Pulau Perhentian Kecil

Sunset by the jetty at Coral Bay

Heyyya...

So I finally have the time (lazy) to write about my first trip to Pulau Perhentian Kecil,Kuala Besut, Terengganu, Malaysia [fuh that's a really long location there]

I, along with another two quite good-looking guys went there on the 2nd to 5th of August 2018. So, it was only the three of us. My girl friends were supposed to come along but they had cancelled our plan to the very last minute. *rolled my eyes*

Our actual plan was to go to Tioman Island to get a scuba diving license but he had other plan and suggested me for a free diving course instead. It was a rare occurrence since not many people know what free diving is. I was curious and at the same time excited so yeah I accepted his offer to go to Perhentian Island instead. [ I was tearing up apart and in a dilemma at first whether to go scuba or the latter]

Pulau Perhentian Kecil is suitable for backpackers who loved going to the islands and wanted to stay at a place with a reasonable price. Families are welcomed as well but I suggest Pulau Perhentian Besar since it's less noisy and upbeat. A lot of divers come to Perhentian besides the other infamous islands in Malaysia.

Okay, so back to our main story. I was going to share on my trip and the budget for the 4 days and 3 nights trip we had.

First off is our budget [note that we spent quite a lot of money since we were taking up a free diving course]

Free diving course fee : RM800 per person
Bus ticket TBS-Kuala Besut : RM88 per person (return)
Boat Kuala Besut Jetty-Long Beach,Pulau Perhentian Kecil : RM70 per person (return)
Accommodation : RM514 for 4 days 3 nights per standard twin room with fan
Boat Long Beach-D'Lagoon : RM20 per person (return)
Boat Long Beach-Turtle Point : RM20 per person (return)
Food : RM20-RM40 per day

I guess that's our budget per person. Some of us spent a lot on food since the prices are way over the usual you will get on the mainland. So, don't be surprised when you look through the menu. I spent almost RM10-RM15 during lunch and the same range for dinner and may be a lil bit higher. But if you're good at saving when you eat you can get below RM10. Just look for the cheapest food and drink. That'll save up big time. Oh, we always had our lunch and dinner at Kak Yah's since they are cheaper compared to the other places and the food are quite nice. Only once we ate at another place and hell their prices are twice as high than Kak Yah's place.

We pre-booked our hotel on Agoda and you can get the cheapest price there or even the expensive ones. Don't get me talking on how we finally manage to do the booking. It's quite a chaos at first since our dive shop that serve the course is Spice Divers at the south part of Long Beach. We initially wanted to book from airbnb, a tent in a jungle [it was glam-ping with the beds and showers indoors] but the place is quite far from Long Beach. And most of the chalets on Long Beach are quite the expensive [not that we cared much but the looks and reviews helped a lot] So, we decided to book ours at Tivoli Inn/ Tropicana Inn. [Don't ask me why they had two names]

We bought our bus tickets to Kuala Besut only at first since we didn't know when will we go back to KL. So you guys can opt for easybook or busticketonline or even go to the counters to buy your tickets. We bought ours online cause they are simply the easiest way.

This is also taken on Coral Bay

What can you do on Pulau Perhentian Kecil?

Well, a lot of the local and foreign tourists come to Perhentian in between March-September since the weather is good and it's not during the monsoon season. The foreigners spent a lot of their time tanning and reading books by the beach. Most of the tourists will probably rent masks and snorkels to play and see the fish near the beach area. There are few points to go to and we still have a few more locations we didn't had the chance to go to. So, when we come back to Perhentian we'll definitely go to the other locations as well. That's for sure.

The places that we managed to go were the Turtle Point, D'Lagoon and Coral Garden [after we had completed our course, Bram a.k.a our instructor asked his boatman to bring us there to the Coral Garden] The corals were splendid. It was my first time watching and going close to the corals. Not theirs though. Turtle Point is rather not that impressing if you expect there are going to be tonnes of turtles swimming around. No, there weren't. We were lucky there's one old turtle deep down on the ocean floor finding it's food. So yeah we had the chance to dive beside the turtle. We went to D'Lagoon on our last day upon suggestion by Bram. Dead corals can be seen just by the private beach. But fish and good corals are further ahead. We accidentally saw a baby black tip shark near the shallow water. There are stingrays too the further you go.

Well, there are a few other locations we wanted to go to but time is not with us. Sadly we had to say our goodbyes to the island as well as the ocean.

One thing I could say is, the moment I reached Perhentian Island, my perspectives had changed. I longed to go to the ocean and dive freely. They made me miss the ocean as much as I miss their company.

I thought that the trip is going to be awkward but turned out, it didn't at all.

That's all on my first free diving trip to Pulau Perhentian Kecil.

shaminehanis