Redang End of Season 2006

There is nothing like being in the islands at the end of season. Of course, there would be plenty out there that would disagree with me. But when you get lucky, the islands will remind you again of why it is a coral island paradise.

Redang Island is not one of those off the beaten track islands. On the contrary, Redang has since grown to become quite commercialized in nature. And during long Malaysian pubic holiday stretches, you would be hard pressed to find any peace on the island. It is wall-to-wall humans. Enough even to scare most of the fish away! Hence, you would understand when the island becomes deserted again, the magic of the place returns again.

I have written about Redang before, so I will stay away from the generic descriptions of the island. As with previous trips, I continued to stay with Coral Redang Resort because I still fell that it has the friendliest and peaceful setup on the islands. There are minimal numbers of chalets on a large land area, with the right spaces to create serenity. Starting this year, some of the resorts on Pasir Panjang (Long Beach) including Coral Redang Resort have come together to share the ferry service provided by Redang Beach Resort. So, for those more familiar with the makeshift jetties in Merang, you need to familiarize yourself with the Shahbandar Jetty in Kuala Terengganu town center, situated near the General Post Office. If you are planning to drive and need to head to this jetty, my only advice is to head there early, park in the jetty compound and have a snooze before the ferry departs. The entire area is fenced and quite protected, so that you can be a little assured that it will still be there when you get back to the islands. On top of that, the parking there is very limited, but the only other parking space close to the jetty next door in a relatively exposed and unguarded grounds. My ferry trip was to leave the jetty at 8.30am and I was there by 7.00am. But as the Shahbandar Jetty is much further from Redang compared to the Merang Jetty, the actual time you would have to spend on the water is now extended to about 1 hour and 30 minutes as compared to about 45 minutes if you departed from Merang in the past via speedboat.

Life has become quiet during the last month before most of the dive operators and the resorts close for the year as the monsoon approaches. Desagreen Resort, the newest of the resorts location right next to Coral Redang was slated to go live this year, but was not even close to completion when I was there. Ayu Mayang was closed for renovations as well for the entire year with no definite assurance that it would be open for business in 2007 as well. So, life was really quiet there. Even though the water had not the pristine visibility that I had hoped, the fish and the other sea life was out in force.

But this year, diving was to be different for me. Much thanks need to go for my kind friends at the Redang Bay dive center, and my new friends from Redang Beach Resort for showing me your secret dive spots. For the many years that I have dived here, this end season dive trip has been full of macro surprises. I had been shown Zebra Crabs on Fire Urchins, Partner Shrimps in colors I have never seen, and Whip Coral Shrimps that I never though existed in this patch of sea. I will not name the sites as lie the firnds that have shown me their patch of heaven, some secrets need to be kept secrets. But my hint to you is to go to sites long not tread or areas that are supposedly dear. You will be surprised I assure you.