So it's been a while since we returned (end of July), but I thought I would give my impression of diving Perhentian Island with Bubbles Dive resort.
My husband and I are experienced divers always in search of new dive sites to try. This year we choose Malaysia and Perhentian, as we met a guy in Greece last year, who told us it was a great place to dive and relax.
On this trip we brought our 13 yo - who do not dive (eustatic tube not developed enough for her to equalize), so I was looking for a safe place for her, while we could go diving.
Bubbles dive resort caught my eye, as they're situated in a bay away from everything else, on top of this they have turtles coming up at night to lay eggs and a group of volunteers, who will wake you up, so you can see them - I wish they told us, they would only wake us up AFTER the turtle had laid and covered the eggs. Also there's no age restriction and TBH I don't think bringing a 3-4 yo out in the middle of the night, to see a turtle is a good choise (both for the child and for the rest of us).
Resort: situated in a private bay (actually I don't know if it's private, but no other resorts around, so not crowded at all) we booked a family room, which has a big main room with a double bed and an extra room with bunk bed+single bed (5 persons max), private bathroom and good ac. The room was ok, but could do with some TLC - especially the bathroom. The bunk bed was very wobbly, so only for small children. The main room had a corner with a table and 2 chairs + a desk but only 1 small cupboard, so not really possible to unpack everything. In front of the room/villa there was a small, covered porch with 2 chairs and 2 clothes lines - very handy for drying wet swim suits etc.
There's also a tap and bucket to rinse of your feet before entering the room - would have been better with a wash bassin, you could actually stand in.
Reception/dining hall - open style: nice place with extremely fast internet - especially given the distance from everything else. All tables has names/room numbers on them, so you know where to sit. Food was great the first 3 days, ok the last 3 days (not sure, if they got a new chef or what happened). Breakfast had an egg/pancake station, noodles, cereals, bread and butter+ home made jam etc. Not big, but enough - coffee and tea was not included, which I found a bit weird. Lunch and dinner was buffet as well - always with plenty of food. What we found great about most places we stayed throughout Malaysia is the water purifying taps - most even have the option of cold water - no plastic, just bring your water bottle. You could buy beer, wine, fresh juices, smoothies etc. at the bar.
Beach: Stunning! Plenty of space to enjoy the beautiful bay - some sun loungers and hammocks, nice "swings" with cushions - became my favourite place to relax. And SUP for free - our daughter loved this! Spend hours just paddling around the bay - spotting turtles, baby black tip reef sharks and lots of fish. She also snorkled and says it's one of the best places she's been with us (this says a lot, as she's very picky - but I'm sure the strong internet also played a role in this LOL).
Dive center: very well organized and friendly place. I notified while booking, that we were 2 divers and "booked" the diving - they have limited capacity, so if you don't let them know ahead of time you may not be able to do any diving (I saw them turn a guy away, saying they did not have any availability). I did not pay anything up front for the diving (just a deposit for the room).
On our arrival day at lunch the dive guide came to our table asking us, when we wanted to start the diving (on the same day). They were also ready with a place for our gear, so we set up equipment, took a nap and went out for the 4 pm dive.
There's 3 dives scheduled daily 9am, 2 pm and 4 pm - was a little annoying with the big gab between dive 1 and 2 - and dive 3 almost never happened until 4.30 pm. Night dive possible with 2 divers and is just in the bay - we only did 1, as my husband had caught the flu, so he could not dive for 3 days.
The guide would ask, where we (I) wanted to go and try to accommodate this whenever possible. After the last dive staff also offered to rinse our gear, but was ok with us doing it ourselves - and showed me, how they normally do it (a little bit different from what I'd done up till now and works very well) - appreciated that.
Unfortunately Perhentian has been hit very, very hard with coral bleaching - I've never, ever seen anything this bad. Made me cry:-( In most (yes MOST!) places all corals were white - soft and hard corals alike - all white. Only a few colourful spots. Some dive sites were under a "do not dive right now"-ban - I hope that's because they were not that bad hit and had a chance to recover if left alone. Lots and lots of fish, but viz was bad, so did not see anything big (did not expect to either).
After the first 3 dives I asked the dive guide to just take me to wrecks - not that I love wrecks, but seeing the corals this destroyed was just devastating, at least with wrecks there's something else to see. Police wrecks were ok, Marytime I really liked (maybe because we were the only divers there?) But our favourite was San Choi wreck - we started with 20 min just resting on the sandy bottom letting the huge schools of fish come closer - at a point there were so many fish around me I could hardly see my husband (less than 1/2 m away), that was an awesome experience! Batu Butuh was also fun with a lot of swim throughs, rays, nudies, turtles and more.
What I really liked about the dive center was that they never filled the boats to the brim like I saw other operators do. Some days it was only me and the dive guide (since my husband was ill), or maybe 3-4 other divers on the boat.
They only had Yoke valves - but had converters for our DIN regulator sets.
Being isolated in the bay was fine for us - others may find it limiting as you can't just walk around and find another place to eat, if you don't like the food.
Still I would totally recommend this place for divers and families.
Wish I could post pictures, but my gopro and iphone feel not compatible, so can't upload any images - only see them on the gopro screen. Was asking my husband, if he can upload to his pc as mine is too old, but did not have time to do it yet.
After Perhentian we went to Borneo to the rainforest and had a great time. Did 3 dives (1 day) off Kota Kinabalu with Go Aquatic- Gaya and Sapi islands. Not a lot to see, bad viz, broken corals. Dive operator a bit disorganized - no prober dive center meeting place or anywhere to change after the dives. If (like us) you don't want to go to Sipadan or Lankayan due to the travel warnings, KK is an alternative for 1 day - we did have more days and could have dived more, but felt 1 day was more than enough.
