About a month ago, i revisited one of my fav malaysian getaways, pulau tenggol which is off the coast of dungun. I've been travelling all over the world and i neglected the beauty that malaysia has to offer hence i decided to return once again to this island after an absence of 10 years.

Pulau Tenggol is a nice small island off the coast of dungun which offers a variety of marine life. The corals here are more colorful than that of redang, lang, perhentian. This is a place of serenity and nature is aplenty. The good part about this place is that you do not need to take a boat ride out to sea to experience snorkeling. Marine life is only 5 minutes swim from shore (from the beach actually). My duty here today is not to promote the resorts but rather to share my wonderful experience with all of you avid travellers who seek unspoilt nature.

There are a total of 3 resorts, all of which carry around 10-20 units of chalet. All 3 resorts share the same beach and believe me, even if its full, there's still plenty of place to roam around and you will not sense crowded stuffed up places at all. (Unlike my recent bad experience in tioman which is now on my sh-t list of not to go places). Dungun is a small town near the terengganu coastline, an hour away from Kuala Terengganu and about 2 hours away from Kuantan. My journey to dungun was a fascinating one. I was happy to actuallyt see a small flourished town laden with peace. I was rewarded a whole lot more upon reaching Tenggol Island. The water was still as clear from the time i was there 10 years ago. The fishes are still aplenty and no, they still do not eat bread. no one feeds the fish here with bread unlike in tioman or lang or redang. Corals are still as beautiful as ever and my diving and snorkeling experience was simply breathtaking.

Here are some pics which i took with my underwater olympus.


Dived at 10m below lvl.




Dived at 5m below lvl
yes a genuine huge friendly puffer fish. swam with me for 5 minutes before i took off in another direction




Dive at 0.5m below lvl




A brochure from one of the resorts, apologies for the badly shaken pic.




A view from the resort beachline




Super huge jellyfish which i caught at the jetty area in dungun !




The resort i stayed at :
lush greenery all around. it doesnt matter which resort u pick, its all filled with nature and natural landscapes








How to get there.

From KL, it takes 6 hours by bus to reach dungun town. By car it takes 4+ hours.
From the main dungun bus stop it is impossible to walk to the jetty. It takes 5-10 minutes by car/taxi to the jetty and approx RM20 per taxi (private owned cars not red and white cabs)
The jetty is actually more like a house rather than a real jetty. There are powerboats there as well. Owner of the place seems to be loaded and i was told he actually resides in subang jaya.

From the Jetty, a speedboat cum ferry, will ride u all the way out to sea and it takes about 30 minutes before hitting tenggol island. It can get rough nearing monsoon season though.

You may purchase the bus ticket online via www.maraliner.com.my or transnasional. Hentian Putra is the place your bus departs (if from KL)

If you're planning to drive, take the road heading to Kuantan via karak highway. There are ample signboards to aid you to dungun and kuala terengganu from there. The roads are straight and smooth. 80% of the time u will be travelling on highways (unlike my scary drive towards mersing johor in which i opted the coastal roads instead) There is no secure parking there. You are allowed to park at the jetty (which is actually a large bungalow house beside some river) for several days and they charge like RM5 per day i think. I forgot. There's no receipt so dont ask for one.



Where to stay.

There are actually 3 resorts. Some of the resorts have no air conditioning. I stayed in the one which have air conditioning. Unfortunately there are pros and cons on choosing the resorts. If you take Aqua resort, which is the one i stayed in, there is air conditioning and electricity. But only from 7pm-6am. Hence charging your camera or mobile phones will be difficult during the daytime as there isnt any electricity. Aqua runs on a generator and therefore are abit stingy. The other resorts have only ceiling fans. Which is actually quite enough because its always windy. Electricity is on 24/7 for them due to the little consumption that they need. So choose your resorts wisely and rest assured, if the other 2 resorts are full, its still worth going as the headcount can only be that little.

http://www.pulautenggol.com/


What to do.

For snorkelers, it is best to rent the gears from your resort which would not cost much. The standard RM 10 per life jacket and RM 5 for snorkel and RM 10 for fins. When you get on the beach, a 5 minute swim is sufficient before u get to experience live corals and vast marine life. So no boat ride is actually needed. There are 2 Malaysia flags planted further out from the beach, swim towards it to get the best coral and marine life spot. Its marked by the 2 malaysia flags.

