Neither of us slept very well and having to get up at 4am didn’t help either. Cip had gone to bed well after 12am, but was up and ready before us. Somehow. There were people downstairs that were still up from the night before, crazy. We got our room key deposit back, said goodbye to everyone at the hostel and then good morning to the taxi man from the night before.

We got into his taxi and he started up the meter: he told us that he had to run it as it was the law in Malaysia, if a police man stopped him and he wasn’t running the meter, he’d get a ticket. If the police man asked the passengers how much they were paying and they did not confirm the meter rate, he would get a ticket. We were paying a fixed rate, but if he was stopped and pulled over, we were to say that we were paying the meter price. (This rate was 20 Ringgit more expensive that what we were paying, so we happily agreed).

He pointed out some bridges that connected the island to the mainland; one of them was 13km long and took 11 minutes to cross, there was apparently another bridge – 20km’s long that took 18 minutes to cross! We couldn’t imagine a 20km bridge, it just seemed crazy. Apparently they had to build a second bridge due to traffic congestion, so the shorter bridge had 3 lanes on each side while the longer bridge had 2 lanes on each.

He continued to tell us about traveling to Kuala Lumpur and that it used to take 2.5hours to drive there. Sometimes there would be a police man hiding behind a bush, but those occasions were rare, so the chances of being caught were minimal and just bad luck. No points were taken off the license, you just got a 300 Ringgit fine. Nowadays though, they had permanent speed cameras up, which mean that it took up to 5 hours to drive there! He said that you could still get there in 2.5 hours, but when you got home 2 weeks later, you’d have a lot of fines to pay – he said his friends with BMW’s and Mercedes Benz’s still drove there in half the time. Their argument was that they had nicer cars than he did, so why should they driver like he did; he also reiterated that they had nice cars because they had lots of money, so they could afford to pay the fines.

It was 4.45 in the morning, but this Malaysian taxi driver was incredibly funny. We spent a large amount of our time laughing at him and his ironic, sarcastic and matter of fact conversation.

We got out, thanked him profusely for his services and friendly attitude and the walked into Domestic Departures hall. Apparently we had to check in at counters 24 – 26, so we headed in that direction, which was to the right. I stopped at a restaurant momentarily and got my jumper out of my large back pack. It was cold in the airport and I had a feeling the airplane was going to be freezing as well. (Unlike the last flight we were on where they’d turned the thermostat up to 30 degrees and we all thought we were going to pass out). 

It was 4.54am and they counters only opened at 5am, even though they were flashing open already. 5am came and went, no one appeared. 5.05am. 5.10am. 5.15am. 5.20am. Finally at 5.22am, somebody arrived for work. We checked our bags in and then went in search of breakfast. There was a KFC and McDonald's, so we could choose between plastic and cardboard. Fantastic!

I was originally gong to go with plastic KFC, but then decided that Mc Donald's was more appealing as they had a breakfast menu with less scrambled egg on. We got our meals and sat in a far corner to eat them, there were people everywhere sleeping under the Mc D’s tables, waiting for the their flights. It was like the Dubai airport, just without the food.

It was time to board and we all made our way through security. We walked past a few stores and I spotted neck cushions – my blow up one kept deflating and I was over it, it needed to be replaced. Cip also fancied a neck cushion, which was great as you paid 10Ringgit less each if you bought 2. I got a pink one with white spots, he got a blue one with the outline of airplane’s on it.

We couldn’t board right away, even though the our flight was flashing boarding on the screen – there was a flight before ours that needed to board first, through the same gate, so we had to wait. At 6.45am, so 15 minutes before our flight was due to take off, we all boarded the propeller plane. It was like a helicopter plane, just with the blades vertical instead of horizontal. This was going to be fun.

The flight took off quite promptly, considering how late we all boarded and Edd had a free seat next to him, so lifted up the middle arm rest and dozed for the duration of the flight – 50 minutes from the west coast of Malaysia to the east coast.

We got off the plane, grabbed our bags (mine was first up on the conveyor!) and made our way to find somewhere to find tickets for a boat to the Perhentian Islands.

An old guy with a bad squint was at the counter, speaking to the assistant about getting to the Perhentian Islands. He turned to me and asked me how many people I was traveling with, then shook his head and turned back to the assistant. He then went to draw money and I was next up. We discussed the all inclusive price to get to the Perhentian Islands and he then asked me if we were traveling with other people, there was another couple behind us and then the old guy came back, apparently if all 7 of us got a taxi, we’d be able to share the cost and therefore get it cheaper. Done. Edd, Cip and I were still going to travel together, while the other 2 couples shared; it was a good deal, even though it made no sense as we were sharing 2 taxis.

We all walked together to the exit and the younger couple went to draw money, which is what they said they needed to do. We got in our taxi as they weren’t going to be coming with us anyway, so we left. Cip then noticed that the older couple (the old guy with the bad eyesight, even though he wore glasses) had left on their own; they had not waited for the younger couple to join them! It was too late for us to turn around and we hoped that the ticket assistant would sort out the couple that was left behind. We only had space for 1 more person anyway.

We got to the ticketing office and the older couple were not there. After being assured that we could leave when we wanted to leave at the airport, we were then told that we had to leave with everyone that had booked with us. Edd was irate as this was explicitly discussed and we’d been lied to. The younger couple then arrived in a taxi on their own and the woman was beside herself: we had not waited for them. Apparently they’d had to buy a new taxi ticket, the ticket assistant had told them it was not his issue! Edd then had a calm (this was only from his side) discussion about the fact that the other couple should have waited for them, their ticket said 4 people and they had paid to share a taxi with others, the fact that they had left on their own was deceitful. He agreed to fight in their corner when they arrived. The woman was not interested, as far as she was concerned, we all had to pay for their second ticket. Edd then explained the situation again, even if we had waited, they would still have shared a taxi with the other couple, their anger was justified, but directed at the wrong people.