My husband and I are experienced divers always in search of new dive sites to try. This year we choose Malaysia and Perhentian, as we met a guy in Greece last year, who told us it was a great place to dive and relax.
On this trip we brought our 13 yo - who do not dive (eustatic tube not developed enough for her to equalize), so I was looking for a safe place for her, while we could go diving.
Bubbles dive resort caught my eye, as they're situated in a bay away from everything else, on top of this they have turtles coming up at night to lay eggs and a group of volunteers, who will wake you up, so you can see them - I wish they told us, they would only wake us up AFTER the turtle had laid and covered the eggs. Also there's no age restriction and TBH I don't think bringing a 3-4 yo out in the middle of the night, to see a turtle is a good choise (both for the child and for the rest of us).
Resort: situated in a private bay (actually I don't know if it's private, but no other resorts around, so not crowded at all) we booked a family room, which has a big main room with a double bed and an extra room with bunk bed+single bed (5 persons max), private bathroom and good ac. The room was ok, but could do with some TLC - especially the bathroom. The bunk bed was very wobbly, so only for small children. The main room had a corner with a table and 2 chairs + a desk but only 1 small cupboard, so not really possible to unpack everything. In front of the room/villa there was a small, covered porch with 2 chairs and 2 clothes lines - very handy for drying wet swim suits etc.
There's also a tap and bucket to rinse of your feet before entering the room - would have been better with a wash bassin, you could actually stand in.
Reception/dining hall - open style: nice place with extremely fast internet - especially given the distance from everything else. All tables has names/room numbers on them, so you know where to sit. Food was great the first 3 days, ok the last 3 days (not sure, if they got a new chef or what happened). Breakfast had an egg/pancake station, noodles, cereals, bread and butter+ home made jam etc. Not big, but enough - coffee and tea was not included, which I found a bit weird. Lunch and dinner was buffet as well - always with plenty of food. What we found great about most places we stayed throughout Malaysia is the water purifying taps - most even have the option of cold water - no plastic, just bring your water bottle. You could buy beer, wine, fresh juices, smoothies etc. at the bar.
Beach: Stunning! Plenty of space to enjoy the beautiful bay - some sun loungers and hammocks, nice "swings" with cushions - became my favourite place to relax. And SUP for free - our daughter loved this! Spend hours just paddling around the bay - spotting turtles, baby black tip reef sharks and lots of fish. She also snorkled and says it's one of the best places she's been with us (this says a lot, as she's very picky - but I'm sure the strong internet also played a role in this LOL).
Dive center: very well organized and friendly place. I notified while booking, that we were 2 divers and "booked" the diving - they have limited capacity, so if you don't let them know ahead of time you may not be able to do any diving (I saw them turn a guy away, saying they did not have any availability). I did not pay anything up front for the diving (just a deposit for the room).
On our arrival day at lunch the dive guide came to our table asking us, when we wanted to start the diving (on the same day). They were also ready with a place for our gear, so we set up equipment, took a nap and went out for the 4 pm dive.
There's 3 dives scheduled daily 9am, 2 pm and 4 pm - was a little annoying with the big gab between dive 1 and 2 - and dive 3 almost never happened until 4.30 pm. Night dive possible with 2 divers and is just in the bay - we only did 1, as my husband had caught the flu, so he could not dive for 3 days.
The guide would ask, where we (I) wanted to go and try to accommodate this whenever possible. After the last dive staff also offered to rinse our gear, but was ok with us doing it ourselves - and showed me, how they normally do it (a little bit different from what I'd done up till now and works very well) - appreciated that.
Unfortunately Perhentian has been hit very, very hard with coral bleaching - I've never, ever seen anything this bad. Made me cry:-( In most (yes MOST!) places all corals were white - soft and hard corals alike - all white. Only a few colourful spots. Some dive sites were under a "do not dive right now"-ban - I hope that's because they were not that bad hit and had a chance to recover if left alone. Lots and lots of fish, but viz was bad, so did not see anything big (did not expect to either).
After the first 3 dives I asked the dive guide to just take me to wrecks - not that I love wrecks, but seeing the corals this destroyed was just devastating, at least with wrecks there's something else to see. Police wrecks were ok, Marytime I really liked (maybe because we were the only divers there?) But our favourite was San Choi wreck - we started with 20 min just resting on the sandy bottom letting the huge schools of fish come closer - at a point there were so many fish around me I could hardly see my husband (less than 1/2 m away), that was an awesome experience! Batu Butuh was also fun with a lot of swim throughs, rays, nudies, turtles and more.
What I really liked about the dive center was that they never filled the boats to the brim like I saw other operators do. Some days it was only me and the dive guide (since my husband was ill), or maybe 3-4 other divers on the boat.
They only had Yoke valves - but had converters for our DIN regulator sets.
Being isolated in the bay was fine for us - others may find it limiting as you can't just walk around and find another place to eat, if you don't like the food.
Still I would totally recommend this place for divers and families.
Wish I could post pictures, but my gopro and iphone feel not compatible, so can't upload any images - only see them on the gopro screen. Was asking my husband, if he can upload to his pc as mine is too old, but did not have time to do it yet.
After Perhentian we went to Borneo to the rainforest and had a great time. Did 3 dives (1 day) off Kota Kinabalu with Go Aquatic- Gaya and Sapi islands. Not a lot to see, bad viz, broken corals. Dive operator a bit disorganized - no prober dive center meeting place or anywhere to change after the dives. If (like us) you don't want to go to Sipadan or Lankayan due to the travel warnings, KK is an alternative for 1 day - we did have more days and could have dived more, but felt 1 day was more than enough.