If you're more ambitious, take a nice boat ride further out and even behind the island. A caution of warning, open sea is rough. If you dont have the stamina to meet, please stay within range of your boat.

For divers , there are plenty of spots out there and weather conditions are of no concern to us. Dive tanks and gear can all be obtained at the same market rate as redang/lang/perhentian. slightly cheaper. I would suggest divers to make a trip behind the island. Thats where all the most colorful corals lie and within 18m below lvl. Dive points can be deep. Beware of urchins and some super ugly jellyfish.


Some tips for all travellers to this place.

1 Your mobile phone would work on the island.
2 Food here sux big time. Please bring your own even if you go fullboard. If you dont go fullboard, you're going to go hungry. This is nothing like tioman where there are shops and stalls outside.
3 Drinking water and tap water here taste a bit funny. Still saltish. I've seen some bringing large quantities of mineral water. The first time i went i brought a whole box of mineral water.
4 Unlike other beaches, tenggol is also exceptionally famous for its deadly sandflies. Please bring your antiseptic lotion or whatever you wanna use to cure your sandfly bites. Seriously no joke.
5 When boarding the ferry or boat, be prepared to get wet. There arent any jetty stands on the island. Once u hit the island, u get off the old fashioned way, and get wet !
6 Dungun is a slow moving town. For those who take the midnight bus, be prepared to lame somewhere.
7 The jetty opens at 8am. Yea its locked from the inside. Out of goodwill they usually do open for you to lepak inside. I arrived at 6am and the caretaker opened it for me.
8 The jellyfish at the jetty is downright dangerous. They're huge and it takes skill to catch em...lucky i have skillz lolz.
9 The jellyfish at tenggol are pretty small and harmless. They look pretty and the size of it is like 1/2 of your palm.
10 Puffer fish has been there for many years. Go seek it out.
11 Turtles can be found. When i arrived there were turtle tracks and people were digging for its eggs. Though i offered RM3.50 each, my wife condemned me and the nagging pursued till i gave up.
12 Dive carefully and watch for urchins.

Corals really are beautiful there. I will return again someday. Meanwhile , to all you avid travellers, if you do make a visit to this lovely peaceful and serenity place, do keep it the way it is.
I'd like to post more pics but there's a limit.

I thank you all for your time and attention. Hope all of you will have a good experience as i did.

Thanks sharkteef..Thinking to go Tenggol island..maybe this year or next year.If you from Kuala Terengganu,take a bus only 1 hour and the fare is RM7.00 one way.

I dont have PADI yet,want to take maybe next year..thanks for info

Is it only great places for diving? How about want to relax and snorkeling?

its depend of how the relaxtion you want, if you are looking for cool(windy), quite, clean, nature... llow density... for me tenggol is the best if you are not a diver also.

note* tenggol is a place to diver cause of the underwater landscape... all thing below the water surface still remail 80-90% nature.can consider the most beautiful coral landscape island if we compare with perhentian, redang, kapas and tioman. but the fishes is less .....

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Added on August 10, 2008, 1:21 amsnorkeling also best!! no need to take a boat ride likes perhention, redang or tioman . just take your snorkeling gear, down to the beach and swim around the costline!! wahhhlalll.... you can see very beautiful coral landscape under you feet!... very simple and relax, shore snorkelinf will do! cause alomost 80-90% of the coral still remain the nature health.one of the reason is -very very low density tourist..so the % of pollution is low ....and from the quantity of the resort in whole island you already can judge the density, some more the qty of the room unit from each resort!

i like tenggol so much!!!!

This post has been edited by hilk: Aug 10 2008, 01:21 AM

wow...thanks for the details...it almost cover all info needed in a trip...
seriously, the jellyfish is harmless? u sure?

btwn, did u bought the package to tenggol island?

There's one thing that I regret now: been staying at Dungun, Terengganu for more than 8 years but never been to islands there (Tenggol, Perhentian, Redang, Kapas). Now after shifting to another place, I started to go for snorkeling trip during break. Wish I could go to Tenggol one day. :|

yea the jellyfish is harmless. i've been there several times as well. the ones at the jetty are huge and deadly. its in sharkteef's pic. the exact same one i saw. the ones on the island are small and not deadly. even if it stings you, marks wont appear. I've learned much about jellyfish and if you ever get stung by one, you can either pee on it for immediate effect, or reach back to shore and pour hot water over the stings. It reduces the burning sensation effects faster than any antiseptic lotion.

