Well, the Perhentian Islands are, according to the guidebooks, Malaysia's Showpiece Islands, and when we got there we realised why. It was amazing. We were worried about the boat and scams surrounding getting to the islands, but the whole journey there was completely hassle free. The sea was like a mirror on the way there too, reflecting the sky almost perfectly.

We stayed in the Maya Resort, which consisted of some huts on the beachfront and some set back around a communal area. It was so peaceful, the hosts friendly and informative, just what we were after. We hadn't been there 5 minutes and a monitor lizard was spotted on the beach. He had lost some of his tail but he didn't seem to mind (I asked him) and he went for a bit of a swim to cool off! There were a few restaurants on the beachfront that were perfect for some food and drink at the end of a sunny day.

There were plently of opportunities for snorkelling on the island, inlcuding spots just off the beach. We saw loads of fish, inlcuding a lot of clown fish (cue high pitched noises coming from Sheona's snorkell) but most of the coral had died off, probably due to boats bringing in tourists like us. We decided to be a bit more adventurous and hired a kayak to go snorkelling on the remote and perfect "Romantic Beach". The water was a little too shallow to start off with, and there were loads of sea cucumbers around (if you stand on them they spurt out their intestines that apparently stick to your leg for ages. I wasn't too keen on finding out for sure) so we climbed over some rocks to go deeper. There were loads of fish there as well as some really good coral too. It was the same at our second stop near a lighthouse a bit closer to our beach.

The island was really good for relaxing and chilling out in our little hut right on the beach. We had some memorable games of Scrabble and Uno whilst sipping a Tiger or two whilst watching the sun go down over the horizon. Perfect.

-B