We met again! After being separated for more than one week, with Britt taking care of stuff in Germany and Alex spotting orangutans in Sumatra, we met again in Kuala Lumpur on the 16th of July, our wedding anniversary day. Good timing, huh?!

In this post we summarized our experiences of our last days in South East Asia. If you consider Kecil island being part of your next Malaysia itinerary, we have some tips for you. Never heard of the Perhentian islands or Pulau Kecil?! Then this read is a good inspiration for sure.

Reunion in Kuala Lumpur

To get back to South East Asia Britt had been on the road, or rather in the air, for almost 48 hours. Having an overnight stay at Frankfurt airport, where she almost got robbed while sleeping. Luckily she woke up just in time to see the thief bending over her things and managed to scare the longfinger away. And that was just the beginning of the trip. In other words. Britt was tired and so was I.

view from Fuego sky dinning — view from Fuego Sky Dining

To treat ourselves after the journey and to celebrate the reunion on our wedding day we decided to have a nice dinner, far beyond our usual travel budget, in one of Kuala Lumpur’s nicer sky bars. We were recommended Fuego Sky Dining, a sky bar on the 27th floor facing KL’s landmark, the twin towers amidst the spectacular skyline of the city. It was a nice treat and a recommendation for anyone on holiday who is not too restricted by budget. Still the contrast is interesting: our dinner was worth about 20 streetstall meals.

Kecil island / Pulau Kecil

So, what’s next? We already booked the onward journey to Canada in a couple of days and decided to take it slow until then. The last days in South East Asia should be full of recreation, beaches and laziness. In other words as hasslefree as possible or just holiday as it should be.

After having a terrific experience on one of the less known Malaysian islands: Kapas, we decided to head for the islands further north: The Perhentian islands were our choice. These islands are well developed and known amongst the travelling scene. Though they are also a bit far from Kuala Lumpur, they are still worth the extra travel day.

The bus ride from Kuala Lumpur to Besut, the gateway to the islands, takes 8 hours.

The Perhentian islands are two islands: Besar and Kecil in the very North of Malaysia, almost at the Thailand border. From what we heard:

Besar is rather known for resorts and being a bit more expensive. Say no more, we chose Kecil. Kecil is rather the backpacker choice. Here are nice resorts, next to beach/jungle huts, next to jungle tenting accommodations. In other words for everyone a good fit.

On Kecil the two main beaches (Coral Bay ad Long Beach) are full with little bars and dive operations. Coral Bay was more low key than its bigger and louder brother Long Beach. Long Beach was just too happening for us. There were also more beaches with accommodation options. So one is not necessarily limited to the two main beaches.

Anyways, the main activities on the island (apart from partying on Long Beach) are for sure diving and snorkeling. Maybe due to the high competition both snorkeling tours and diving were super cheap.

Underwater exploration, a must on Kecil

We had amazing daylong snorkel trips that even topped our experience on Kapas island. The typical paradisy turquoise clear water with a visibility of 20+ meters enhanced the experience. Just to give you an idea of what we are talking about, we saw: dozens of black tip sharks swimming around us, sea turtles, napoleon fish (they are huuuuge, some grow up to 2 meters and weight up to 190kg), and, and, and.

Blacktip reef shark grows up to 2,5m in size.

And we were not super lucky to see all that. I believe it was a very standard experience for this destination. BUT, within one of the tours, that take you to a couple of good snorkeling spots, there was also one snorkelling spot that really was overcrowded. All the other spots were great. But if you go on a guided tour, which we would totally recommend because one cannot snorkel on your own everywhere without a boat, try to evade the weekends. And even without a boat (tour) taking you around – there is still much to see if you snorkel from beach to beach. Just beware of boat traffic.

In addition to snorkeling we could make use of our freshly acquired diving licence. We went down to explore a huge wreck of a ship, Sugar Wreck, about 30 minutes away from shore for 20 € per person and had another fun dive to an underwater paradise closer to shore for as little as 16 € per person. It was dirt cheap for diving. One would expect a sketchy diving operation calling out such good deals yet everything was absolutely proper.

Butterfly on Kecil

Another interesting thing to mention is our accommodation.

It seemed that the island was almost at it’s accommodation capacity limits. Most travellers booked a place in advance. We did not. Yet we were lucky and found a rustic place to stay very fast. The accommodation called Butterly at the very end of Coral Bay had around 10 huts on a hill overlooking the ocean. Maybe best view on the whole island! On the inside the huts are very basic. The interesting thing: no (hotel) reception, just a board where one had to check which room was free. When there was a vacancy (no name next to the room) one just needed to note the name and the date of arrival with a marker on the board. Keys were in the doors. That is it. Check in complete. Eventually one would bump into the friendly landlord who would collect the room rent. Definitely not on booking.com and therefore some rooms were still available. This system was quite common around the island for the less pricey accommodations.

The Fuck You gecko in our room. The name comes from it’s sound. He literally tells you to go “fuck you.”

Perenthian islands’ Kecil vs Kapas island

We visited Kapas island a couple of weeks before we went to Kecil, making a comparison easy. If you want to go and check out one of the Malaysian islands and want to decide on either Kecil from the Perhentian islands or Kapas island, here is what we think: All in all Kecil was a really a good vacation spot. The snorkeling was wonderful and diving was cheap. The tourist infrastructure here was well developed and the party scene was not small. It was not a remote adventure but the island had still plenty of quiet corners to evade the masses of sunbathers during the day or the huge fire dance shows at night. For a more relaxed vibe we would still recommend Kapas island. It is not remote neither, but quieter and slower. A place where after a couple of days you know half of the staff at the restaurants and they also remember you. With beer prices being rather high, both islands turned out not so cheap for us.

The End

After more than one week mainly filled with diving and snorkeling it was time to leave.

We travelled via Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok. Here we spent two nights. Main activity: shopping and eating. We also met some friends who we met before while travelling. Apart of many interesting things that we learned from these friendly long time Bangkok expatriots, did you know that sugar gliders as pets are a thing?! Crazy and cute and new! Unfortunately no photo, but google it to widen your horizon on pet options.

And then, after two months in South East Asia, we left the region. It is always a blast coming here. We’ll see you again for sure. Next stop CANADA!