Perhentian Island

Ever noticed how we tend to take for granted things that are slap-bang right in front of our eyes? All of its mystic and its wonder are lost to our eyes somehow. We tend to look further for such things. We figure that something that is so readily available couldn't possibly possess such novelty anymore. If it does, well then we probably have seen it all before. Right?

Most of the times, if we care to look properly, we just might uncover new things everyday from something we thought we knew like the back of our hand (that expression is a lie, I mean, if someone asks me to mentally draw the back of my hand, I could just draw a palm with five fingers protruding, which is the same as most hands in the world..it's not like I have every line and every crease and every hair on the skin memorized, so I guess I do not know the back of my hand pretty well to use that expression).

During my internship where I had the chance to work with a lot of foreigners, I find that their weekend activities are not constricted within the walls of malls and the seats of cinemas, as most of us Malaysians do. I remember the time when a colleague and I took a staff from Singapore branch out to dinner (she was originally from German so I got the chance to practice my rusty Deutsch at least once in the whole course of 6 months), the conversation at one point turned into us, two Malaysians listening to her recounting her experience in Taman Negara, a place that both of us has yet to visit. And she kept urging us to go see the amazing place for ourselves as it would be well worth it! It should be the other way round kan, us using that line on her? Memalukan.. And it wasn't until the boss from Portugal brought up about how he planned to take his 3-year-old kid to see the fireflies in Kuala Selangor that I got the idea to check it out for myself.

It was kinda like a wake-up call, that there is still so many things I haven't seen in my own country, heck I've never ever been to Borneo for crying out loud! So I've made a vow to myself to start discovering as many yet unseen parts of Malaysia as I possibly could. Hence, together with three other friends and the boyfriend, we headed to Perhentian Island, as our last stop this summer. I swear whatever rave review that people has been giving didn't do the island any justice. It was postcard beautiful. And yet my then practical supervisor was telling me that there are islands in Malaysia a hundred times better than that. Whatttt? Sipadan, wait for me, I'm coming!

To get to the island, you need to take a water shuttle from Kuala Besut. The rough journey (being thrown and trashed around like rag dolls inside the boat for almost half an hour was pretty rough) was nothing compared to the visual treat we were served with. The water was see-through. I think it was the first time that I have witnessed a real-life materialization of natural 'crystal clear' water. The corals and their natural habitants were well preserved, at least for now. The moment we got there, we wasted no time in getting our feet wet by trying out the snorkeling gear, to familiarize with it before we went on our snorkeling trip. It was a pleasant surprise to find out that fishes in all sort of imaginable shapes, sizes and colors swimming about right by the shoreline.

I was so happy to get to watch vibrantly colored parrotfishes, half my size, grazing on the coral and pooping right in front of my face. Poop all you want fishes, I'll still follow you around! The actual snorkeling trip was awesome except for the fact that it ended too soon. My boyfriend and I had our first stroll in the underwater park; we held hands, while feasting our eyes on huge curiously-shaped corals and fishes. The whole thing was pretty romantic…except for the fact that the actual reason I held onto his hand was because I was afraid of what might be lurking underneath the corals..and I found out after the trip, that he was holding onto my hand for the exact same reason….*sigh*

To describe the whole trip requires a longer post than this and the fact that I am kinda lazy to finish the post properly. But I'll tell you this much. There were blood-thirsty sharks out there preying on unsuspecting human paddling happily in the water with their fake fins and ugly goggles.. Which is, of course, another story altogether.