Blue Silence: Snorkeling the Reefs of Redang Island

The morning light on Redang Island arrives like a curtain drawn back on a theater of blue. From the bow of a small powerboat the sea looks every shade between aquamarine and cobalt; the wake behind you is a white thread through a mosaic of reefs. You step off at a sandbank so white it hurts to look at, and the only sounds are the lapping of water, the distant caw of gulls, and the steady breathing of a snorkel set placed against your face. Below, coral gardens ripple in the current like a city of anemones and branching staghorn; a green turtle materializes from the cathedral of coral and slides past without hurry. On Redang, the ocean seems to have its own calm economy of time.