Reflections on Perhentian

An awesomely relaxing experience.

Fantastic weather every day, easy lifestyle, white-sand beaches with beautiful blue/green water.

 

There are two main islands - Kecil and Besar.  We stayed on Besar, which although a bigger island, is the less-developed of the two - presumably becaused there is less flat land.  'our beach' - the strip where our hotel was located - had a couple of hotels, a couple of restaurants, a few general shops and a couple of diving shops - all pretty low-key.  Alcohol was available if you asked for it, but not on menus or advertised.  A walk over an old stone path led to another beach with another hotel and what seemed to be a site for school or youth camps. 

 

Walking along the stone path our first night, we saw a monster lizard almost 2 metres long - apparently it was a monitor lizard (they look like a komodo dragon if that helps - i don't really know what komodo dragons look like except that they apparently look like the monitor lizard i saw).  It looked roughly like a little dinosaur with longish legs.  Not dangerous.

 

Little to report about life at Tuna Bay (our hotel).  We ate mainly at a nearby restaurant which had fantastic fish sambal and a really sweet waiter with the hairdo of a gangster flunky in a Hong Kong police flick - a mullet at the back and a fringe at the front with various sections in orange - and the service style of an unworthy acolyte serving his cult leader.

 

The snorkelling trip made me realise I miss diving, although the reef wasn't so good.  Loved following schools of fish, playing with anenomes and clown fish and inspecting some huge clams.  also loving zipping around in tiny speedboats.

 

Went over to Long Beach at Kecil (the other island).  Definitely the party place.  More like a Thai beach, with crappy chalets and lots of people in their mid-20s lazing around and preparing to party at night.  A beautiful beach, however - possibly the nicest white-sand beach I've ever seen with the warmest water.

 

We heard an Aussie voice only once on Perhentian - I'd guess that the biggest ethic group among guests on the Islands were Italian, followed by Germans / Dutch / Austrians / similar.  And quite a few Maaysians staying on the islands.