Arguably the jewels in the crown of peninsular Malaysia, the Perhentian Isles sit a 30 minute boat ride off the coast of Terengganu and offer a quiet, laid-back break from the sometimes bustle of the mainland.

We arrived in the Perhentians as with Malaysia itself, more by default than design: with few ties in the UK, we had decided that it was time to 'see the world.' Flights booked to Singapore, our original intention had been to travel up the West coast of Malaysia en route to Thailand with stops in Penang, Langkawi and Pangkor.

Although we had a great time - in Langkawi and Pangkor in particular - it was the venture to Perhentian that made us realise that we had found our spiritual home. There could be no greater contrast to our backgrounds in retail and printing than to find yourself with toes dug into pristine white sand on a near deserted beach, or snorkelling and diving in crystal- clear waters surrounded by a rainbow of fish while untroubled turtles languorously swam past.

South East Asia is blessed with many fine dive sites. We had cut our scuba teeth up Thailand and while we had enjoyed some great times, nothing came close to the way in which everything in Perhentian seemed to gel. For us, it was the conflation of the diving, the people and the environment that seemed to single out the uniqueness of the experience. We found a genuinely welcoming location devoid of the 'hard sell' that had characterised some of our other dives in the region. It was fantastic to feel that you were welcomed as part of the local culture, rather than just tolerated for the sake of tourist dollars.