With the Tune Hotel’s checkout extended from 1000 till 1100, we thought we’d have a leisurely morning having breakfast and repacking so we’d bring just the minimum to Pulau Perhentian Besar (literally Big “Stop” Island).
After checking out, we were to taxi to Kuala Besut. Kim didn’t want to take a first or second generation Proton (both of which were waiting outside the hotel). So we walked down the road and waited, and waited, and waited. There weren’t many taxis and even fewer that satisfied his criteria – did I mention that he wanted air-con as well? Fair enough as it is a 1 hour journey.
He relaxed his criteria after a while and we got a first generation Proton (with air-con) for a bargain price of RM40 (instead of the usual RM80). It turned out that the driver lives at Bachok which is only 15min from Kuala Besut. It suited him well to run us to our destination.
We arrived at 1215 and reported to the boat company. They don’t operate to a schedule but they estimated our departure, but hey, I’m used to working with unreliable or little information. Just keep asking and keep smiling.
Our boat was thankfully larger than many of the others as I throw up easily. The journey took an hour but once at the southern end of Perhentian, it took some more time to transfer guests to smaller boats to take them to their respective accommodation. We had to walk a short distance to Bayu Dive Lodge where we were booked to stay for 4 nights.
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- Cafe at Kuala Besut.
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- Leaving Kuala Besut.
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- Leaving Kuala Besut.
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- Arriving at Perhentian Besar; transfer to a smaller boat that can beach itself as there wasn’t a jetty that we could use.
With so many Singaporeans visiting at the moment, two dive operators were full for tomorrow. The third was full for half-day and for the second-half they were going to see “small stuff” (rather than “big stuff” which I like). The remaining dive shops in the area were AWOL (actually they’re out diving). Based on what others had said, we decided to go snorkelling (in five places) by boat. They had seen sharks, turtles and lots of fish. That sounds better than some dives; I suppose one might dive in a couple of places a day but covering five spots in one snorkelling trip is pretty good for tomorrow
We finished the day with beer, great mango shakes at our lodge then dinner further down the beach.
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- View from our dive lodge on the big island’s south coast, Teluk Dalam.
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- Water taxis at Teluk Dalam.
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- The southern coast at Teluk Dalam isn’t the best for swimming at low tide but it’s hard to get accommodation of your choice even 6 months prior.
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- Our accommodation at Bayu Dive Lodge.
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- Dive shop at our accommodation.
