This is the first of a series of articles about my current travel through Malaysia and Sumatra. First stop: Pulau Perhentian. The name means “Stopover Island” in Malay. And that’s what we did: a short stopover on one of Malaysia’s most beautiful islands. Read more…
The journey there was already quite special: We took the train from Johor Bahru to Tanah Merah. Although Johor is just opposite the Singapore-Malaysia border, we didn’t take into account the Saturday evening rush-hour traffic and finally had to run to get on the train in time :-) The train ride was relaxing, though. With four hours of delay and comfortable bunk beds, we got plenty of sleep. Thanks also to Mel for lending me “The Da Vinci Code”, it’s a gripping read.
The two Perhentian Islands in northern Malaysia are amazing. Clear, green water invites you to go snorkeling. The beaches are nice and there are plenty of friendly people. On the afternoon of our first day we met a group of Canadian and English. We spent the evening together and learned two interesting drinking games… I admit that I was slightly high when we went to bed, but we still got up in time the next morning for the highlight of our trip:
The highlight… snorkeling. Santhosh, Siddharth and me did a daytrip on a boat with half a dozen other travellers. We visited different stations: A small lighthouse where one could jump into the water, just next to truly amazing fish swarms; “Shark Point” where we indeed saw some small (about 1.5m long) sharks; “Turtle Bay” where we spotted (surprise…) a turtle; and finally the Fisherman Village on Perhentian Kecil for our lunch. All in all a truly awesome trip.
Later that day, we were on the train again. It took us south to Jerantut (resp. Singapore for Siddharth, whose plane will take him back to India on the 9th). Jerantut is the train station for the Taman Negara National Park. I’m writing this message at Kuala Tembeling, around 16km from Jerantut. From here, it’s a three-hours boat ride to the Park, which offers the famous canopy walkway through ur-old rainforest, a variety of animals, plants, insects, floating restaurants and much more.
I’ll try write you a detailed article about Taman Negara on our next stop, probably in Kuala Lumpur. Until then… all the best!