Daily Life

Alarm: 7 am. Snooze. Kick out my feet from the blanket, it’s not as cold as it used to be.

Alarm: 7:10 am. Throw blanket off of me, it’s getting too warm in the room. Snooze.

Alarm: 7:20 am. Snooze. Roll on side to allow trapped heat under me to escape, cooling my back.

Alarm: 7:30 am. Look up through the hole in the roof to try to determine if it’s raining, so I can sleep in. Snooze.

Alarm: 7:40 am… The first of many morning rituals here on the island. It starts with the joyous feeling of being cold. Somewhere in the 5-6 am time frame, I turn over, cover my feet and use my little blanket to stay warm. Then, at about 7:00am, the power goes off, and the alarm turns on.

Once I have realized its too warm to continue sleeping, I drag myself out of bed and to the bathroom across the lawn for the morning release and brushing my teeth. Then I go up, find the least smelly shirt, throw it on and tie up my board shorts. I’m already sweating, too tired to face the direct sunlight and hungry. I cross the lawn, cross the little bridge over what used to be flooded, but now is a swamp and to the shop. Up the wooden steps and then I step in the cool buckets of water to wash your feet free of sand before entering the shop. I’m one of 2-3 people here, one of the first. The shop is still locked, which means no coffee. No biscuits… Task one: sweep the floor. It’s a slightly ridiculous task, sweeping off sand from the shop, since it’s on the beach so there is no way to control the sand. It simply falls beneath the cracks.

Once someone with the key comes, we open up, boil some water and get the biscuits and coffee out. It’s what fuels the early morning dives. Bring out some merchandise, and open the gear room. If you have a dive that day, you set up the equipment, if you’re assisting, you get it ready, but leave it for the students to set up. Then you set your equipment up, check the board to see who is going where and when, then make a coffee, grab some cookies, and zone out while everyone else slowly arrives.
We have an amazing view, yet always decide to shut the screen because the morning sun is too hot. Dripping with sweat by 8:30 am isn’t as fun as you might think. We lounge around until divers are here, dropping eyes and big smiles, excited to check out the waters. It’s not a bad place to work, since most customers know diving is all about the conditions, and luck. Most are just happy to be in the water.

We work through the day doing different tasks. Being a DMT (Dive Master Trainee) I am at the bottom, scrubbing bins, picking up trash, cleaning equipment, getting everything ready, grading tests, getting students set up, discussing different topics about diving and theory to the students, cleaning, sweeping, and studying.
As a DMT I am a third student, a third shop employee and a third servant. It’s part of the territory. Today some people are going to Temple. Sunrise dive, luckily I didn’t have to wake up for that. In the afternoon is T3, a nice boulder playground with lots of swim-throughs. The afternoon rounds off with D’Lagoon, a nice hard coral reef with sandy outskirts, home to some nice fish. Not a bad day…

Sunset from Long Beach

Student Divers

Open Water Scuba Divers. These people come into the shop with little to no experience in diving. They want to check it out, see what it’s all about. They’re the most exhausting students to teach, and the most rewarding. As a DMT all I can do is assist the course, helping out the trained and qualified instructors as they see fit.

Day 1: Theory, Videos, Quizzes, Theory, Video Quizzes. Nothing to do but make sure they’re in the classroom and watching, and go over the questions with them.

Day 2: Confined skills 1-5. These are skills done, underwater and on the surface, in 2 meters of water. It’s to train them how to use scuba in a controlled environment, with no risk of danger.

Day 3: Open water dives 1 and 2. These take you deeper, 10-12 meters, continuing education on skills, problem solving and technique.

Day 4: Dives 3 and 4. These continue to develop skills, techniques and problems, go deeper to 18 meters, and also let you enjoy the fun of being underwater, checking out fish and looking for some interesting marine life.

