Here, we would like to show you the stories and testimonies about Perhentian from everywhere around the world. They came here with a risk to see how beautiful this paradise! all of these words i took from traveljournals.net and travelblog.org, credit to both of them. Feel free to visit it because it written by your friend on the road.
Back in paradise
2008-06-12, Perhentian Islands, Malaysia. By: kay1968
We left our guesthouse and made our way by taxi from Kota Bharu to Kuala Besut. The next leg of the journey was by speedboat to the most amazing Island so far, Perhentian Kecil (small Island) on the north east coast of Malaysia. We decided after reading our rough guide to stay on coral beach on the west coast. We stopped at Senja resort and treated ourselves to a room with an elevated view of the beach and crystal clear blue waters (just like in the brochures). We were both knackered and I ended up missing the sunset as I fell asleep!
The next day after having a yummy breakfast of scrambled egg and beans on toast we went exploring and took a snorkeling trip around the islands for RM30 each (5 pounds). We went to 5 different locations to snorkel………….wow, wow and triple wow. I keep saying that it can’t get better but it did. I achieved a lifetime ambition of swimming with a turtle, infact not just one but 4 or 5. They forage around for food and come up for air every 5 minutes or so. The trick is to be patient and follow them as they surface. As you can see from the photos Steve and I managed it several times. It was the best thing ever, the turtles almost posed for the photos knowing we were going to do them no harm. We were both within touching distance from them for half an hour or so. What an amazing first day and it made us realize we had made the right decision in changing our plans of 9 days in Penang.
2008-04-03, Perhentian Islands, Malaysia. By: kay1968
We spent a very lazy 4 days in Perhentian Kecil, doing no more than sleeping, eating, drinking, sunbathing and snorkeling loads. On our last snorkeling trip we were lucky enough to see black tip reef sharks, about 7 or 8 in total. They were 3 foot or so long and weren’t interested in us at all. No photos as they wouldn’t pose for us! Unfortunatley there were thousands of jellyfish and at one stage it was like swimming through jellyfish soup. We have both been very lucky so far and have had minimal jellyfish stings, the sea lice are the biggest problem with a sharp pain every time you swim into them, not enough to deter either of us though, as the pain only lasts for a few seconds. It can be quite painful though if it is on a fleshy bit of skin like the inside of your arm or your lip!!!
We were both sorry to leave the island as it was by far the best place we have been to so far.
Island Time
2006-05-24, Perhentian Islands, Malaysia. By: HamJo
After 6 more hours of Malaysia's finest driving we arrived at the pier to board our questionably sea worthy vessel for the journey to Pilau Perhentian Kecil, for our next dose of sun, sand & snorkelling. After much debate and the "old not good England" when it suits we upgraded our tickets to the "speeeeeed" boat, which turned out to be the ferry and a day of fleece the whitie was well under way, I (Hamish) won't bore you with the details but there were hidden costs coming out of the woodwork at every turn, I was not a happy camper by the time I got to shore. When I woke the next moring and saw the beautiful beach and surroundings yesterdays worries seemed more distant than a -5 degree frost in Central Otago. Long Beach where we staying was something out of the movies crystal clear water and white sand beaches, this was my first true experience of this and it is someting that I could get used to. We upgraded up accomodation after the first night to a A frame bungalow with bathroom on the beach, it was the best move that we could have done as it made the stay far more pleasent than sharing the very stinky communal bathroom. I saw a Shark and a Turtle on my snorkelling trip which was pretty cool. After 5 days of doing nothing on the beach it was time to head back to the mainland and on to Thailand. We had one night in Kota Bahru on route.
where to stay and eat on perhentian kecil?
2005-06-11, Perhentian Islands, Malaysia. By: socrates
There are lots of places to stay on Long beach, perhentian kecil. One when reaching there has to walk around and look for the one most suitable to your need and wallet. Note that almost all do not take reservations and only recieve walk in guests. Panoroma where I stayed I feel has the edge. There are all kinds of accommodation going from the basic no attached toilet (RM30) to the fan with attached toilet (RM 55 a night) and the “top of the range” room with air con and attached toilets. That one goes for 110RM a night for 2 nights with dinner thrown in for 2 nights that you stay there. The room is basic just one big bed, a cupboard and 2 king sized lizards standing guard outside the veranda acting as insect repellants. Panaoroma has also a good location being in the centre of long beach and just about 30 m off the white sandy beach and you can get to any other of the beach restaurants easily.
