Perhentian Islands

The name Perhentian means "stopping place" in Malay, and that is what the islands were: a sheltered anchorage on the trading route between the Malay peninsula and Bangkok, where boats waited out weather, took on fresh water and traded. Fishing families settled the south-east corner of the smaller island, building the stilt village of Kampung Pasir Hantu, and for centuries the islands had no other permanent population. They fell under the sultanate of Terengganu, which paid tribute to Siam until the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 brought the state into British influence.

The wider coast has seen more upheaval than the islands themselves. The Japanese invasion of Malaya began with landings at Kota Bharu, a little way up this shore, on 8 December 1941, and from 1978 the main camp for Vietnamese boat people reaching Malaysia was on Bidong Island down the Terengganu coast, which held tens of thousands of refugees before closing in 2005.

Tourism came late. Backpackers reached the islands in numbers from the 1980s and 1990s, when simple chalets appeared on Long Beach and Coral Bay. The surrounding waters were gazetted as a marine park in 1994, banning fishing within two nautical miles of the shore and requiring a conservation fee from visitors. Development since has been piecemeal — generators, water shortages, rubbish and the lack of a proper sewage system are long-running problems — and the islands still close almost completely each monsoon, emptying of visitors and of most of the seasonal staff who work there.

The islands' permanent community is Malay and Muslim, and life in Kampung Pasir Hantu follows the rhythms of a Terengganu fishing village: the call to prayer, boats in and out, the mosque on Friday, children walking to the village school. Most of the people who serve visitors, however, are seasonal: dive instructors, boatmen, cooks and chalet staff who come from the mainland or from abroad for the open months and leave when the monsoon arrives, so the population and the atmosphere change completely between May and December.

That gives the islands two overlapping cultures. On the beaches the tone is informal and international, with English the common language, barefoot restaurants, beach fires and late music at the Long Beach end of Perhentian Kecil. A few hundred metres away, village norms apply, and visitors are expected to cover up and behave accordingly. Alcohol is available at some resorts but is not openly sold in the village, and during Ramadan eating and drinking in public during daylight is avoided out of courtesy.

Diving and marine conservation shape much of the islands' identity. Volunteer projects monitor reefs, plant coral fragments and protect turtle nests, and campaigns against single-use plastic and for better waste handling are visible on noticeboards and in the shops. Turtles, reef sharks and the state of the coral are the subjects most talked about.

Only a small permanent population lives on the islands through the year, nearly all of it in the fishing village on Perhentian Kecil, and the number swells with seasonal workers between March and October. There are no cars, no roads between beaches and no through traffic; goods, fuel, drinking water and building materials all arrive by boat from Kuala Besut, which is why a bottle of water costs more here than on the mainland.

The economy is almost entirely tourism and fishing. Chalets, dive schools, restaurants, snorkelling trips and water taxis employ most working-age islanders and a large seasonal workforce; the village keeps its fishing boats, and the catch supplies both households and restaurants. Electricity comes largely from generators with limited hours in the cheaper places, mobile coverage varies from beach to beach, and fresh water is a recurring constraint in dry spells.

The day starts early, with boats leaving for dive sites and snorkelling trips in the morning and returning by mid-afternoon; evenings are for eating on the sand. When the monsoon sets in around November most businesses board up, staff go home and the village returns to itself until the seas calm again. Rubbish, sewage and the pressure of visitor numbers on the reefs are the issues most often raised by residents and conservation groups alike.

Eating on the Perhentians is simple and repetitive, and nobody pretends otherwise: the kitchens attached to chalets and resorts cook a short menu of Malay staples and traveller favourites, because everything except fish has to come over by boat. Nasi goreng and mee goreng, fried rice and noodles with egg, chicken or seafood, appear everywhere, along with roti canai and curry at breakfast, chicken or fish with rice, and banana pancakes, toasties and fruit shakes for visitors.

Seafood is the exception and the strength. In the late afternoon several restaurants set out the day's catch — snapper, barracuda, squid, prawns and occasionally lobster — priced by weight and grilled over charcoal with butter, garlic, chilli or a sweet-sour sambal, served with rice and cucumber. The Terengganu mainland's specialities reach the islands in a simplified form: keropok lekor, the chewy fish sausage fried and dipped in chilli sauce, is sold as a snack, and nasi dagang, coconut rice with tuna curry, sometimes turns up at breakfast in the village.

Alcohol is limited, not cheap and served only at certain resorts and bars; soft drinks, fresh coconuts, iced Milo and teh tarik, the pulled sweet milk tea, do most of the work instead. Village warungs sell rice dishes and snacks at mainland prices, and small shops carry biscuits, instant noodles and bottled water.