Perhentian Island - Day 1 Part 1

The long-awaited moment had finally arrived. I was going to Perhentian Island after all. Many issues arised during the planning stage of this trip. We took the 3 days 2 nights Perhentian, Rawa and Susu Dara Island trip from Ocean Island Travel & Tour. There was the whole re-schedule thingy and re-booking of air tickets and all. Finally, we had overcome all obstacles and were on our way to Perhentian Island!!!

The flight was at 0740, meaning we had to be awake at approximately 0430, so that we can travel by car for over 1 hour and be at LCCT about 1.5 hours before the schedule. I had never been awake this early for God-knows-how-many-years. And I had difficulty sleeping the night before due to... excitement I guess... I don't know. But hey, I'm going on a vacation!!! It's definitely worth the suffering.

The sun was just about to rise by the time we boarded the plane.

Clear sky all the way to Kota Bharu, Kelantan. =)

The journey took about 55 minutes. Couldn't sleep a wink on the plane, as usual. Good thing it was a short flight. We reached the top of Kelantan state at 0835.

Upon reaching the Sultan Ismail Petra Airport, I immediately received a phone call from Mr. Hoo, the van driver who was supposed to pick us up from the airport to Kuala Besut Jetty. Good service, I thought, and punctual. Quite satisfied with my choice of travel agency.

The bumpy car ride took about 1.5 hours along narrow, single lane roads passing by kampung houses, coconut trees and crops that I can't tell the differences one from another.

Breakfast at a kopitiam near Kuala Besut Jetty. Erm... second breakfast actually. We had McDonald's at LCCT. But to hell with it... We had toast bread and half-cooked eggs but only managed to take the picture of the bread because the rest had been gobbled up by Mr. Chin. The one bite at the corner of the bread is by me, though, before remembering that I should be a responsible blogger and take as many pictures as I can.

The Kuala Besut Jetty.

There was a dead rat in the water near the Jetty. How disgusting... >.<

The speedboat would bring us across the sea towards Perhentian Island. There was about 17 of us, including 2 tour guides on the boat and I was sititng at the bow.

Bye bye, mainland...

Okay, at the beginning of the speedboat ride, it was good. But as the boat sped up and the waves high, it was SCARY!!! It was like a roller coaster ride. And I HATE roller coasters!!! I was practially closing my eyes the whole journey and praying that I don't get thrown off the boat (though I knew pretty well that I won't, but the fear is what I can't get rid of) with one hand squeezing hard Mr. Chin's and another holding tight on the railing, until my fingers got numb. And I was sitting at the bow, for heaven's sake, and totally freaking out. And the fact that the others were not as scared as I was (some were actually enjoying), totally pissed me off. That was the longest 30 minutes of my life.

I had totally no idea how did I manage during my first boat ride to Redang Island, but it was a bigger boat, and I was sitting down on the floorboard at the bow thus the railing was higher than my head. I guess that's why I wasn't as scared.

Upon arriving at Flora Bay Resort, what greeted us were...

A beautiful beach...

Nice, neat accomodation...

And lunch!!! Surprisingly it was not buffet. It was especially cooked for just the two of us. Fried rice, fried sotong, fried egg with onion, and fruits (not shown in picture). It was rather good, I must say, especially the fried sotong. It was a shame that we weren't really hungry that time due to the heavy double breakfasts we had. And we dare not eat that much because we were to go on a snokelling trip 1 hour later.

After the meal I was determined to examine the chalet and get settled down. I was rather worried that the room would not be as clean as I want it to be due to the cheap bargain. The first thing I checked was the bed. Hmm... pretty good. Clean, at least, and sand-less. No air-conditioning, only fan, but we can manage.

Second, the bathroom. Erm... a little under my expectation but still okay. Clean, at least, and fully-equipped.

The shower and wash basin. No water heater, but we can manage.


The mirror and cupboard, and a door leading to the balcony. Moderately satisfied. =.=

Nice view from the balcony.

From now on there will be no pictures to show. =( Due to my 3.2 megapixel Olympus antique that is not water resistant. (Am determined to get a new camera!!!) Thus, my fellow readers, you've got to use your imagination.

The first snorkelling trip consisted of about 15 of us, with 2 tour guides. At first we went to a beach to learn to wear the mask and life jacket and get used a little bit. After the warming up, we went to Coral View Coral Garden, whatever that is. There were corals, no doubt. And there were also Bum Head Fish, the tour guide said, if we were lucky we could spot them. But I like to call them Big Head Fish.

So I was snorkelling without bothering to lift my head to the surface with Mr. Chin guiding me (cause I can't swim and thus can't control where I go in the water). Suddenly there it was, the fish's head was so big. It saw us and swam away. We followed it for a while and again we saw... 3 or 4 of them. The biggest one was like... 1 meter in length. And hell, they were ugly.

When I lifted my head on the surface I noticed that we were far away from the crowd and the boats. I thought it better if we go back a little. And when we were near we could see that all of our fellow boat-mates were already onboard and the tour guide was signalling for us to go back. I was like... what? We were only in the water for... 30 minutes tops. Why the hell are those people back so quickly? We hurried back nevertheless. When I climbed on the boat, 13 pairs of angry stares were on me making me feel as if I were the biggest criminal alive. They had probably waited for quite some time.

Anyhow, the trip continued. Second stop was at Mango Beach, turtle watching. This time only half of the people went into the water. From the way the speak they were actually bored by this trip and couldn't wait to get back. Hmm... weird. I only saw like... 5 seconds of the turtle before it sped off, frightened by so many of us. What a shame... The tour guide offered to look for another turtle but was taken aback by the unenthusiastic group of people, especially the girls who can't swim. Afraid of being in the water, I guess. Looking at them I'm quite proud of myself. I mean, I was totally frightened, not being able to swim, to move at will in the water, to be in control. It's a very terrifying feeling. But I could still force myself to take that step.

Anyway, we went to look for shark at the next stop. Following the tour guide, I saw a shark about 1 meter in length, with a small fish sticking at its belly. Erm... don't know what you call that... First time saw a shark, wondered why it never eat us, like the movie Jaws. Hehe...

Next, fish-feeding, with disgusting fungus-filled bread. Well the fishes are gonna eat them, not me. I had always like this fish-feeding activity since my first experience in Redang. So, yeah I had fun. Although not as much fun as I expected with all the people on the boats throwing bread crumbs into the water instead of joining us. And it was also not a lot of fun when in the midst of feeding happy fishes, some idiot jumped in from the boat (instead of slowly climb in from the ladder) causing a huge splash that scared the happy fishes away.

Last stop was at Air Berani freshwater pool. Basically it was just a beach with spring water coming out from... erm... somewhere... The water was freezing cold. Rambutans were provided by the tour guide. Hehe...

That ended our first snorkelling trip.

To be continued...