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Paradise Found

August 12, 2012 — Leave a comment

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The Perhentian Islands, about an hour’s ferry ride off the north-east coast of Malaysia, were hands-down one of our favorite places along our trip through SE Asia. We had just come from Thailand: a bucket-cocktail party filled week on Koh Pha-Ngnan- culminating with the infamous Full Moon Party- followed by another 5 crazy days spent on Koh Tao, where Cory and Federico completed their Basic Open Water diver’s certification. After that run, let’s just say our bodies needed a break from the insanity that is ‘The Backpacker’s Life’ on the Islands of Thailand. The Perhentians proved to be the perfect location for a bit of respite.

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Turquoise Bay on Perhentian Kecil

 

We knew our livers were going to get a break, as alcohol in Malaysia (A Muslim country) is either very hard to find, or ridiculously expensive. Usually both. We had been advised to buy whatever booze we wanted for the islands prior to boarding the transfer ferry, but by that point, the mere mention of more alcohol was enough to induce an instantaneous psychologically created hang-over (Muscle memory and all… Your brain is a muscle, right??). Needless to say, we passed on the bottle shop, and looked forward to a few days of detox.

We purchased our ferry tickets, and found out we had a while to wait before the boat headed out. We wandered over to a little cafe, hoping to get a bit to eat before the trip.  An hour later, and STILL waiting on our chicken sandwiches, that idea was out the window, and we had to head back to the dock. Unbelievable- there was hardly anyone in the cafe! Maybe they had to go and catch the chickens (Not as far-fetched as it might sound when in a small town in SE Asia…). Nevertheless, we were excited to board the ferry and head out to the islands.

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Welcome to PARADISE…

 

We were staying on Perhentian Kecil- the smaller of the two islands- as we had heard it was geared a bit more towards backpackers as opposed to high-end resorts. We hadn’t booked accommodation on the island, and our first afternoon was spent exploring the options along the beach. Guesthouses of all sizes, colors, and prices stood shoulder to shoulder along the edge of the sand, all with open-air bars/restaurants/reception areas inviting us to come in and drop our bags. We toured a few, settled on one, and then it was time to hit the beach.

The best thing, or at least one of the best things (There are many ‘best things’ when talking about Perhentian Kecil) about the island was its size- it is pretty small, and the only ‘developed’ part is the main beach along Turtle Bay. At the time we were there, it was still a bit ‘off the map’, so to speak, and wasn’t overrun with backpackers looking for yet another massive beach rave. It had a much more laid-back vibe than the Thai islands we had just come from- no pounding techno music on the beach all night long, no crazy parties packed with intoxicated tourists, no locals hawking bucket cocktails at 10am… Tossing the frisbee around, lolling in a hammock, reading a book in the shade, or taking a snooze in the sand made up our days, while quiet sea-side bbqs, twilight volleyball games with the locals, and small bonfires on the beach made up our nights. It was nice to be able to just chill out. On one night, we wandered into what turned out to be a great restaurant that doubled as a movie theater, and found ourselves returning night after night for the ‘Dinner and a Movie’ special.

 

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Who loves Perhentian Kecil? These guys.

 

Fede and I took our Advanced Open Water course at this awesome little dive shop right there on the beach (Turtle Bay Divers), and found it to be some of the best diving we had experienced in all of SE Asia. Cory went on hikes while we were diving, exploring the hidden corners of the island, photographing the incredibly untouched beauty of the landscape. Crystal clear waters, sun-bleached white sand, a cool breeze off the sea, friendly locals and a feeling that today- this day- was hands-down the best day of the trip. That was the feeling of being on Perhentian Kecil.

 

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Just another day at the office…

 

We ended up extending our stay by one day, then two, then three… We looked at the calendar and tried to figure out how to adjust our itinerary to allow us to stay longer. Later in the trip, when faced with monsoon rains on the West Coast of Thailand, we contemplated back-tracking across the Malaysian peninsula, all the way back to the Perhentians- thats how much we loved it there. The day we finally left, we stood there, the three of us, on the transfer skiff, about to head out and board the ferry back to the mainland. All the places we had passed through before- all throughout Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia- they all seemed like a ‘stop along the way’- a place to see what was to be seen, do what was to be done, and move on. Perhentian Kecil was different. We didn’t want to leave, didn’t want to move on to the next stop. ‘Man, I love this place…’ Fede said, standing on the transfer boat, squinting through the sunlight back at the glimmering beach. We all loomed at the rail, looking back at our guesthouse, the hammocks swaying in the morning breeze; back at the dive shop, instructors and students climbing into to the dive boats, ready to get the day’s courses underway; back at Paradise on Earth, the golden sand contrasting sharply against the impossibly blue waters… ‘Me too,’ I replied. ‘Me too.’

