19 June Pulau Redang

We've been in Redang for five days and it's been a most enjoyable time.  Redang island is U shaped and we opted for the southern end of the big bay on the north side of the island.  There is a five star resort, clear water, a handful of dive sites and friendly hawksbill and green turtles in the vicinity.

Swimming off the boat in the clear and warm water we floated around watching the turtles grazing on sea grass but when a boat load of tourists arrive the turtles forego grass for a tastier meal, squid, which the tour guides bring to hand feed them.  We had small and medium sized animals swimming all around us, close enough to touch, searching fingers for food.  One cheeky animal nipped my finger with her beak.  My fault for not keeping out of her way.  I was fortunate it was only a nip which broke the skin as I understand a full bite would be strong enough to inflict considerable pain.
We've done threee dives.  The first was along the rock and coral cliff with two caves where we found plenty of nudibranchs.  The second dive was the wreck of a ferry boat, sunk by the resort to be a dive site and our third dive, around a headland.  The visibilty is the best was more than 20m and the water 30c which has led to bleaching of the large pore corals.  There are fish here, but interestingly no shrimps about, and definitely no lobsters because we looked.
David dived in shorts and t shirt. I chose to wear my Australian stinger suit but with the hood down.  Perhaps if I'd had the hood up I woundn't have been stung by hydrozoa floating  on the surface when we surfaced from the last dive.  Next day my neck was a mass of red and itching spots.   They continued to be uncomfortable for the next two weeks.  David was lucky to avoid being stung as we learned later there has been an outbreak of these stingers in the area.

Pulau Redang, a pretty and sheltered anchorage which we look forward to visiting again on our way south in about six weeks.