It is strange how the two places i have enjoyed the most on my trip are the two places i have found most difficult to put into words and hence write about here on the blog. But here goes my very best attempt to explain about life on Perhentian Kecil, Longbeach. The local and western people who made my time there special and the breath-taking beauty of the landscape. First of all though as promised on the last entry, here is a photo of me and Gary (the famous actor) on the balcony.



Well the beach doesn't change but the people on it certainly do, every day we welcome new visitors with their backpacks in tow. Some arrive early in the morning on the first boat at 8am and others are dropped after dark for some reason. All have one thing in common, the quest for accomodation which certainly is not an easy thing to find on the island. Most places on Longbeach are very basic so when people arrive expecting comforts they are left searching and then accepting that they must compromise. There are some nice places; Matahari, Panorama and Moshin Chalets all have decent chalets but they are more expensive than most budget travellers can afford especially at peak times. Often they only have a few rooms that are cheap at any one time and most of the time they are not available. Then there is; Lemongrass, Moonlight and Champaka which have outdoor and wild bathrooms but at least with fans in the rooms. Most of these places also serve food and organise snorkelling trips with their own boats. Finally there is Rock Garden my lovely address and Symphony if you can stand the late music and the risk of losing your swimming gear! So as the people arrive i try to help them choose an end of the beach to stay and let them leave the backpacks safe as they search in the nearly 40degree heat.

This is Jali. He has a small boat and often he charges visitors to the beach RM2 to get from the main speed boat which pulls up 200yards from the beach to the beach itself. Nearly every peson complains about paying this money and many believe the fare should be included in the price they paid at the port. I would like to use my blog (in the Hope that people searching the net might stumble upon it) to offer my insight behind this charge. Jali does not own a set of chalets, nor do his family own a restauraunt and he certainly doesn't spend his money loosely about the beach, he doesn't munch on ice-cream all day and he works every hour! He doesn't mix socially with the tourists at the bars and places because he doesn't have the money to do so but he is a resident of the Perhentian Islands. There are several local people on the beach who have small boats, they use these boats to help out the larger places and other families on the beach. In return they are often given reduced or free food and accomdation but no salary and little in way of cash other than petrol costs. They will never reap the hundred of Ringit spent by every westerner on the beach. So next time the boat pulls along side the fastboat and the taxi boat men come calling, just remember Jali. (Jali Gam! Super Jali!) The odd-job men i call them and this particular man was one of the nicest people during my stay. When we had too many people snorkelling we would often pass people to him and in course we would often see him on the water and around the island.

So people are changing and so are the staff at Aziela too. We said goodbye to Wannie and welcomed Resah after my little trip to Thailand. Here you can see a shared birthday between Wannie and Anna, Anna being the wife of Boron who's family own the restauraunt. Boron is a driver for one of the main dive schools on the island (Coral Divers), a great person and good volleyball player despite being so short. Anna helps in the kitchen and is the main reason i can speak a little bit of Malay, something which has surprised a few people!

...some more quality hammock time with the Dutch ScubaDiva!!!

Some days we get to spend an hour or more and some days just 15 minutes but every time its a great to sit and relax with Yolanda on the balcony away from all the action of the beach. Both of us know many people down there and it is difficult sometimes to get 10 mins peace. This is our sanctuary from an otherwise daily routine of fine food, diving or snorkelling, new faces and new disclosures! We chat endlessly and since day one of our unexpected arrival together we have shared everything, even the hammock! We have introduced each other gradually to the new faces on the island and while Yolanda mixes more with the divers i meet the other people! Its safe to say that between us we get to know most folk here and around us from the begining of the season has developed a wider group of people staying maybe 3 weeks, maybe 1, maybe returning and maybe getting work! So here is a little about some more people we met on the island;

Craig & Dionne. Well met i met these guys in Thailand when i left Koh Lanta, i assured them of a nice place i was going. They decided to join me and we ended the day all sleeping in the same room at the port ready for the early boat the next day. We got to the island and it more than met their expectations of somewhere to unwind after Thailand and relax forgetting everything before having to return home. Craig got straight into building a double sofa on the beach and Dionne settled in nicely with the local wildlife! They even decided to stay on the island by returning after a ten day visit to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Five days after leaving they were back!

