I always want to get myself into scuba diving, ever since I left my high school. However, due to time and money limitation and also lack of self-motivation; I'd been holding back my thought.
Perhentian Island and asked me if I want to tag along. Without much hesitation, I booked my flight and waiting for the day to come.
It was a 7am flight, and we need to get there by 6am for check-in. Hence, woke up at 430am, rushed to Sentral Station, took the bus to LCCT and finally me and RF reached LCCT on time. Met Bill, Hiu and Bong; Bill and Hiu is RF's friend, while Bong is just like me, tag along person.
We arrived in Kota Bharu at about 8am and headed out to look for taxi. It took us about 45mins to reach the Kuala Besut from the airport. While we were at the jetty, we were asking around for boat transfer to Perhentian Island, Long Beach @ Perhentian Kecil to be exact. We somehow got to tag along on Bubu Resort boat transfer and departed at 10am.
Once we
reached there, the first thing was to ask for accomodation. Yes, we were doing free and easy, so no advance booking in all the stuff except for air ticket. So we finally settled down at Moonlight Chalet and while we are waiting for check-in, we headed to the dive shop next to the chalet, Quiver dive center. While I was checking out the dive course with Mr. Kin (the boss), the rest of the buddies were asking about fun dives. Due to the short duration that I stayed in the island (we went there on Friday morning and me leave on Monday afternoon), I was told to take an extensive class where I will be start watching video immediately and will proceed to confined water diving after that. I was totally unprepared for such a rush and was super nervous; however, since I'd gone there, there's nothing stopping me from getting the license. Ok, there I followed 1 of the divemaster working there to the other side of the island, where my instructor, a local young guy, is waiting for my arrival.
The first thing I did, was to watch video, read books and answered questions; then ca
me the practical part, he briefed me on setting up the gear, and the activities that we were going to do under the water. First few dives were confined water diving, with max depth of 6m; I was told to perform some compulsory activities for the course; such as clear mask, regulator recovery, BCD removal, and etc. It was damn tiring but it was fun, I'd been always a people for water. Now that I'm underwater, I felt like having the greatest happiness of my life. I did the same thing for the 2nd day; when came to 3rd day, I'd switched my instructor to Kate, an English lawyer that decided to stop her career and pursuit with diving. She's a nice and easy person, with very good patience; looking at I always get nervous when I was asked to perform the required activities during open water diving. So finally on Sunday afternoon, I get myself qualified as PADI Open Water diver.
Well, I would say there's not much things to be done at Perhentian Kecil. It's a very relaxing island, not much of tourists, not much of place to visit. But it's a place where people comes here to get away from their work, from the crowd, from the traffic jam. Day time activities are mostly water activities, eg. diving, snorkeling, swimming. Oh, there's a path for jungle trekking as well. While at night, there'll be some beach side pubs and you can just hang out there or sitting on the beach. We did not manage to hang out on those pubs as we were so damn tired after the whole day of diving activities. Well, I would say diving itself is quite tiring, especially when you want to move yourself out from the water.
The gan
g left the island on Sunday afternoon and I was left alone to wait to go home on Monday afternoon (we need to wait for about 24hrs after diving to board a plane). Anyway, since I was being tight up with the course earlier days, I decided to spend my day relaxing on the beach - sitting at the balcony, listening to the sound of waves, looking at the sea. On Monday, I took the the 11am boat ride and headed back to KL. This is one of the memorable trip that I have had so far, there's a lot of details that I'd decided not to put in and it will make this article too long. In short, I will definitely go back to this island, yes I am, I'm already signed up to a trip that will be going back to Perhentian Kecil on March 2010.
Perhentian Island and asked me if I want to tag along. Without much hesitation, I booked my flight and waiting for the day to come.
It was a 7am flight, and we need to get there by 6am for check-in. Hence, woke up at 430am, rushed to Sentral Station, took the bus to LCCT and finally me and RF reached LCCT on time. Met Bill, Hiu and Bong; Bill and Hiu is RF's friend, while Bong is just like me, tag along person.
