On both islands, snorkel tours are available where you put in a small motorboat very cheap to four different places. In addition to this trip we also rent even a kayak and drove almost all the points again, because it was nice sooo 😉 But right from the beach away you get a lot to see underwater life!
T3 is one of the dive sites on Pulau Perhentian Besar in which you will encounter huge rock formations. Some rocks form tunnels through which you can swim through.
The dive site for the slugs, the so-called Nudibranches is known of which there are about 3,000 different species. They are especially famous for the striking colors, some even light up at night.
On a day with rather poor visibility we were rewarded at the end of the dive with a turtle that swam comfortably in front of it.
The dive site is a very good place to test his skills as a diver. It is not easy dive through with all the equipment between the rocks.
On this rock there is a very different vegetation than elsewhere. Generally, it is a rather barren and colors loose Underwater landscape with coral and fish less than a few kilometers away at other dive sites. Nevertheless, it is interesting here to observe especially the small animals such as slugs.
The two Perhentian Kecil islands Pulau Besar and are a paradise for snorkelers and divers. The beach (there are no roads) is packed full of dive schools and the islands are the places where you can make a diving pass at best.
Below are images of two dives. Places on the Temple and Sail Rock, both well-known for its diverse plant and animal life
This filament devil fish (Inimicus filamentosus), which belongs to the family of stone fish, lives very well camouflaged on the sea floor and spreads if disturbed his brood fins and crawls on the sand along, hence its English name Indian Ocean Walkman.
Always nice to see: The angelfish
This fish swarm of yellow stain mackerel shimmered nicely to about 12 meters depth.
Found everywhere, especially on the sponges, are the Babyseegurken.
Very interesting to see the Longfin Batfish who live in flocks of up to 100 copies.
This blue spotted rays belonging to the family of the spot stingray has cleverly hidden under rocks. The intensity of the blue hue can be adjusted depending on camouflage.
The large barrel sponges come here quite often before and are often over a meter high and have a diamenter of up to 40 cm.
With so many fish and corals really every diver goes into raptures, especially if the whole then is as inexpensive as this country! Since there are no luxury resorts and good infrastructure in the Western sense, mass tourism is so far failed to materialize and the coral world still reasonably intact. Even while snorkeling can be here in Malaysia to experience a lot, also directly from the beach! Anyway, I've spent here very much time underwater and it has definitely paid off!
First, I'm not one soooo experienced diver and secondly I have sunken ships so far not really interested great. But then I had the opportunity in Malaysia, specifically on the island of Pulau Perhentian, a wreck in relatively good visibility to visit in reasonable depth.
The ship, which once transported sugar sank in 2000 during the monsoon season and is since removed to 12-18 meters depth only 30 minutes from Pulau Kecil.
Really amazing how many fish have settled there! This shoal of barracuda barracuda or of which there are 26 species and are generally seen as relatively aggressive, swam peacefully past us.
The shipwreck lies laterally on the seabed so that you can see through the Pullaugen.
This puffer fish can inflate at risk by injected water into the stomach. The spikes work so as barbs and makes it almost impossible to swallow the fish for attackers.
Their hexagonal plates made of bone armor is very characteristic of the too fast floating boxfish.
A surprise was waiting for us when we were just in appearance: a snakes-flat tail with a length of about 140 cm swims past us! Basically, the snakes are very shy and they took to flight, perhaps even more so when you consider that a bite could have life-threatening consequences.
The sea urchins were present in large numbers!
The Lionfish belong to the family of scorpion fish and have their hard jets poison that they use exclusively for defense. Here on Sugarwreck they swam in contrast to other dive sites not hidden in the crevices around but move freely on the wreck.
The bamboo sharks are usually not larger than 70 cm and spend most of their time on the floor or slow just to be like here in the wreckage.
The next highlight of my trip around the world in the national parks around Kuching in Sarawak, Malaysia was the Semenggoh Wildlife Center, a forest section to be rehabilitated in the orangutans were illegally kept as a pet or injured or found orphaned.
Today here live about 24 monkeys that are called twice per day from the rangers with ape-like sounds to a wooden platform for feeding.
When morgentlichen feeding unfortunately we had no luck, just as was the fruit season and the orang find enough food in the forest.
After 4 hours of waiting time we tried it then again in the afternoon and lo and behold, there really were two sisters in animal feeding. Even from a distance we saw them until they go down swinging high up in the trees to the platform and a pineapple and a coconut outdated.