Most of the menu served on Long beach is quite similar to one another. Mostly have the usual western meals to satisfy the hungry western traveler in search of some familiar food as well as some BBQ seafood and local Malaysian dishes. Try some of the local Malaysian dishes like fried rice at turtle café, the rice with beef and red sauce with was wonderful at the Danial café and the excellent tandoori chicken at the Panaroma. In the end I feel Panaroma had the edge over the other restaurants as it serves good food in a nicely setup restaurant with importantly mosquitoes coils burning underneath to repel any mosquitoes . You can have dinner while watching the daily 8.00 pm movie of the night screened on TVs followed by a 3 scoop ice cream. Just right to rest the tired limps after a day in the sun and the sea. If you prefer watching the stars while eating, head out then to have dinner on the beach to have dinner at where you can lie on the sand and have dinner and watch the stars at the same time. After you can stroll along the beach and at the same time watch out for the “fireman” of the island. This is a local who puts on an impromptu fiery show twirling balls of fire. Quite spectacular show for the night.
The perhentian island
2005-06-11, Perhentian Islands, Malaysia. By: socrates
I went to the perhentian kecil in peninsular Malaysia in Middle of June on the recommendation of a friend who went there in the 90s when it was less modernized and told me it was a good place to see sea creatures My friend actually saw huge manta rays there when diving. Although I did not see a manta ray as I don’t dive, I actually got to see turtles. Not the small kind you find in the pond but the really big one. The first one I saw was sadly a dead one floating on its back in the sea. We were then brought to another spot where we at first saw the shadow of the turtle swimming beneath the water. Only the boat man was experienced this dark shadow moving in the sea and he told us to watch out as it was rising to take breathe. For the next moment the turtle actually popped its head up above water to take a quick breath and down it went again. Much too fast for me to even turn on my camera let alone get a good shot. But I have a picture of the turtle beneath water doubt many can notice that though. We then snorkeled and spotted a big turtle happily eating off the sea floor and having 2 sucker fish attached to it helping to keep its shell clean. It was a good sight to behold and probably the largest sea creature I have seen while snorkeling. Also finally for the first time saw a black tip shark swimming by . Just a young one about 0.75 m long swimming by me at a distance of 10 m away before disappearing quickly away. Off shore snorkeling at perhentian kceil long beach where I stayed is also good . Just not too far from the shore there are already loads of fish of many different variety that will happily swim around you. Sadly most of the coral are dead but for the spots which are alive, sea life thrives and I got see little nemos or clown fish swimming inside sea anemoea, huge purple parrot fish (0.5 m) long eating off the coral among other fish. It was just good and peaceful for me to float and watch the fish go about their business in the sea coral. I regret not getting at least a cheapo underwater camera to take picture of the turtle, the shark and the huge purple parrot fish. This is definitely better snorkeling in terms of variety of fish than in places like Krabi, phi phi island, Trang, Tioman although the not so well known places in Bali are also good. The fewer people the better the fish and the coral. The perhiantian islands is still a good place for the fish to live but as from the evidence of the dead coral how long more this will last I wonder.
Also on the beach at perhentian is a resident sea eagle. Never thought that I would get so close to an eagle and it turns out that this eagle can no longer fly but is taken care of by some people. The eagle stills looks majestic and come close enough he will flap his mighty wings. Look out for Mr Eagle he there day and night on the beach.
Sheep
2005-06-03, Perhentian Islands, Malaysia. By: gonzoaaron
I went on a snorkeling trip today. For lunch, we stopped at a fisherman's village. There was a flock of the rattiest, dirtiest sheep I have ever seen. They swarmed our table while we ate. I decided then that sheep really freak me out when they look at me. They just kind of stare at you with their weird eyes and chew their cud or whatever it is that makes them foam at the mouth. At one point, we had about 12 of those things around our table. They kept jumping up on one guy and poking an Irish girl trying to get food that we didn't have. Some of the sheep looked like they had dreads they were so gross looking.
why the perhentian island are worth a visit to relax
2005-06-11, perhentian islands, Malaysia. By: socrates
1.) the beaches are not crowded by people or beach chairs etc
2.) you can snorkel off shore and see lots of varieties of fish..
3.) Nobody bothers you. You can sit anywhere on the beach , under any beach umbrella , beach hut and nobody comes to ask you for payment for using that particular umbrella or hut.
4.) On the beach there are nobody who comes and bothers you while you are sunning yourself offering a massage or trying to sell drinks etc. There are also no touts who ask you to go diving, snorkeling etc.
5.) The locals are running businesses for a living but they remain sincere and honest to all.
