“Have you ever been scuba diving?”
“No.”
“Do you want to try?”
“Sure.”
“My Lonely Planet book says this island in Malaysia is one of the cheapest places to take a certification course.”
“OK, let’s go.”

If only all life-changing decisions were made this easily and arbitrarily.

We thought the night bus would bring us directly to Kuala Besut where we could catch the morning jetty to the island. But of course that would be much too easy. Instead the bus drops J and I off on the side of the road at 4 am. It’s pitch black and we have no idea where we are. Luckily, a man with a “taxi” (see: unidentified vehicle) is waiting to take us the rest of the way. How did he know we were coming? It’s better not to ask these questions in Southeast Asia. After a brief half-hearted negotiation on the fare — I did mention it was 4 am, right? — we hop in. He does take us to the correct destination and four hours and a jetty ride later, we arrive: Pulau Perhentian.

Map of Pulau Perhentian and dive sites (Photo credit: Julia Thompson)

Perhentian is composed of two islands, both with a plethora of dive shops to choose from. We stay on Kecil, the smaller of the two islands and more geared toward backpackers. Kecil has two main stretches of beach — Long Beach and Coral Bay — separated by a 10-minute walk along a jungle path. There are no roads, no cars, and no need to wear shoes. Ever. It’s the kind of place where you quickly start seeing the same faces daily and establish your usual hangouts. Ewan’s for breakfast every morning and a quick hop onto their WiFi network; Mama’s for delicious roti and noodles in between dives; end the night sitting on Long Beach enjoying beers and fire shows.

By day

By night

After a little research, J and I decide to do our Open Water course with Quiver. We choose Quiver because it seems friendly and professional but more likely because we want to make a quick decision and have the rest of our first day free to go swimming. Our arbitrary decision-making pays off once again because we end up having an awesome instructor (Alex!) and a great open water experience. In fact, we enjoy it so much that J and I each dish out an additional 900 Ringgit (~$277) to also complete our Advanced Open Water there. This is no light decision as there are no ATMs on the island and we have to hitch a ride on the Quiver boat to the mainland in between dives to get more cash to pay for the course.

Our classroom on land

Our classroom underwater (Photo credit: Jorge Gomez)

Advanced Open Water crew (Photo credit: Jorge Gomez)

“Studying” at Ewan’s

J and I going on our mainland ATM run (Photo credit: Jorge Gomez)

Alex teaches us a lot in those five days. He’s a wonderful instructor, and here are some of the things wonderful instructors do:
– Trade you his nice mask for your crappy rental one that keeps flooding.
– Patiently explain the intricacies of using dive tables and then tell you to toss that junk in the trash and buy a dive computer.
– Make you do the Macarena on land in front of the entire dive team and then again at 30m. This is obviously a critical dive skill.
– Toughen you up by making you climb stairs and slippery rocks with full gear on every day to get to and from the confined water.
– Silently sink out of the way while you narrowly miss being bitten by trigger fish.
– Introduce you to monkey piss.

I have a lot of “I can’t believe this is my life” moments on the island. Every day we’re in the water within an hour of waking up. After a full day of diving and learning, J and I walk over to Long Beach, swim in the ocean while watching the sunset, and talk about how life should always be this fulfilling. The last dive of our Advance Open Water is the night dive. The dive itself is great but what I will remember most is the moment when we surface. By then it’s completely dark and the sky is filled with stars. In the distance you can see the glimmering lights and hear music from the restaurants along Coral Bay. There we are, just floating in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of it all.

The next day we have to put on our shoes and return to the mainland. But after Perhentian, my days in fins will never be too far away.

[Malaysia. March 13-19, 2013]