the bus journey there set us up for the most beautiful place ive ever seen, well in terms of sand and sea at least. as it turned out, it wasnt his friends car, more of an air condition mini bus to ourselves. the journey was about nine hours that took us right over the highlands. at one point the van screeched to a halt and the driver shouted elephants. rite at the side of the road was a herd of elephants with a couple of calves, amazing, not what you expect at all, not in a reserve or anything, just on the road between penang and kaula besut. a bit further down was a huge bull practically stood on the road, thsi one was close enough for my flash to get but the panicking driver saying 'please please please' wouldnt stop so ive managed to get half an ear in my guess snap at the darkness!

contiuing with my luck, the boat across to the mainland ran out of fuel so we had to wait for another. these islands are indescribable, the sea is looks like a pastel drawing and the sand is bright white. there are no roads and very few paths on the islands, basically, just a couple of bungalows and resort on the various beaches around. therefore, the onl;y mode of transport is taxi boat.

i did three dives here, all fantasitc, the water is crystal clear and its so secluded that it was the three of us and the divemaster on a tiny boat and that was it, on the whole dive site. absolutley loads of life, the titan trigger fish are pretty cool, massive fish they are but theyre really territorial� and have big teeth so got to stay clear. there was also loads of jelly fish, evertyone else managed to avoid them but not me, i got stung all across the backs of my legs. when i got in the boat someone handed me a big water bottle with clear liquid in it, thirsty from the salt water i took a big swig, it was vinegar for the jelly fish sting. i just quietly spat it over the boat and hoped no one saw! the taste took my mind of the sting i suppose!

went on a banana boat as well and i was the only one that came off uninjured, for once! quite suprised it was there to be honest, kind of thing you expext in the more deveoped places but it was still fun.

all the resorts are malay run which i thought was quite good but are mostly chinese owned as malays cant get liquor licesnes cos of the muslim thing. still, its better and less spoiled that way than in alot of the places in thailand where alot is owned by westerners.

as i was leaving the island to head for kaula lumpur before the others and it was one of the girls birthday on saturday when she will be int eh middle of no where, we decided to throw a suprise biurthday/leaving party. again, followed suit in the luck department.

spent all day seeing if anyone could get us a cake. found someone who would order one form teh mainland, compete with baloons and decorations for the beach hut. sounded like it was going to be great.

first of all, she found out were were plotting someting, then she saw me rite her card. got the beach and they hadnt finsihed decorating and not lit the candles. we were sat at table 13, the cake still hadnt arrived and there were no baloons. there were also no vodka buckets on the table like we had asked. still, all was fun and when the cake did arrive, the boat man 'hadnt taken care of it' so while it was pretty cool to start with we ended up with a squahsed piece of cream. tasted good though, suprise suprise! all in all it summed up the disaster that we all are. things always work out in the end though!

my final say on the isand was pretty chilled out and then i got the boat, on my own for the first time since i left. which, is now exaclty 1/4 of the way through my trip. you'll have hardly noticed ive gone by the time i get back. i cant believe ive only got three more of whats gone to go again, does that make sense?

i also saw the most gigantic lizard ive ever encountered. yeah there are thousand of geckos and there was a monitor lizrd that was always diggin on the side of the path but this thing was about three metres long, comodo dragon style, just trotting along in front of the dive centre. pretty funny when someone asked who it belongs to, no dear, there's a bit of jungle behind you! it was like being at home with rach and mum!