)
Later, as we were getting back to our chalet, our guide took us to a cold water spring on the other side of Perhentian Besar. Splashing ice cold water over our heads never felt so good. It sure took out the feeling of having a "burning" head and body after a whole day of snorkelling.
Finally back on solid ground, we took turns to have shower before heading to the restaurant to have a fantastic lazing and snacking bout. We ordered a chocolate banana pancake... while Lyne ordered her standard Milo + 1 glass of warm water, Siew Hooi ordered a fantastic mango smoothie, while I got myself a banana smoothie.
The smoothies were Sinfully delicious! They used real fruit to make those... there's no such thing as using carton packed juices here (like what our normal food outlets would do). We vowed that we will have to come for a smoothie again before we leave the island the next day.
Having finished our snack - we grabbed some magazines to read while hanging out on the beach... lazing on the deckchairs. Shortly after that, we heard a few ppl from the other group asking for someone (anyone in our trio) to fill in an empty spot for a game of "chor-tai-tee" on the porch of their chalet.
SH & Lyne didn't really know the game but I knew how to play it... so they shoo-ed me off to join our holiday friends for the game of cards. We played for quite a few rounds before going back to join the group hanging out at the beach while we all waited for our designated dinner time. That was when we couldn't resist ourselves from gossipping about the black sheep in our holiday group.
We talked about this notorious couple that was always last to get on the boat or join in for any meal... probably because they were oblivious about everything else while being in a world of their own. They don't even make it a point to apologize for each time they made us wait for them.
Everyone got so used to it that we roll our eyes whenever we notice the missing headcount... coz it's always the same 2 that are missing.
Then there were the episodes where the two couples in the group... where the guy willingly carries the girlfriend if she happens to complain that she is tired and doesn't want to continue to walk/swim. Oh gosh! Textbook helpless damsels in distress... we never thought we'd see a page of history coming to life.
Finally, it was dinner time. On our table... a big plate of fried mee hoon... while the main attraction was BBQ-ed squids, fishes, and succulent crabs. Yummy! Yummmmmmmyyyyy!!!
Halfway through dinner - the pompous guy (one-half of the couple who's always late) asked us if it was our first time at Perhentian and if we liked our chalet. SH told him that it was a first for Lyne and herself and yes we liked what we have paid for... and that this wasn't my first trip there as I've been to Redang before.
He then asked me if I liked Redang or Perhentian better... and when I said Perhentian... he continued to ask if I endured my stay in Redang because there were guys who were better looking than him in the group I was with. Not wanting to stroke his overgrown ego - I replied, "Hell yeah!". SH and Lyne couldn't be more proud of their "lil' sister" (that's what they playfully called me throughout the trip).
Later... as life would be on the island - we armed ourself with mosquitoe repellent before settling ourselves back onto the deckchairs along the beach. We chatted about a great many things and was later joined by Ah Huat from the other group. This dude apparently resembles one of our colleague's sons. Our guide also joined us for a while.
We later noticed lights flashing from the waters but it didn't quite register what was it about until we heard a shout from a boatman... he said "Please inform the owner of the place. We ran out of fuel!"
Not long after that... I think some kind of rescue mission happened. A small boat went out to pass some fuel to the stranded passing boat that was just drifting towards wherever the current was taking it to.
That was quite an eventful observation before we all decided to call it a night.
Day 3, 19-Apr'04: After breakfast, we all followed our guide for a bout of jungle trekking. Someone asked if it they should wear shoes before we started the hiking trip... and Andy replied, "Piece of cake. No shoes needed". But truth be told... never trust a native of the island... he's used to being barefoot. Pity the poor suckers who believed Andy and went barefoot.
Our first target was to get to the other side of the island. Lyne and I seem to be ahead of the group most of the time... to which someone trailing behind commented that the 2 of us must be experienced hikers. Hah... erm... yeah... maybe.