 

 

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Perhentian Kecil

 

 

If you’d like to learn more about how to travel through Malaysia, click here.

For more on The Backpack Professor’s adventures in Malaysia, click here.

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Federico and I decided to take our Advanced Open Water course while staying on Perhentian Kecil- a small island off the east coast of Malaysia. For you non-divers out there, the advantage to having your Advanced Open Water certification is that you can go a bit deeper on your dives (30 meters as opposed to 18), you can enter shipwrecks, you can do night dives, and besides, the dives required to complete the course make you a more experienced diver in general. Fede had completed his basic Open Water course in Koh Tao, Thailand, just prior to arriving in Malaysia, and we were both excited to take it to the next level.

Upon our arrival on the island, we walked down the beach, stopping in various dive shops along the way, and ended up in at a place called Turtle Bay Divers. It was full of laid-back dive instructors, all happy to chat with us about anything and everything. We hit it off with this English guy named Will right away, learning that he was living the hard life- instructing dive courses in Malaysia during the peak tourist season, and mixing some diving of his own with a little bit of surfing in Indonesia during the low season. Tough life, right? He was a funny guy, and went on about how great the diving around the Perhentians was. We registered for the 5-dive course, and promised to show up on time and in diving condition (Read: not hung-over) the next morning.

To complete the Advanced Open Water course, one has to pass on 5 different types of challenging dives. Theres something like 8 or 9 dives to choose from, depending on what your interests are, but of those, 2 are required- the Deep Dive (Up to 30 meters), and the Navigational Dive (So that you can get back to the boat should you decide to dive on your own. A good skill to have, for sure…). The other dives we selected were the Peak Performance Buoyancy dive (Perfect your neutral buoyancy, a key to scuba diving), the Drift Dive (Scuba diving in an area with a strong current), and the Wreck Dive (Safely and responsibly penetrating shipwrecks). The plan was to complete these 5 dives over the next three days, allowing us to complete the course before we left the island.

 

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Underwater and breathing- so far, so good…

First up was the Peak Performance Buoyancy dive, a dive we completed just off the beach, right there in Turtle Bay. Our instructor was an English woman named Olivia- ‘Olli’ for short- and she was dead-set on getting us to the point where we could ‘float’ underwater. We had to learn all these skills to adjust our buoyancy while underwater, and then use these skill to do flips, swim through hoops, and maintain our depth for extended periods of time. It wasn’t the most ‘scenic’ dive as far as fish, coral, and other sea life was concerned, though we did have a few curious fish swim by- surely wondering what the heck we were doing, swimming through hula-hoops and doing back flips. Nevertheless, the dive did help us hone our buoyancy, which would help us on dives in the future, and it was fun doing all the challenges. AOW Dive #1, CHECK…

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Achieving SCUBA Enlightenment…

 

The second dive was the Deep Dive, done at a dive sight called ‘The Pinnacle’. Will was going to be our instructor for the rest of the course, which suited us fine. His easygoing manner and sense of humor about it all took the edge off the fact that we were in a class of sorts, trying to earn a passing grade. The Deep Dive’s primary purpose is to expose divers to the experience of being deeper underwater, where the body may react a bit differently than at shallower levels. The maximum depth for any recreational dive is 30 meters, a depth at which an intoxicating sensation known as Nitrogen Narcosis can take hold. Getting ‘narced’ is a result of having too much compressed nitrogen in the blood stream, and can have dangerous side effects that don’t seem dangerous at the time. An sense of calm and/or elation can come over a diver, causing them to forget about or ignore checking their depth gauges and air supply- not a good thing. Also, due to the compressed nitrogen in the bloodstream, divers can get ‘The Bends’ if they ascend too rapidly to the surface. This is caused by expanding nitrogen bubbles in the blood, and can be debilitatingly painful, with severe cases resulting in death. Hence, its a good idea to know what you’re doing when diving deep. Hence, the required Deep Dive course. There is not a lot to the dive- just a slow descent to the appropriate depth, a few mind games to demonstrate the effects of Nitrogen Narcosis, a bit of sight-seeing around the site, and then a slow ascent, including the ‘Safety Stop’- a 5 minute stop at a depth of 3 meters to allow some of the nitrogen to escape the body before surfacing. That’s it. AOW DIve #2- CHECK…