Perhentain and Redang departs via Kuala Terengganu jetty. The Merang jetty which is still an hour plus away from dungun town. Kapas is a spoilt place. If you go to kapas or rhu, you will find that all the good things have been destroyed. Many have gone there and complained such as tioman itself. I have to agree with sharkteef that tioman is a commercialised area hence the beauty that many seek isnt there anymore.

i didnt know anyone would find out about tenggol island. looks like i was wrong.

Perhentian Island

Depart from Kuala Besut Jetty.

Redang Island

Depart from Merang Jetty to Redang Island only 40 minute.
Depart from Syahbandar Jetty to Redang island ,will take 1 hour 30 minute

err..really first time heard its harmless...
is it easily bump into 1 when snorkelling? coz i still afraid of it...

i never heard of this island b4...it such a nice place,maybe next term break me n my family should go there...thankx 4 the info

at the island, yes, its harmless. the resort operators will tell you all about it if u ask.

easily bump into 1 if its on a warm weather day.

ohok... will take note on this... thanks
still hope wont see 1 when go snorkelling there...

you most likely will if its a warm day. enjoy the nice wind and island breeze and get some good quiet time. there are plenty of coconuts there so enjoy !

Tomorrow i going to Tenggol Island just for day trip.They charge me..only RM150.00 ( Lunch + Return Speed Boat ).

are u ORANG DUNGUN ...???

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Added on August 13, 2008, 2:01 ambut bear in mind.. the facilities at resort is not so good as normal commercial resort . the best for this island is the nature still preserve. if some one expect that can get a damn super 5 star accomandation, food and other facilities in tenggol island .. forget anbout it!.. heheeh!! you will complain & regret..

so just prepare you self in exploring nature mood if you go to tenggol island.

eventhough the stay & food not good(seriouly bad) , but still can swallow in mouth lah... as long as balance your self in EQ. give a take.... what you can get is the sea & land nature!! superb!

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Added on August 13, 2008, 2:13 amso don't be confuse!! jelly fish have season. and type too. they have many many type of jelly fish, but as basic knowledge the part the harm / hurt human is the tentacles. the sting is around the tentacles, no matter the jelly fish is small or big, onece yoy spot the jelly fish with tentacles, please keep it away. the bigeer size of jelly fish got more power sting and can cause human death.

othe type jelly fish (harmless) is the type without tentacles, normally its small size . this type we can catch with out hand and it totally harmless.( i try before).

so just keep in eye when snorkeling/ diving / shore swimming....

This post has been edited by hilk: Aug 13 2008, 02:14 AM

hi, first i need to give you some of my background.


I'm born in Dungun in 1974, stayed there till standard 6 (12 years old) and moved to KL in 1986 (my dad in working with the government). I was at that time the ONLY chinese in my school, Sek. Ren. Sultan Omar, Dungun, Trg.

My house (or flat) which i was staying in is at Kuala Dungun facing Pulau Tenggol with the mouth of the Sg. Dungun and it's tributary Sg. Pimpin beside my house (approx. 500m from my house). I'm an avid fisherman and was brought up to appreciate the fishing in and around Dungun by my late dad. This is to prove that i'm nt pulling anyone legs cause if anyone is from Dungun or have visited Dungun can collaborate my story.

Now my story, if you were to ask anyone local (other than tour operators), they would have said that they haven't and will never visit nor stay in Pulau Tenggol. Not to say too much, it's suffice to say that the locals (myself included) don't go there because of the what happen to the people who came from our neighbour land over the sea during the 70s/80s war.

TS, thanks for sharing this! this will be my next family holiday trip

there're more history if its in pulau kapas or rhu. i know about the death toll of viets and filipinos and i'm fully aware of the sunken boats during their flee. its safe to say the decomposition has become fish food. tenggol is still a very nice island despite what you say. i'm well versed with m'sian history.


np ....enjoy and bring your own water.

no problem dude ..... ...... don't have any ulterior motive in my post ...... enjoy your Cuti cuti Malaysia holidays ....

bob

plan to Tenggol Island either end october or early nov before they closed for monson. so anyone would like to join the trip
perhaps we can discuss the exact date from now.