Basically you are left very much on your own on a very nice clean and white sanded beach to do your own thing and to relax. Very unlike the popular over touristy beaches of Thailand, Bali where I have been
Pricey
2005-06-04, Perhentian Islands, Malaysia. By: gonzoaaron
I am in the Perhentian Islands in Malaysia right now. Everything seems much more expensive than the rest of the trip, but if I really price things, it is still cheap. You can get bbq'd seafood for less than $4. It includes a potato and fruit and desert. Not too bad of a deal if you like that sort of thing.
The internet is expensive here, so I am cutting this short.
Paradise
2005-03-23, Perhentian Islands, Malaysia. By: andyrd
So we made it! On 22nd March we took the long journey through the remainder of Thailand and into Malaysia, travelling via minibus (wreckless drivers) to the border. We left Koh Lanta at 0730 and changed minibuses 4 times, taking a new one for the next town along the way. We were dropped off at the Thai-Malay border at 2100. From their we walked across into Malaysia and took a taxi to Kuala Besut, on the North-East coast. It was a 1.5hr ride, but only cost 10GBP! We arrived at the coast and found a hotel for the night, and arranged travel via ferry for the next morning to take us onto the Perinthain Islands (Kechil=small, Bessar=big).
The hotel was pretty naff, and we had a huge (flying) cockroach intruder we had to evict before settling for the night!
On arrival at Kechil, we decided to stay at Lonbeach, which had a beautiful beach and clear, crystal blue sea. Pity the accomodation did not reflect the standard of the beach - the 2nd most expensive place was pretty poor standard. Anyway, we had a great time, met a few other couples and celebrated my birthday with a few drinks.
On the 24th (daytime) we had a dive at the 'Temple of the Sea' site, which was great, we saw 2 bamboo sharks and a whole number of reef fish including huge puffer and porcupine fish. This was followed by a painful, and not too relaxing thai massage!!
It rained then from 3am-8pm on 25th, but we spent the day relaxing with our friends.
On 26th we left the island and head back to mainland for a train to Singapore - all in all we had a great time in the Perinthian Islands, next time I'd try the big island, its a bit more up-market, but the beach we stayed at was gorgeous and certainly the nicest we have seen so far.
Borneo - Perhentian Islands
2004-07-10, Perhentian Islands, Malaysia. By: robbo
Hi, sorry haven't updated recently, very hard to find net access in borneo. So from singapore we got a cab to Johor Bahru (which is at the bottom of malaysia) and we flew from there to Borneo (Kota Kinabalu) on Air Asia (easy jet equivilent). Borneo was excellent. We stayed at a jungle resort which was beautiful and we stayed over night on Seligan Island (turtle island) and saw Turtles (huge sea turtles) laying their eggs in the sand on the beach. We then let some hatchlings go in the sea which was cool. In the morning the next day we saw a few more turtles making their way back to the sea (it takes them a while as they are so huge and heavy i guess!). The next day we went to the orang utan rehab centre and saw quite a few of then having lunch, which was really cool. Got loads of photos but this internet connection is really slow and would take ages to uplaod ( will do when in KL on thurs/Fri). The next day we went on a boat down a river amd saw lots of wild monkeys which was amazing. We also saw Huge Monitor Lizards and about a million KingFishers! We also went to a Cave where millions of birds lay eggs. The nests are collected and used to make Birds Nest Soup. The cave was full of cockroaches and Bats and very sticky due to bird poo! The next day we flew back to KL and up to Kota Bahru which is near the Thai border. We then got on a boat to the Perhentian Islands ( we are on Kecil at teh mo and are going to Besar, the other island, on Monday for 3 days. It is sooo nice here. Its like Ko PHi Phi but less crowded. We have been snorkling and laying on the beach trying to get a tan. They do fantastic bbq's, so far we have had Shark, Chicken, King Fish and Barracuda! They also do Beer Chang, qualla!! We are off to a bar on the beach now (Koh Pha Ngan stylie) to get drunk, he he! Its paradise here, but dont tell anyone!!! Will update on Thurs/Fri with pix of monkeys (for pauly-Pong),Turtles and fantastic beach and sunsets! L8rs
the perenthian islands
2002-01-16, Perhentian Islands, Malaysia. By: lomotravel
we arrived, after a windy and rocky boat trip, to paradise. the island was almost empty, only 3 other travellers had bothered to try to come, and we were rewarded. we spent 4 days of bliss, empty beaches, fantastic sunsets, great friends, hunted monitor lizards, walked around the strip where normally a thousand or more people would be, ate at the only open restaurant, met two english blokes who happened to have lots of vodka on them which we happily helped them with, talked to the locals who made a bonfire every night and sat singing on the sand. wow. i am so glad not many people risk going at that time, cause then it truly is paradise.
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