The Perhentian Paradise

After thoroughly enjoying ourselves in the Cameron Highlands, we were really beginning to enjoy Malaysia, so we had high expectations for our next stop the Perhentian Islands. With the east coast monsoon just finishing, we were going to be amongst the first visitors of the new season. In fact when, Jay, one of the ladies who worked at our guest house in the Cameron Highlands had made reservations at a guest house they recommended, she revealed that that we’d be arriving on their opening day.

To get there involved a six hour journey by minibus to take a “ferry” that ran to the “big” and “small” island. Our guest house, D’Lagoon, was located by itself on a small beach cove of the small island and the only access was by boat. When we arrived at docks on the mainland around 6pm there were a couple of surprises waiting for us. The first surprise was our mode of transport. As we were ushered towards the jetty, the large ferry we might have imagined turned out to be a number of small 12 seater speed boats waiting to whisk us across the sea. The second surprise was the weather, more specifically the stiff sea breeze that was blowing. As a result the boat men were saying they wouldn’t be making any drops through the choppy waters between the two islands. Whilst the main beach affected by this, Long Beach, could be reached by taking a 10 minute walk along a jungle path from Coral Bay on the other side of the island, D’Lagoon was an hour’s walk across the length of the island and not practical with heavy back packs. After pleading with the boat men to take us to D’Lagoon they directed us to board one of the boats and instructed us to put our belongings in bin liners before stowing them towards the front of the boat. As we departed the harbour we soon understood why as our driver struggled to negotiate a path through the swell that I would guess was well over a meter. The front of the boat rose high into the air and the propellers of the outboard motors struggled to stay in the water as we rode over the top of the large waves at speed. The hull of the boat slapped the water hard again and again with salty spray constantly washing over us. With the sun low in the sky, the wind in our hair I felt like I was in a scene from Miami Vice as we raced across the water to the islands and was thoroughly enjoying the joy ride. The same could not be said for the little boy being clutched in the arms of his dad, who was screaming in fear until he was finally so exhausted he fell asleep, with his mother fretting the entire journey. As we approached our first stop, hugging the coastline of the small island the waters were far calmer and we arrived at an oasis of tranquillity and stunning beauty, Coral Bay. At this point our driver informed us that he wouldn’t be going to D’Lagoon after all and we’d have to get off here. After being dumped, we phoned through to D’Lagoon who told us our driver was being lazy and advised us to walk over to Long Beach to find a water taxi to complete our journey. We made the final part of our journey in an even smaller boat and as I held on to either side of the boat I thought there was a high chance of being thrown overboard if we caught a wave the wrong way. By the time we arrived at D’Lagoon we were drenched, so it didn’t matter much when both of us fell over into water getting off the boat at the shore. Our spirits were far from dampened though as we looked at where we’d be staying for the next couple of days. It was a stunning location, and once we got the key to our room Maren had a grin on her face from one ear to the other as she opened our window looking right onto the beach.

The weather however was still an issue. Whilst it was warm and sunny, the blustery conditions continued to whip up the surf and the snorkelling we hoped to do during our stay was impossible here. As a result on our first day we took a short walk to a beach on the calmer side of the island. It was even more beautiful here and we found ourselves alone as we dived of the rocks and watched the sunset. Unfortunately, back at D’Lagoon things were not getting any better, in fact the wind had strengthened and the sea seemed even rougher. The staff, whom had just finished fixing up all the damage done during the monsoon, were having to batten down the hatches to stop all their repairs being undone. At night it was far from peaceful with the wind howling through the huts so we made plans to go back to the two beaches we’d passed through on arrival to see if things were any better.

The following day we set off early to make the hour walk south through the jungle. We struggled to follow the trail but eventually made it back to Coral Bay where we’d first been dropped off by the ferry. The conditions here were in complete contrast to D’Lagoon, with little wind and small waves lapping the shore. We quickly went about securing a good room at a guest house before the start of the holiday weekend and then found what looked to be diving school to get our diving license. Unfortunately, this would involve another wet boat ride to transport us and our belonging. It was worth it though. We had a lovely room a stone’s throw from the beach, a choice of new places to eat at night and we’d be starting our diving course in two days.

