Kota Bharu. Taxi men insist that we MUST leave now if we are going to get the boat. Otherwise we'll be late. Bulls***. We wait an hour for the bus station to open. I chat to a Malay guy called Nick who helps us out a lot. Tells us what time where? etc. He even called his brother who lived on the Perenthian Island for a time to check. Nice guy. Say our goodbyes to our new friend Nick, and catch a local bus to Kuala Besut; the port. 1 hour of bumpy driving.

Hounded again at port. Scammed out of 5 ringget. Wait 45 minutes longer than they claimed. Met an older couple from Holland who told us a similar story and shared their experiences of Vietnam. Collecting info where we can.

Get on boat. The water is beautiful. i have never seen water so clear. You can even see the pulled off mascara from the night before fall to the bottom of the ocean. A boat taxi takes us to shore another 2 ringgets....b******s. Seek out the cheapest accommodation on this part of the island (Long Beach) Rock Garden. It is where it says it is. It's up on the rocks. Shoddy huts that look as though they have been constructed as an accident. The view is spectacular. NB. Don't keep food in your hut, the racoons we'll find you!

The island has 2 wind turbines which I decided were not an eyesore and ARE a good idea. Soon enough we're in te clear blue water. It's so warm and relaxing. It soon becomes apparent that this is a place for "doubles" though. Ther're to the left, right, behind and in front. No escaping. I'm feeling nauscious. The only way to cope is by dipping my head into the slat water rubbing it into my eyes a bit so that I only now have a blurred vision! That'll work.

Itenery for the next couple of days. Wake up, go to beach, go in water, lay down, go in water, eat, drink, lay down, go in water....repeat x ten. Apparently you CAN burn underneath a parasol as I felt the effects the first evening and the following day!

One day we went for a short walk with 3 Malay girls to the other side of the island. We hired a boat that took us to a light house in the middle of the ocean. It was quite literally the light...no island around it nothing. We climb from the boat I'm sweating buckets. The water surrounding us is pretty deep. I'm scared. The idea is to jump into the water and be happy about it. Heart racing, palms sweating. Everybody apart from one of the Malay girls is jumping in freely. I'm about to cry, flash backs to a mountain in Korea comes to mind. After an hour or so of "no way. I can't do that," I take the hands of my 2 bodyguards and we jump. I'm freaking outquickly try and free my self from their hands so that I can paddle back to safety ; the ladder. Phew! Cross that off the list...again, I need to write it on the list first!

One of the evenings I take the time to examine the damage on my body. A combination of sunburn, over eating and mosquito bites. The burn is only to be expected as is the over eating and to a certain extent so were the mosquito bites.The only thing I didn't forsee with the bites was the number and the weird reaction. Currently look like a rejected leopard. Not enough to be fully pledged one....just a reject.