It only took us 6 months but we finally found our Paradise Island & guess what, its not in Thailand! The Perfect Perhentian Islands are 25km off the North East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia, we hadnt even heard of them until we started this trip, but they did not disappoint! A chance encounter with an crazy old Mancunian guy in India, told us we had to come here & I'm soooo glad we did!

There are actually 2 islands, we chose the smaller Island - Kecil, which is backpacker heaven, although Vish did want to move to the bigger island when he saw the accomodation we had to stay in! Actually our hut isnt all that bad, basic backpackage, but you can see the sea from our verandah & less mozzies than most (Vish was still disturbed tho!) We're stayin on Coral Beach (which is the Patnem of Kecil island!) much more chilled out than Long Beach, the 'party beach', although I'm not sure how 2 beach bars really constitutes a party! The island is tiny, with just thses 2 beaches on opposite sides, connected by a stark path through thick Jungle. This is fine during the day, but the trek deffo requires a torch at night, which we learnt the hard way, when Vish forgot the torch on our first night & we ended up running through the jungle in the pitch black, dodging snakes & monitor lizards!

The Islands are part of a Marine Park, which means that the real fun lies under the ocean! We've done so much diving & snorkelling & have literally seen everything - Black Tip Sharks, Bamboo Sharks, 2 different types of Turtles, Blue Spotted Stingrays, Boxfish, Moray Eels, Puffer Fish, Trigger Fish & so much more! The Diving here puts Koh Tao to shame, I really wish I'd done my Open Water here, as its exactly the same price & the standard of teaching is so much higher. I was still so nervous to go diving again, but an Underwater Shrimp Manicure soon chilled me out, as did the numerous Turtles & wonderful things I saw! I still dont think I'll ever be a natural, but I definately feel more confident than I did when I left Koh Tao, except when my air pressure gauge got stuck & I thought I had 80 bars more of air than I actually did! A real Underwater Drama!

Apart from all the Diving & Snorkelling, we've done a whole lot of nothing, except lazing on the beach, sunbathing & generally winding down. We've also been in involuntary detox, as Malaysia is a Muslim country, so boozing isnt big on the agenda. Yes, you can buy beer, but its not cheap (especially not by Thai standards), so no one really tends to bother that much, which means that the islands are so chilled out & hardly any pissed 18 year olds (result!) We've been here for 10 days & have only had 2 nights out; the first night we bumped into some mates from the Laos Slowboat Massive & then our Dive shop had a BBQ one night, so that turned into a bit of a party, but other than that its been nicely chilled. The perfect way to end our amazing adventure!

So the end is nigh, I cant believe that in less than 3 days I will have to bid farewell to this nomadic lifestyle & return to the horrors of London. I think I'm still in denial. Of course, we will have one last night of luxury before the long flight home, so its off to the Mandarin Oriental in KL, for one last spot of flashpacking, then its homeward bound...

Get the Prozac on Ice.