Getaway to Perhentian
After the headache schedule of working and studying, me and Melissa decided to go on a short vacation to a local island back in July 2009. When talk about islands, the choices will be those located in the east coast of Malaysia such as Perhentian, Lang Tengah or Redang. Since I was very indecisive as to which island to go, Melissa, being the no-nonsense gorgeous lady, has taken a leading role in ending my flicker mind and booked the air ticket to Kota Bharu, Kelantan which is the airport for those heading to Perhentian Islands. With the destination of our vacation fixed, the next thing came to our attention was which of the 2 Perhentian Islands are we staying. After doing some research and gett
ing comments from friends, we picked the small island to be our base as oppose to the big island since the former has less resorts and people, thus clearer water and calmer beach. The options for accomodation on the small island are limited and mostly located at the long beach fronting the big island. As there is no full day electricity supply for most of the budget accomodation and knowing how hot it will be on a beach, we opted for the only resort on the long beach, the BuBu Resort which provides full day electricity with air-conditioner. BuBu offer packages which cover accomodation, meals (whole day), snorkelling, jungle trekking and airport transfers. After running through the packages offered, we decided to only take their accomodation, airport transfers and a special snorkelling trip, where the snorkelling activities is done on the nearby islands known as baby islands, as oppose to the normal snorkelling package which only provides for snorkelling activities on the big island. A few days after settling with the accomodation and activities to be done on the island, the newspaper published an article commenting on the cleanliness of Perhentian Islands and I nearly fell of the chair after reading it. The article commented on the way the rubbish was dumped on the floating carriages and being left unattended, thus polluting the environment of the sea. To much of our dismay, I quickly call up BuBu's office in KL to clarify on the matter and thinking that if the situation is really as bad as what the article said, I will have to cancel the trip and head to Redang or Lang Tengah instead. After listening to the 
explanation given by an officer of BuBu that the article published actually relates to the condition on the big island and not the small one and also at the same time discovered that it is not viable to opt for Redang or Lang Tengah because of the distance, we cross our fingers to hope for the best. We arrived at the Kota Bharu airport in the morning and it took for about an hour to reach the ferry terminal located at Kuala Besut. BuBu has its own ferry and we need not wait too long for others before the ferry could depart from the terminal. It took us about 45 minutes from the ferry terminal to the small island and luckily for us, the water was crystal clear and our worries ended at the moment we saw the water condition and the beauty of the long beach. We arrived on the island at about noon and since booster and me are buddies, the first thing came to my mind was to have a chilled beer and it cost RM10 each. Given the fact that all the food and drinks are transported to the island, prices of foods and drinks are quite reasonable. Generally, a meal at the local food stalls will cost about RM10 for one person. However, we are of the view that the food on the beach generally no good and the stall keepers need to improvise. Anyway, the point of explaining the prices is that it will cost an alcoholic about RM20 per meal (so, moral of the story is to stay go
od and not touch alcohol) and since beer and food come hand in hand when I'm on vacation :), I'm in the category (sad right? haha....). After checking into the resort and lunch with two friends we came to know on the beach (Fendy and wife), we took the opportunity on the hot afternoon to zzzz.......... We woke up in the evening, relaxed on the beach, swum in the crystal clear water and snorkeled near the beach. At the same time of relaxing, my buddy (i.e. the beer) was with me all the time and it introduces me to another friend, known as Victor. Time flies and the next thing we know, it was dinner time. Our dinner was quite simple. I had nasi goreng and Melissa took tomyam noodle. After dinner, we walk along the dark beach (it's really dark, without any light) and headed back to the resort to rest after a short while because our snorkelling trip is on the next morning. On the second day, we woke up at about 7.30 a.m. and pampered ourselves with the buffet breakfast the resort serve. Thereafter, we got ourselves ready for the special snorkelling trip. The boatman, Encik Ismail was quite h
elpful and friendly. He took us to two smaller islands located about 45 minutes boat ride from the resort. The water quality and marine life on these two smaller islands really impressed us. One set back for the snorkelling trip is that the resort does not allow fins to be used. Hence, unless the fins are self-brought, no fins will be provided and we were afraid that we may accidentally touched the sea corals with our bare foot. Luckily, Encik Ismail is a good customer service officer. He volunteered to take us across the sea corals garden in the sea (because he has his own fins, he can swim faster). Because of Encik Ismail's expertise and sincerity, we had the opportunity of seeing baby sharks and other beautiful marine life. After the snorkelling 
trip, we felt that the special package we signed up for really worth while as we found out from our friends that the snorkelling trip they went was not really as exciting as our's and the water wasn't that clear (because they went snorkelling near the big island). We went back to our resort in the afternoon and we zzz........ again because of the hot weather. In the evening on the second day as there was not much choice, we went for the same routine dinner (nasi goreng and noodle!) with our friends. However, our activity on the second night was fun. After dinner with our friends, we headed to a drinking join where there were no chairs and all the patrons are required to sit on the floor (with matt of course). Our malay friends were very sporting and we had a good time. Thereafter, we went back to our resort to rest and on the third day, we left the island at about noon. Overall, we opine that it was a good trip and getaway from all the problems we face everyday in the city. Some information about the trip are as follows:-
