I said I was done with scuba diving, but that doesn’t mean I’m done with exploring beneath the waves! I debated a lot initially how to spend my 3 days on these islands. Should I just scuba dive non-stop or throw in some variety with some snorkelling? In the end I decided to cover top 3 dive sites over two days of diving, followed by a day of snorkelling. After realising how tiring scuba diving is for a beginner, my body was pretty happy I called it quits after two days. Plus it’s not like snorkelling is just a subset of diving, there are actually quite a lot of stuff you can only see while snorkelling here, since they stay in shallow water or very close to the surface. Another point to snorkelling is it doesn’t start until 10 am, so for once I could actually sleep in for a bit and take my time with breakfast!
Half a peanut flavoured donut and not so great danish, then it’s time to hit the sea!
Finding a snorkelling tour is super easy on the Perhentian Islands. Literally everywhere you go you’ll see advertisement for snorkelling trips, which generally come in two variety: half day or full day trip. The half trip usually sells for about RM30-35 and covers the 3 main snorkelling sites around the islands:
- Turtle Point
- Turtle Beach
- Shark Point
Usually you’ll get back to town by 3 pm, but lunch is not included in the price. This is important because the last boat that leaves the islands back to the mainland departs at 4 pm, so you can do the half day trip on the day you leave the islands and still make it to the last boat. The full day trip extends upon the half day trip by adding on a lunch stop at the Fisherman’s Village, then another 2-3 snorkelling sites before coming back around sunset. I recommend you do the half day trip as it covers everything you can see from snorkelling here, and is a great way to fill up your last day here before taking the 4 pm boat back to Kuala Besut and continuing your journey to other parts of Malaysia by night bus. That’s peak efficiency. However, the full day trip is good if a) you didn’t dive so you want to spend more time seeing aquatic life or b) you want to visit Fisherman’s Village as part of the tour or c) you wanna get the most value, since the full day trip is only around RM50.
With so many people hawking snorkelling trips, you might find it difficult to decide who to give your precious ringgits to. But don’t worry, they’re all literally the same. Everyone you meet is just selling you tickets on the snorkelling tours, but that doesn’t mean they are operating their own snorkelling tours. Usually there’s a bunch of boats that go out everyday, and everyone just gets put on to the same boat to fill up the numbers regardless of who they bought tickets from. To be safe it’s probably best to book through your accommodation, they might charge like an extra 5 ringgits for commission, but that’s a small price to guarantee a decent experience. That is what I did, paying RM35 for the half day snorkelling trip through Ombak Resort. I was lumped together with Luca and Christian, 2 law students from Melbourne who booked from other places but ended up on the same tour. We were sent off to find a stall on Coral Beach, where our boat drivers/guides will be waiting to take us out. We were later joined by a big family from Thailand who got on at Fisherman’s Village.
Now at this point, if you’re thinking of doing the snorkelling trip I have one VERY important advice for you:
Bring Sunscreen and Reapply Often or Suffer!
Seriously, I put it on and re-applied once during the trip but it was not enough. You don’t feel it in the water but you’re whole back is exposed to the sun while you float and look at fish! It took a week for the burning skin to peel and heal for me and it was PAINFUL at the start 😭😭😭.
Our first stop is Turtle Point, which is just off the coast of a small beach on Pulau Perhentian Besar, the big island. Despite the name, don’t expect to see any turtles here as the guides explained, this place is named for a turtle conservation centre near the beach.
Turtle Point
If you prefer watching rather than reading, I’ve also started a YouTube channel where I have a video covering the snorkelling trip. Check it out and subscribe if you liked it
The water was very clear and warm so it was pleasant to swim in, but there were nothing too special to see down there. It’s your generic run of the mill coral plus tropical fish combo, great in neither quality or quantity. There’s also a lot of tourists here since snorkelling is accessible to everyone and is particularly popular with the domestic tourists that flock here at this time of the year. There’s a large area roped off for snorkelling, so just swim somewhere away from the crowd.
Although the marine life isn’t anything to write about, the real fun part is with the guide – pretty sure these guys know there’s not much to see here, so they come prepared. Ours had a bottle stuffed with biscuits with a hole poked on the cap, so when it’s submerged in water and becomes soggy he could squeeze the bottle and release a puff of mushy biscuit bits. That basically induces a feeding frenzy, drawing a massive crowd of tropical fish who have no fear of humans. It’s pretty cool to get absolutely mobbed them!