Within 4 days you can be certified to dive anywhere in the world up to 18 meters. Not a bad course, and it’s fun. For the students, many are thrilled just to be in the water. They don’t care about anything else. Breathing underwater is cool, no matter where you do it. For the instructors, you get to see people really grow and develop their skills. For a trainee, you get to spend hours sitting in sand, holding people down, babysitting, chasing after people who sink or float, grabbing lost equipment, helping people in and out of the boat, carrying anything needed, giving proper examples of how to do underwater and surface skills, and more sitting in the sand, holding people down, pushing them up, dragging them left and right, trying your best not to let them devastate the coral around them, as they try desperately to perfect their buoyancy…

My first course was three Danish guys, about 20 years old. The first challenge came in fitting gear to them. None of them were under 6’3’’. They had huge feet, and were too tall for our wetsuits. We did out best to give them gear that fit, and convinced them it’s much cooler to dive in shorts. We briefed them on all the videos, they took their quizzes and passed all tests. Then it was to the water. Keeping them in the confined area was hard enough, because on their knees they pretty much broke the surface of the water, yet we can’t take them any deeper. Learning how to hover and swim in water they can stand up in isn’t the easiest task, but it’s manageable.

During the open water dives it was easier, more room to swim around. Easier for them. As a DMT I am told to stay behind, watching for possible problems. And yes, there can be MANY problems. One starts to get too buoyant and is drifting up to the surface. This is dangerous if they ascend too fast, and can cause serious medical issues. Dart up, grab his BCD (vest to help you control buoyancy). Deflate and push him down, while telling him to equalize. Then you see on sinking fast. Dart down as fast as you can to grab his tank and pull him up, before he crushes the small table coral formations below him. Crisis averted… for now. One more goes up, one goes down, one tries doing a backflip and ends up sinking upside down, one gets too close to dangerous (mainly painful) corals and you have to grab and spin him out of the way, then one is missing. Where is he? At the surface, he shot up when no one was looking. It’s like babysitting a bunch of 5 year old giants.

But soon they get better. There is lest drifting up and down, more stability, better control of buoyancy and demonstration of skills. Then they can enjoy seeing the schools of snapper, or giant pufferfish. A blue-spotted stingray tries to hide from them, but they are learning to find signs of life. They even get to see huge bumphead parrotfish and a small turtle. They realize with control, confidence and staying relaxed they can enjoy the dive and natural life. You realize, that all the help you have been giving, and the instructor teaching them, that they are becoming capable divers. It’s rewarding to know that you helped them out, and when you surface from the final dive, they’re excited and ready to go out and celebrate. It’s a fun feeling, helping people control and perfect a new set of skills and knowledge new to them. Also, you get to live on the beach.

I have also helped during the Advanced Open Water course, where the divers are already certified and learning to fine-tune their skills. They can choose from deep dives, wreck dives, drift dives, night dives, multi-level dives, learning about underwater photography, or videography, and more. It’s a great way for a diver to start getting into a specialty that he or she really likes. And gives you much more variety on where you can dive, and what you can do. Helping on those is easy, because the divers are more confident and have already gone open water training and some even have had some extra fun diving experience. What’s great is now they can go deeper, see more things, and they are just as excited as the new open water students.

Soon I’ll get to help out on a refresher course (dad) and maybe even a discover scuba (mom) which is for people who have never been diving in their lives, and learn the theory and skill they need for one single dive, all in one day.

The school part for me is fun also. I have learned about the equipment, dive theory, recreational dive planning, advanced dives and specialty dives, programs through PADI and what I can and cannot do. One great thing I was able to be a part of was the Stress Dive for the DMT who is about to finish his course. This is a dive, like any other, but where anything, and everything go wrong. It’s a group of instructors, DM’s and experienced divers. They are briefed on what to do underwater, and the DMT has to handle all situations as best he can. Dave is the DMT about to finish, and the divers were Taz, his instructor, Brian and Kan, a DM and experienced diver from the US/Thailand, his girlfriend Sue (Advanced). From a lost diver, to panic, to losing equipment, getting stuck in rope, trying to pick up dangerous things, not listening, running out of air, running into each other, going too fast or too slow, staying too close or too far away… Dave had to deal with all the problems at once. It was stressful, but he did a great job controlling us, and tonight we celebrate his success as a DMT and his debut into the world of a diving professional. Should be fun!

My Office :)

Welcome to Spice Divers!

Island Life: Storms

I woke up with a jolt. I had no idea what had startled me... but I laid in bed, heart thumping, mind racing, eyes trying to make sense of the darkness around me. FLASH! BOOM! My room is lit up by a streak of lightning and the bed rattles with the thunderous boom that follows. Oh... no problem, it's just a storm. I tried to turn over and go back to sleep, knowing that the air was cool, a wind was blowing and the storm would pass. I even tried to ignore the hole in my room that lets water splash around and hit me in the face. As long as my computer is covered and dry, no worries. Soon, I slip back into a restful sleep.

