from Dublin to........Mirissa, Sri Lanka: Paradise in the Perhentians....The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Perhentian Islands, Malaysia

Stunning islands. Anywhere that you have to get a boat to automatically fills you with a sense of calm and relaxation....tranquility, unless you are hurling up chunks. Luckily the waters were extremely calm.

A perfect day on arrival. The water clarity was exceptional. Long Beach where I was staying on Kecil wasn't nearly as long as I had anticipated....even better, less room for development. Beautiful fine sand, a thick jungley mess that blanketed the entire island and ocean water that was almost too warm. How could you not like this place?

The Good

As already mentioned, the beach. A decent stretch of sand that you can wade out in for quite some time before you would drown. No broken coral, no sea urchins and surprisingly devoid of rubbish. Sunbeds and umbrellas line the beach and can be rented for MYR10 per day (it is actually illegal to charge for them - local government policy but do you think anybody abides by that when they aren't there to police it???). The afternoon sun will cast sufficient shadows from the palm trees anyway. At both ends of the beach are rocks covered in corals with plenty of fish life.

In the south end, you need to make your way a few hundred metres along the rocks (generally quite calm, can get pretty choppy) to reach the main underwater coral area. The next 100 metres or so, keep your eye out close to the water's edge for small baby black tip reef sharks. The owner of Lemongrass bungalows, Seen, showed me them. It was his daily exercise regime. Every day after I went to visit them, never not finding at least a couple. The most I ever saw at once was 30 of them. The mother does lurk around there as well but I didn't get to see her. Apparently she is very large, big enough to scare the crap out of a few guests he took there one day. They wanted to go back straight away.

If it is corals and fish diversity you are after, go north to the more protected end of the beach. Walk under the jetty and swim along the rocks past the flapping life jackets. Here you will find alligator garfish, clown fish, angel fish, bat fish, many different coloured giant clams, a few pinnacles about 50-75 from the edge (half way along) that are quite cool, parrot fish, the odd blue-spotted ray and eels. You could go all the way around the point, if you had fins, into the next bay where there is hardly anybody. A decent swim.

After 3pm, some locals sell rice and curry and small sweets at a stand in the middle of the beach. Probably the cheapest food you will find on the island outside of the fishing village which is only accessible by boat. Try the sweet pandan rice flour treats. Similar to Korean sweets.

The Bad

The monotonousness of Long Beach. Every night is exactly the same as the last. It gets boring quickly. The same beach bars play the same music, have the same fire-dancers doing the same routine, serve the same food. There is no imagination here. How about doing something a little bit different each night? This was a rather disappointing aspect to Kecil.

The other thing that frustrated me was the way most of the diving operators ran their businesses. I didn't like it. If you wanted to do three dives in a day you would have to get on a boat on three different occasions to be whisked out to the various dive sights. Annoying and it leads to shorter dive times. I gave up in the end. Since being there I have heard that there are in fact a few decent operators there among the many very average ones.

The Ugly

The local teenagers and young adults who basically operate everything there....from the bars, the dive masters, the taxis, the tour guides.....it goes on. I didn't like them one bit. They demonstrated no care or safety and often behaved in an outright dangerous manner putting tourist's lives at risk. There are dozens of tiny taxi boats all along the beach. The vast majority of kids that operate these speed into the beach through swimmers without any sense of care. You had to be on constant guard. I couldn't really relax in the water unless I knew I was well away from them.

This behaviour resulted in the death of a young German the day I arrived, run over by a boat. It isn't the first incident either. Be really careful.

Stayed at Lemongrass Bungalows - very basic but a really nice and chilled out owner who operates it with his brothers. If he can't be bothered getting another guest in he wont answer the phone. I suggested that this probably wasn't the right way to approach his business.