In the past, I often planned each trip very early to have more time to find travel companions as well as to have more careful preparation from where to eat, where to sleep, how to travel, how to book a land tour. But after the Covid-19 pandemic, the trend of backpacking has changed: nothing is certain, so trips are often decided in a few minutes, researched for 1-2 days, then planned and booked services a week in advance. This trip is no exception. Although I had a long list of countries I wanted to visit during the two-year suspension due to the pandemic, I still chose Malaysia to be safe with my plan.
Having been to Malaysia many times, planning was quite easy for me. Instead of going to the city, the highlands or climbing mountains like the previous times, this time I chose to go scuba diving on Redang Island - a small island located in the northeast of Malaysia that few people know about. Compared to the nearby Perhentian Island, Redang Island has fewer tourists, a more beautiful underwater ecosystem, and a higher chance of seeing whale sharks. After researching, besides the 3-7 day diving packages at luxury resorts, I could not find any other diving center other than Aquarius Redang. There was only one diving center with only one diving session, so we still set out to explore Redang.
Boats at Redang.
Although Malaysia has been open for tourism for a few months, the once bustling KLIA2 airport has been replaced by a depressing scene with more than half of the counters closed, the electronic board showing many empty flights, and my favorite food stall nowhere to be seen. Surprisingly, KLIA2 welcomed us with a Beautiful Terengganu sign, the destination I was about to visit.
We flew at 8:35 from Ho Chi Minh City to Kuala Lumpur but had to wait until 15:35 to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Terengganu, so we arrived at the hotel in the city center at 5:00 pm. Although we had little time, we still managed to visit the Crystal Mosque (Masjid Kristal) - a famous place in Terengganu city.
Crystal Mosque (Masjid Kristal) – a famous landmark of Terengganu city.
The next morning, we thought we would have to walk more than 1 km to Shahbandar pier near the hotel, so we leisurely packed our things to check out and go have breakfast, but we learned that the pier was temporarily closed, so we quickly took a Grab to Merang pier, which was 39 km away from the hotel! Luckily, we woke up early so we could go to the pier to buy tickets and have breakfast while waiting for the train. Buying train tickets here is very strange! The ticket seller did not sit at the counter but sat in the lobby waiting for the train. I was afraid of being cheated, so I went around asking for more information before booking a one-way ticket to Redang Island, not forgetting to get the phone number so that I could book a return ticket if Redang did not sell tickets.
The second strange thing is the jetty access charge. Don't go to the pier and then take the boat? They don't include it in the ticket price but sell it separately. And finally, the Marine Park ticket, the ticket seller said that you have to buy a ticket to go to the island even if you don't go to the island with this park. In short, it costs 85RM (450,000 VND) to go to Redang Island.
On the way, the ship stopped at a beautiful white sand strip.
Once I got to the island, there was no service at the pier. At that time, I contacted the resort and waited for them to send a car to pick me up, but I was charged 20RM/person. It took a long time for the car to arrive, and it was a very old pickup truck. After 2 days, I realized that in the fishing village on Redang Island, everyone drives such old cars. If you go to the island from each resort's private pier, you can only walk to the resort, there is no road between different areas (each resort covers a whole bay and has its own pier). The resort I chose is located in the middle of the fishing village and goes to the island from a public pier, so there is no service.
After asking about the check-in procedure, I contacted Aquarius Redang, intending to go to the diving center to check it out and sign the liability waiver, but Zan - the owner of the diving center - told me to wait at the resort while he drove over. Then he showed up with a motorbike as old as the pickup truck to take us here. When I asked where the center was, Zan said it was right at the pier. I thought so, but when we got to the pier, I was surprised! This was a spontaneous pier with a tiny watchtower and a bunch of diving gear that Zan had brought there.
Then I asked where to change clothes, Zan said “somewhere on the island”, I panicked for the first time. After the boat left the dock for a while, Zan stopped the boat on a small island so we could get on and change our wetsuits. Zan did not forget to tell us to be careful of the monkeys who could snatch our things at any moment, and in the end, in the panic, I put my clothes on backwards on the boat and discovered it. The boat drove a bit further and stopped again for me to change clothes for the second time.
Redang has a lot of beautiful sea animals.
When the boat reached the first dive site, Terumbu Kili, the waves were quite big. We had to sway on the boat for a while before we could put on the diving equipment. After entering the water, we still had to sway for a while, wanting to get out of the water until we dived down to 5m and then stabilized. At this point, we encountered a current and had to follow it to get past some coral reefs. Zan pointed out some turtles swimming in the distance, but when we dived, they swam away. There weren't many fish here, and they were all small. When diving, we didn't worry about looking at the fish and coral, but just looked far away to see if we could see whale sharks. The second dive at Pasir Akar was nothing special except for small turtles, jellyfish, parrotfish, boxfish, clownfish... Partly because we went diving on a full moon day, the water wasn't clear and visibility was poor.
While having dinner at Aima Grill Fish restaurant, we accidentally discovered a snorkeling tour so we called to book it right away, and even negotiated a boat trip to the nearby Lang Tengah island at a bargain price. Here, they sell snorkeling tours that visit 3 to 7 islands at different prices, the most popular being the 4-point tour east of Redang: Ekor Tebu island, Kerrengga Besar island, Lima island, Turtle beach; on the way, the boat stops at the white sandbank near Long beach to take virtual photos. Although it was not planned, we collected more beautiful photos than scuba diving, especially swimming very close to the turtles with excellent photos.
Experience swimming and watching marine animals, it's amazing!
I had a free afternoon and didn't know what to do, so Zan asked if we could walk about 1 km to the highest point of Redang Island to watch the sunset, so I agreed right away. Zan brought 4 friends along. When we talked, I found out that they lived in Kuala Lumpur but had come to Redang more than 10 times to go diving, and from being guests, they became Zan's friends. I also opened pictures of beautiful scenery in Con Dao and invited them to go diving in Vietnam.
Even though it was only a short two days and I didn’t see any whale sharks, I felt that Zan’s friendship was precious to me. If I have the chance, I will definitely return to Redang on a better day so that I can explore more of the ocean floor around Redang.