Click. Click-tip-tap. Tap-tap-tick, click. Tick tick tick tick TICK TICK TICK TICK SHHHHWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA: Downpour. It has about a 5 second lead up, with a couple big drops hitting the tin roof, but within seconds, the full downpour is flooding my ears. No point in trying to sleep now. It's about 7 am, and it sounds like I'm sleeping under Niagra Falls. Thinking I could just ignore it, I roll over, and try to get some more sleep. I don't have to be at the shop till 8:00, and if the weather is still bad, maybe we won't even go out. CRACK! BOOM! More lightning and thunder? Guess so. But this time, much closer. Much louder. Much better than my alarm clock. I'm awake. It's 7:30, and I'm pretty sure the island is flooding. I get up, and run to the bathroom in my bathing suit, since I'm soaked before I get the bottom of the stairs, not much point in putting on clothes. Upon returning, I pack up my stuff, throw a sweatshirt on my computer, and wrap it in a plastic cover, and walk over to the shop in my board shorts, as they're the only thing I have that will dry fast.

The flooded area, which is now an electric green swamp...

I'm lucky, the bridge is still working (later it's submerged in water, and sinks when you stand on it). I get to the shop around 7:45, no one is there, it's all soaked, and so i take a chair and enjoy the rain. New rivers rush by the shop, dumping their particulate mess into the bay, swirling with the winds and waves, creating a dirty mixture of sandy water, horrible for diving near the shore... reducing visibility. The morning dive is canceled, too much wind and rain and lightning and thunder. Guess when out in the middle of the ocean, no one wants to be the one left in the boat during a lightning storm. We all go for breakfast: Roti Canai (Roe-tee cha-nai) with a delicious dipping sauce. It's like fried flatbread with a curry sauce. A movie comes on and most people fall into the "island rainy day" trance, which involves doing absolutely nothing, always being tired, and eating all day. I went back to the shop, grabbed my stuff, and went to the room to read. I had tests to take, papers to read, facts to memorize... fun fun fun.

I studied and took a test. FAIL. I restudied and retook the test. PASS. Then I studied for another test. FAIL. (I was misinformed on what to study). I got the right information, retook th test. PASS. Deciding to go off on a win, I stopped studying. At this point it was evening, mosquitoes were out and it was warming up (with that post-rain muggy feeling). Some of the Dive Masters and Instructors from out shop took out the volleyball and hit it around. I joined, and then so did a couple others, and soon we had a 4 v. 4 game going. Then some Kuala Lumpur people came, and we had a 6 v. 6 game of beach volley. We're all horrible, but it was fun. Had a German, Swiss, Aussie, French, American, Malay, and Dutch. Not too shabby for an international game.

We played until it was getting too dark, sore from hitting the ball, drenched in sweat, and tired. I went to the back of the shop to shower in the outdoor showers, since the ocean was dirty from the runoff, and was greeted by a small snake, trying to take over the shower space. I tried removing him with a broom, but he kept attacking it, so i finally just hit/swiped him away. Later, one of the locals told me it's poisonous... but who knows...

Take away dinner from the "blue" beach restaurant and then to my room for an early night, some studying and reading, and watching Scrubs. The island is still flooded, but we're hoping the rain won't come back again tonight... If it does, I might be needing my SCUBA in the hut!

DMT: Mapping

Today was my first official act as a DMT. The other DMT, Dave (who has been doing it for about 5 weeks now, and almost finished) and I were dropped at a sight alone, and told to map the dive site. This means we have to take a dive site and map it onto a piece of paper, or draw what the dive site looks like, both physically and geographically. For this, we can take measurements however we see fit. We decided to first check out the site from above via snorkeling, but once we arrived at the site, the visibility wasn’t great, so we snorkeled to the end of the point, deflated out BCD’s (vests in which we can add air to become buoyant at the surface) and dropped down to the ocean floor.