A Malaysian man (part of the same company) then stepped in and paid them the 40 Ringgit that they had had to fork out extra. He understood the situation and said he’d take it up with the older couple when they eventually arrived; we all thanked him except the other young woman. She carried on whining at us that we had to pay for their second journey. After 5 minutes of her continued whining, I then stepped in. The situation then reached a head, we were all exhausted and could not deal with her: she had the kind of voice that made people want to hang themselves. She had gotten her money back, she now needed to be quiet. They then muttered about us in German, which I understood, much to their dismay they could not gossip about us in front of us and get away with it. The next issue was that we had to get the next ferry with the whiny witch and her sidekick. Oh fantastic.

The annoying young couple got into the ferry fist and sat towards the front of the boat, Edd put our bags in the hull and then came back and sat with me at the back. Cip sat in the middle of the boat, like a bouncer between us. We introduced ourselves to the 2 guys that were sitting next to us, the guy next to me’s name was Aladdin, he said he was still looking for his princess. Legend. After guessing that they came from Argentina, they then corrected us, they were in fact from Syria, living and working in Malaysia, but on a long weekend break to the Perhentian Islands. We had an interesting discussion about his home country, the issues and war that they were dealing with, why they were in Malaysia, where and what he’d studied, religion, South Africa and teaching. In the end they got off before us (there ware a few islands and the ferry stopped off at each of them, delivering people) we said goodbye to these 2 interesting individuals and they hopped into their long tail boat and were taken to shore. The annoying couple had been dropped off before them, so we were in peace.

We were the last delivery: Long Beach. It turned out to be very commercialized and horrendously overpriced. We’d all just come from Koh Lipe and had had an amazing time there, this island was a hole in comparison. We walked around for a while, looking for reasonably priced accommodation and then gave up.

We had some lunch and linked up to the wifi of the restaurant, Edd then found a place to stay on a different island, so we called them up and booked 2 rooms for 2 nights. We got a water taxi to take us to our new destination and hoped that the annoying couple weren’t there: none of us had paid attention to where they’d gotten off.

There were 2 rooms available: one with a bathroom and one without. Cip took the room with a bathroom as he was running on a different budget, while Edd and I took the one without. He asked me to go and have a look at the room, not that it made much of a different, we had no where else to go. It was a badly built wooden shack with massive gaps between the wooden boards – you could see the ground beneath the floor and the sea out of the walls. I told him it reminded me of Sapa, it was overpriced.

We had to walk across building rubble to get to the makeshift stairs to our room. He was equally unimpressed with it, from the outside you could see it was lopsided, leaning to the right; on the inside, it felt as if you were drunk as you kept falling over the skew flooring. We unpacked a few bits and then went for a snorkel, we had to find something good about this place. I stayed close to Edd, concerned I may encounter a shark if I ventured to far on my own. The problem was, of course, that our masks created tunnel vision, so he did not see me to his left and accidentally knocked my mask and snorkel off my face; I had attempted to breath in, but instead of air, swallowed a large amount of water instead. I then proceeded to vomit it all back up, right there in the middle of the ocean. He held me up until I was done; I repositioned my mask and snorkel again and we were off. It was definitely a first for me, next time I’d make sure Edd knew I was hovering around him and/or always keep an eye out for his arms.

 Apparently Cip had taken a walk to our room and it was the same as his, just without a bathroom; he was paying double what we were paying and he was also unimpressed.

We then all sat together and looked for somewhere else to go. This was the Malaysian version of Koh Lanta and none of us wanted to stay. Edd then found a place on the next island on our list: Turtle Bay in Pulau Kapas. They had 2 rooms for the length of time we wanted to stay and the price included breakfast. Edd filled out the booking form for 6 nights and we let the guys on the Perhentian Island know we were leaving the next morning. They were lovely people and it turned out also incredibly good cooks, but the rooms left a lot to be desired having not been maintained in what appeared to be an eternity.

We had dinner there that night ( we weren’t exactly spoiled for choice, nor did we feel like walking to the other side of the island) and not only discovered their impeccable culinary skills, but the annoying couple from the taxi incident were also there! Shucks. They ignored us, we ignored them – it worked out well. They’d apparently booked one of the really nice rooms, but for 250 Ringgit a night, you could get so much more for your money. Maybe we were just being sour, but it was £50 a night for that ran-shackled place. People needed to raise the bar a bit.

After ordering dinner, waiting 30 minutes and getting nothing, to then asking if they were making our food and being told we hadn’t ordered. (We were really over people taking our orders, repeating them back to us, and then not placing them because they didn’t understand. Seriously). Luckily it didn’t take them long to make it and we got our food 10 minutes later.

Edd went to bed earlier than I did – he was exhausted. I then followed and deiced to switch the light on as the torch did not help much when I was trying to change into pajamas and sort our things out that were still on the balcony. Turning the light on was an unfortunate move – we discovered a massive spider on the outside of our mosquito net and a grasshopper on the floor. Edd got up to help me sort the mosquito coils out and then got his Lonely Planet book to remove the spider – we weren’t going to whollap it, but it had to go. He managed to convince the spider to get onto the book and then tossed it out the window. The grasshopper disappeared between the wooden planks in the floor; we were both glad to be getting outta this joint in the morning.

We both climbed into bed and fastened the mosquito net entrance with pegs, just to be certain. We both fell asleep very quickly with our last thoughts for the evening being: I hope nothing manages to get into our bed tonight!