Pulau Redang Warnings and Dangers

If you want to watch the sunrise at the beach just be sure you wear shoes. This is because of the many dead corals splayed across the beach at this time of the day.
It is also not advisable to snorkel at the beach in front of Redang Kalong as you could step on the dead corals while trying to stand up and this could easily hurt your feet...

Be careful when you get into the water during the jellyfish season (August). Keep your eyes open and try to avoid bumping into them as the sting can get pretty painful or itchy.

Have a box of antihistamine or anti-inflammation handy just in case.

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Check out this picture. The guy on the right, with his head out the window was actually chucking out because he was seasick. In fact he was not the only one who got sick.
Two guys were looking green within ten minutes, and after the first snorkelling stop, a couple more older ladies could be seen chucking up. Later on, about an hour into the trip, two kids about 6 and 10 years old were seen throwing up into plastic bags and they continued to look miserable for the rest of the trip.

What surprised me was at the sheer number of people on that boat that were sick. Some got sick after being tossed around while snorkelling, and others got sick due to the motion of the speedboat. I was rather surprised because to me, the speed boat was large enough, and the waves were very calm that day.

Anyway, if you're in doubt whether you'll be seasick, you might want to bring along some seasickness medication (the non-drowsy type) and plastic bags.

The marine park which is popular with snorklers is very crowded during peak hours. This is because the area is cordoned off by a net and snorklers cannot swim beyond the net. During the Saturday morning that our group was there, there were at least 300 people swimming and snorkelling in and around that small area. You could hardly turn without knocking into someone or being knocked.

Alternative
Take a Redang round island tour that includes 2-3 snorkelling stops, at about twice the price (or the same price-depending on the boatperson that you negotiate with, and if you book from outside your hotel), and it won't be as crowded.
If you have more time, you may wish to make a day trip to Perhentian Islands-which are about an hours speedboat ride away. I have not been there myself, but I've heard good reports from VT friends and others about its live corals and the variety of sea creatures.

As advised by the Marine Park authorities:

Within 2 nautical miles from the coast, the following activities are banned:
1) Net Fishing
2) Spear Fishing
3) Corals collecting
4) Throwing of rubbish into the waters
5) Anchoring
6) Water Skiing
7) Water Scooters

There is a very recent addition (Apr 06), banning flippers for snorkellers. The reason: Snorkellers are damaging the corals by resting their flippers on them.

Some of the spots which experience high human traffic may have begun to show signs of stress. Dead corals are sighted around the outer fringes around the northern tip of Pulau Pinang where most of the resorts seem to have sent their visiting guests to for snorkelling. It is a very sorry sight.

With past experiences in Pulau Sibu and from tales I heard about Pulau Tioman's corals, I am not too entirely sure if history can be prevented from happening again in Pulau Redang, which has seen an explosion of visiting tourists in recent years.

Realised that most boat trip are overload. During my trip to Redang, the boat that send us there was so overload that the life jacket is at least short of 15pcs. Thought is an isolated case as they have too many unforseen travellers. However during my trip to Marine Park for snorkeling the same thing happen again. I dare to say the boat is at least 20 people overload. Luckily all of us are at least with life jacket as we are going for snorkeling trip. But you can imagine the stuffiness during the trip. Is so unenjoyable. Same thing happen again during our boat ride back to jetty from redang. I realised it is normal to be overloaded. But one question keeps on nagging at me. They only need 1 incident to wake them up and the price that they are going to pay will be far too high.

on certain parts of the beach there are a lot a lot of dead corals lined up.......and it could cut one's feet pretty bad. when you go further into the water there would be a lot of huge stones that could trip you if one is not careful. i would advise one to wear a pair of sandals, fins, or better, aqua shoes before snorkelling in these parts of the beach.