Nom nom nom…
…nom nom nom…
…nom nom nom
Make sure you ask the guide for the bottle so you can try doing it yourself! Sometimes you can barely see because there are just so many fish surrounding you. Definitely the highlight of this spot.
Next up is Turtle Beach just around the corner, which stretches out far in to the sea to the point where the water becomes 7-8 metres deep. If you were disappointed by the lack of turtles at Turtle Point, this is your chance! Turtle Beach IS named for its turtles who come and rest at the bottom of the ocean at this beach. You gotta get lucky though, as it seems like numbers have dwindled over time. We got lucky as another boat spotted a turtle and everyone swam over to check it out.
Can’t see shit from the surface
From the surface, there’s not much you can see apart from making out the outline of the turtle. With one breath these guys can stay down there for 10-15 minutes, so get ready for a whole lot of waiting around for them to resurface for air. When it does happen it’s pretty surreal, they swim up to the surface, breach for a brief moment and them slowly descend into the depth again.
Oh shit here we go boys
Awww it’s kinda cute
Aaaaaaaand back down it goes for another 15 mins
If you’re impatient and can hold your breath then you can also free dive to the bottom and go eye to eye with the sea turtle. I gave it a go, which is probably risky given I can barely swim and have never free dived before. I couldn’t even figure out how to dive at first, just ended up flopping around the surface for a few minutes 😂😂😂.
Free diving got me a closer look, but 7m is a lot to dive! This is as deep as I got before I started to realise I’d probably suffocate if I stayed any longer
The last snorkelling spot is further east of Pulau Perhentian Besar known as Shark Point. Named for the black-tipped reef sharks that frequent the area, our guide explained this is nursery season right now so there are only juveniles around. The guides swam around with a dead fish to lure the sharks here with the smell of blood. For quite a while we saw nothing, until I spotted a small shark swim away in the distance, so I ditched the group and went after it. I didn’t catch it (it was ridiculously fast and I can’t swim 😅), but I did find Nemo!
Roll credits!
Actually I found like his whole extended family…
That’s a lot of Nemos…
The guides really wanted to make sure we saw the sharks, so we switched to a different spot and tried to lure them with the dead fish again. This time it worked! About 5 black-tipped reef sharks appeared and circled us for a bit. I’m not sure how dangerous these sharks are but they were pretty small as juveniles, so they probably don’t pose any threat. They seem to be scared of you anyway, if you try to get too close they’ll dash off in the opposite direction.
Hard to get a good picture, but I did see a few!
That wraps up all the snorkelling for the half day trip, but it wasn’t quite over yet. Our guide dropped us off at a fairly secluded beach between Turtle Beach and Shark Point, for us to wander around for a bit.
Pulau Perhential Kecil and Fisherman’s Village in the distance
The different shades of sea water looks really nice
The views are quite nice and there are a few beautiful spot along the beach, but by now it’s about 2 pm and the sun is at it’s strongest, so I was not in the mood to appreciate anything that wasn’t under the shade.
Beautiful secluded area, but too damn hot!
It’s finally time to head back. We first had to drop off the Thai family back at Fisherman’s Village as that’s where they are staying. At the pier we saw a boat bringing in all the supplies for the island for the week, spotting eggs, vegetables and rice. As the supplies are unloaded, their space becomes occupied by all the island’s trash, to be disposed back on the mainland.
I wanted to visit the Fisherman’s Village but just didn’t have the time to work it into my schedule, so I asked the guide to swing by the one landmark of the village to take a look at least. At the eastern end of the village there is a floating mosque which stood out from the rest of the village.
Floating mosque of Fisherman’s Village
We also saw some more secluded beaches on the way back with new fancy chalets being constructed. These beaches will take a solid hike to get to from the two main beaches, but I guess there must be a demand if they’re building chalets here. I sincerely hope this island don’t fall prey to over-development in an attempt to maximise tourist dollars, at the expense of it’s natural habitat.