We spent some time checking out the area, and I did some depth measurements and also sketched some of what we saw. However, after checking out the whole area, we decided we didn’t like the site very well, so we are going to do another location instead. It’s nearby, a little deeper, and our shop doesn’t have too much information on it, so it will benefit the shop as well.
This past week, I have also mapped out my plan for DMT, over the next 6 weeks (2 of which will be vacation when the elderly folks come out). I hope to have finished everything by the end of June. The first week of DMT consists of reading 4 chapters from my Dive Master Manuel, completing one chapter in my workbook, reading two chapters of the diving encyclopedia, taking 4 tests, doing a skill circuit (set of 20 skills), watching videos, observing the other DMT do his training skills, observing the other DM’s and instructors on fun dives, courses and general knowledge around the shop. It’s a hectic week, but the more I learn, the more I can do.
I have also settled into the island life a little more. We’re still waiting for wifi at the shop (we are all getting desperate) but they say it should be coming tomorrow (that’s what they say everyday)… I am getting to know the instructors, dive masters, boat captains and shop owners a little better, and learning where the best pizza is, the cheapest beer, the cheapest food, the best deal for food, to find free water (even if it tastes funny), and good places for a night out. Everyone in the shop (and the island) is really great and friendly. For one of the Rescue Diver objectives, I had to go to all the dive shops on this side of the island, ask them about their emergency response plan, number of boats and oxygen capabilities in the event of an emergency, so I got to see the other shops, and meet the people. Everyone is really chilled out, laid back, and extremely outgoing, so its pretty fun.

What comes next will be the second Mapping quest (or first, as we chose a new site). We have a general dive plan, objectives set out, and the proper equipment ready. We took out the boat, now looking for Black Coral Pinnacle, a deeper sight located off the northwest tip of the big island. We dropped in and went down to about 35 meters, but the current was unbelievably strong, and I also started feeling a little weird (which happens with deeper dives). Fighting the current and feeling weird, I just stayed behind in the back, trying to conserve my energy, but soon we all realized it was a losing battle, and we head back up to the surface to regroup. We were only down for about 20 minutes, and at the surface realized the current took us WAY off course, and spent the next 20 minutes trying to get our boat’s attention. With that failing, we kept swimming towards the island, so we wouldn’t get pulled out into the open sea, but soon another boat came by, saw us, and went to inform our boat captain, who came to pick us up soon after. It was a complete fail of a dive, and we have now decided to scrap the idea of mapping a relatively new site, and will be mapping the local site at the end of our beach, because it’s the easiest and closest to get to.

The afternoon was spent watching videos of skill circuit. This is a set of 20 skills both on land, on the surface of the water, and underwater, that you have to master before you can become a dive master. They range from buddy checks, ascents, descents, and practicing buoyancy, air depletion and other skills. They are what most people will practice when they do a refresher course, or need a scuba tune up. I only practiced a couple skills (mask clearing, hovering, back roll into the water) and got some scores to see where I stand. Out of the 20 skills, you need to score a certain total amount, with scores ranging from 1-5. I’m hoping to score at least 75 or 80. You only need 65 to pass. The instructor brought her camera, so we were able to record a couple skills and see what we looked like, and will do some more practice tomorrow.

As of now it’s all about reading, taking tests, reading, reading some more, taking other tests, and
getting into the water once or twice a day for skills. It’s really tiring, and sometimes I’m at the shop for over 13 hours, and then spend the evenings studying or having a late dinner and relaxing. It’s great fun still, and tomorrow I plan to go to Temple of the Sea, one of the two top dive sites in the area. I’m very excited about it, and will post once I get the chance!

EFR and Rescue Diver

Before being able to start my Divemaster training, I needed two certifications before I could get started. First, I did my EFR and CPR course. It was one day, reading a book, watching a video, and practicing CRP, rescue breaths, and oxygen tank on a dummy. My instructor, Apek was a really fun guy, and good instructor. He’s Malaysian, and been living working on the island for a long time.

The CPR course is a prerequisite for the Rescue Diver course that I would be attempting next. The course also went over the basic first aid and secondary care for injuries. This included bandages, bleeding, pressure points, etc. It is an overall good course to have because it’s general information that can be applied anywhere. So it was good to refresh up on the basic skills. I took a course similar years ago, so an update was needed.

Following the quick refresher course on EFR and CPR I started the reading on the Rescue Diver course. This course would focus on my ability to help people in and out of the water. The Rescue Diver is one of the more challenging courses I’ve done because you had to think quickly for problems that arise suddenly. We learned different rescue techniques both on shore, and in the water. In the water, I learned about techniques for surface rescues and also underwater problems. As you may assume, MANY things can happen underwater. Tiredness, panic attacks, faulty equipment, lost buddies, buoyancy issues… a lot can happen. So I learned different ways and techniques on dealing with everything.

