Malaysia's warm weather has really agreed with us. Yes, there are days when only air conditioning will do, but to be able to drive to a buttery white sand beach such as Long Beach on Perhentian Kecil in just a few hours is a treasure we can't take for granted. Not with Oregon's 'summer' looming before us. Lounging under the hot sun and then going for a dip in cool, clear, azure water kicks my brain's chill-out chemicals and relaxation receptors into overdrive. It's hard to even keep a book going when you can just stare out at the view.
Of course, this being an island in the South China Sea, the underwater environment called to us. The excellent
Quiver Dive Shop was right next to our hotel, and we made four dives around the Perhentian Islands. The first site, "T3" was OK, maybe more exciting for new divers, but the luckily sites got better from there.
We dove on the Sugar Wreck, which was encased in clams and crowded with several different schools of fish. Much better than seeing the usual lot of divers! We saw a few of these highly poisonous scorpion fish channeling their best
Arnold Schwarzenegger impressions along a mast of the boat. The next morning, we hit the Temple site, which again was free of other divers until we were heading to the surface. The water was perfectly clear with an array of corals, fish, and eels among huge boulders. Without wetsuits, the thermoclines were just a little chilly, but we happily managed.
Finally, we set off for D'Lagoon, just around a cliff from our hotel. Although a little murky, this site offered a few hidden treasures away from the mounds of coral. Like these little panda clownfish--untiringly guarding their eggs, their outsize attitudes belied their stature.
We also saw a Jenkins Whipray that was the size of a dinner table. He had quietly tucked himself under a coral outcropping and I went swimming along oblivious to him, trying to get a photo of a lovely purple angelfish. And then, holy crap! A long spiky tail just beneath me. Visions of being skewered like Steve Irwin flooded my mind.
Luckily, the ray was in therapy for anger management, or just taking a nap, because he ignored us completely. And what dive would be complete without a mildly panic-attack-inducing sighting of a shark?! OK, at least this time it was a baby nestled in some coral. And she may have been the kind with only little teeth. Hopefully.
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