 

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A reef shark snoozing on the sand…

 

Our third dive was the Navigational Dive, intended to teach divers how to navigate themselves around a dive site using landmarks and/or compasses. Its pretty funny- you start the course on the beach, learning to use the compasses by navigating along lines drawn in the sand by your instructor. I’m sure the beach bums get a kick out of seeing a bunch of guys in scuba gear stumbling around the beach, arms out in front of them, trying to read a compass without falling over each other. Good times! Then it’s into the water, and those challenges are repeated underwater. You’ve got to navigate a 20 meter square, locate your buddy, and various other skills, all while being able to point to the location of the boat at ALL TIMES. Again, a very useful course for those who may do some diving on their own. We did see some cool stuff on this dive, as we were on a site with a pretty large reef system. Schools of fish, a turtle or two, and a HUGE ray in a so-called ‘cleaning station’- a spot where smaller fish can clean parasites off of its skin. We may have been in trouble if Fede had been leading our dive, as he had NO idea where the boat was at the end of the dive. No matter, apparently- AOW Dive #3- CHECK…

 

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A local seahorse, just hangin’ around…

 

The fourth dive we did was the Drift Dive- a dive designed to teach divers how to handle a situation where they are diving in an area with a strong current. There are different entry options for drift dives, designed to get you to the bottom and on the site before you drift over it. This was the most difficult part of the dive, as prior to this, all dives had began with a slow descent, enabling divers to equalize the pressure in their ears and mask regularly without much stress. The ‘Negative Buoyancy Entry’ was very different- instead of entering the water with your BCD (Buoyancy Control Device) inflated like a life jacket, you are supposed to enter with it deflated, and immediately begin swimming down to the depth of the dive site. It is a bit disconcerting the first time you do it, as you feel like you’re not getting enough air due to your lungs compressing as you descend.  Not only that, but you’re also trying to equalize your ears and your mask continually, relieving the building pressure. Theres just a lot going on… At first, Fede was stuck on the surface, flailing away upside-down, unable to submerge. It was pretty funny. Will ascended, added some weight to his belt, and eventually, we made it down. On the bottom, we collected ourselves, and the rest was cake. The advantage to a drift dive is that you don’t really have to swim- you just drift along the dive site, riding the current. Its actually very relaxing, unless you see something if interest- then you have to fight the current to stay in one place long enough to satisfy your curiosity. On our dive, we saw several tiny seahorses and a few fish, but there wasn’t much other than that- just the experience of drift diving. At the end of the drift, Will inflated his Safety Sausage- an inflatable buoy that alerts the dive boat to where you will be surfacing. Slow ascent, safety stop, and we were back on the boat. AOW Dive #4- CHECK…

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Clouds of fish surround the Sugar wreck site

 

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A Lionfish prowls the bow of the Sugar Wreck

 

We had saved the best dive for the final dive of the course- the Wreck Dive. This dive is designed to teach divers to safely and responsibly penetrate submerged wreck sites.  Many times, wrecks can be unstable, have narrow passages filled with obstacles and protrusions that can tangle up gear, and may have dark areas combined with already poor visibility. Our dive site was the Sugar Wreck- a huge cargo vessel that mysteriously sunk in a shallow channel between the islands. We were lucky- we had a beautiful day, so visibility at the sight was superb. Add to this the drop in the current, and we had ideal diving conditions for our wreck dive. Swimming through the enormous cargo holds was amazing, and we were able to pop up in a small air pocket inside that had developed over time due to the number of divers visiting the site (Don’t breathe it- stale air!). The way the reef had seemingly taken over the wreck was amazing- coral, sponges, and other stationary sea life clung to the ship, straining against the force of the current. There were fish EVERYWHERE- some large schools sticking together, solitary lionfish prowling along the bow. It was pretty awesome. Eventually, we had to surface, and were all smiles on the boat back to the dive shop. AOW Dive #5- CHECK…

And that was that- we were ADVANCED Open Water Divers!

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Advanced Open Water certified? CHECK!

 

If you’d like to learn more about how to travel through Malaysia, click here.

For more on the Backpack Professor’s adventures in Malaysia, click here.

travel, backpack, backpacking, budget, adventure, explore, U, university, world, campus, expert, professor, field, notes,