Soon as Lyne saw that we've probably reached "the other side" - she exclaimed that out loud. Andy who was a bit behind us quickly shouted back, "Wait, wait, wait!" before darting ahead of us. Lyne and I soon realized that he wanted the appearance that he was first to arrive at our destination... and started to laugh at Andy. He's one nutty chap (and a nice one too).
The other side had a really nice, long, wide and white sandy beach... with hammocks hung between coconut trees; and a roofed hut to shade us from the sun. We rested and rehydrated ourselves before taking another trail to go back to our chalet.
The trail back was a much easier one... except for the part where there was a drop that we had to take before crossing a small, passing stream. Two guys were overzealous and fell down but luckily they were not hurt bar a few scratches.
We soon reached a 5-star chalet resort and walked through it's compound. Up on one of the trees in that area was a family of white-faced black-furred monkeys. Real peaceful creatures who really wouldn't understand our fascination with them as we (this included some gwai-lows who are residents of that resort) stared and looked up at them.
This was an obviously more upmarket and more commercial stretch along Perhentian as we spotted some souvenir shops around the place. As the stretch of beach ended... we thought that all we had to do was to climb a few more steps across the hilly terrain and we'd back to our chalet.
Boy were we wrong!! The guide told us to go ahead and follow where the big black water pipe goes as he waited for stragglers in the group. (You guessed it... the infamous couple are missing again!)
So... we found ourselves were hiking along the jungle trail again (without a guide in front)... and starting to feel rather tired... SH and I cheerfully chanted out thoughts of ice cold 100 plus, delicious smoothies and a juicy burger to spur us home to the chalets.
15 minutes later... we were finally back at our chalets. Phew! Just in time for our check out too (noon). Luckily for SH, Lyne & myself... we could afford to rest and have a shower since we found out that there'd be no one who'd be checking into our unit. BLISSS!! However our neighbours weren't so lucky...
They had to move out soon as they reached back from the jungle trekking... so what they could do was move their stuff out and then they dropped by our place to take a shower... it was an alternative that better than nothing at all :)
After checking out - we ordered out lunch... Yup! We had our burgers... and SH had to have her mango smoothie again... while this time round, I tried the watermelon one. The taste of it reminded me of ais kacang. Ais kacang!!!
We had intended to leave on the 4pm boat ride out from Perhentian but the owner told us that 2pm would be a better time as the sea would be rough later in the evening. And so, we docked our bags and ourselves into the boat... put on our life jackets and said goodbye to Perhentian.
Back on land in Kuala Besut, we bought some keropok and arranged for a cab to Jerteh where we spent the entire afternoon until 10:30pm at night. We tried some of the local food there... the weirder the dish sounded or unfamiliar to us, the more likely we were to order it for our meal. One of it was "sup perut". It was good and no I didn't get diarrhoea the next day!
Before we went to wait for our bus, we managed to find a shop that operates much like a factory outlet store. Lyne and SH bought some shorts while I found a nice piece of sarong batik for my mum.
After that... we just waited for ages for our bus to come. It was late by about 30-45 mins. This time, our seats were wider and we dozed of soundly soon after since we've had a pretty tiring day. The only time we woke up was at the last rest stop that the buses made because we had to hop off the bus for a short while to warm up a little.
5:30am the next day, 20-Apr'04 - we were finally back at the point where we began our journey to the East Coast. The 3 of us decided to have an early breakfast of roti canai at the nearby mamak store. *yawn*
Then we headed for Lyne's car. It was part of the plan that we got someone to leave her car there the night before... so that Lyne can drop the other 2 of us home without having to bother others to wake up at an ungodly hour to pick us up.
Arriving home... I quickly unpacked what I could and made sure that I continue to stay awake since I had planned to dart into office to download my emails before everyone else got into office. After that was done, I had to drop my grandpa off to his office in town.
With that finally over and done with... it's time to hit the haystack and not wake up until whenever. ZZZzzz...
