we arrived at the border in the afternoon and after checking out of Thailand we walked over to Malaysia. The border crossing was easy enough and the customs dude checking Joanne's bag seemed more concerned if we were married than if she was carrying any concealed weapons. We took a taxi from the Malaysian border to Kuala Besut, a small fishing town where its possible to get the boat to the Perhentian Islands, our first stop in Malaysia. The taxi ride took a while, mostly due to the fact the driver had to stop at the local mosque for evening prayer and also witnessed two crashes, which was a tad worrying

By the time we arrived in Kuala Besut it was too late to catch a boat so kipped over for the night before getting an early boat the next morning. It was a 30 minute speed boat ride to Long beach on the small Island, (there's a big island and a small island) which is apparently the main backpacker beach. The speed boat stopped around 15 metres from the pier and the 6 of us on board were transferred on to a smaller boat with our bags. Not until the speed boat had left did the new driver tell us that for the remaining 15 metres it would cost us 2 ringett (about 30p) each. Although its not much money we had already paid our tickets to go to the island so out of principle the 6 of us refused to pay. The driver of the new boat dropped the anchor and jumped off, swimming to another nearby boat to escape the abuse he was getting from us, so we were all stranded just 15m from the island. After about 10 minutes of discussion about the best plan of attack, all the time the driver smuggly waving over at us we decided on a plan. So while an Irish guy who was on the boat lifted the anchor i jumped in the water and managed to pull the boat to the pier. By the time the driver had caught up to us we were already unloading the bags. He was totally raging and called us crazy etc. - obviously just never met a couple of tight scots who'd do anything to save 2ringett.

It was only after our dramatic entrance to the island we realised how awesome the place was. The beach was absolutely amazing and the sea looked more like a swimming pool - easily the nicest beach we've been so far. We stayed on the beach for about 5 days. During the day we'd spend most of our time in the sea or doing as little as possible on the beach before heading to a bbq for some shark and a mars bar shake (sooooo good) before partying with some Scottish girls we met or Justin (the legendery Australian who were planning on staying with in Brisbane for a bit.) On our second last day we decided to shake things up and went on a snorkling trip around the two islands, which was absolutely awesome. stopped off at shark point and turtle point, named for obvious reasons and a few different coral reefs, which were so amazing.

Unfortunately our last night on the island wasn't the best ending to our time there when Joanne's bag was nicked by Sneaky McSticky fingers. She lost some cash, the camera (why there are not many pictures of the island) and her bank card. Joined by Justin, who we found sleeping on the beach asked around but didnt really get anywhere but did meet a Malay guy who said he would give us a lift to the closest ATM on the mainland since there werent any on the island. Luckily we got Joanne's old camera to work so managed to hurridly take a few pictures of the island before catching the boat to the mainland, through one of the biggest storms ive ever seen.

The guy we'd met on the island turned out to be a complete hero. Not only did he drive us 30km's to the nearest ATM but he also bought us lunch and dropped us at the police station to report the theft. The main problem with losing the bag was that Joanne was now left with only one bank card, which she didnt know the PIN for and I only had about a tenner until i transferred money - which could take up to four days. Luckily we had already bought tickets to our next stop, Taman Negara (a rainforest in the centre of Malaysia) so we spent most of our remaining money on a room for the night in Kuala Besut before catching our bus to Taman Negara in the morning with pretty much no cash and only a few small travellers cheques - to be fair, it was about time to start bumming it for a bit!


James