It was Friday night at 11pm; Kucing and Aakui were chitchat over the ICQ and all in a sudden we decided to go to Pulau Payar Marine Park to do snorkeling and introductory scuba diving. So they meet up on Saturday in Penang and head for Payar the next day on 5th March 2000. This is the second time I went to Payar Island.

It is a day trip and there is daily departure to the island at 9am by the Langkawi Ferry Service. The package for snorkeling is RM115 for weekdays while RM135 during weekends. If you want to do an introductory dive then it will cost you another RM120. The ticket can be bought at Swettenham Pier, Penang.

We are so excited when we reach the Langkawi Coral platform. The island is so beautiful with its crystal clear water. The most amazing thing about the place is, the water is full of colorful fishes! Luckily we bring along one bag of bread to feed them. Yeah..! It was really fun feeding those hungry fish!

11.20am..... it's time to do it! Our dive master, Razif gave us a brief lesson about diving. Hmm..... I don't know why.. But I am really scare when going down the water. I feel that I might drown or something. Well after try it for a while then I get used to it. It was great! Though still scare. It was amazing to see all those colorful fishes swim around you. It was a wonderful experience. I even got a chance to touch a giant grouper. It was so huge!!! My dive master brings along some dead fish to feed it. Boy.....! It was really an unforgettable day for me! I think Aakui dive better than me..... she also has a great time there.

After came out of the water we had our buffet lunch at the platform. The food is ok. Later, without any time to waste we took a boat to the island. You can see the coral beneath. It was so beautiful. Well.... different water has different fishes. The black tip sharks can only be found near the island. It is a harmless and shy creature. I am so amaze to watch them swim around. They are really magnificent! Aakui has a great time chasing the shark aren't you? :)

I had been to the island before so I went back to the platform to do snorkeling and leaving Aakui at the island. The black and yellow fish, I don't know what they are called are so rude when comes to feeding. Some of them even dare to bite your finger if you won't let go of the food! However, it was fun to feed them. I saw groupers, parrot fish, clown fish, "kan kembung", sea urchin, sea anemone and lots more that I can't identified. Some were blue, green, yellow in colour. The best thing that I got to see while snorkeling is a school of "ikan kembung". They were swimming with their mouth open wide to feed on the plankton. There were thousands of them in one school. This is the thing that make you say Wahh..... !

3.30pm.. time to get ready to go back. We both had a wonderful time at Payar. Sure hope to come back again someday..

Click on Photo Gallery to see more pictures of Payar Island.