After moving and settling in it was time to start our course. Predictably, the first day began with a lot of theory, involving watching naff instructional videos that mirrored the material in our new diving manuals which we’d been given on signing up. Scuba diving certainly has plenty of technical aspects most of which are vitally important to be able to dive safely. Pressure, nitrogen absorption, scuba equipment and buoyancy control are just some of the subjects that you need to learn about to minimise the dangers of diving. Our instructor, Simon (surely not his real name being Chinese-Malay) was keen to get the theory out of the way as quickly as possible and I feared that we wouldn’t even get in the water on the first day. However, after lunch it was time to assemble our scuba equipment (air regulator, air cylinder and BCD - Buoyancy Control Device), and suit up (wetsuit, weight belt, mask and flippers) to do our first confined water dive and breath under water for the very first time.

Despite how comfortable I am in the water and having done plenty of snorkelling in the past my first dive was still a completely new and alien experience. Diving, as I quickly found out, is all about breathing. The first aspect of breathing is learning to breathe in long, slow deep breaths, since breathing in a normal way is neither efficient nor effective, especially once your air begins to compress under pressure. It’s harder than it sounds. Breathing is something that you normally do so subconsciously. It’s hard to override your natural instincts and when you start becoming breathless, even under just a couple of metres of water it’s easy to start panicking. The second aspect is breathing is your primary way making yourself go up or down, something I hadn’t really considered before. In a nutshell, you will go up as you your lungs fill with air and down as they empty. By biasing the length of time you spend breathing in or out allows you to go up or down respectively. Again, this is not as easy as it sounds, especially if you are struggling to get your head around the first aspect to breathing. For Maren this was her biggest challenge (I’d soon be struggling with other skills), but it wasn’t too long though before both of us were sitting on the sea bed and we could start to take in our new underwater world.

Diving is something I’ve dreamed about doing since I’ve been swimming in the sea and it was everything I imagined and more. Just being able to hang out underwater knowing that you don’t have to worry about getting back to the surface anytime soon is cool enough, but it’s a more than that as it transforms your physical world. You are now for all intents weightless and your motion is slowed down by the all the water you are surrounded by. Your eyes see the world differently with colours changed by the effect of water absorbing different spectrums of light at different rates and object appearing a third bigger than their usual size. Your ears hear strange new sounds, the loudest generally being that of the bubbles being constantly released by your breathing equipment and with sound travelling several times faster underwater it’s very difficult to determine the direction any sound is coming from.

All of this takes a little getting used to and as we swam to a deeper location to continue our exercises we could spare little time to look around though I still managed to spot a Barracuda cruising nearby. Having completely some basic skills, like clearing our mask of water whilst submerged, we headed back to shore. After disassembling our equipment (something we’d be very familiar with doing over the next few days) Simon told us to take a break and surprisingly told us we’d be doing our first open water dive later that afternoon. Aside from going over procedures before descent and ascent, this would primarily be a recreational dive and our first chance to look around our new underwater world. It wasn’t long before we were kitted up again and back in the water. We’d not be going far. With our control of buoyancy just developing we’d be staying away from the big coral reefs that could easily be damaged by our clumsiness so we’d just be making our way out to deeper waters near the jetty. They’d still be plenty to keep us occupied though.

Our first challenge was to simply descend around 8 metres to the sea bed where we’d have our first real experience of pressure. In a reverse of the effect of flying at altitude, the air in your lungs, sinuses and ears is compressed as you descend leading to what diver call a “pinch” which can be very painful and cause physical damage. The key to prevent a pinch is to keep equalising the pressure of the air in your cavities to that of the surrounding water. The air in your lungs takes care of itself as you breathe in air from your tank which is always at the correct pressure, however getting more air into your ears and sinuses doesn’t always happen naturally. Instead the most common way to do this is by holding your nose and attempting to blow through it every few metres as you make your way down to the bottom.

