Perhentian Islands

I know. This blog hiatus has seemed like forever, but I was busy traveling and gleaning new material so read on! To recap, my sister Loppy Lou and her boyfriend Tex are visiting Mr. Happy & me! After a busy first day in KL which included hiking, swinging from trees, and being devoured by flesh eating fish, we awoke early to fly to Kota Baru on our way to the Perhentian Islands.

The Perhentians are in East Malaysia and accessible by ferry boat from Kuala Besut. The chain consists of two islands Perhentian Besar (Big Island) and Perhentian Kecil (Small Island). We stayed at the Shari La resort on Perhentian Kecil. The going rate is 238 RM/night for a standard room with breakfast and dinner, but you can negotiate for a better rate!

The accommodations in the Perhentians aren’t great. Even the “resorts” are very low end and backpackery. But the scenery is definitely five stars.

Each restaurant throws a beach BBQ for roughly 17RM per person. You get your choice of fish (or lobster, crab, squid, prawn) as well as salad, rice, potato, and banana cake. This is my idea of a value meal!

The Islands are governed by a conservative Muslim government, so it can be tricky to get alcohol. You either need to know where to look, or grab one of the islands favorite milk shakes.
We did both! On Long Beach there are a few bars where you can relax.

Can you guess which tracks were spinnin’?

After a few drinks I led our party back to the Shari La. We had to cross the bat infested jungle. Luckily, Mr. Happy and I own a head lamp. And we don’t leave home without it.

When we weren’t eating or drinking or sweatin’ to the oldies we went snorkeling!

The snorkeling is amazing here. I’d suggest you don’t waste your money diving because you see just as much on the snorkeling trip. We saw sharks, sting ray, HUGE turtles, and allll sorts of fish. We definitely preferred snorkeling over diving in the Perhentians.

Loppy Lou was not so thrilled about the non-aquatic wild life. There are lots of bats, mice, and monitor lizards creeping around. But if we don’t bother them, they don’t bother us!

Well sometimes you mind your own business they get down to business…on you. This was an unfortunate thing to happen to me, my dress, and my hair.

Once we were cleaned up we had time to relax in the sun.

Mr. Happy calls this his hot stone massage.



Ahhh, the good life!