Malaysian East Coast Islands, July-August 2006

By Beau Webber

Malaysian airlines fly non-stop (12 hours), Lufthansa and Emirates stop, so you can can have a leg stretch.

I flew into Kuala Lumpur, on the West coast of Malaysia.

First some education : "Kuala" is "river-estuary", "Pulau" is "island".

Kuala Lumpur (muddy estuary) has a seriously hi-tech skyline, softened by a dense planting of trees on many of the roads. There is some good diving on the West Coast I believe, but this was the wet season for the West - Malaysia is at the junction of two different monsoons, so East and West can have different weathers.

I then immediately flew across to Kuala Terengganu, on the East coast, to join Viv, who had been out there for 2 weeks, working. A night flight of about an hour, just dense black under the plane, no lights to be seen - forest and oil-palm plantation. Viv had booked our trip up the East Coast and to the islands with Ping Anchorage (based in Kuala Terengganu), who were super efficient, and liaised with the resorts and had people waiting with clip-boards at all our transfer points : Their Website.

We spent a couple of days in Kuala Terengganu, partly lazing by the pool to recover, but we also visited the State Museum, where I was fascinated by the history of their boats and boat-building :

There is a long tradition of highly painted fishing boats, originally crewed by 15 to 20 people - sail and paddle powered. They are still used today, now powered by inboard engines.

We had considered a number of the East coast islands - Redang is justly famous, and has some deeper water, but a friend put us off with stories of 200 snorkelers being dropped into the water at one point. So we went for smaller islands, and chose a very small resort on Pulau Lang Tengah - D'Coconut Lagoon, and a larger one on Pulau Perhentian Besar - Perhentian Island Resort.

Ping Anchorage organised us an air-conditioned coach to pick us up from the hotel and take us up the coast to Merang, a river port that is used by the boats going to some of the islands. Redang use seriously muscled boats with inboard engines for their transfers. Lang Tengah use much smaller boats, with twin out-board engines - well crewed, with life-jackets.

The D'Coconut Lagoon resort on Pulau Lang Tengah is split into two bays, this smaller one, where the boats land, and the dive-shop is located, and a slightly bigger one a short walk away through the forest. We were based in this smaller one. Their website is Here and there is more Here.

Both bays have a swimming pool as well as being right on sandy beaches, with coral a short swim away.

Some excellent coral just in the bay.
We had a beach snorkel in the D'Doconut Lagoon Bay the first day we arrived - Brain coral out by the big rocks to the right of the bay, Then in the afternoon the dive shop organised us a snorkeling boat trip further around the island (as part of our Ping Anchorage package), using their larger white dive-boat with a dive platform - old, but with powerful twin inboard engines that started reliably. There were about ten of us, including three kids.

The first stop was onto the house reef at the next resort. A wide range of interesting corals including branching corals, all in easy surface-dive range.

The second stop was nearer the point of the island, with some really large table coral, on a sloping rock-boulder margin. A number of clams with electric-blue lips - closed up as I swum closer.

The following day, the dive-master organised me a one-to-one dive late morning.

The dive plan was to be dropped off the end of Shark Point, on the far-side of the bay. The simple but well-equipped dive-shop was right on the beach. I said no to a wet-suit, (as I would be warm enough), which meant I only had 5 weights, not my usual 19 kg - wonderful !
As there were just the two of us we used one of the single-outboard boats used for in-shore work. After the short trip across the bay, it was a roll into the water.

We then followed the boulder slope, with many coral, down to the plain at 18m depth. Brief sighting of possibly a shark - large, but did not look quite right for a shark. Visibility had been excellent at about 20m, but down on the plain it now dropped to about 12 to 15m. Numerous pitcher corals.

We then turned and followed the base of the boulder slope for a while, and then set off across the mouth of the bay, visibility improving again. Slowly back up to 5m. Numerous interesting coral.

Surfaced off the mouth of the bay (larger white dive-boat in the background,mountain on the mainland in far distance) and snorkeled in.

50 minutes dive-time, 80 bar remaining - pleased still economical on air on first dive in a while. Was quite warm enough - a really enjoyable dive. Back up for a late but individually served Malaysian lunch which had been prepared for us.

In the afternoon the dive-shop organised us another snorkel (again as part of our Ping Anchorage package) - this time nearer the point of the island, a bit beyond our second snorkel of the day before. This time there were about half-a-dozen of us in the large white dive boat, towing the smaller single-outboard boat. Here we were more exposed to (possibly two different) currents, so this was a drift-snorkel. The smaller boat remained with us, as did the dive-master and an assistant.

Currents were as predicted, and not strong at all, just made traveling the distance to where the larger boat was waiting an easy fin, of something over an hour. A wide range of coral, including some seriously large table coral, and a good number of clams of a size you could believe the stories I read as a child. The dive-boat then continued all the way around the island so we had a complete view of it.

Back on the mainland we again were taken by air-conditioned coach up the coast to the water taxi which would take us to the Perhentian Isles.
The resort website is Here and there is more information Here.

Our room had a veranda and overlooked a small lake. At dusk/sunset you could see the bats flying doing mosquito patrol.