The hardest part of the course is the surface tow to safety for an unconscious diver who isn’t breathing. It involved 5-second intervals where you had to keep the person’s airway open, above the surface and also without water getting in. You also have to keep your hand clean of water for when administering rescue breaths and also slowly remove the required equipment for the easiest exit from the water. This means, within the 5 seconds you have one second to clean your hand, one second to plug his nose, and get ready to breath, one second to breath, and two whole free seconds to start removing equipment (which involves buckles, Velcro, dangling lines, buoyancy issues, etc.

It takes a lot of practice to start getting the rhythm down, something I will continue to work on. Then, once you get them to the boat, pier, or shore, you have 30 seconds to get them in, up on out of the water. On the boat was hardest because you have to hold him out of the water (lifeguard exit), get in the boat, get your fins off, pull him up into the boat (alone, because it’s better practice, or so they said) and to start CPR. After practicing multiple times, you’re exhausted from swimming, kicking, unclipping, pulling, dragging, Coring…

It took a couple days to complete the course, and I’ll get to practice the skills over and over during the Divemaster course. Apek was my instructor again, and the other DMT (divemaster trainee, who has been here over a month and is almost finished) was the victim.

Other skills we learned were how to run search patterns for a missing diver, and how to get unresponsive divers underwater safely to the surface. The missing diver was fun, because you have to close your eyes, and the victim goes and “hides” and you have to run search patterns looking for him. It’s a good skill to have incase anyone goes missing.
But the part that everyone else has the most fun with is surface rescues for tired and panicked divers. Sometimes, as the boat would be starting off to head out for the dive (with other fun divers on board) someone would fall off and pretend to start drowning. I would have to grab a floatation device (anything I could find that was reasonably buoyant) ask people to point and spot him, and if I couldn’t throw, reach, wade or grab him, would get my fins, mask and snorkel, enter the water and go rescue him. But as I was helping him, someone else would fall from the other side of the boat, and I would have to make sure the first victim was ok, and then go help the second. They did this a couple times, in different places. One dive, underwater another instructor panicked and froze and I had to help her, as I was running my search pattern for a missing diver, and then when her group surfaced (far from the boat) one stayed behind and pretended to drown, so I had to rescue him. By far, that was the most exhausting day I’d had in a long time, rescue attempts before, during and after the dive. There was even one shore event where I had to run from the shop out into the water and help a tired swimmer.

They really want to make sure you have some knowledge and real work scenario practice during rescue events so that if it ever happens for real, I will be better prepared to deal with whatever happens. Much much more practice like this will be implemented during the Divemaster program, which I will be starting very soon.

The beginning...

The view from my office :)

I’m sitting here in my new office. Wooden floors, bright and cheery. We have no windows, and the floor is usually wet and covered with sand. Our front entrance has small buckets of water for people to stand in before coming up. This keeps even more sand from being tracked around. The day starts at around 8 am, or so, with cups of coffee, sitting around, and getting gear ready.

Today starts my first official day in the process of becoming a Divemaster. Before I can even start that, I need to get certified for Emergency First Response, CPR, and Rescue Diving. These are all the prereq’s for becoming a Divemaster, anywhere in the world.

Let’s start from a week ago, when I left Asian University and headed South. Camp finished, and after a challenging exit procedure (which involved running down the highway trying to flag down any bus headed to Bangkok) we arrived in Bangkok, during a ridiculously hot period (up to 40 degrees). That’s 104 degrees. To make things better, my friend’s apartment where I was staying had a broken Aircon machine. We both ended up on the floor with one fan locked onto our faces. Let’s just say it wasn’t the most relaxing night.

The following morning, I woke up early and went to a nearby mall to go to tbe bank and deal with transferring my money back to America. The bank and mall didn’t open till 11 am. We went back to grab a bankbook for a friend, then walked to another bank, also not opening till 11, and they directed us to a third bank. There we spent over 2 hours trying to transfer money, and in the end was only able to transfer half. The other half I took CASH and put it in my pocket.. This took longer than I wanted, and I had to rush back to get my bags and rush to the train station to get my train at 1 pm. If you know how Bangkok traffic can be… it was lucky we made it!

At the train station I had about 10 minutes to spare before my train took off, and if I mentioned, it was 104 degrees. I decided on a second class fan sleeper train, which a week earlier seemed like a great idea. Now, sitting and profusely sweating, I regretted the decision.. The train took off, and spent the next 6 hours slowly making it out of Bangkok and down the western side of Thailand.