Joel.Well i said hello and see you later to joel a few times on his first fewdays on the island but after a bit we did actually make that step and meet up for a drink and something to eat. Glad we did really cos he is a top man and i enjoyed every day spent with him and all the random stuff we talked about and saw. We had planned o take a beach day togethre but then i left without telling him to go to Thailand. When i came back i mistook a guy twice for being Joel and then one day i was lucky enough to find the real Joel still living a few doors away in Rock Garden. To say it was welcome is an understatement and we then made sure we spent nearly a week meeting up daily. He was doing a diving course and like me wasn't drinking alcohol much. We managed to get so drunk on his last night though that we woke up me in hammock and joel lying underneath. I had sand all over my face and Joel had no trousers! We obviously couldn't do the numbered padlock in the dark too! It was a great night and a sad farewell. All i can say is he comes from Uterecht, might mean nothing to you but to us it means a damn lot! Hey Schnoite.... ;)

Linden. Arrived from another beach on the island where he was building huts in return for food and a roof. We took him in and found him a place to stay amongst us. He stayed and became a mythical character amongst us, a man of great extra spiritual powers! Then one day he came snorkelling with us and swam with sharks and we found out he was truly real! Linden if your reading thanks for the monkey juice run you did and i wont tell anyone about you living from a pair of shorts for 4 days or more. For everyone else reading, we only knew he had not returned from a trip to mainland because his bright red pumas were still at the shop and his backpack at my place!

Bas (Boss Man). Probably the largest man i have ever seen! A friend of Yolanda's who came down to Perhentian for a while and helped gather the evidence of me and joel on our last night! Some Scuba Divers said they saw a small whale in the shallow waters but others saw Bas! Another great Dutchman!

Malcolm. Man i nearly forgot Malcolm for a second there but how can i when he was my neighbour! We shared pretty much everything as we could hear everything from one shack to another. This middle aged Canadian dude was often found wondering between the Coral Dive Shop where he worked as an instructor or his balcony. The silver fox of Perhentian!

Christina & Dil. My Thai kidnappers!!! Thanks for awesome time!!! The motorbike job was a good one and i think we can be proud of ourselves. Anyone who has been to Thailand can work that one out. Hand it in at dusk!!!

Ben & Dave. These guys sum up the other people i met on the island. People i saw again either in Thailand or here in Kuala Lumpur. There have been a great many faces and friends who have passed through the island and that i have later seen walking down the street somewhere else. Tonight it was Reggae Bar Chinatown and these guys! Two other guys 'Chris & Dave' even made it to Oz and met a friend of mine there with Perhentian Paradise the conversation link! This is a thanks to all these people for making Perhentian as possible as it was and as entertaining too!

Life in the shop is pretty much easy as. Sometimes i sit behind the counter but most of the time i am just hanging out on the beach and by the shop. There is a steady stream of people who take up on a special 9am snorkelling boat and we often get to see lots more as a result of going so early and before the other boats leaving at 10.30am. We take a cool box and have lunch at the fishing village, most of the time we go to the lighthouse in the afternoon and jump of its 10m top. On a trip with Joel and a little courage i managed to dive off the top which bearing in mind you can see shoals of coloured fish and rocks too, its some feat! It was not repeated though. So the trips go well and keep me occupied every few days. Then in the evenings i still take dinner at Gigi's and most of the time i am joined by guests from the trips or otherwise.

There are many beaches and inlets surrounding the two main islands, some are solely for exclusive resorts, some are deserted with no development, some are reserved for conservation and then thre is Longbeach. Although Longbeach does have a number of establishments on the island it is only a cheap water taxi to get to the other beaches. It is also common for people to rent a kayak for the day to do a complete lap of the small island stopping along the way! A fit person can do it in 3 hours non-stop. The island is very wild with a jungle mountainside landscape and a large variety of wildlife. My personal favourite are the eagles whcih swoop around the flanks of Longbeach every night before dusk. There is one eagle which can not fly which has been on the island for 6 years and is fed by the locals, he just walks around the beach by day attracting the attention of travellers and by night he perches in a spot behind the main bar. Its a good job i knew about him because anyone going for a pee in the bushes at the back might get a shock or think they are really feeling the monkey juice!!! Monkey juice being the alcoholic island choice, a yellow liqour which tastes good with pineapple! But be very careful with the stuff because its reputation for being rather quick in knocking the mind from its senses and putting you in Knockout mode is proven!



...so thats really the island. All thanks to the above two people. Eddie has been on the island for 19 years and his knowledge of the people and places is second to none. He has the shop and he regularly has visitors who return, i will be one of them and i look forward to my return so much! This shop in the middle of the beach. Izan Eddies wife taught me Malay too, although not so repeatable and the kids Roy and Shahira provided many more smiles each and every day! I think one day Roy will definately have a future in computing and shahira will be just like her mum! A special mention now to Fadlee the boat driver and Malay half of the trips we made some of the best. It is people like him and Ma (the old chef from Aziela) that will be some of the characters i look forward to seeing most on my return.

That is Perhentian. A place where the closest thing to a road is a wheelbarrow and where the mainland truly does disappear! It is a paradise and it best visited from april to august so go and say hello...

written by  50watts on May 15, 2006 from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Ending 2005 and Starting 2006
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Great blog. we are going to make a visit in May, jsut trying to suss out accomodation etc, but the blog helped.

Maybe see you there,
Chris and Charly

written by  Chris and Charly on January 29, 2011

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