I was first to descend whilst Maren waited on the surface. As I went down I struggled to equalise and experienced horrible pain across one side of my face. It’s a bit like having sinus cold headache, only much worse. After repeatedly having problems as I went deeper, I gave up and let Maren have a go whilst I waited on the surface. As she disappeared below me, I worried that I might have some sort of problem with my sinuses, but thankfully on my second attempt I realised that a little more brute force was required to equalise all of my sinus cavities.

Once we were both safely down we began to explore. Despite being one of the more lifeless areas being close to the jetty there was still plenty to see, from a variety of fish, sea slugs and clams. The highlight for me was to see a family of Clown fish (made famous by the film Finding Nemo) who initially disappeared into safety of their seaweed home as we approached. They soon reappeared however, seemingly as interested in looking at us as we were them. They would become a common sight during our dives but their behaviour never ceased to raise a smile which surely is how they got their name and why the animators at Pixar made them the stars of their underwater film. We looked forward to what else we might see during our dives, with any kind of shark high on my wish list and Maren hoping to see a string ray in the wild after touching one at the Underwater World in Singapore.

The next four days passed quickly. The theory felt like being back at school, but fortunately there wasn’t too much to stress over and we both made the pass mark on the final exam. The dives were more challenging. It was on my third confined water dive that I realised just how important our training was. One exercise involved taking off our masks and continuing to breathe underwater for a minute. I found this difficult, being somewhat sensitive about my eyes and I struggled to deal having to open them underwater whilst the bubbles from my respirator went over my face and up my nose. One trick is to breath out through your nose whilst breathing in through your mouth to avoid water going up your nose. However as natural instincts kicked in I ended up trying to breathe in through my nose resulting in dose sea water going down my throat. Coughing up sea water whilst trying to catch your breath with a respirator in your mouth isn’t easy and I found myself panicking. When this happens it’s difficult to control your urge to head straight back to the surface which is exactly what I ended up doing the first couple of times. This isn’t a problem when you are just under the surface, but swimming straight up to the surface when diving at depth can be extremely dangerous. It was a sobering lesson and I realised how important it was to be become comfortable and familiar with being under the water so that you react in the right way to common accidents like your mask being knocked off.

On my next open water dive I had a renewed respect for what we were doing, however our confidence was also growing. I was happy when I had no problems swimming in tandem with Simon without my mask and opening my eyes to see where I was going. I’d overcome my problems the previous day. Maren was also finding it easier and easier to control her depth through breathing and quickly got rid of the extra weighting she’d required on the first day. All that now remained was our final open water dive which promised to be the best yet, requiring a ride in boat round the island to a coral reef in War Bay. It would also be our deepest dive which would be in excess of 15 metres. Visibility had been disappointing on our previous dive around coral, but conditions were improving all the time and hoped we’d see something special.

We weren’t disappointed. Seeing the landscape of coral formations alone is magical, with all varieties of colours, shapes and structures. Massive, bulbous coral some as big as a small car with a surface etched in fluorescent green which made it look like a giant brain. Tree like coral, with branch after branch of rich reds and oranges. Huge disc like coral, stacked on top of each other like floors in some futuristic multi-levelled building. But these corals also team with life with all sorts of fish to be found swimming in and around taking advantage of the shelter they provide. The most common, were often the most colourful, such as parrot which display a rainbow of colours. We also saw a couple of much bigger and rarer fish. The weirdest was a puffer fish, with their strange box like bodies and their odd propelling fins which were arranged vertically, rather than at the side like the vast majority of the fish we saw. However it was right at the end of the dive when Maren had her wish come true as she spotted String Ray flapping its “wings” gliding effortlessly through the waters. With that final sight it was time to make our way up to the surface and once we were safely floating on top of the water again Simon congratulated us. We had completed our course and we were qualified divers.

