Faye and I took our first overnight bus in Malaysia from Butterworth after taking a free twenty minute ferry from Penang. We boarded the bus at 9.30om and were surprised with how comfortable it was (of course, I'm true South East Asian style they had the AC up full whack causing us to whip on socks, jumpers and cover ourselves with blankets for the first time since arriving in Malaysia. We arrived in Kuala Besut, the small port town and gateway to the island at a ripe hour of 5am. We knew on arrival that the return boat to Perhentian would cost about 70RN so when we found a man selling them for this price but promising a boat leaving at 7am, an hour before all other boats we took it. The small speed boat left with us and seven other dreary backpackers, dropping me at coral beach, the smaller beach on Kecil island. Leaving the rest at Long beach, the main beach on the island. I found my basic chalet accommodation on the beach called maya chalets. In true island style, no one was to be seen, it was 7.30am after all. After an hour waiting, playing with the resident cats, a young guy called Hazim came out wrapped in a blanket claiming he worked there and had been battling a flu all night, he let me into my room and I had a very decent three hour nap.
Later that day we discovered the island, walking the ten minute trail from coral to long beach. We had a much needed swim in the pristine clear waters before finding a small beach bar named 'Chichis blancas' (translating as white titties....no joke)! Jordan, the owner from Borneo Malaysia was also who Faye was Couchsurfing with. He was definitely a character and didn't make it home earlier than 4am every day we were there. He was 40 but partied like an 18 year old...he made us feel very old and boring.
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| Jordan, Me and his pet unicorn |
Everything on Perhentian was more expensive than what we were used to. Food was one of these things. Jordan was happy for us to use the little kitchen out the back of the bar to make breakfast which was very handy. The majority of the time we ate in 'Ewan's', a restaurant and shop in between coral and long beach. It did huge portions and good wifi...perfect for us.
After a full beach day I decided to see more of the island and with no roads the only options were walking or taxi boats (expensive taxi boats)...walking it was. A rough 'boardwalk' has been built around the island leading to various beaches and to the small town aptly named 'Fishermans' village. The boardwalk we were told was built so that during monsoon season there is still access to the villages. Faye and I walked south from Coral beach through the jungle on the boardwalk, coming firstly to rainforest beach complete with puppies owned by the rainforest camping accommodation. We continued onto Maya beach and onto Petoni beach for snorkelling. Maya beach was our favourite, it has chalet accommodation on the small private beach but the manager running it was there and was happy for us to use the beach and snorkel. He also told us when the tide is in there is an 80% chance of seeing sharks just off the bay! I did snorkel when I was there but didn't see the promised sharks (and didn't search too hard for them either)! We continued out trekking there another day looping around the opposite direction, following the very haphazard boardwalk that had obviously been damaged through various storms to the main village on the island, Fishermans village. Most of the boat tours come here for lunch, luckily we arrived earlier in the morning and were pleasantly surprised with the calm and quaint village, away from the tourist riddled long beach. We spent a few hours on the small beach there and had a good bowl of cheap chicken noodles cooked by a lady at a little stall on the edge of town. We continued through the village and looped back through the same beaches we had walked the opposite way to the days prior. The whole walk took about 3-4 hours, not including our many stops to swim in the sea.
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| Finding puppies on our walk |
The night Cayo finished his open water we all celebrated with an overpriced burger and even more overpriced rum in the diving resort 'Oh lala' on long beach. Strangely (or maybe not strangely) Jordan and a lot of the male resident diving instructors, bar tenders and local staff were dressed in women's bras, dresses and sarongs....apparently a common occurrence on a Saturday night. We also watched the fire show which is a nightly occurrence on long beach. Our last day was a quiet beach day, food at Ewan's and swimming in the crystal clear sea. Glorious.
Taman Negara was our next destination and a big difference to the beaches of Perhentian. Taman Negara in the small village of Kuala Tahan located in central Malaysia is now a national park, the thick, dense jungle on the river......is the oldest rainforest in the world.
With Cayo heading back to Kuala Lumpur, Faye and I left Perhentian islands on the first boat out at 8am. We were keen to see if it was possible to get public transport all the way to Taman Negara but with limited wifi on the island we hadn't had time to research. So when we were approached by numerous our operators offering air conditioned mini vans to bring us all the way to Taman Negara we reconsidered. Especially as it looked like a serious mission to public bus it all the way. We copped out and paid the 65RN (bargaining down from 80) to bring us, along with a French couple and Dutch girl the seven hours to Kuala Tahan, the gateway town to the national park. The town itself doesn't have much more than some small hues houses, tour companies a few small restaurants and shops. We found a small hostel on the river overlooking the river for only 15RN per night with cute little kittens (always an added bonus for me)!
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| Exploring the rainforest |
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| Views from the hostel |
The evening we there we ate in little restaurant (and what looked like the main one) on the corner of the town. The next morning we took one of the small boats across the river for 1RN each...taking less three minutes. We paid 1RN park entrance fee and took the map given to us by the rangers. As I had been warned by other travellers about the number of leeches in the park we both opted for long leggings and thick socks (it.was.so.hot)! We hiked the basic DIY loop including a canopy walkway, up Bukit.....to a viewpoint. Thankfully it stayed lovely and dry, thus avoiding the likelihood of imposing leeches. The whole loop only took about three hours. Here were other hiking and tours available but with limited time to get to Tioman and Faye not keen to read-enter the jungle we decided to leave the next day. Later that night we found a place for food in Acha restaurant, where Acha herself made us a really nice chicken ginger (with three chillis in it for me) and a beef sweet and sour for Faye (with no chilli). She showed us pictures of her two sons and introduced us to her husband. We chatted away to her as we ate the tasty food she has prepared. By the time we left we knew what age her whole family were as well as their birthdays and we had arranged to come back the next morning to have roti and coffee for breakfast. After all, a roti a day.........
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| Hostel kitten |
The whole SMART team came for training. The hostel was full of young Malaysian men in uniforms. The next morning, after it was raining all night we awoke to see the whole rover flooded (I think a regular occurrence) and affirmed our decision not to trek further that day. We managed to take a public bus from the town after everyone telling us that sometimes it comes.....sometimes it doesn't! Thankfully to both ours and the locals surprise the rickety bus came at 8.20am and we avoided having to pay the expensive tourist van fees. We took the bus along the main road through the jungle with moneys running across the road to Jerantut, a city south. From here we took two more coaches, one to Kuantan and the second from Kuantan to Mersing. We arrived in Mersing at about 8.30pm that night. Mersing is the port town and ferry port for the boat to Tioman. We knew we would have to stay a night here and ended up getting a really nice hostel for the night close to the port to get a ferry the next morning.
Next Stop: Tioman island, Malaysia
Stayed: Maya Chalets, Perhentian Kecil. Lianas hostel, Kuala Tehan.
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