snorkelling

I guess no-one will be too surprised to hear that beaches aren't my thing. That being said Birgit tracked down a gem in Petani beach. (I'm sure by the way that no-one will be shocked that Birgit is the planning brains behind this trip - she does the research, checks out the alternatives having found the most reliable travel websites and handles most of the email communications along the way). The photo of the beach attached to the last post says it all so no point in a description.

With only 5 2-person huts it's wonderfully calm and quiet. A few people walk past during the day since almost all the beaches on the island are connected by a brick pathway around the coast. From Petani it's about a 45 min walk to the bigger beaches - as usual quite a sweaty walk unless there's a breeze because the tree canopy, although shady, seems to intensify the humidity. Apparently much more of the island had been agricultural a few hundred years ago when the Perhentians had been on the coastal trading routes up the Malay peninsula (Perhentian means something like "stopover" in Malay). But when the Portuguese and later the Dutch took over East Asian trade in the 16th century with ocean-going sailing ships the Perhentians were bypassed. The interior is now pretty impenetrable and left to the goannas (we saw one 2-meter specimen lumber casually off the track where it had been sunning itself one afternoon), snakes and flying foxes.

So sitting on the beach the only regular distraction was the to-ing and fro-ing of the boats that are the main transport between beaches. These are all narrow fiberglass boats powered by outboard motor: the larger 2-outboard models have a sunshade and carry 8-10 people plus rucksacks or scuba gear; the smaller carry 3-4. These are the island equivalent of urban motor scooters or small-capacity motor bikes, the kids steering them would fit in well with the Lambretta-driving youth of Rome or Paris - there's a lot of engine-revving and impromptu racing going on.

I decided to cede the more strenuous PADI diving course to Birgit while I concentrated on catching up with my holiday reading and looking out to sea. I figure if Birgit enjoyed diving and it looked as if we could do regularly it would be worthwhile me investing in the PADI course - until which time a mask and snorkel would suffice.

From time to time I walked or took a boat for the 10 min trip round the headland to the larger beach where the diving schools were located to meet Birgit for lunch or an end-of-the-day beer. I was very glad in comparison to be staying at Petani: the beach itself is not too bad, a handful of restaurants and shops, a fairly substantial hotel and quite a few tourist huts plus a disproportionately large concrete pier. But it was a big step in the direction of the sun lounger culture. Luckily (in my view) the strength of the local Islamic culture seems to have helped to constrain the worst of the sun, booze and drugs scene from becoming too entrenched. The largest beach on the island does apparently have a fairly zoned-out, all-night beach party tourist scene, but apparently the authorities make fairly regular raids on the local bars, subjecting any locals caught in the net to urine tests for alcohol and drugs. Booze is therefore tolerated for tourists so long as it remains at a fairly low level while, although there is no doubt a drug problem as everywhere, it seems fairly consistently suppressed.

Birgit's dive school - Quiver - is a fairly large affair at one end of the beach, next to the hotel and pier, well-shaded and a good spot to hang out and watch the beach life ebb and flow. Scuba diving conforms to the basic principles of a lot of equipment- and technique-heavy sports (certainly skiing and sky-diving) insofar as the instructors and the experienced always seem to carve out their own group spaces, distinct from the hoi poloi, where they can hang out, check equipment, talk shop, gossip and generally chill out. Always fun if one is tolerated and on the periphery.

Observing beach life it did occur to me that there seems to be a fairly infectious - indeed virulent - condition affecting middle-aged men. I believe the correct medical terminology is O.B.D.S. - Old Beach Dude Syndrome. Early symptoms can be quite mild - wearing a wristband incorporating braided leather and/or beads, or growing a goatee. The full-blown syndrome is highly unpleasant and probably incurable short of removing the patient permanently from the beach environment.

One day I joined up with an Australian couple and their young son to go off on a 3 hour tour of some of the snorkeling sites on the two islands. We piled into one of the smaller boats and headed off, watching the water below as it shifted slowly from dark blue through green to the light blue of sand and coral. In my view you can get 80% of the benefits of shallow water scuba diving by gently paddling on the surface with mask and snorkel. The only problem is that if you can't hold your breath for too long you miss some of the larger fish, moray eels etc that tend to stick to crevices or below coral overhangs.

All the sites were good - one I thought spectacular. When we first got there I rolled my eyes a bit: it was only 20-30 meters off the shore and there were already several large tourist boats sitting there with around 20-30 people flapping around in the water. A couple of boats had groups of Malays or maybe Chinese tourists - happily splashing around in bright red life jackets.  Even with the crowd the coral and fish were great - parrot, clown and angel fish. Everyone who tries to describe the colours and brightness falls into cliche so I will resist.

The truly spectacular part was when I decided to swim out a bit to a rocky headland only a couple of dozen meters further out. The coral formations and fish were larger and more striking. As I was floating happily on the surface in probably only 6-8 meters' water a black tip reef shark swam languidly past, close to the bottom, about 6-8 meters away. I have to admit there was a definite "oh shit" moment. Although the site is called Shark Point I had been pretty sceptical about the possibility of an actual sighting. Being alone did, I admit, give me a moment's concern - measuring the distance to nearest boat or shore, both a distant 20 meters, wasn't very reassuring. However you quickly realise that you are irrelevant as far as the black tip is concerned, they cruise checking the sea bottom and are in any event much more active as nocturnal hunters. I won't deny that I did a few 360-degree turns over the next few minutes out of paranoia, I had a huge sense of privilege at have such an opportunity.