Capitalism consumes all
My Review Snorkelling Trip on Perhentian Islands
While I didn’t see anything that blew my mind, half-day snorkelling trips on the Perhentian Island is still excellent value at RM35. That being said, I’ve seen sharks and sea turtles before so to someone who hasn’t this might become a really good trip. The water clarity is also very good at each of the sites we went to, and only Shark Point had some mild waves to watch out for, so it’s perfect for beginners. If you’re like me who’s done a fair share of snorkelling, I’d probably recommend sticking to trying out more dive sites. But if you’re bored of diving and just need a day to relax, this is not a bad way to spend the day. Just make sure you apply sunscreen…
Fellow Aussies and our awesome tour guide/driver
I had about an hour and a bit before the 4 pm boat off the island, so as promised I returned to Ewan’s Cafe to try out their Oreo milkshake. Oh my god it is amazing!!!(probably so bad for you though but I don’t care)
Massive? Check. Cheap? Check (RM9). Tasty? Check Check Check!
Oh yeah also got some food, but that’s besides the point. This dish is called barracuda kicap, which is some kind of sweet soy sauce but also a little bit spicy. Sorry I couldn’t find a good explanation for kicap…please let me know if you have a better one!
I can’t comment on the fish but the sauce was really good!
Any explanation would be appreciated…I hate not knowing what I ate!
Not long after 4 pm rolled around and it’s time to say goodbye to the Perhentian Islands (hopefully you still have your return boat ticket). I had a great 3 days here not just from scuba diving (although it is the undisputed highlight) and I’d recommend anyone who likes diving or just want to chill on a tropical island without the massive party scene like Thai islands to come check this place out. However, it is a bit of a trek to get to, and in this part of the world a lot of things can go wrong.
And in a classic example of Murphy’s Law, out of all the speedboats leaving the islands at 4 pm, mine has one of its two engines breakdown. So a 40 minute trip doubled while we watch all the other speedboats blitz past us on the open sea 😭. This totally ruins my plan of checking out the town of Kuala Besut before my transfer back to Kota Bharu. Admittedly there weren’t too much to see in Kuala Besut, but I was keen to buy a souvenir t-shirt, like one that said I ❤️ Perhentian. That didn’t end up working out as I had to rush to my minivan, but it was nice for the driver to wait for me after I texted them my predicament while I was on the speedboat.
I could’ve easily stayed at Kuala Besut until my night bus to Penang, but that comes at 9 pm so it meant I had to kill 4 hours in this tiny town. Instead I opted for the 1 hour drive back to the bigger Kota Bharu, where there’s a bus at 10 pm to Penang. That being said, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was gonna do at Kota Bharu either, but I figured it’d me much easier to kill 4 hours here.
And so of course, after running out of ideas on what to do at Kota Bharu (hint: there’s not much here), I ended up at the one and only…
We meet again
In my defense the back up plan was always to eat something here, and the KFC wasn’t even 5 minutes walk away from the bus stop!
Stray cat guarded the doors to the holy land
Inside the store was like another world compared to outside. Even though I was in the city centre, this was the only modern building I’ve seen so far, full of high tech stuff like electronic cash registers (gasp) and powerful air conditioning. Everything tells me KFC is a middle class feed in Malaysia. Still, the staff was surprised to see a foreigner, they seemed like they’ve never had to dealt with one before and could not stop giggling.
It’s no secret that I’m a lover of fried chicken and even though I don’t eat KFC when I’m in Australia anymore, it’ll always hold a special place in my heart. So much so that I’ve made it a mission to try KFC in every country I go to. Each country’s KFC has their own regional items that reflect the local culture (except Australia, we have no culture 😂), for example here they sell nasi lemak with fried chicken. However, for the great KFC taste-off I’ll keep it fair by at least ordering the 3 global icons of KFC. These may have different names around the world but I’ll always know them as original recipe chicken (or hot & spicy if available), wicked wings and the Zinger burger.
Holy trinity of KFC
Review of KFC in Malaysia
First the Zinger burger, the chicken patty was moderately juicy and flavourful, not all that bad but was let down by the stale bread 😒. The wings were good value since they came with all 3 wing parts (drumette + mid wing + wing tip) and were close to their Aussie counterparts in terms of taste. The chicken was the best out of the 3, juicy and spicy just as I’d expect if I was at home. Australian KFC has thus far maintained its position as the gold standard for the rest of the world, but I genuinely thought Malaysia gave it a good crack. The flavours were mostly on par but the chicken meat wasn’t as juicy and tender. Australia doesn’t get much right but I give us credit for raising some tasty chickens. The only letdown is Australian KFC lacks consistency since it’s considered dirty fast food, while KFC here is probably a middle class luxury so I’d expect it to perform more consistently with greater attention to quality. So while Malaysia doesn’t reach the highs Australian KFC does, it’s not far and is certainly much better than Australian KFC on a bad day.
