Shore Diving

Both islands are surrounded by a wide choice of different dive sites providing a nice range of dive sites for divers. All the sites are very close, some can be reached by shore diving (depending on your dive centres location) and the rest are around 5-20mins away. This means that most dive centres have a choice of 4-6 dives a day which you can take part in and you are only usually away for less than 1hr and a half. 

Boat Diving

One very popular deep site is Tokong Laut, which is a pinnacle offshore and is one of the furthest sites to travel to. This site is just over 30m deep and can get a strong current so beginners don’t tend to dive here. This site has excellent reefs with loads of diverse marine life, bamboo sharks hiding under the scattered rocks and colourful coral and lots of little pretty nudibranches.

Blue Spotted Sting Ray, Credit

There are a few wreck dives available, the main and most popular being the Sugar Wreck which is a 3500 ton sugar hauler lying on its side at 30m and is now home to a multitude of marine life including shoals of reef fish, a few Giant Barracuda which can sneak up and surprise you in the murky depths of the hold and you can often see small bamboo sharks hiding in the wreckage.

Pufferfish, Credit

 

How to Get there

The islands lie approx 20km from the northeast coast of Peninsular Malaysia very near to the border with Thailand. They can only be reached by boat from the coastal town of Kuala Besut. These run at regular times throughout the day all week and will drop you as close as they can to your accommodation.

The nearest airport is at Kota Bharu which is 50km away from Kuala Besut and can be reached by a regular bus service which will take approx 1.5hrs or a taxi.

There are no cars or motorbikes on the island the only means of transportation around are by water taxis or foot following basic jungle tracks.

The Beach, Credit

Where to Eat & Drink

The Perhentian Islands have become a popular backpacker’s destination in South East Asia, and as a result have developed a very lively nightlife along with plenty of restaurants, bars and cafes. While in general prices do tend to be somewhat inflated on the islands, given that the must import everything except seafood, a wide enough variety in restaurants and bars on both islands manages to accommodate all budgets and preferences.

In Perhentian Kecil – the smaller of the two islands – a long string of restaurants line Long Beach, nearly all of which launch out onto the beach with tables. While the quality of food across these restaurants isn’t great, the prices are low. Most restaurants serve seafood with a few western options on the menu. PerhentianBesar – the larger island – caters to a more upmarket crowd with better quality restaurants again dotting the beach. The resorts on both islands tend to include buffets in their prices for guests.

Perhentian Kecil has the better nightlife of the two islands and Long Beach is where most bars and clubs are located. Alcohol is fairly expensive relative to the rest of the region, and many people opt to bring their own alcohol instead. That said, Long Beach Bars sell the local Rum – Monkey Juice – in large buckets, which seems to appeal to a fair number of people.

The resorts on Long Beach have a few bars that are somewhat more low-key; however, the prices are higher. On Perhentian Besar the nightlife is more relaxed, with bars catering more to casual drinkers in the evening than big parties.

Other Activities

The Perhentian Islands deliver a rpetty ideal idyllic tropical island holiday and most of the activities and sights on the islands involve nature and beautiful scenery. Besides snorkelling, diving and sea kayaking theres not really any other “active” activities provided, but that doesn’t matter in a place like this.

You can easily spend hours relaxing on the sandy beaches and if you are feeling a little more energetic there are also many jungle treks where you can spot lizards, monkeys and all sorts of other flora and fauna and reach empty secluded bays.

Kecil is also home to huge monitor islands who roam around the jungle trails and the backs of accommodation so it’s very easy to spot an enormous dinosaur like lizard dozing in the sun as they are not scared of people at all and will get very close!

Turtle Bay, Perhentian Island, Credit

Tips

There is a Marine Park Conservation charge of RM5 to visit the islands this has to be paid before boarding a boat and can usually be done at the same time as purchasing your ticket.

Credit cards are accepted in most accommodations and dive centres, but not everywhere across the islands. Where they are accepted there is usually a 3-6% fee to pay on top. There are no atm’s on the islands so try to take as much money as you expect you will need for food, drink and activities with you.

Electricity is provided by generators and outages as common usually for a few hours during the afternoon.

Ready to go schooling, Credit