The calm before the monsoon in Redang, where the turtles freely swim

The writer swimming past a turtle and a fish in the clear blue waters of Redang Island. — Photos: FLORENCE TEH

Weather, work, pandemic ... whatever! Nothing was going to stop me from making my third consecutive annual trip to Pulau Redang in Terengganu, except for the lockdown laws which needed negotiating past.

The monsoon is traditionally an off-season period for holidaymakers hoping to frolic in the waters of the peninsular East Coast, but heavy rain, choppy seas and huge waves routinely put paid to those plans.