Then they headed back on the road in the trees where we only heard the cracking of the coconut.
The pongo pygmaeus are only here on Borneo (Malaysia and Indonesian Kalimantan), and to find in northern Sumatra.
The name orangutan is derived from the Malay and literally means man of the forest. The orangutans here are different to those that we saw later in Kalimantan fact that the hair was rather bright, so garish orange and that the local monkeys have much more hair in the back.
The Semennggoh Wildlife Center was already a good taste of what we have in terms orangutans expected, but more on that later.
But before that, two other National Parks in the program. The Gunung Gading National Park is famous for its Rafflesia, the biggest flower in the world.
The Rafflesia is for science is still a mystery because she has no specific flowering time, stem or roots. It is known that the Rafflesia is found only in connection with a certain Weinrebenart (tetrastigma vine) and quasi absorbs its nutrients.
After 18 months, then comes a brown bud to the fore, then again takes nine months to mature. Only then the flower opens its petals for only 3-5 days. The flower can have a diameter of up to 90 cm.
In Gunung Gading there is almost always a Rafflesia blooms, but scattered in the park it is of course hard to find. Therefore you meet at the entrance equal to a guide who brought us to the famous flower.
Almost in all National Parks you will find several types of carnivorous plants, we were able to observe on our way to the Waterfall no. 7.
The last of the national parks around Kuching we visited was Kubah NP, which impresses with its varied vegetation. Also, the waterfall is definitely worth the hike.
Kuching itself is the capital of Sarawak region and has around 600,000 inhabitants.
Our first day in Malaysia we wanted to utilize the region Sarawak Kuching around the capital to explore. Four national parks can be reached in day trips and good public offer lots and Wildlife!
Unser erster Ausflug führte uns in den nur 37 km von der Stadt entfernten Bako Nationalpark.
Die unumstrittenen Stars sind hier die Nasenaffen (Nasalis larvatus). Wir sind den ganzen Tag kreuz und quer bei über 30 Grad und 85 Prozent Luftfeuchtigkeit (ja, wir haben geschwitzt) durch den Park gewandert um einen der nur in Borneo vorkommenden Affen zu sichten, leider ohne Erfolg.
Only then it is the proboscis monkeys came to eat evening in the late afternoon, right next to the administration areas of the park. Really very strange animal has to be said! The males with their pear-shaped nose and up to 20 kg beer belly sitting front of the TV look at football on the trees like some man! 😉 The pure vegetarians very peaceful fellows and especially in this park are accustomed to our vision.
Die Anfahrt zum Park ist aber auch schon den Ausflug wert! Vom Fischerdorf Telok Assam aus nimmt man ein Boot das zuerst entlang des mit Krokodilen gespickten Sarawak River fährt, bis man dann das südchinesische Meer erreicht. In insgesamt nur 20 Minuten kommt man dann im Hauptgebäude an, das auch ein kleines Buffet/Restaurant hat. Umliegend sind dann die für Dschungelverhältnisse gut ausgestatteten Bungalows in denen wir mit unserem altbewährten Moskitonetzen übernachtet haben.
Neben diesen entzückenden Borneo-Bartschwein-Pärchen (Sus barbatus) das quasi die Müllabfuhr des Parks ist, sind uns die neugierigen Langschwanz-Makaken unangenehm aufgefallen!
Ganz im Gegensatz zu den friedlichen, sahen wir mehr Makaken als uns lieb war. Die kleinen Biester sind sehr aggressiv und überhaupt nicht scheu. Ständig sind sie auf der Lauer um Essen zu ergattern und umzingeln einen nur wenn sie eine Plastiktüte sehen!
Generell sind die Wanderwege sehr gut markiert sodass es nicht notwendig ist einen Führer zu nehmen. Das Spezielle im Bako Nationalpark ist, dass obwohl er relativ klein ist, sehr viele Vegetationen abdeckt: Regenwald, Graslandschaft, Klippen, Sträde, Mangroven etc. Besonders beeindruckend sind die meist dicht bewachsenen Sandsteinformationen.
Man sollte hier mindestens einmal übernachten, da die meisten Tiere erst in der Abenddämmerung aktiv werden und außerdem ist es eine gute Gelegenheit relativ bequem eine Nacht im Dschungel zu verbringen und den wunderschönen Sonnenuntergang zu genießen!