Saying it was hot is simply an understatement. It was unbearable. I almost fell asleep at one point, and woke up with sweat dripping off my face, my arms, and down my legs. My back and butt were wet from the train seats and I’m pretty sure I became dehydrated within the first hour of the ride. At one point, we stopped for about 20 minutes, and half of my train car (all thais) ran off and bought big bags of ice. Then, another woman pulls out a knife, and starts cutting our bottle tops off, creating huge cups, to which we fill with ice and water, and hold to our faces. So it was a nice break from the cool. It was my personal saving grace.

The train ride was ok after that, and only took about 22 hours to get to Sungai Kolok, the border town next to Malaysia. Off the train and on a motorcycle taxi to the border, and another notoriously sweaty and hot border crossing to Malaysia, a taxi into town and I was in Kota Bharu, northeastern Malaysia. I got dropped off at the bus station but was told the next bus to my city was 2 hours later, so I took a bus to a small city as a transfer, and made it to the port city in time for the last boat, or so I thought.

I bought a ticket and was told to wait until there was an announcement. I never heard the announcement. When I went back to check with the boat office people, they were shocked to find out I was still here. In the office they told me to wait till tomorrow, and a German guy was also trying to get a boat ticket, so we befriended and shared a hostel for the night. A ramshackle, dirty, ant-infested hostel.

It was the 3rd bad night sleep in a row, and we woke up to take a 10 am boat and head off to the Perhentians. The morning went off smooth, no problems, and on the island we walked around for about an hour trying to find somewhere that was cheap. But nothing is cheap here. We were paying double what we wanted but it was too hot to keep looking, so we took a room, showered and drank liters of water.

I went to talk to a dive shop I had been recommended to, liked it, and booked up the next 2 months of my life with them. Then I went around to the chalets that they recommend, and booked one for the next month, more expensive than I’d prefer, but better than daily prices. We spent the afternoon trying to stay cool, and look for the cheapest food on the island (which is a preorder for the next day rice packet). Then I started learning about EFR and CPR, watched a boring video about the same thing I just read, and watched a movie before bed.

This is the view from my room

On May 13th I started my CPR training and my Rescue Diving bookwork. Honestly I just can’t wait to get into the water, and cool off, and start diving. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll start water dives, or this afternoon if I can push my way into it. We’ll see. Hopefully I’ll get some pictures up soon of the beach, island, my house, etc.

The view from my steps/front yard
My A-frame house

The Journey Begins in ONE WEEK!

In one week I will drop off a boat, slowly descend to the ocean floor, and begin a new chapter in my life abroad. I am finished with school bells, work clothes and grading papers. Instead, its time for dive briefs, buddy checks and regulators. I'm turning in my life as an English teacher to become something I've always loved doing. A scuba diving professional. I plan to take a 6-week course on the stunning island of Perhentian Kecil where I will learn all there is to know about working in the diving world.

Upon completion of the course, I will be able to lead diving tours and also help assist students learning to dive. I've been wanting to do more diving ever since I started diving on Semester at Sea, in 2005. We did a discover scuba course, where you learn in a pool and then dive the afternoon in the ocean. I was so taken by the sheer majesty of the underwater world, that when I came home to university, I enrolled in an Open Water PADI scuba course, learning the basics of diving off the California coast.

Last year, on a tour of Malaysia, I recieved my Advanced Open Water SSI certification on the Perhentian Islands. I knew I'd be back for more once I went to Sipidan, and island off Malaysian Borneo with some of the best diving in the world. That location literally blew my mind, as I had never imagined such amazing and breathtaking scenery, animals and life just below the surface of the water. So as I close the book on teaching (for now) I will start a new adventure, one that I am stoked about. This blog will serve as my way to log my experiences living on a small tropical island learning to become a dive professional.

FYI, Perhentian Kecil is the smaller of two islands off the north eastern coast of peninsular Malaysia. It's so small, that there are no cars, no motorbikes, not even bicycles. (the small town may have some, but not the main beaches) There are two main beaches on the island, Long Beach and Coral Bay. They are connected by a 10 minute walk along a small footpath. Other than that, it's just bungalows, restaurants and dive shops. It's a wonderfully serene place, big with backpackers looking for island life, without the island parties. Wake up, read a book, nap, swim, eat, sleep. The simple life...