Hey again!

As we said, our journey to Kapas started on a little boat, bobbing and swaying in the waves, which I (Ben) thought was great fun, but Neen was not too impressed with lol! I stood and watched us getting closer and closer to the island, snapping a few photo's as we went. It looked like paradise, even from a few kilometers out at sea. A tiny island, encircled with white sandy beaches, rocky peaks and covered in untouched rainforest. When we arrived, the boat marooned itself on the beach (rather than stopping at the jetty), and we climbed down some little wooden steps, thankful that we didn't have to wade with our bags lol! We were immediatly stunned and amazed at how beautiful it was. Perfect white sandy beaches with the clearest bluest water we have ever seen. We stayed in a little A-frame chalet set back from the beach a little, and right next to the rainforest. Words can't describe how beautiful it was, and we would recommend it to anyone! We got straight out onto the beach and had a swim in the lovely warm water. Could have stayed there forever, and we later bumped into a few people who had... they had come to stay for a week or so like us and ended up staying for months, one guy had been there for 8 months, and we could easily understand why....it was true paradise island!

There were only a handfull of places to stay, each with their own restaurant. The food was pretty dear but some of the best we have eaten yet. The cook at our place did the most amazing curries! We decided as soon as we got there that we would stay longer than the 4 days we originally planned. We also decided not to go to the Perhentian Islands as we thought this was much more our kind of place (quiet and peacefull, Perhentians is more built up and touristy). We spent most of our time sunbathing and swimming. There were only a few other people on our beach and no-one on the beaches further along, as you had to do a fair bit of climbing over rocks etc. There was also alot of coral around and if you walked out far enough (waist deep depending on the tide!) you got to the edge of the coral reefs where we discovered a massive shoal of stripy fish that came to greet us every time we went out. We were literally surrounded by them, they were very pretty and very inquisitive. A few of them even nipped us a bit hehe, very strange being nipped by a fish. We went out to see them everyday as they were always there and crowded round us as soon as we got near. There were literally hundreds of them! One of the days we got a snorkel out and swam around the masses of coral. We even saw some Nemo (Clown) fish darting in and out of their anenome. I (Nina) hit my foot on some coral though and cut my toe! Was a great place to snorkel though quite difficult as there were some huge sea urchins. Big big black spikes dotted with electric blue and they were everywhere, so we couldn't get to alot of the coral withough hitting them as the tide was pretty low. Still good though and we remembered to wear t-shirts and shorts this time as we got very sunburnt last time! Incredible amounts of fish of all different varieties, from tiny black and electric blue ones... to much larger very colourful parrot fish, moorish idols amd many more. Its suprisingly quite tiring swimming around in the hot sun, despite being in the sea, so we only actually spent a few hours snorkeling, but that was enough and we saw an amazing amount of fish in that short period of time.

Our other adventure, while we were at Kapas (in English Cotton Island) was having a bit of a trek through the rainforest, to reach the other side. It was amazing... much more overgrown than any of the walks we did in the Cameron Highlands, and much harder doing in many ways. As we got deeper in the forest, the going got more difficult, and at one stage we had to navigate our way across a stream (with Nina wearing bright white trousers). The was also a fair bit of clambering over rocks, and even climbing down the edge of a small waterfall.... luckily there was a rope to support yourself! After around 40mins of walking, we reached the other side of the island, arriving at a rocky cove where we sat and chilled for a while looking out to sea. It was quite stunning, and could be compared to somewhere in Scotland, or perhaps the Cornish coast in England... except for the palm tree's of course =) After sitting for a while, we started our walk back up a path that seemed to be pratically vertical in parts.... again there was, luckily, a rope to help you on your way, and at some points we were pulling our way up on the rope rather than climbing lol! It was great fun though, and sooo quite... where in Cameron you had to walk a fair way to feel completely isolated. At Kapas, due to the fact that there are no cars, or motorbikes on the island, the the isolation came almost instantly... it was great. A slight struggle at the same time, however, as you couldn't really stop to catch your breath as each time you did, within seconds about 20 mosquito's would swarm around you! We spent most of a day doing that, and were truly knackered by the time we arrived back on our side of the island.

The rest of the time we just lazed around on the beach, swimming and visiting our shoal of fish lol. It was soo nice, the best place we have been to yet we reckon! We even saw loads of flying foxes in the trees near where we were staying, very hard to snap a photo of them though. Was nice to watch them flying around. They're so noisy aswell, at first we thought they were monkeys until we saw one chattering and squeeking outside our chalet lol. We even had a baby monitor lizard climb onto our roof and into our bathroom! Was quite cool lol. Eventually we had to make a move as Thailand is calling! We are now in Khota Baru, its quite nice to be back in a town with lots of choice of food etc. Staying in a chinese house and we have a huge room with a balcony for very cheap! Going to the market today which should be fun and then going to watch the England game tonight!

Anywayz, will prob be in Thailand the next time we write, yay! How exciting! Will be sad to leave Malaysia though, have gotten quite used to the way of life here and love it!

Love love to y'all

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