I felt like a diver now as well. As we waited for the boat to pick us up I was unconcerned when one of the tubes on my regulator burst open and started venting out air. I knew exactly what I would have done had it happened underwater just a few minutes earlier. I’d experienced what it was like to run out of air under the water, having being through a simulation earlier in the course where our tanks were shut off. Even as the air rapidly left my tank I’d probably be able to breathe for a couple of minutes anyway. This would give me plenty of time to get attention and use signals to tell my “dive buddy” that I needed to share air. I would have then made my way over to Maren to breathe from her alternate air source and we would have made a slow controlled ascent to the surface just as we had practiced during the last few days. This is exactly what we had trained for.

Back at shore we logged our dive and reflected what had been the best dive yet. It’s hard not to be moved when visiting this underwater world. Your breath is taken away as you marvel at sheer variety, density and beauty of the life that has evolved here. There seems to be so much going on in these colourful, inventive and complex eco-systems. The pace at which you explore though is a gentle one, as you take care to not to disturb the inhabitants whilst also saving energy and air allowing you to extend your stay. It’s this combination that makes diving relaxing and exhilarating at the same time and is truly unique experience. What’s more, you are truly a guest, just a temporary visitor to this otherworld with your time limited by the air you carry. Even when we’ve trekked through what is largely pristine jungle, the well worn trails scar the forest floor and clearly mark where others have gone before. This human presence is much harder to detect when diving which makes it even more special.

That’s not to say humanity is not having its impact on the sea world, in fact it is perhaps here that it is at its worst. As we walked along the beach that night we could see the lights from the large fleet of fishing boats on the horizon plundering the ocean, as they do every night, and it was almost uncomfortable to see String Ray amongst the display of freshly caught sea food on offer at one of the restaurants along the beach. Anyone that knows me well knows how much I love eating seafood, especially sushi. I’ve been trying to ignore some uncomfortable facts about my favourite food for a while now but with this experience it’s now impossible. I sure that Maren and I will be trying to reform many of our eating habits when we return home (Maren has already felt the need to stop eating meat) and our sea food consumption will definitely be scrutinised. Fishing however is just one aspect of the damage being done to the oceans. We’ve been using it as one massive dumping ground for some time. Whether it be the poisonous metals from industrial processes, our own effluence or simply rubbish we can’t be bothered to depose of correctly we seem to think that the oceans also have an infinite capacity to absorb our waste, along with providing a never ending supply of food. If I had a symbol of this disregard for the sea or perhaps the environment as a whole then it would be the humble plastic bottle something that is sadly an all too common sight along the beaches I have visited during my trip. Some of the most beautiful places I have seen have been have been spoiled with bottles washed up along the shore, but that is almost literally the tip of the iceberg. When I see these bottles I always think about a story I saw on the news at home about the vast floating islands that you can find in the Pacific Ocean. These huge floating masses can be several kilometres across and are primarily made of plastic bottles that have been gathered by ocean currents. It will be just one of the many reasons that I’ll be re-doubling my efforts to live in a more environmentally friendly way when I get home.

Fortunately there are still places in the world that are as beautiful and as unspoilt as the Perhentians to remind us of our relationship with the environment and the way it should be. The Malaysian government has committed many crimes against its environment in the past, but its acting with more wisdom these days and it looks like the Perhentians will be afforded its protection. It was nice to see that a wind turbine (which we saw as we trekked across the island) will one day provide some of the electricity here. It’s also nice to be somewhere where the only mode of transport on land is by foot. So after completing our diving course there was nothing else to do but continue to appreciate where we were and decide where to go next. We did this by spending most of our time lazing around on the beach with a good book and breaking up the day with an hour or two snorkelling around the reefs (where I got to see some sharks!). It was a perfect end to our last few days in Malaysia.

All the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/kris.lander/ThePerhentianIslands