It may have been a while since the last travel post I have made on my blog, but I will be gladly to share with you my experiences throughout the entire trip. Located just right on the bottom of South China Sea, on the upper part of Malaysia, Perhentian literally means “stops”. It’s a stop that everyone that loves island should at least spend time on this place. It’s exceptionally beautiful and you can’t really imagine that Malaysia has one of these gem hidden inside the country.
To get a glimpse on where it is located, click on the image above. It will lead you to Google Maps that points you to the exact location of the island. Perhentian is also located nearby to other exotic and popular islands such as Redang or Lang Tengah Island, which made this island special because of it’s coziness and less crowded compared to Redang. Generally, the island is separated into 2 piece of land which known as Perhentian Besar (Big Stop) and Perhentian Kecil (Small Stop). Funny but true.
What would be the best time to visit this miraculously beautiful island? It’s said that during the period of March-June where the Monsoon winds and rains were on the other side of the country, so you’ll definitely get a full blast sunlight on top of your head. We were there during the period where the locals would catch squids! Too bad we didn’t take part in it. Would be fun to have ink splashed on your face.
The crews on the trip, just a friendly disclaimer, all of the pictures on this 3 part of the trip, are not taken by me, though digital post-processing are done by me. So you might be able to see some different style in photography. In fact, I didn’t have my camera with me at that time.
Touchdown from Kuala Terengganu Airport
So, as soon as you reach the airport. It will take approximately 1 and half hour taxi trip to reach to the jetty that transfers you to the main island. Yes you read it right. No wrong about that. The distance are pretty far from the mainland. If you have previously made arrangement through online bookings, it would have been much easier since the fare from the airport to the jetty would priced approximately around R.M. 120(will update this information if it’s wrong) per cab. We were then drove towards the Kuala Besut jetty. Which again, would take approximately 30 minutes for you to reach the island from the jetty via speedboat.
As you leave the jetty, you might be surprised to know that there is a navy police stopping your boat for some formal identification inspection. So do not panic, get your I/C ready and co-operate with the officers.
As you can see, the path towards the island, is literally, limitless and vast. The wind’s strong and the speedboat’s fast. Hold on tight or you’ll be a feast to the fishes. Just joking.
The island far right from a distance.
And since this trip would consists only the tour around Perhentian Kecil, the first stop we reached is at this small jetty.
And as you can see, we have to walk across the bridge into our lodgings.
Surprisingly again, for such an isolated island, they really do have a lot of facilities, which includes Astro (Satellite TV!) and full bar on your mobile’s signal!
Name of the resort, Shari-La Island Resort. Note the Shari La, not Shangri-La.
The entrance.
One of the room we stayed in, it’s pretty cozy actually.
Up at a closer look.
The interior. Though that we felt it’s tad a bit dark due to no white fluorescent light being used, it’s pretty decent for a resort at this place, there’s satellite TV, there’s aircond and a damn big bathroom. What can you ask for more? The price for a room like this which can fit up to 4 adult, priced around R.M. 120 below during that time. (We figured out walk-ins prices were much cheaper!)
As you can see from the surroundings, it’s a pretty quiet for an island, compared to what you normally expect from Hawaii, for example. In fact, this is the quieter side of Perhentian Kecil, which on later part of this log, we would be staying on the crowder and more happening side of the small island.
While the weathers are definitely hot than the usual one you would expect from the city, do not expect the shops or restaurants on the island would be equipped with air-conds or even fans! 
And that is the fun part, for your information, as per the wiki as well, most of the appliances from the island are powered by either generator of the wind turbine! Cool eh.
Dipping your feet into the sand is a quick way to cool down your feet. And those mosquito bites.
Exploring Around
Not long after we have done with our foods, we started to walk around our resort and found out that there is this beautiful spot for casual swimming. The water’s are much clearer and colder!
And there’s a good point to staying at this part of the island at least one night, you get to see sunset!
Dinner time!
While it might a common sense to enjoy seafoods during these kind of trip, you might want to be extra cautious in where you want to dine, primarily as you would want to avoid being tipped off with bad tasting food and pricey ones. As you can see from the top 2 pictures, we, at first were attracted by them, but end up at the other place, which is far more crowder, and tastier! That probably explains where most of the local customers didn’t go for them, it’s either the word-of-mouth has spread around on what they did.
While going dutch would be the best option in such trip with friends, it never hurts by actually ordering various dish and share them together, so that you can taste variety of foods. And never forget to bath under the stars after dinner. 
Waking Up
Time does felt much slower to past, but you would definitely enjoy the fresh air around when you wake up.
The resort’s breakfast. Though at first we had a room with four person (4), we didn’t expect that the management only gives away 2 seats for breakfast, which mean you have to either purchase additional tickets for 2 other adult, or to opt for different breakfast outside of the hotel.
There’s flies as well.
Not to forget that this would be my first lifetime experience with kayak. A fun but tiring one. At least I got through the fear. And yes, please do remember put on the correct sun lotion if you ever want to enroll in such activities. I got a heavy sunburn from applying…the wrong ones.
Moving ahead to the other side
As you can see, it’s pretty a norm here to have a taxi, boat-style. Which you can either pay R.M. 15 (if i’m not mistaken) per person or walk through the hill across the island. Won’t take too long on a regular walk, needs a bit of strength in hiking up. For first timer would most probably take like 15-20 minutes. We took less than 10 minutes the second time.
And welcome to the other side of Perhentian Kecil!
And oh yes, the sand’s are ridiculously hot at this point of time that we felt like we’re toasted.
You can rent the umbrella for the whole day for a nominal fee of R.M. 10.
And yes, I would like to emphasize it’s ******* hot.
Below would be the other part of the series that you can continue on :
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Hi Man Meng,
I read abt your perhentian trip. Amazing. I am going tis aug 09. How much is your walk in price at Shari-La?
The twin room for 2 person is RM230 at their site ( RM115 per person )
What r the walkin rates ? Have a nice day
Do reply. My email address is aboutterence@gmail.com
Have a wonderful day.
Terence L