Perhentian Islands | Malaysia

I Continue From Here: Cameron Highlands | Malaysia

Beneath the surface

3 and 4 September 2026

I got up early, had my morning tea and breakfast at Bugan Suriya Restoran, and tried their idli, vada and upma. They were delicious. Back at the hostel, I packed up and got ready to leave. Our van arrived at around 8 a.m. The driver was a Sardarji. The driver stopped for toilet break and food along the way.

At one of the stops, I withdrew some money from an ATM, as cards might not be accepted on the island. We changed vans at a one point, as some of the passengers were heading to Taman Negara. I spoke to a young German traveller who was travelling through Malaysia after having visited Vietnam. I asked him if he had done the Ha Giang Loop, my favourite experience from my Vietnam trip. He told me it was his favourite too and that he planned to return with his group of friends to do it again.

The hills gradually gave way to forests and then to flat land filled with palm tree plantation. As we approached the east coast, I saw several villages with houses surrounded by trees laden with rambutans and longans. It was the season for these delicious tropical fruits.

When we stopped for food at a local food court, I tried a drink made from corn called jagung. It was delicious.

We reached Kuala Besut at around 5 p.m. Here, the bus agency guided us to the jetty. We had two tickets—one for the journey there and another for the return. We could inform the agency a day before we planned to return.

The boat ride was quick, taking almost 40 minutes. The sea was rough, though, and the waves hit the ferry hard, creating a deep, thudding noise. We stopped at Coral Bay and Marriott Beach before heading to the other side of the island, where we were staying—Long Beach, on Perhentian Kecil.

We had to walk some distance and enter the jungle to reach the hotel. I was not particularly impressed with the island. I had seen such beautiful islands in Cambodia and Bali that, in comparison, this one did not seem particularly special.

At the hotel, a Pakistani man at the reception greeted me with a smile. He assured me in Urdu that he had given me a good room. He told me, “Koi masala hai toh boliyega.” (If you have any problem, let me know.)

We freshened up and stepped out for dinner. There were several restaurants by the beach, and we picked one at random. After speaking to the cook, I ordered a vegetarian pasta. But it wasn’t particularly good, partly because the cook didn’t understand me very well. When I told him I didn’t want meat, he would repeat, “Don’t want milk?” I think he mistook my pronunciation of “meat” for “milk”. So my white-sauce pasta wasn’t particularly saucy. Anyways, I was glad that it did not contain any meat.

The next morning, Michael and I headed to the beach at around 9 a.m. We decided to walk to Coral Bay. Michael didn’t feel like taking a dip because he felt there were too many boats in the area and that they might have released oil into the water. I, however, had a good time. When I spotted some fish, I decided to rent a pair of snorkelling goggles for RM10. Even without swimming too far from the shore, I was able to see corals and colourful fish below. It was so exciting.

Later, we walked to the slightly secluded Golden Sand Beach. I wading and soaking myself in shallow waters and then sat down by the shore.

There is a great pleasure in doing nothing. And by nothing, I mean absolutely nothing—not reading a book, not eating, not painting, not even thinking. Just sitting by the beach and watching the world pass by.

Watching nature move through its endless, familiar cycle of change, repeating itself every single day, yet never quite the same.

No past to revisit. No future to anticipate. No analysis, no judgement, no need to make sense of anything. Just observation. Just being present as the present reveals itself, moment by moment, right in front of you.

Perhaps this is meditation—not the conquest of thought, but freedom from the compulsion to think.

Perhaps this is Carpe Diem: not to grasp it, possess it, or fill it with experiences, but to let it be completely what it is.

To sit still enough to discover that life does not always need to be lived intensely. Sometimes, it is enough simply to be alive.

We had lunch at Pit Stop Restaurant. I had some rather ordinary Thai curry with rice. But the food hardly mattered. It was simply relaxing to sit by the beach, feel the breeze, and do absolutely nothing.

Back at the hotel, we took a nap. In the evening, I headed out again. I first went to Long Beach and took a dip there. I couldn’t see many fish, so I headed to Coral Bay.

Coral Bay has much nicer hotels, and the beach is definitely better than Long Beach. Long Beach, however, has more restaurants. In any case, the two are close to each other, connected by a forest path that takes about 20 minutes to walk.

Here, I had one of my best snorkelling experiences. The tide had receded, allowing me to walk quite a long distance into the shallow water. In the nearly one hour I spent there, I saw so many colourful fish and corals.

This was my first time snorkelling, and what a beautiful revelation it was. Even in these shallow waters, there was an entire universe unfolding beneath me—corals in improbable shapes and fish in an astonishing array of colours.

It is fascinating how little it takes to cross into another world. A pair of goggles, a simple tube, and suddenly the familiar disappears. The surface that separates us from the sea becomes a kind of threshold, and beneath it lies a world that has always existed, quietly and independently, beyond our gaze.

Perhaps that is what makes exploration so alluring. There are worlds everywhere, hidden not because they are distant, but because we have never thought to look beneath the surface.

At sunset, Michael joined me there, and we relaxed for a while before heading back to Long Beach. There was some kind of tourism festival happening on the beach. Local musicians were singing and playing traditional instruments, adding a lively atmosphere to the evening.

We walked to another random shack, where I had a tasty vegetarian pita burger. The food at the island was expensive, and even worse, the taste often didn’t seem worth the price. I kept comparing the place with Bali.

Despite all my disappointments with the island, I was genuinely glad to have had my first snorkelling experience here. It made up for many of the things that had disappointed me.

Tired after an eventful day, we returned to the hotel and went to bed early.

To Be Continued…