The Perhentian islands are known to have some of the most pristine white sand beaches as well as clear waters and active marine life. Furthermore, due to their not as convenient location (far from other tourist locations), it is not as frequented, making it a more quite and relaxed getaway.

We stayed on Perhentian Kecir, the smaller of the two Perhentian islands, which is also the popular destination for backpackers due to the cheaper accomodation it offers. Our first impression was not the best as unfortunately where the guesthouses are located there is quite a bit of garbage, taking away from the actually beautiful nature. However, a short boat taxi ride did take us to some great snorkeling places where we saw colorful reef, turtles and Nemo! The boat also took us to several beautiful beaches, including Romantic Beach, our favorite one.

We also did our first dive after being certified in Koh Tao. We decided to dive Sugar Wrek, an abandoned ship found deep below in the ocean. Aside having seen some pretty cool fish (lion fish, puffer fish, barracuda) and discovered a bit inside the ancient ship, the visibility was quite limited (3m), the current was very strong, and unfortunately our instructor was far from being Kev, to say the least.. Oh well, it was anyhow nice to get another dive on our backs, and this time a way more challenging experience.

What we had not counted with on this island was to make such great friends. To start with, when traveling from Thailand to Malaysia, we were on the same boat and minivan as an English guy called Ben. Ben has been traveling since 3 years, and is a wonderful person with many talents. Aside his profession as a 3D graphic designer, he is a fantastic musician, both playing the guitar and singing, and to top it off writing his own lyrics and music. Ben played a mini concert for us on the beach, giving us one of the most special moments we have had during the past 3 months. Sorry… some things are undescribable and we are afraid that this moment of beauty was one of them. Ben, we look forward to seeing you in the future, as well as following you in the headlines when you become famous!!

Moving on to the other great friends we made… on day 1, as we were looking at snorkeling trips, a very friendly Chinese girl standing next to us, Lulu, was also getting herself informed. Lulu had everything under control. It only took us a few seconds to realize that she had already studied and compared the prices offered by the different agencies and the one we were asking for seemed to be the best deal. She eventually asked if we would go on a snorkel tour together as she was “afraid” of the water, and her friends were getting scuba certified thus she was alone. We spent a wonderful day out snorkeling and beach-bumming with Lulu (who was everything but afraid of snorkeling alone!). In our group there were also two Chinese business men that Lulu had met the day before. Since they did not speak a word of English, and needed assistance with practically everything (hotel, food, activities, etc.), Lulu, who as we said had everything under control, assisted them in everything just as a local guide would have done! Yes, it is true that they initially wanted to go to the more luxurious island, and however ended up with the backpackers due to their lack of understanding, but now they had Lulu. These two Northern Chinese men were extremely kind and generous, and even invited us all to lunch!
On that same evening we met Lulu for dinner, as well as Elena and Mo, the friends she was traveling with (not the previous Chinese businessmen). To our surprise Elena and Mo were Italian born Chinese!, that is to say, they were both born and raised in northern Italy, however of Chinese origin, currently working in Shanghai. There they met Lulu who is originally from Sichuan, however has been in Shanghai for several years now. We had such a wonderful time together that we met again for dinner the following day, where together we decided to continue our travels together for a few more days deep into the Malaysian jungle..

Next destination: Taman Negara.