Snorkeling @ Pulau Payar

[Alex Kang]

hey khairil, glad to see you finally 'surfaced' at Tioman!
Are you going to be there for awhile or just for this season? Never dived Tioman before... so now there's incentive to dive with you there...

[tango]

Hey Bro! You're finally connected... and glad to see you back in action.

I'll be planning for dive trips to Tioman if you're gonna be around! Hopefully you will still be around and I do hope the Redang Forum Moderators and Redang Forum Members will come together for dive trip in Tioman.

1) Any good dive spots? Do tell...
2) Do we need to stay with Berjaya Tioman to dive with Berjaya Dive Centre Tioman?

Hey K, glad to see you, perhaps, I'll go for advance lesson or have some of my people take the discovery dive with you.

Regards,
tango

[Khairil Anwar]

Not bad at all.

For your information, this is the place where I started my diving adventures in the late 90'. Worked for an outfit called Pro Dive Langkawi. Unfortunately because of the huge competition (and unfair pricing practices by one of the competitors) they had to close land operations and operate on a ferry boat.

I still remember those days when we would only go out with 12 people max on our 30" catamaran and go to all the quiet places around Payar away from the maddening crowd. If all our guest on that particular day was divers, Pulau Segantang would be our destination. Segantang is still my favourite divesite in Peninsular Malaysia due to the diversity and number of fishes.

The problem with diving in Payar is you never really know what the visibility on the island will be until you arrive there. From the photo rock999 posted, it shows that water from the Andaman is flowing through and thats the best time to go diving. When the water from the Straits of Malacca is passing through, you cant even see your buddy 5 feet away.....

[tango]

Hi Rock
I read yr post. I actually decided not to bring my 2 teenager girls join that costly trip but looking at yr photos, I'm at loss now !

Cld U tell me is thr a worth to join that Payar Pular Marine Snorkelling trip ?
Which agent do U joined & how much do U pay ?
If my younger kid (7yo) just know how to swim a week ago (after her 8 lessons) & I'm no gd in swimming at all. Do we still allowed to snorkelling in to see those fishes ? Is it true that water is muddy & full with rubbish ?

Hope U can spend a bit of yr time to give some advice as this June 9, 2010 will b my 1st time in life bringing
my 2 girls for a trip to Penang 6 June then Langkawi.
Thx

Hi CuteHoneyDew, I too saw rock999 post and it was nice but the organiser of our trip was running an operations that is full to the bream if you know what I mean, it was not a holistic experience, and we will not be recommending this operator, it is so crowded like what you see in rock999's photo. The operator is the one that has the largest floating pontoon.

So when I was on shore, I enquired from another operator who takes their guests straight to the beach; operator no. 2 don't have a pontoon, the guy was not very friendly and had the attitude that they were well known enough that there is no need to sell their business to us. I was seriously thinking of making a repeat visit to Palau Payar as an alternatively to Redang, Tioman, Pankor, the Perhentians.

There are three (and by now possibly four or more) operators but it was packed even though it was not during the school holidays for Malaysia or Singapore.

The boat ride back on the catamaran broken down twice, and it takes just about 2-hours for the entire process of getting there from Langakwai to Palau Payar and another 2-hours back. A couple who is young at heart and don't mind roughing it out with tourist warriors AND have a very good deal (value for money), by all means...

Not all were bad now... on the pontoon, there was this nice underwater viewing gallery where you can see the bottom of the sea bed and watch discovery scuba guest and dive master doing the Discovery Dive, that's something I found interesting.

Palau Payar is more for the mass toursits who had it packaged with their tours to Penang and-or Langkawi. There was so many of them.... madness for food, for seats, for attention, for boat ride from pontoon to shore and vice versa, madness for use of the toilet and waiting to shower and people banging on the doors to change quickly before the catamaran sets off for the mainland (Langakawi).

Palau Payar is really nice though, just best done with less people or a private charter (if there such an operations - license may have been issued only to these operators). Also, I don't recommend the Seaworld aquarium at Langkawi, if you're Malaysia, then the discount tickets is as far as I will go. Otherwise, give it a miss as they did not do a proper recovery of the place when sabotagers poisioned over 90% of the sea creatures including turtles. Note: our visit to Langkawi was in 2008, so things may have changed for the better (or worse).

Thumbs up for us was the cable car ride to the Geo National Park.

Thumbs up for us was the eco-safari tour, value for money (have to bargin), if you're into swamps, mangrove, bat cave, flying foxes, river meets sea environment, a view of the mountains that make up of limestone and marble... it is truly a national park that needs to be preserved which the Malaysia government has done so to protect it from total harvesting of the marble.

