K went to Pular Payar years ago when he was a student and he told me he wanted to go again to snorkel. It's a marine park and an hour ferry ride away from Langkawi island where people can dive or snorkel. The plan was to do that on our second day there, and the third day would be spent lazing at the resort (by the pool and by the beach). For the last morning I planned to go to the resort's spa whilst K relaxed some more by the pool.
The thing you need to know about Pulau Payar is this: you need to sign up with a tour operator to get you there. Most tour operators would tell you there are two options: beach or platform. The price for the beach is half of the platform. I had no idea the difference and K has forgotten these two available options but I do know that the platform as it name suggests, sits further out into the sea where supposedly the marine life is richer than the one closer to the beach. The lunch provided at the platform is that of a buffet whereas the beach package provided an individual packed lunch. Ok snorkelling wise, I haven't snorkelled for almost 10 years? And the thought of jumping into the sea from the platform kind of scared me and so I went for the beach package, urging K to choose that "because it was way cheaper".
Not the best idea I don't think. Well, because firstly the ferry which we took there seemed more like a basic military ferry. For some weird reason before we got on, we saw a whole platoon of army people getting off with their
barang-barang. The ride there was okay, thank God. When we neared the island, we saw a much nicer looking ferry parked at the platform - nothing like ours. That wasn't a great start as K decided then, that the platform was definitely better. The weather was great - blue skies and emerald green waters teeming with corals which you can see rather clearly as we approached the beach. I got excited at the sight before me.
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| How beautiful! |
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| Stunning! |
We had a 45min delay in getting there so when we arrived, it was almost 1130am. We were told to start snorkelling until lunch break at 1230pm. Lunch break was for an hour, and we would continue snorkelling until 2.45pm where we would take the ferry back to Langkawi island.
I won't lie - it was pretty scary. Marine life doesn't interest me much and at some point in time, I swear those fishes thought my chubby white thigh was their food. I actually emerged with some light bruises on my legs caused by the fishes! I did capture a few shots of K snorkelling within a school of fishes though.
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| All of us in life jackets getting ready for the snorkelling session |
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| I'm coming to get you... |
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| "Give a wave!" I yelled from above. |
I be honest: lunch was really… pathetic. I guess we got what we paid for. It was a standard packed lunch for everyone. I can't remember the last time we both turned our noses against food because they were that bad.
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| Waiting for our packed luck in anticipation |
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| Which was probably one of the saddest lunches we've ever had. We couldn't eat beyond 5 bites. I felt like I was doing my stomach a disservice if finished it. It takes some skill to cook rice and yet still have them come out partially uncooked. And the dessert - seemingly butter cake with streaks of neon green? Nah it's ok. The tom yum soup was just tom yam flavoured water. And the hotdog? Cold and mehh... |
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| Smile! Ready to head back (and find some proper food!) |
Another thing which the platform provides is fresh water for you to clean yourself up. The toilets on the beach front were - let's just say - venture at your own risk. You've been warned. We both braved it and decided not to even talk about the toilet conditions amongst ourselves. Experience from the choice of tour package aside, I do think this beautiful place is worth a go especially on a beautiful day like this.
PS: I seldom use filters but I have to say that absolutely no filters were used in any of the photos in this post.
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