Pulau Payar is located just over halfway between Langkawi and Penang and is a favourite with holidaymakers from all corners of the globe. While it doesn’t have the crystal clear waters of Terengganu or Pahang on the east coast, it does have unique attributes.
Perhaps the biggest asset that Pulau Payar has is ease of access. It is very easy to get up in Penang, head to your favourite mamak stall for roti canai, catch the ferry for Payar at 8:30 a.m., dive twice and be back in Penang for dinner at the famous hawker centre on Gurney drive. Most dive locations are quite remote, requiring a long flight or bus ride and then a choppy speedboat journey to the resort. The Penang-Langkawi ferry is posh compared to most of the speedboats plying the waters on the east coast of Malaysia.
The second asset Payar offers is marine life. I once spoke to an old fisherman who said, “God blesses some places with clear water and no fish and some places with murky water but loads of fish.” This comment often comes to mind when I am diving at Payar. No, the visibility isn’t great and, honestly, can be very bad some days, but the dive sites teeming with marine life. I dove Pulau Redang in April and then in early May dove Payar and saw more nudibranches at Payar, not to mention moray eels, soft coral, batfish and lobster. I thought then, “If Payar had the crystal clear waters of Redang, it would be a better dive site.” Rather than being someone who gripes about the poor visibility of Payar, I would rather appreciate what it does have, which is a large variety of marine life.
The downside to Payar is the aforementioned visibility conditions, which on bad days is 1 meter and on good days is 10 meters. Also sometimes frustrating and alarming are the crowds of people snorkeling. This isn’t usually a problem for divers because there are usually only a handful of divers (unless you are really unlucky and go on a day where a big tour group is diving). But there is usually a horde of snorkelers and they are not easy on the reef. Rumors have circulated for the last year about closing Payar for a period but it is a cash cow so that will probably never happen.
The last negative thing about Payar is the limited number of dive sites. Of course, you don’t go to Payar for 10 dives over four days, but there are only around six dive sites. There are four islands, Payar, Kaca, Lembu and the distant Segantang. The big island, Payar, has the sites Coral Garden, Japanese Garden and the House Reef. Coral Garden is a nice dive with lots of soft coral and a large variety of fish-life. House Reef and Japanese Garden are virtually the same site and usually the dives are long and shallow and so you cover both of them. Huge groupers and barracudas hang out near the dock or pier and juvenile black-tip reef sharks patrol the shallows as well. Around 12:30 the hands gather the snorkelers and feed the sharks so usually quite a crowd gathers to watch.
Juvenile blacktip reef sharks gather expecting a meal.
A crowd gathers to watch the sharks eat.
The beach at Pulau Payar.
Pulau Kaca and Lembu are about a three minute boat ride away. Between the two islands is a site with several sunken fishing boats and more massive groupers. There are some tyre reefs here as well. Further out around Pulau Lembu is a site called Lembu Rocks which is quite nice but not usually on the itinerary. It is a boulder site that is usually circled and yields a nice variety of triggerfish, nudibranches an occasional lionfish and a boxfish or two.
Segantang is further away, around half an hour by speedboat. I was on a dive that tried to dive here once, but we didn’t get dropped close enough to the island and swam around without seeing a single fish. Worst dive of my life! They do see whale sharks here occasionally and purportedly there is a rock wall that is nice to dive.
In summary, Pulau Payar is not a place you travel thousands of kilometers and sell your prized possessions just for the chance to dive it. However, if you are spending a week in Penang and need a way to work a kilo or two of that extra weight gained from the nasi kandar dinners, Payar is a great little day trip that the whole family can enjoy.
Waves gently lap the sand near on of the elevated wooden walkways at Payar.
A crowd gathers to watch the sharks eat.
The beach at Pulau Payar.