Thumbs down for the operator charges are definitely not value for money, I checked with the family members, my wife, my father and we all three agreed it is not a repeat with these operators; it wasn't value for money for sure, very ex compared to the other Malaysia island partly in my review of their operations is the long 2-hour journey there, diesel is very ex and climbing at the time in 2008.

Well, hope this insight from us did not damper your mood to go to Langkawi. I am glad the former PM had this place declared a Geo National Park. I will return with family and sister's family one day but not with these operators.

[CuteHoneyDew]

Hi Rock
I read yr post. I actually decided not to bring my 2 teenager girls join that costly trip but looking at yr photos, I'm at loss now !

Cld U tell me is thr a worth to join that Payar Pular Marine Snorkelling trip ?
Which agent do U joined & how much do U pay ?
If my younger kid (7yo) just know how to swim a week ago (after her 8 lessons) & I'm no gd in swimming at all. Do we still allowed to snorkelling in to see those fishes ? Is it true that water is muddy & full with rubbish ?

Hope U can spend a bit of yr time to give some advice as this June 9, 2010 will b my 1st time in life bringing
my 2 girls for a trip to Penang 6 June then Langkawi.
Thx

[tango]

Nice read, good pictures and stories... thanks Rock.

[john]

oh oh ... Pulau Payar eh, not bad not bad

[Alex Kang]

Hey Rock,
Thanks for sharing all those pics about Payar. Never been there but your pics and writeup gave me a pretty good idea what to expect. Actually looks quite decent for a west coast island

Only problem is not being able to stay at Payar, and seems kinda expensive to take the boat from Penang/Langkawi for the day tour.

[rock999]

Pulau Payar Marine Park 26/02/2007 9.30am - 5.30pm Day trip.

Most of the pics are in clickable thumbnails link to larger pic.

Going out to sea NOW.


Along the way to Pulau Payar......kill the time by taking photos.




Finally reach the coral platform and found out that tourists from Penang arrived long before us.


Added tourists from Langakwi, the platform is FULL.


The counter selling items is very old.


Here the the stairs to underwater dving but I din signup for the scuba diving package.


Wait wait.......I need to adjust my mask, lifejacket etc. Girlfriend panicked lo.


Lotsa fishes at the platform cos many tourists are feeding them with bread.


Ok.......READY~~! GO GO GO!!!! 1st to welcome and greet us.


And followed by.......DEEP WATER.......


Finding NEMO~!


Finding Nemo~ again.


Drag my GF and start snorkeling towards the beach near the platform.






As usual, the corals cannot survive in the shallow water. Main reason is snorkeling activities from tourists and stepping on corals.


All the corals are gone.


Almost reach the shore.


This one is the same size of an adult's arm.


Reach the opposite shore, not really far away. An easy attempt.


The destruction of corals at shallow water is really serious. Btw, look carefully. 3 sharks swimming by, scare scare.....






As I start from the beach snorkeling out, met up with this TMD fish. Very strong territorial defence, kena bite. Wah Piang~ TMD fish.......me just passby leh.


Quickly escape from scene.


Sea urchin, be careful. Poisonous and one stink will give you endless pain.


Continue snorkeling out to deeper sea, coral are in better shape there.




Lets find Nemo again...... ^_^

Not here...........................not here also......................nope


And not here, can't find.


Found~!!!!! Nemo~~~ :tb:


Edited and crop the pic, the Nemo is bigger.


GF is tired after long snorkeling session (although she doesn't need to swim at all), have to drag her back to the platform for a rest. Getting near the platform lotsa fishes.


While she taking a break on the platform, I immediately took off the lifejacket and jump back into water. Much easier to snorkel freely into deeper water which has lots more different type of corals and fishes. And there is a big grouper.


Divers in deep water.


Follow them lets blow bubbles together OIC.....is discovery scuba dive and he was being drag along also. They stop at this location.


You dive I also dive but I don't need an oxygen tank, free dive down and manage to take a decent close up shot.


Continue to snorkel around.


Pufferfish?


Went back to the platform and drag GF down into water again. But very soon heard ringing sound and is time for our buffet lunch.


** Note **
*Buffet lunch is like WARZONE, its better that you get up onto the platform earlier
*Pls take what you can consume only and do not waste the food by feeding the fish, those oily food may cause harm to the fishes and pollute the water.
*Pls do not throw any rubbish

After lunch the next activity is **sharks feeding**, lotsa ppl are in a hurry queuing up for this activity WARZONE again <_< We decided not to join the crowd and went down to the underwater observatory first.


A huge baracuda spotted. Heard this is the only baracuda at Pulau Payar his name is Mustafa and he is old, almost harmless to us although baracuda are identified as voracious predators.