We arrived in Kota Bharu at about 8am and headed out to look for taxi. It took us about 45mins to reach the Kuala Besut from the airport. While we were at the jetty, we were asking around for boat transfer to Perhentian Island, Long Beach @ Perhentian Kecil to be exact. We somehow got to tag along on Bubu Resort boat transfer and departed at 10am.
Once we
reached there, the first thing was to ask for accomodation. Yes, we were doing free and easy, so no advance booking in all the stuff except for air ticket. So we finally settled down at Moonlight Chalet and while we are waiting for check-in, we headed to the dive shop next to the chalet, Quiver dive center. While I was checking out the dive course with Mr. Kin (the boss), the rest of the buddies were asking about fun dives. Due to the short duration that I stayed in the island (we went there on Friday morning and me leave on Monday afternoon), I was told to take an extensive class where I will be start watching video immediately and will proceed to confined water diving after that. I was totally unprepared for such a rush and was super nervous; however, since I'd gone there, there's nothing stopping me from getting the license. Ok, there I followed 1 of the divemaster working there to the other side of the island, where my instructor, a local young guy, is waiting for my arrival.The first thing I did, was to watch video, read books and answered questions; then ca
me the practical part, he briefed me on setting up the gear, and the activities that we were going to do under the water. First few dives were confined water diving, with max depth of 6m; I was told to perform some compulsory activities for the course; such as clear mask, regulator recovery, BCD removal, and etc. It was damn tiring but it was fun, I'd been always a people for water. Now that I'm underwater, I felt like having the greatest happiness of my life. I did the same thing for the 2nd day; when came to 3rd day, I'd switched my instructor to Kate, an English lawyer that decided to stop her career and pursuit with diving. She's a nice and easy person, with very good patience; looking at I always get nervous when I was asked to perform the required activities during open water diving. So finally on Sunday afternoon, I get myself qualified as PADI Open Water diver.Well, I would say there's not much things to be done at Perhentian Kecil. It's a very relaxing island, not much of tourists, not much of place to visit. But it's a place where people comes here to get away from their work, from the crowd, from the traffic jam. Day time activities are mostly water activities, eg. diving, snorkeling, swimming. Oh, there's a path for jungle trekking as well. While at night, there'll be some beach side pubs and you can just hang out there or sitting on the beach. We did not manage to hang out on those pubs as we were so damn tired after the whole day of diving activities. Well, I would say diving itself is quite tiring, especially when you want to move yourself out from the water.
The gan
g left the island on Sunday afternoon and I was left alone to wait to go home on Monday afternoon (we need to wait for about 24hrs after diving to board a plane). Anyway, since I was being tight up with the course earlier days, I decided to spend my day relaxing on the beach - sitting at the balcony, listening to the sound of waves, looking at the sea. On Monday, I took the the 11am boat ride and headed back to KL. This is one of the memorable trip that I have had so far, there's a lot of details that I'd decided not to put in and it will make this article too long. In short, I will definitely go back to this island, yes I am, I'm already signed up to a trip that will be going back to Perhentian Kecil on March 2010.A little note:
1. To travel from KB airport to jetty, try to get the taxi outside the airport, is cheaper.
2. Some resorts in Perhentian Kecil do not have power supply all day long. Normally from 6pm to 9am.
3. No ATM on the island, so do prepare some extra cash.
4. Dive shops take credit card, but with 3% surcharge.
5. More info about Perhentian, checkout: http://www.perhentian.com.my
1. To travel from KB airport to jetty, try to get the taxi outside the airport, is cheaper.
2. Some resorts in Perhentian Kecil do not have power supply all day long. Normally from 6pm to 9am.
3. No ATM on the island, so do prepare some extra cash.
4. Dive shops take credit card, but with 3% surcharge.
5. More info about Perhentian, checkout: http://www.perhentian.com.my
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