We got up early and were ready to meet the van which took us to Langkawi Yacht Club where we hopped on a boat. The boat took us and 30 others to the island of Pulau Payar, a very small island about 45 minutes boat ride from Kuah. The island is in the middle of a marine park so the reefs are mostly unspoiled.
Kip wasn’t in a scuba mood, so she donned a snorkel and mask and headed to the beachside reef. I was definitely in a scuba mood and had paid the extra money to do so. My first dive was on a reef called Japanese Garden. I enjoyed this dive, my first in almost 3 years, although it was not as good as the Great Barrier Reef. The highlight of the dive was when a small (1.5m) shark swam past from behind me, gliding past about 2m away. I saw some lion fish, a 2m barracuda, parrot fish and some claw shrimp. I dived to about 12m and the dive was about 20 minutes long.
We had lunch on the island. During lunch a large number (maybe 20-30) of small reef sharks came right up to the beach and just circled around. I took this opportunity to snorkel amongst them, figuring that they couldn’t kill me. It was very cool to share the water with them, they glide so effortlessly through the water and pretty much ignored me. When I got out I found out the reason for their presence: every day the tour operators feed them the leftovers from lunch. When the first piece of food went into the water I learned the meaning of ‘feeding frenzy’. The water was churning with sharks and fish jostling for the food. Aggressive as the sharks were, they all gave a wide berth to the King of the beach, the large barracuda. I could always tell where it was as there was a 2m sphere of empty water around it at all times, no matter where it went or how fast it moved the sphere just kept moving through the water.
After seeing enough of the shark feeding I walked out to the end of the jetty and was rewarded with the sight of a marlin jumping out of the water about 50m in front of me. It was blue and green. Pretty cool.
I swam out to the boat and got ready for my next dive, got on a little diving boat and we went out to a reef called Coral Garden, which was a much better reef than my earlier dive. I swam around and through the 12m high coral towers, going to a depth of 16m. I saw more lion fish, some clown fish and several large, tasty-looking tuna. Others at the same reef saw a turtle but I missed that one. The coral was colourful but despite their promises Australia is still better. The highlight of this dive was a massive school of small (4cm) bright yellow fish that surrounded me so that I was in a constantly changing world of yellow, not able to see anything but fish. It was one of those experiences where you remind yourself to take it all in, something special. If it wasn’t for my scuba equipment I would have been breathtaken. That dive went for 35 minutes and i could not diva anymore as I was flying the next day.
90 minutes later we were back at the resort and planning our final Langkawi meal. We went to a Chinese/Malay restaurant where I ate a delicious Tom Yum soup. A few of the typical Malay cats were circling through the restaurant begging for food.
Everywhere we went in Malaysia there were many cats, most looking a bit stray. The locals don’t seem to mind them. About 75% of the cats have very strange tails. They are gnarled, about 10cm long and about three times as thick as a normal cat’s, as if they were in some kind of terrible accident. When we got back to the resort I asked a porter about the tails. He became defensive and exclaimed “we DON’T cut them off to make soup!”. So I guess that’s not the reason.