After a long overnight coach journey, we were not feeling overly amused. Especially when we'd paid for everything already, yet the coach stopped in the middle of nowhere at 4am and told us this was our stop. We were then approached by a man who said it was an hour's drive to the boat jetty but he would take us there for 20 Ringgit each. We had no choice but to accept his offer; luckily, there was another Dutch couple in the same position so we were able to outpour our annoyance (well Clout was, I was in a tired daze all the way). We arrived at the jetty at 5am, sat in a sleepy state for a few hours and finally took a ferry to Pulau Pernhentian Kecil. The Perhentians are two beautiful islands just off the East Coast of Malaysia. They are, imaginatively, called Kecil (small) and Besar (big). We had decided (just as the boat approached the islands and we were asked which we wanted to go to) to go to the small island, Kecil. We were staying on Longbeach, as there were only two beaches with accommodation. The rest of the island was jungle and completely uninhabited. As we strained to get our bags off the boat, we realized that Longbeach was beautiful - white sands, extremely clear sea and lots of little huts along the beach offering food, drink and accommodation. Our only problem began when we entered the first hut asking for accommodation. They were full. The second and third gave us the same answer (this is when alarm bells started going off). The next one just had a sign us saying "No rooms. Full." There was one hotel that had a room but charged an extortionate price; they obviously preyed on the desperate traveller's wallet. Finally, struggling with our bags, hot, deliriously tired and starving, we began climbing the mountain at one end of the beach where we had spotted a sign for sleeping chalets. They had a room spare! Not only that, but it had just been built and we'd be the first there! This was a rare moment of joy in a day where we were shattered, and very grumpy. We took the room immediately. However…. When we were shown the room, it was about as basic as you can get. There were two beds and nothing else. No sheets, no furniture, no toilet/shower, no curtains. There was a fan which didn't work. There were lights which didn't work. But, on the bright side, there was a balcony overlooking the beautiful blue sea, there was a toilet hut down the mountain and we were able to dump our bags and go for a nap on the beach. Heaven!

Of course, when it came to actually sleeping in the chalet we weren't so optimistic. The lack of lights made things difficult. As the toilet hut was miles away, we took to cutting a large water bottle in half and peeing into that in the middle of the night then chucking it over the balcony (oh the dignity!). Our chalet was a semi-detached and the two men next door were noisy and there wasn't a proper wall behind us so we could hear them oh too well. The faulty fan meant that we were sweating before we fell asleep, and when we woke up we were sticky and smelly. Oh, and we woke up at the brink of dawn due to no bloody curtains. And finally, there was a gecko in our room that made noises and flying squirrels running over the roof all night that sounded strangely scary. The toilet hut wasn't much better, with freezing showers and all sorts of animals watching you. My favourite was a pink frog that stayed in one of the showers. Clout was less impressed.

Bad room aside, the island was really beautiful. It's a big diving attraction, so most travellers would be up early every morning and go scuba diving all day. This meant that the beach was fairly quiet during the day, but very peaceful. The sea was the best thing - it was beautifully clear and the perfect temperature. There were flying squirrels and monitor lizards lurking at the outskirts of the jungle. At night, the beach came alive as the huts suddenly seemed to sprout plastic chairs, candles and menus. Only in the last few years has it become a tourist attraction, so it is quite unspoilt. There aren't many facilities and the locals seem to be desperately trying to keep up to date with the demands of having travellers, which makes it quite endearing. The food is hearty and usually delicious (one afternoon we ordered garlic break for a snack. We were given three pieces of white bread, with butter and chunks of raw garlic thrown on top) and the atmosphere calm and friendly. On our last night, the locals put on a firework display on the beach, which consisted of boat flares being thrown in the air for an hour.

Finally, the thing we were very excited about was on the last night. After dinner we noticed that the sky was very clear and the stars were out. We walked down the beach and along the little pier, where we lay down to stargaze in complete darkness. Suddenly, we saw the biggest shooting star EVER. In fact, it wasn't even a shooting star, we could actually see the meteor burn across the sky for what seemed like ages. It was absolutely amazing and scary and I won't try to describe it anymore as I can't do it justice.

On our final morning on Pulau Perhentian Kecil, we woke up in our usual sweaty state, cursed at the fan for a while, then realized there was a commotion going on outside. A military helicopter was hovering over a group of little dots bobbing in the sea. We soon realized it was airlifting people to safety. Then a military warship turned up. We couldn't quite work out why the people needed a warship to oversee their rescue, or whether they were criminals who had fallen into the sea…. But we took lots of photos anyway!