Impiani Resort | Perhentian Islands Accommodation

Our Impiani Resort just had its first wedding. You might have seen the footage on the tv! We would like to say thank you and a big congratulations to Reeza and Shukreen. It was a perfect day

Save the turtles of Terengganu! Please support our campaign!!!!

The turtle eggs of our islands are not protected at the moment as the turtle conservation project is not running. This is resulting in all the eggs being poached. It is still legal to sell turtle eggs in Terengganu (with the exception of leatherback eggs). We are asking the state government to make the sale and consumption of all marine turtle eggs illegal and to further protect the turtle eggs of the Perhentian Islands and beyond.

Please send an email to savetheturtles@watercoloursworld.com to register your support. We will hand all emails and a petition in at a later date. You only need to write a couple of sentences, such as:

I would like to ask the State of Terengganu to make the sale and consumption of all marine turtle eggs illegal and to install better protective measures to prevent the poaching of eggs from nesting turtles.

Email to savetheturtles@watercoloursworld.com with a suitable title.

Thanks

Yesterday we collected 22 bags of rubbish from Tiga Ruang (Turtle Beach).  Thanks to our Watercolours Dive Centre customers for helping us.  Today we collected a further 53 bag of rubbish and an old tv set with the fantastic help of Red Crescent Society members, who are having a short break with us at Impiani.  Thank you so much for such good work everyone.  The beach is now cleaner and we can all pat ourselves on the back!

Below is an article written by Rick Gregory and also published on the wildasia website. Rick has kindly given us permission to use his article on our blog. For those of you planning trips around Kuala Lumpur you might want to checkout his website Nature Escapes.

Trekking the Dry Side of Perhentian Islands

Malaysian islands lure tourists into a sea of satisfaction, but RICK GREGORY wants advices travellers to mix a holiday of wet wonderment with a trek on the island’s dry interior.

The Perhentian Islands are undoubtedly one of Malaysia’s best destinations for frolicking in the underwater world and fry-panning it topside on its half-moon beaches. For chilling out, nothing is better. However, the forest-filled interior offers another adventure full of biological and ecological wonders.

In previous visits I managed to hike the poorly marked trails that cut across the big island to see flying foxes in blankets of folded wings asleep in the treetops. The best wildlife find though was finding a flying lemur in broad daylight. Plastered like putty high on a tree trunk, this cautious creature with big, brown eyes lunges and spread eagles in silent flight, its thin membrane stretching from fore and hind legs, and glides effortlessly down to an adjacent tree. Eerie in its exquisite escape technique, it is still one of my favourite jungle encounters.

My next visit was with Coral Cay Conservation (CCC) on their foray into the forests. Following the terrestrial team to the second research site, we lugged our backpacks, laden with box-shaped metallic mammal traps, across the beach, through a disused rice field and slowly climbed up the sloping hillsides arising from behind Flora Bay. After thirty minutes of jungle trekking we made camp in a flattened patch in a narrow ravine strewn with boulders and dominated by two large buttressed trees standing forty metres tall. It was quite a picturesque site and a real rainforest introduction for the British volunteers.

Led by project leaders Alexis Tamblyn and Rob Dray, the volunteers - Ruth, Suzie and Nazura - pitched in to tie green plastic hammocks to trees, assemble a protective tarp shelter and attend to cooking chores. After camp was complete, the CCC team selected three sites in the ravine path and one on the upper hill slopes to put up mist nets. These fine-threaded black nets, about 2.5 metres by 6 metres, are strung with ropes over tree branches and stretched across the flight pathway of birds and bats. “For bats we try to arrange the nets in a T, V or X shape to fake out their echo location,” Tamblyn explained.

In the sea, divers float over reefs and record whatever passes by. In the jungle one has to be more patient. Wildlife does not expose itself so readily in the forest. The only signs of jungle life were the grunted calls of dusky langur monkeys heard but not seen in the treetops and the acute sound of mosquitoes. Not even leeches were present.