ing comments from friends, we picked the small island to be our base as oppose to the big island since the former has less resorts and people, thus clearer water and calmer beach. The options for accomodation on the small island are limited and mostly located at the long beach fronting the big island. As there is no full day electricity supply for most of the budget accomodation and knowing how hot it will be on a beach, we opted for the only resort on the long beach, the BuBu Resort which provides full day electricity with air-conditioner. BuBu offer packages which cover accomodation, meals (whole day), snorkelling, jungle trekking and airport transfers. After running through the packages offered, we decided to only take their accomodation, airport transfers and a special snorkelling trip, where the snorkelling activities is done on the nearby islands known as baby islands, as oppose to the normal snorkelling package which only provides for snorkelling activities on the big island. A few days after settling with the accomodation and activities to be done on the island, the newspaper published an article commenting on the cleanliness of Perhentian Islands and I nearly fell of the chair after reading it. The article commented on the way the rubbish was dumped on the floating carriages and being left unattended, thus polluting the environment of the sea. To much of our dismay, I quickly call up BuBu's office in KL to clarify on the matter and thinking that if the situation is really as bad as what the article said, I will have to cancel the trip and head to Redang or Lang Tengah instead. After listening to the 
explanation given by an officer of BuBu that the article published actually relates to the condition on the big island and not the small one and also at the same time discovered that it is not viable to opt for Redang or Lang Tengah because of the distance, we cross our fingers to hope for the best. We arrived at the Kota Bharu airport in the morning and it took for about an hour to reach the ferry terminal located at Kuala Besut. BuBu has its own ferry and we need not wait too long for others before the ferry could depart from the terminal. It took us about 45 minutes from the ferry terminal to the small island and luckily for us, the water was crystal clear and our worries ended at the moment we saw the water condition and the beauty of the long beach. We arrived on the island at about noon and since booster and me are buddies, the first thing came to my mind was to have a chilled beer and it cost RM10 each. Given the fact that all the food and drinks are transported to the island, prices of foods and drinks are quite reasonable. Generally, a meal at the local food stalls will cost about RM10 for one person. However, we are of the view that the food on the beach generally no good and the stall keepers need to improvise. Anyway, the point of explaining the prices is that it will cost an alcoholic about RM20 per meal (so, moral of the story is to stay go
od and not touch alcohol) and since beer and food come hand in hand when I'm on vacation :), I'm in the category (sad right? haha....). After checking into the resort and lunch with two friends we came to know on the beach (Fendy and wife), we took the opportunity on the hot afternoon to zzzz.......... We woke up in the evening, relaxed on the beach, swum in the crystal clear water and snorkeled near the beach. At the same time of relaxing, my buddy (i.e. the beer) was with me all the time and it introduces me to another friend, known as Victor. Time flies and the next thing we know, it was dinner time. Our dinner was quite simple. I had nasi goreng and Melissa took tomyam noodle. After dinner, we walk along the dark beach (it's really dark, without any light) and headed back to the resort to rest after a short while because our snorkelling trip is on the next morning. On the second day, we woke up at about 7.30 a.m. and pampered ourselves with the buffet breakfast the resort serve. Thereafter, we got ourselves ready for the special snorkelling trip. The boatman, Encik Ismail was quite h
elpful and friendly. He took us to two smaller islands located about 45 minutes boat ride from the resort. The water quality and marine life on these two smaller islands really impressed us. One set back for the snorkelling trip is that the resort does not allow fins to be used. Hence, unless the fins are self-brought, no fins will be provided and we were afraid that we may accidentally touched the sea corals with our bare foot. Luckily, Encik Ismail is a good customer service officer. He volunteered to take us across the sea corals garden in the sea (because he has his own fins, he can swim faster). Because of Encik Ismail's expertise and sincerity, we had the opportunity of seeing baby sharks and other beautiful marine life. After the snorkelling 
trip, we felt that the special package we signed up for really worth while as we found out from our friends that the snorkelling trip they went was not really as exciting as our's and the water wasn't that clear (because they went snorkelling near the big island). We went back to our resort in the afternoon and we zzz........ again because of the hot weather. In the evening on the second day as there was not much choice, we went for the same routine dinner (nasi goreng and noodle!) with our friends. However, our activity on the second night was fun. After dinner with our friends, we headed to a drinking join where there were no chairs and all the patrons are required to sit on the floor (with matt of course). Our malay friends were very sporting and we had a good time. Thereafter, we went back to our resort to rest and on the third day, we left the island at about noon. Overall, we opine that it was a good trip and getaway from all the problems we face everyday in the city. Some information about the trip are as follows:-Accomodation
Bubu Long Beach Resort
Boatman
Encik Ismail (H/P No. 0148362968)
(He says he charge RM50.00 per person for snorkelling trip to baby islands, which is cheaper than the resort's charges).
Labels: Getaway
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