Hectorisdiving's travel blogs:
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Perhenthian Islands
Entry 8 of 20 | show all | print this entry |
As in life, when you travel sometimes after the great hight comes the low, and in my case was the trip out of Thailand, the dreadful night ferry to Surathani, then the scoundrels that instead of a regular bus which are excellent they sent me in a minibus (a little Toyota minivan that seats 10 people) and since they were breaking my bag because it would not fit I had no other choice that travel for about 6 hours with the bag on my lap. At my breaking point I had to switch vans and things got better, still could not stretch my legs but the backpack was in my lap no longer.
But as I said before it is just like in life, when we let things flow as they please they tend to take you to new heights that you never expected in your planning. In this case my plans of night train were erased and I ended up in the middle of Muslim Thailand in a little dirty bus stop were all the women for wherever reason were really having a great time looking at me and laughing to their hearts contents, who knows may be the long hair, one ask me if I had a family, ??????, wherever, I decided to let life take control and ended up hooking up with a Swedish also going to Perhentian, crossed the border together, share a taxi to a city that was not the one that I planed to go, missed the first ferry to the island because of the torrential rain, meet a Scottish guy on the ferry and from then on had and unbelievable time , diving , joking and meeting really cool people from all over. I was really glad that I got on the stupid ferry to Surathani!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Island is great , there are 2 of them, I stayed on the smaller one on Long Beach, as soon as we got out of the little boat, the ferry transfer you to a little boat on the deep water cause there is no pier right now , one is on construction, a guy from a dive shop offer us to seat, relax, have coffee and then look for a place, way cool, after 3 hours we look for a place and we ended it up next door, at Moonlight , in between there was Karim's Bar, the coolest Malaysian bartender , he juggled with the bottles, made killer caipirinha, and had the best music, with his own remakes, I even heard Pink Floyd with a Reggae rhythm, way out.
We had the best of times, talked to very interesting people from all over, planned next move to Sipadan, and after about 9 days we realized that we never walked more than 300 feet, no need, everything we wanted was there.
To be honest we did go to the other side but it was not the same, too conventional, we had to come back to our side of the island, where things are on the subreal side, you get food that you do not order, you call the waiter and he waives back at you but never comes, you see lady boys watching soccer getting excited, you go to a new restaurant and the waiter knows your name and you never saw him before, still you do not get what you order but....
Moonlight has different accommodations, from very good to very basic , probably no the best, but great location.
The diving we did it with Quiver, cool guys , we spend all the time there, they were professional but fun at the same time and make you feel like family since arrival, and trust me you need that feeling particularly when you travel.
The diving in itself it is not the best, but it is quiet good, Temple of the Sea is a must, nice pinnacle with loads of fish, the Sugar Wreck is also great even that vis is usually very poor (15 feet). Also did a drift dive, on 10 feet vis, at 85 feet and found seahorses, decorator shrimp, blue ring octopus, zebra crab and others species.
Most of the people kept telling me that Long Beach was the clearest water that they ever saw, for us spoiled by the Caribbean Sea is just OK, but still, I definitely recommend this Island.
Our Swedish friend left after 4 days having to go back to London to start a new job, wasted 2 day in KL trying to cancel it but could not so Sipadan will be only for 2 of us and who knows whom we might find along the way.
In any event I have to let life do its part, it is time to go, the cool people are leaving too, and you start feeling that your time is up, as a go away present I broke my toe, Karim built his own bar from scratch and it is a cool hut, but the 2 nd stool on the left jumps at you all the time, O well, we take the good and the bad, and I don't have to tell you which one is winning so far. Later
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