We spent an hour scrambling over the dry rock bed searching for snakes, lizards, frogs and any other creature without any luck and was making our way back to the campsite when a call rang out, “We caught something!” Everyone ran up the hill to see the first catch of the long day - a white-rumped Shama (Copsychus malabaricus) flickered in the net. Rob Dray gingerly unfurled the bird from its stringed web and helped Alexis to take measurements while the volunteers recorded the data.

After the evening meal, each volunteer baited the boxy mammal traps with leftover spaghetti and bread and placed them at random locations nearby the camp. As the daylight descended, the waiting continued with talk of savoury food and wild animals. With headlamps and torches on, the team took turns to monitor the mist nets at half hour intervals. Then around 8:30 pm the camp became animated again.

Rushing up the forested slope, the team found five bats clinging to the invisible mist net as Alexis slipped on her thick gloves. For the next hour the researchers diligently went through their paces in the swelter and stillness of the night jungle - extracting and cradling these delicate but sharp-toothed specimens, identifying each species, measuring a series of body parts, writing data in field books, bagging each in plastic to weigh and finally releasing them.

The scientific haul was good. Three different bat species out of four captured animals (one escaped during the whirl of activity) were identified - False Vampire Bat (Megaderma spasma), Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus sp.) and the Roundleaf Bat (Hipposideros sp.).

The jungle offers a fascinating array of wild things, large and small, delicate and strong. And while some are extremely appreciated upon sight, others only petrify. Snakes probably lead the list of creepy forest dwellers with rats and scorpions making some quiver.

Even the hardiest of field researchers usually have a chink in their toughened exterior. And for terrestrial project leader Alexis, a woman with boundless passion for scientific discovery, there was still one creature she dreaded to meet. And the jungle had plenty of them. Her nemesis was as large as an outstretched hand, with a white bulbous body, long legs and eyes that glower back torch light.

“I’ve had a jaguar under my hammock, been shot at, and fallen into a cave with 20,000 bats, but nothing scares me more than a SPIDER WITH AN EGG SAC!” bellowed the arachnophobic Alexis.

Next time, hit the jungle trails. You never know what’s out there.

Turtles occasionally nest on Impiani’s beach. They climb up the beach at night to find a suitable place to lay eggs. It takes a long time and is a difficult process for them. They are sensitive to disturbance, particularly lights, and may not lay their eggs if they feel uncomfortable.

If a turtle comes up the beach at night:

• Stand back so you do not disturb the animal.
• Do not stand in the way of the turtle.
• Try to remain reasonably quiet;
• Do not shine lights near the turtle.
• Flash photography should not be used.

Turtles are not able to show if they are stressed as they cannot easily run away. Please help the turtles and observe the guidelines above.

Here is some general information about the facilities at our Impiani resort. Hopefully this will be of use to you for your holiday planning:

Snorkelling and Turtle Watching

Snorkeling is possible in front of our Impiani Resort and many other places around the island. Of course we rent snorkeling equipment for customers who do not have their own. At low tide it can be difficult to snorkel out, but at all other times you can snorkel and see some great marine life right on our doorstep. For those of you wanting to see a bit more of the islands, we organise snorkelling tours in mornings and afternoons. These are very good value and last around 2.5 hours, visiting 3 different sites looking at coral reefs and finding turtles. The snorkelling is suitable for both children and adults as the sea is warm, calm and clear. We can also organise snorkelling trips to Pulua Rawa for those wanting to get further afield!

Canoeing

We have canoes for rent and we can give lots of advice on the best beaches to go to. You may take a packed lunch and some water. Why not also take your snorkelling equipment (or rent ours) so you can snorkel off a deserted beach? If you are on one of our Sun, Sand and Sea packages then you can subsitute a snorkel trip for canoe rental for a day. If you are not on a package you will find our canoe rental prices very cheap and agreeable.

