Pulau Pangkor
Lumut, the kick off point to Pulau Pangkor and Pulau Sembilan, is only about 2 1/2 hours drive from Kuala Lumpur. Boats from Lumut will take about an hour to ferry you to the islands.

Most diving around Pulau Pangkor is done around the Pulau Sembilan group of islands located 27 kilometres south. The nine islands are uninhabited and any trip has to be arranged with local dive operators based in Kuala Lumpur. Usually when the diving season in East Coast islands wind down from November to March, local divers will head for Pulau Sembilan.

Hard corals dominate the seascape with several large boulders carpeted with sponges. Fusiliers, jacks, parrotfish, humphead wrasses, barracudas, nudibranchs and sometimes the odd seahorse, can be seen.

The most popular site is White Rock. It is a steep solitary rock visible above water with a lighthouse built on it. Visibility is usually better when dived with slight currents.

Currents sweeping the site can sometime get a little too strong for divers and caution must be practiced. Groupers, stingrays and other reef fish can be observed hiding in between the many crevices of the boulders.

Pulau Jarak
Located 34km southwest of the town of Lumut, Perak is Pulau Jarak. Malaysia's latest dive destination. This tiny island (barely 8 hectares in size) rises 50m above sea level and is covered with lush vegetation, where many sea eagles nest. There is no beach on Pulau Jarak, only granite sloping down to the sandy sea bed with small patches of stony, encrusting and soft corals. The island's boulder-strewn coastline makes it virtually inaccessible, leaving Pulau Jarak's pristine wonders mostly unexplored.

Its underwater enchantment includes brightly coloured cup corals, football sized Pink-mouth Murex, purple Crown-of Thorns Starfish and many other sea creatures in a multitude of colours, shapes and sizes.

The lure of this island beckons divers to penetrate its natural barricades and probe into the mysterious and astounding underwater realm that Pulau Jarak has to offer.