With my mum here it seemed the perfect opportunity to show off one of our beautiful Malaysian islands, Pulau Perhentian Kecil. I had been counting down to this trip. Since moving to KL I have realised how much I miss access to the ocean and I just love to go to an island at any given opportunity.

We drove to Cherating on the third day of Hari Raya. Traffic was good to us and we arrived as rain started to fall. That’s ok, we thought, rain doesn’t happen for long here. Last time I was in Cherating was December 2020 and it rained the ENTIRE time. What is it about this place and rain? We stayed at the Royale Chulan. Cheap and cheerful, no complaints about the room. The issue we found was there were zero places open to buy food. We had to rely on a roti man to provide us with the only sustenance available in Cherating…cheese roti. I wasn’t really complaining.

The next day we drove the 3.5 hours to Kuala Besut jetty. This is where things got interesting. It was raining (still) and when we got to the jetty the woman at the boat counter warned us we were in for an ‘uncomfortable’, ‘wet’ journey. I, of course, knew that the boat was a small boat with a motor but I didn’t realise that my mum thought the boat was an actual ferry. Oops. It was a life or death kind of feeling during the journey. We got soaked, we bounced around, Ayla cried and was terrified. It was pretty far from the vision I had portrayed and I felt really bad that I had dragged everyone into this horrendous weather situation. Anyhow, we got there. Still raining. We stayed at Ombak Dive Resort on the small island. I have stayed here before. It is a great location, friendly staff and the price is still ok (Perhentians has become more and more expensive).

Day 1 and day 2- torrential rain. Never have I ever experienced so much rain on an island. It was so sad. The waves were intense,the sky was grey, people were inwardly fuming. There is nothing to do when it is raining on a tropical island. I messaged my friends who were on East Coast Islands to complain about the rain. On and on it rained. The only person who didn’t care was Ayla. She thought it was amazing.

Then…finally…the sun shone! Hallelujah! The island was back to life and so was I. Obviously then we got burnt, but we were happy. The beautiful water was back. The beach vibes were back. The fish were back.

The next day my mum and I went on a snorkeling trip. She had never snorkeled before but she was as captivated by the underwater world as me. We saw sharks, hundreds of fish but sadly no turtles. We used Yellow Station boat service on Coral Bay to charter our own boat. This is because I am a snob when it comes to snorkeling and I cannot stand people who feed fish, stand on coral, disrespect the ocean etc. We went to the usual snorkeling spots and it was a great underwater day. My mum managed to get in and out of the boat (just about) and had a great time as well. My favourite part of the trip was when our teenage driver asked me to go into the water with him to help dislodge the anchor from a rock. When I asked him why he needed my help, thinking he wanted me to dive down, he said he was scared of sharks… So I went in with him  as protection from a large shark he had seen once before whilst he got the anchor out from the rock. I kind of wish we had seen a 2m Black Tipped Reef Shark just to see what his reaction would be!

Later that day we enjoyed some beach time with Ayla, who is very much an island girl already. I will always return to the East Coast islands. Although Tioman has my heart, Perhentians is a better choice for a family trip because it is more accessible to get to and when you are there.

On our way back we stopped at ViVilla in Cherating. Weird vibes. We had our own 2 bedroom villa but the two rooms weren’t connecting. From a security point of view this was an odd decision.  The rooms were dated but the private pool and general pool facilities were really great.  It is right on the beach with its own loungers as well.

Until next time East Coast. Thanks for the (rainy) memories.