where in the world is matt

Set on the East coast, the Perhentians are two small islands which translate to small and big. Kecil being the smaller is where the majority of people stay as the larger is more for families hence the accommodation is set up for it, but being on either at this time of year was strange. It was like the bandits are coming so you best get out of town. Alot of guesthouses/restaurants were closing and heading out of Dodge before the monsoon season closed the islands for 3 months. This occurs at the end of October/start of November and for us was the 24^th so we had 4 days before we had to catch the last boat. Really was strange watching as each day people left, to the point that on the 22^nd I arrived on one beach to find the whole thing closed down, rather eerie as that morning there had been people roaming around it.

It made for quite a nice quiet spot though and as the group had grown to seven of us, we were freer to haggle and get discounted rooms with nice sea views. We stayed at long beach (on the sunrise side) as its ‘larger’ of the two but not necessarily the nicer. On the opposite side of the island is Coral bay, where the majority of the dive schools reside and everything seemed to still be opened.

Other than spending every night getting smashed on the beach and going swimming the activities are mainly snorkelling or scuba with the Perhentians being famous for both. Personally marine wise I wasn’t that impressed with either. My dive was interesting, the first without any real supervision and just 4 of us on a speedboat with different gear in a strange new location. It was an experience because im so used to lush colours and coral and this was all hard and quite alot was damaged. There wasn’t as much variety to the fish or size and the current proved difficult to try and swim and remain buoyant in, but it’s what makes the experience of diving worthwhile. All the different situations and sites you find yourself in. From just the one dive I was offered my DM internship and IDC at cheaper rates – the number of dives for a DM going up from 20 to 40 – and free diving there for life with the company and the offer of work in February, something to consider.

The snorkelling proved to be alot better. Perhaps because of the diving making my lungs stronger, I found I was the only one that would dive to the bottom and chase the fish which meant I had my own little world to myself – though remembering I don’t have a tank on proved to be a problem the first time I went down.

We went to four sites around kecil, a reef, an open water reef/light house, shark point and turtle bay. The first was shark point, ive never seen sharks in open water and of course these weren’t dangerous. Black tip sharks, about 1m and a half in length, they were mainly swimming around in the shallows not doing much. Abit to nippy for me to keep up with but I managed to get fairly close to them before they went into deeper waters. Still cool to see.

Again at the second reef there were a couple of sharks but more small fish, mainly dorsal fish that with a prompt of bread thrown in became a mini frenzy to try and snatch from people’s hands. As a reef it was mainly large hard coral that only housed small nemo fish – brilliant because they always have a frown on and are the best fish to annoy in the world as they swim back and forth, sometimes coming close enough to catch.

Turtle point made the day for me. Having dived on Tao I seem to be the only person whose never seen a green turtle, they have become rare nowadays but they aren’t that rare as everyone else on the OW final saw one – bar my dive buddy and I – so this time I was ready and already with my gear on for when the captain pointed one out, I was already off the boat while it was moving. They swim fast and I was the only one to actually see and keep up with this as people faffed to get gear on before I was already half way across the bar. Amazing and graceful, this one had two feeder fish following it along, and it was happy enough going steady with me shadowing it, and seeing its head pop at the surface to grab some air, though unfortunately a boat came by and scared it off. After searching around for it again for some 10 minutes the captain spotted one and off I went again, this time with a few more people in tow. It proved to be the same turtle, but it led straight to a massive leatherback. It was at least three times the size of the green turtle and was just simply lying at the bottom munching on some stalks it had found. When it saw me, all it did was look up and carry on chomping. After awhile it decided that too many people meant it should go for a swim. This one swimming off just as lazy but due to the size of it, it went off at speed and was abit of a chore to keep up with. After awhile I gave up because I was shattered, it had a distinct advantage so was clearly going to get away. How they survive in such an area is beyond me as there is nothing at the bottom bar sand and it’s constantly used as a taxi route between the mainland and the two islands.

After the discovery of coral bay, the evenings were spent bbqing on the beach while watching the sun go down before retiring to our side of the island to drink and swim on the empty island.

The ride back was alot smoother though still at warp 9 on a speedboat, shortening the journey time but also alot of people’s kneecaps. Being on the front the first time wasn’t the best but still enjoyable. From here the plan was to go to Tioman but due to the east coast closing, I didn’t want to travel all the way to the port of Mersing to find it shutdown, so I decided to stay with the group and travel across land to Penang, an island id never been before where I could then take the train down to KL, and then bus to Malacca and Singapore.