With plenty of time left to kill I wandered around the city aimlessly, stopping to take a look at whatever interested me. Really this was just to get my digestion working so I could eat again, and at around 7:30 my stomach. read ready for it’s next challenge. I got some directions to the local night market from a random fancy 5 star hotel I found (actually went in to use their toilet 😅), and off we go!
Night markets, or pasar malam as it is known in Malay, is a staple of any self-respecting Malaysian city. Food is generally the main focus of these night markets, rather than selling stuff, so it’s perfect for me. I’ve heard a lot about the famous pasar malam in Malaysia, but any Malaysian will tell you that those are just the touristy ones and most neighbourhoods will have it’s own pasar malam that only locals go to. So it’s fitting that as someone who enjoys going off the beaten path, my first pasar malam experience in Malaysia is as local as you can get. Even my Grab driver had trouble finding this place, and my whole time here I didn’t see a single tourist apart from myself.
There were about 20 stalls and many plastic tables set up, with most of the locals crowded at tables at the very front watching TVs that either played Hollywood or Bollywood films. That did mean there were no crowds of people so I could walk around freely checking out all the stalls.
Fried chicken and rice for a mere 3.50 ringgit
Various type of curry for self service
So many different types of noodles
BBQ on a stick, a night market staple anywhere in the world
Weird and funky drinks
Fried chicken & rice and noodle soups ready to go
If you’re expecting glamour then this place might not be fore you. Hygiene is probably also lacking so I’d recommend sticking to stuff they’ll cook on the spot, rather than stuff that’s been left out for a while. This is what I did, sticking to lok lok stall.
Typical lok lok stand
Lok lok is a bit hard to explain, rather than a dish it’s more like a way of cooking – lok in Cantonese means to be burnt by hot water. A typical street side lok lok stall will have a variety of skewers on display and the best way to describe the ingredients is stuff you’d throw in a Chinese hotpot. Think quail eggs, imitation crab meet, fish balls, sausages etc. You order by the sticks, which are around 1-3 ringgits per stick. Some are cooked, some are uncooked, but once you’ve chosen they’ll all get dumped into a pot of boiling water before they’re served with either a sweet sauce or a chilli sauce.
Fish balls, imitation crab meat and quail eggs – I love quail eggs and I could easily eat a dozen no problem!
My advice is don’t get either sauce, they’re like the sauce you find in a supermarket and don’t taste very good, and certainly don’t do what I did – they asked me whether I wanted sweet or chilli sauce…and I said both… It did not taste good. The sticks themselves are a good snack to tide things over if you’re between meals, as it’s hard to make a full meal out of these things. Most are quite low quality and especially at a dingy stall like this, don’t expect much.
I honestly didn’t find any of the food here appealing, but it’s a good way to kill an hour or so and watch locals hang out. It’s under 15 minutes walk from the bus stop so if you’re waiting a while for the bus might as well check it out.
Oh yeah, there’s a tonne of cats here too.
Excuse me
Tiiiiny kitten!
Alternatively, take a Grab to Chinatown down the road, where I was told by the hotel concierge from before that there is a popular food court called Kebun Sultan. Of course the main focus will be Chinese food so I passed on that since the next place I am going to is basically all about Chinese food.
And with that, I return to the bus stop in time to catch my 10 pm bus to Penang. I booked the tickets online in advance from BusOnlineTicket for RM44, but just beware even if you show them the ticket on your phone they’ll still make you print it out for 1 ringgit 😑, which is just scamtastic. The bus itself is quite nice, with spacious seats that can recline quite far back. Air conditioning will be on full blast so bring a jacket or something if you don’t want to catch a cold. There’ll be a rest stop to stretch your legs or to go to the toilet, but make sure you go beforehand since it’s a couple hours before you get there. Night buses in Asia don’t always have the best reputation, whether that’d be the buses themselves or the roads they drive on, but I slept amazingly well on this bus, then again I am known for being able to fall asleep anywhere 😁.
Poor Man's Backpack 