Pulau Perhentian - Chilled Out Scuba Vibes

A Gorgonian sea fan at “The Pinnacle”

Now that we’re in the Recovery Movement Control Order here in Malaysia we’re able to travel interstate and that means one thing - scuba diving on the east coast. The timing is near perfect, July is prime time to grab the scuba gear, jump in the car and head over to the islands up in Terengganu which means Tenggol, Kapas, Redang, Lang Tengah and of course the beautiful Perhentians. Having dived here many times before I knew what to expect, clear calm water and a chilled out, laid back vibe which is just what the doctor ordered. The Perhentians are the northern most of the islands on the east coast and are about a 6+ hour drive from Kuala Lumpur depending on the traffic. We’d chosen to break up the journey by stopping off at Pulau Kapas first to get into the holiday spirit for a few days before heading up to the Perhentians. The diving may not be the best that Malaysia has to offer, but that would be to miss the point - its all about relaxing, forgetting about the worries that city life brings with it and just having a great time.

The Perhentians consist of two islands - Kecil (small) & Besar (big) - once we had arrived in Kuala Besut, gateway to paradise, we headed to Pulau Perhentian Kecil. A 30 minute boat ride later and we were stepping off the boat onto the jetty and walking down to our resort for the week, BuBu. Its one of the best places to stay on the island, slightly more luxurious than a lot of the chalets on the island but the rooms are clean, modern, have air conditioning and the beach BBQ in the evening is to die for. After checking in, I wandered along the beach to what I consider to be my personal favourite of dive centres, Turtle Bay Divers, a brilliantly run outfit located on long beach. I always look forward to diving with them, great people, well run and really chilled. I had booked for us to do a few dives each day over the course of the next week, including the Peak Performance Buoyancy speciality in my quest to become a master scuba diver and dropped off my gear ready for the next morning.

The next day I decided to do three dives and jump straight into things, luckily the first dive was at my favourite site around the islands - The Pinnacle. The Pinnacle is a sea mount located about 20 minutes boat ride from long beach but is well worth the journey, there is so much aquatic life there. Large schools of fusiliers and snappers can be seen, moray eels are almost guaranteed, bamboo sharks hiding under the corals and often turtles hanging around snacking or sleeping. The second dive up was at Sugar Wreck, an old cargo ship that was sunk half way between the mainland and the islands that has become a favourite with local divers, visibility here is often quite poor and this time was no exception. While I do like this dive, its not my favourite one around here, but we were greeted by a cuttlefish at the beginning and end of the dive, several scorpionfish, pipefish and the usual reef fish hanging around too. I had hauled my underwater camera set up with me all the way to perhentian and struggled on this dive to find the right settings which meant I couldn’t fully relax. Last dive of the day was at Shark Point, normally a favourite of mine - we had planned to start out a little way out from the main site by a rock outcrop and look for moray eels but the buoy that marks the entry point had been blown/washed away so we had to drop in at shark point itself. No luck this time as we didn’t see any sharks swimming around the reef, but was still a good way to round off the days diving with a nice chilled out dive. After that it was back to the resort for evening cocktails and the beach bbq - the perfect way to relax, wind down and recharge after the days diving.

The next day we had a slightly later start as we were down to do the PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy speciality course. When booking it the staff had, very diligently I thought questioned whether I really needed to do it as I have logged over 200 dives dives and didn’t want to take my money just for the sake of it. Just goes to show what a great little dive shop Turtle Bay is! We decided to go ahead with the speciality anyway as I always think it is always a good idea to practise buoyancy skills from time to time, especially after an extended period out of the water due to the lockdown. Our instructor for the day, Adlin, was great - she explained she would be a little harsher on us due to the number of dives we had logged which was fine by me. We went down and practised hovering in a number of different positions, passing weights between us, swimming through hula hoops and learning the backwards fin stroke which was a new skill for me. I was surprised by how little air we used, although we were pretty shallow I came back to the surface with well about 110 bar after 75mins, just goes to show what having the right weighting does for you. After completing the course I had time for one more dive, this time at surprise rock, we dropped in not too far from D’Lagoon and the conditions seemed to be great until all of a sudden a thermocline came in and visibility dropped to just a couple of meters! We had seen a few interesting creatures up until this point such as a baby bumphead, Jenkins whip ray and some nudibranchs but once the vis dropped we all had to group together and follow the convenient rope that took us to surprise rock. The conditions eased a little but we were all glad to finish the dive together and get back to the boat.

Nudibranch at Surprise Rock

The beach at BuBu Resort

The next morning I woke up full of anticipation and then looked out of the window to see overcast skies and a fair bit of wind causing some waves. I realise I am so lucky to be living here in Malaysia and that I am a bit spoilt, can’t imagine what it would be like to dive in colder climates. Anyway we all bravely kitted up and headed out, the dive site was changed to somewhere a bit more sheltered so we ended up at fisherman wreck, which was a new site around perhentian for me so an immediate bonus! As soon as we descended below the water I forgot about the conditions above, it was much warmer and infinitely calmer. We explored the wreck and there were some nice Nudis, Scorpionfish and a number of crabs all hiding beneath the hull equally spaced out which made me smile. The days second dive was at Polis Wreck, the conditions had definitely improved by this time and we had a trainee divemaster guiding us around. My main memory of this dive was the sheer number of blue spotted stingrays hanging out in the sand and under the wreck. We had some friends from KL arriving on the island that day we after the second dive we headed back to BuBu to meet them and enjoy a few cold beers on the beach and a evening meal together. Good times had by all!

The last day started off well as we were again heading to the Pinnacle. This time, as I had my camera I was lucky enough to be diving with Yakub, the owner of Turtle Bay. Was a great dive, as soon as we got down there were a couple of turtles and lots of Bamboo sharks hiding out underneath the coral which provided great photo opportunities. We saw so much, schools of fusiliers and snappers, stonefish, scorpionfish, it was one of those magical dives where you just chill out and drift along. Really enjoyed it. Was back and after a quick spot of lunch on the beach was back for the last dive of the trip at T3 (T = terumbu, the bahassa for reef, so 3 reefs) Our guide was Azli who had last year been the rescue victim during my rescue diver course and who appeared to have forgiven me for nearly drowning him with my attempted rescues! We searched around looking for Nudis and saw several on the seabed along with a whip ray which bolted off as soon as it saw us! Nice dive to finish the trip and after that enough time to rinse of equipment and let it dry before getting the boat back to the mainland in the morning.

The next morning once we were all packed up we headed back tot he mainland and drove back to KL with a bittersweet feeling, we’d had a great week just chilling out on the islands but at some point reality had to catch up with us. So glad to have been able to get back to Perhentian after the lockdown and really glad to see my favourite dive shop, Turtle Bay Divers, back up and running. I really can’t speak highly enough of the staff and the owner - a gem amongst dive shops in Asia and if you happen to be in Perhentian anytime would really recommend you drop by there some time.