Scuba Diving

You must have heard about the great diving around the Perhentian Islands. Just click on our diving pages to find out more. We have a variety of dive sites, including wrecks, pinnacles and reefs. There is a lot to see and our Watercolours Dive Centre has a very good reputation for safe diving in small groups with plenty of information provided about the marine life.

Fishing

Fishing is not allowed within the marine park. Although you may see illegal fishing (by both locals and tourists) in Perhentian waters we ask you to obey the marine park rules to preserve the natural heritage of the islands and allow the fish stocks to remain high. We will happily arrange fishing trips outside the marine park. Just contact us for details.

Internet

We have a satellite broadband connection. If you have your own laptop then you get FREE internet! It doesn’t come cheaper than that!

Beach volleyball

Why not enjoy a game of volleyball. You will find our staff love to have a game around 5pm and it is very common to see our guests playing with the staff. This is a great way to have a fun time with ‘the locals’ and it can be very nice to get to know our staff better like this.

Jungle Trekking

Jungle trekking is possible on both islands and our wonderful Impiani Resort staff will happily give you lots of information and the various routes. Take some water and enjoy the islands!

International Calls

Ongoing travel (eg Cameron Highlands)

We can book these trips for you for just a RM 5 deposit. That is all that is needed to secure your place on a minibus so that you can travel directly to the ferry port of Kuala Besut after your holiday on the Perhentian Islands and find a minibus waiting for you to take you on the next part of your holiday. Just ask our Impiani staff for details.

Taxi Service

Water taxis are available for trips to anywhere on the islands. The taxi-boat drivers charge per person. You should be aware that the price doubles in the evening after 7pm.

Laundry Service

Don’t struggle to wash you own clothes. Let our housekeeping department do your laundry for you at an affordable rate.

Conservation is a hot topic on the Perhentian Islands these days. With tourists finally discovering the islands, development follows. A tourism development case study of Perhentian in 2000 concluded that any further development must proceed with extreme caution due to the size of the islands. Large-scale projects were deemed to be inappropriate and the temptation to attract affluent tourists with international-type resorts avoided. The report also noted that that the Perhentian’s main tourism income comes from budget travellers and planners should not be misled by the misconception that they do not spend enough money.

Here at Watercolours we agree that the Perhentians needs looking after. We have so much natural beauty it must be preserved. We even have some species that are most likely present only on these islands. With the small size of the islands even small impacts can be deemed significant. We encourage any Watercolours guests reading this blog to write to the Ministry of Tourism in Kuala Lumpur and, more importantly, Terengganu Tourism to request that future development is carefully considered and the environment is looked after.

At Watercolours Impiani we often have promotions to help us through the low season. We publicise these offers on our website www.impiani.com to inform our customers. Sometimes the promotions and special offers relate to diving as our Watercolours Dive Centre is just short boat-ride away and we give a free pick-up and drop-off service. Other promotions and low-season deals may include cut-price accommodation or free snorkelling trips.

Impiani is a great place to stay when visiting the Perhentian Islands if you like peace and quiet on a beautiful beach. All of our resort’s room are spacious and have air-conditioning. The restaurant’s food is getting very good reviews and we have expanded the service this year to include home-made pizza and more frequent barbeques (almost every night). Come to Watercolours Impiani if you want to relax, eat good food and enjoy the snorkelling or diving around the islands.

The Perhentian Islands are wonderful and what better place to appreciate the beauty than Watercolours Impiani Resort. Allow us to turn your holiday into a memorable experience. Impiani Resort is a well kept secret that is just beginning to catch on. It is only our third year running Impiani and, despite a few hiccups along the way, we now see that our resort is getting more and more popular. We have 2 resorts to choose from, but we are very proud how far we have come with Impiani. We’ve invested even more this year to improve the place, with new sun loungers on the beach, a pizza-oven for wonderful home-made pizza, and now barbeque every night. You can have your meal on the beach by candle-light in the evenings and take in the resort’s beautiful and serene setting. I don’t think there is a resort like this one; no wonder so many of our guests often extend their stay to make their holiday just a few days longer.