Like sharks, barracudas have long had a bad reputation as being dangerous to humans. However, unprovoked attacks on humans are extremely rare and millions of scuba divers, snorkelers and swimmers spend time with them in the water without any incidents. Barracudas sometimes do follow snorkelers and scuba divers across a reef, which can make one feel uncomfortable, but they are harmless unless provoked. Because barracudas have a scavenger-like tendency, it has been theorized that barracudas tend to follow snorkelers because they believe that the snorkeler(s) might be a large predator(s) and if they were to capture prey it would be easy for the barracudas to scavenge whatever may be left behind.

Being formidable hunters, they should be respected, as barracudas are perfectly capable of defending themselves against humans that harass them. Handfeeding or trying to touch them is strongly discouraged. Spearfishing around barracudas can also be quite dangerous, as they are strongly attracted by the wounded fish.

There have been isolated cases where barracudas did bite a human, but these incidents are rare and are believed to be caused by bad visibility. Barracudas will stop after the first bite as humans are not their normal food source.
** End of story, source from wikipedia ** :ph43r:

Cleaning up the glass.


GF felt much safer n easier to watch the underwater here.


Went back and......Still lotsa ppl queuing up, no choice but to join in. -_-


Kill the time with photo taking session.


Finally our turn on the boat.


At 1st I'm thinking of taking some underwater shark feeding photos to share with you guys, but ** I do not support this activity **. Therefore.....sorry no pics here. But I still get to see few of the sharks from above the wodden walkway while walking towards the marine park HQ office. And MY some of them are.....I consider huge (almost 5ft in length I guess). Normally baby shark after grown up to this size should have gone out to sea and start their journey but seems that they are already used to the feeding and stayed. After some thoughts I'm thinking of how nature habitat lifecycle was being disrupted by over tourism activities. Do we really need sharks feeding?? What if years goes by and down the road these sharks which had grown up to a size that comes to threaten and compromise the safety of tourists. What actions will be carried out? Shark Fin Soup? I'm not sure........ -_-

Not really into this activity and just walk around.


Just look at the statistic about the number of visits by tourists at Pulau Payar over the years. :blink: But there is a sudden drop of 50 thousands in 2005 right after the effect of Dec 2004 tsunami fear.


Pulau Payar not only known for the marine park, jungle tracking is also a part of my plan. Cant do jungle trecking coz we forgot to bring our bootie, normally we wear it for an extra protection underwater and right after snorkeling we can go jungle trecking during our island trip.


Just walk around but very soon we heard calling for us to go back to the platform by boat and headed back. Taking up Langkawi Coral package seems tiring, gotta rush thru time attack. Seeing the group from Coral Island package with lunch box on the beach is much relax, lunch time and all activity are on their own. No time attack.


Wat LAR~ back to the platform only realised that we can actually choose to stay and go back at a later time. <_< Jump back into the water and swim to the opposite shore again.

Corals in deep water are in good shape.


Lotsa sea urchin, be careful not to get near.


Self portrait of us.


** Note **

*Many established coral reefs are ten of thousands of years old, some corals have growth rate of inches or even slower mm per year. And these marine life forms are very fragile.
*Pls do not step on corals, you will damage them by doing so.
*Some corals are likely to contain venoms and toxins that can cause serious harm and you may not know what you're stepping on. With many of the marine species maybe hiding under rocks or camouflaged from our views such as scorpionfish & stonefish (so venomous that poison from it could even causes death.)
*It may look like a rock without any corals but in actual fact, corals are starting to grow in slow rate by millimeter per year. See below pic which I took at Pulau Payar.


*Many years of growth rate and compare to a person who is tired during snorkeling wanted to rest for a while.
*Pls do not step on corals, you will damage them by doing so.

Everytime during island trips at the east coast and this sighting is just so common, even at Pulau Payar. -_-


*If you have to adjust or clear your fogging mask do it while floating (swimming with backstroke), or swim clear away from the reef first then adjust. If you are not able to float well, use a life jacket.

Walk back to the marine park HQ office thru the wooden walkway and snorkel around the area. Corals here is much lesser but fishes are more and many in species.



Many fishes around here.


A big grouper


wats this???? :blink:


Looks scary....... :scary:


Found the "HQ office" of these groupers. teng teng teng


So here is the hiding place of groupers, with many fishes around.


At about 3pm the staffs began to call us back to get ready and return to Langkawi. Last chance to get a nice shot of Pulau Payar scene, incidentally 2 bikini gals appeared and "killed" the composition of this picture. :shy:


Not only "killed" the scene, my camera battery also dead. Last picture of Pulau Payar. I want shoot shoot more bikini gal gal........


Back to our resort, 1st thing is to rinse all of our snorkeling cloths n equipment. And took a short break at the balcony.



Feel free to click below to see my Langakwi 4D3N review.

English version
http://forum.wiseautoclub.com/index.php?showtopic=6385

Chinese version
http://chinese.cari.com.my/myforum/view ... a=page%3D1