6 posts tagged perhentian
I’ve tried to write longer posts about my stay on Perhentian Kecil, but it can be hard to write about what you love, and each time I started to I wasn’t happy with the results. So instead I’m going to let the photos (along with my shorter posts HERE, HERE, and HERE) do most of the work. Enjoy! :)
I wrote this incredibly enthusiastic blurb on the night I arrived on Perhentian Kecil. It was warranted; we ended up staying 10 days. Go here.
My first dive after getting my PADI open water certification. Visibility wasn’t great but it was still pretty epic to be diving a shipwreck.
Charms of staying in the cheapest places you can find. #surpriseguests
We needed to get the hell out of Thailand, and fast. Our visa expired in less than 24 hours, and we were slowly finding out how completely the transport shuts down in Ko Lanta during the low season. We were originally planning on heading to Langkawi, a Malaysian island group that is so north it’s practically in Thailand, but that idea was scrapped as we learned exactly how limited our southbound boat options were. Short answer, we didn’t have any.
Where the electricity only works 12 hours a day, where every time you eat at a restaurant you have to hunt someone down to give your money to, sometimes just writing the bill yourself, always staying as long as you want. Where no one is ever rushed at all, no one yells, no one is belligerently drunk, everyone is happy and friendly or at least blissfully chilled out; where the days of the week are irrelevant. Where smiles are plentiful but the fresh seafood is even more so. Where instead of roads you have dirt paths and the only transportation is by foot or by boat. A place with an ocean as clear as any resort pool, with colorful sea life, uncrowded beaches, and tranquil seas. A place exhibiting no dominant nationality, ethnicity, religion, or age group. A place where most accommodation is loosely maintained and the toilets always have lizards but never have paper, and everyone takes it in stride. Where there’s no hot water in the shower but you never really need it. Where you can relax in a cafe with a book for hours and not even buy anything, and no one will mind. Where the prawns are gigantic yet the same price as the chicken. Where there are no police and the only rule is to take off your shoes. Where $8 a night gets you a simple bed in a dorm with a million dollar view. A place that we’d never heard of but ended up at off a tip from a random Indian guy in the street ten minutes before we were about to set off somewhere else. This is the place I was imagining when I’d daydream in San Francisco about my upcoming trip to Thailand. Turns out it wasn’t in Thailand but rather Malaysia, and even better than I was hoping. Each day that I spend here makes it harder and harder to leave.
