We arrived in Wakaf Bahru after our overnight train from Kuala Lumpur early the next morning. The train was safe and comfortable, though a guy did signal to his friend and start following us in the station at Kuala Lumpur the night before, but he was about as subtle as haemorroides and just as ugly, so we saw him off with an "I know you're going to try to rob me" stare and he left us alone. Once they know you're not an easy target they generally don't bother.

Arriving at Wakaf Bahru we shared a cab with an Austrian and a Scottish guy to Kuala Besut, a port town where you take the boat ride over to the Perhentian Islands.

The islands are about half an hour or so by fast boat from the mainland, and consist of the large and more expensive island Perhentian Besar, and the smaller and cheaper island Perhentian Kecil. After talking to the Austrian and Scot, who seemed to know more about it than us, we decided to go to Perhentian Kecil.

After about an hour of waiting we boarded the fast boat down a little ramp, having to half jump onto it, which is not that easy with a huge pack weighing about 20kg's. At first there were just the four of us on a boat made for about 15 people. An hour later we set off with about 30 or so people onboard. Local villagers turned up in their dozens with their weekly shopping, people were having to climb over our bags to get on and kids were being passed around. 

Luckily we didn't sink and half an hour later we climbed out of this boat and onto a small taxi longboat to take us to the island.  Still dressed from the night before in trousers, we jumped out into the sea with our 20kg packs in tow.  We'd made it, tired and a bit wet, but it was worth it!

The island is a small paradise, and as Malaysia seems to be a little off the traveller circuit (no idea why) it was not too busy.  Our accommodation was a small hut at the Panarama on Long Beach, which cost about 5 pounds a night, and had just a bed, mosquito net (with standard holes in), a fan, and a toilet that smelt a bit of sewage.  Oh, and electricity from 7pm until 8am, but that was all we needed.

The beach front had about a dozen or so hotels along, but apart from one or two bigger hotels these were basically beach huts.  Each place had a restaurant that typically had the same menu as all the others, but food was surprisingly good, and many places showed films at night (you wouldn't believe how many Jason Statham films we've seen since we left home, they love him out here!). 

Basically the atmosphere here is great, but to make the Perhentian Islands even more like paradise, the snorkelling here is amazing, and may even tip the Great Barrier Reef.

We joined a tour with just four others, a Swiss couple and an old English couple (who had a house in Thailand and came to the Perhentians a few times a year), Frank and his wife, who the guides had all nicknamed mama. 

We were lucky, because although the Swiss lady and mama had a power struggle over who got to be top girl, everyone (well, apart from us) had snorkelled loads, which was evident when we tentatively got in the water at Shark Point to swim with sharks and they both shouted over to us, "Over here, there's loads of sharks".  We nearly jumped back out again.

The sharks were only reef sharks, which don't attack humans unless provoked apparently, but health and safety is not high on the agenda in SE Asia so you do still worry a little about jumping in for a swim at a place called Shark Point.

Still, we jumped in and swam towards the geriatric maniac (mama, she was lovely really, though at her age maybe a skimpy bikini isn't the way to go) and within a minute or so saw our first shark, about a 5 or 6 footer (and the guide had said they were only about about 2 feet long!).  There was a moment of panic knowing there was a 6 foot shark swimming around with us, but after a while we really enjoyed it as they don't seem bothered by humans and they are really graceful and beautiful creatures.

On the trip we also got to see giant clams, large bumphead fish, barracuda, a blue-spotted stingray, parrot and clown fish (nemos), as well as two reef sharks and a turtle, and the reef, although not as colourful as the Barrier Reef as it was hard coral, was still amazing.

Unfortunately we had to leave after two days to head to Thailand, but although Malaysia was a bit of a shock to the system after Australia and Singapore, we loved it here, as the wildlife and rainforest are probably amongst the best in the world, and we saw so many great and unique things. 

Thailand has a hard act to follow.