24th - 27th July - Perhentian Islands (Happy b'day to my dad for the 26th) xxx

Up early again to set off on another long journay to he perhentians. We passed the journey by making our own jam butties with the jam we bought fro mthe strawberry farm the day before andsnacking on dried cactus (don't ask!)

We took a minivan to Kuala Besut and then boarded a boat which took us to Long Beach on Puala Perhentain Kecil. The Perhentains are made up of two islands, Perhentian Kecil and Perhentian Besar. Kecil is the smaller island. Againit was raining buckets so we got soaked as once the boat comes close to the beach you have to get an open aired taxi boat to the beach itself. I then dumped all the bags with Si and went in search of some accomodation which ended up being a mammouth task in the rain ans walking in the wet sand from one set of crappy bungalows to the next.

Thats one thing we had noticed here in Malaysia , the big difference in standards of accomodation. Everywhere we have been in Asia apart from the odd place we have had outstanding accomodationfor nrxt to nothing. Since we got here accomodation has been pretty poor, with shared bathrooms and are expensive. I eventually found a so so room which at least had a bathroom. Saying that the transport has been better than anyhere else we have been.

We spent the next day lazing on the beach and getting ready for the beach fireshow party. Before the party we went out for dinner and then decided to have a few drinks in BUBU bar which is part of a resort on the island.

We were busy people watching as usual when this camp Malay man waved at me. It was night time but he had on sunglasses and a bandana, with a white and brown striped top on with little sorts. He was so animated and we couldn't stop laughing at him. Anyway he sauntered over and the conversation went exactly like this:

Man: "Have you been to ibiza?"

Us: "No"

Man: "I have 6 times. Do you liek this music? Its Roger Sanchez, he's my very good friend. He's going to play for me at my 50th birthday party in Bail. I like to work hard, but also play hard. I love Ibiza. Where are you from?"

Us: "England"

Man: "Oh I like England, I know Jaime Oliver and Rick Stein etc. We are going to do a show together. I don't like that one who swears alot. It's hard being me, I'm gay but was married and have 2 children. i dont know what happened!"

Us: "What do you do?"

Man: I'm a chef darling, I'm Chef Wan, the one and only, the Quenn of the kitchen!"

It only turns out hes the most famous chef in Malaysiaand they all love him over here. He has his own cooking show and a daily alk show (well you couldve guessed that, we couldn't get a word in edgeways) and he was on the Perhentains filming a new show called Seafood Odessy on the beach everyday this week. He told us to come down to the beach the next day at 5pm to see.

He was absolutley hilarious, we moved on to the beach party and he said he would meet us there darlings! At the beach party we met quite a few people including kate and sarah who where teaching english on th mainlan before uni started in september. They had also met chef wan and ended up being filmed on his show.

The next day after shaking off mild hangovers, Si did a dive to Curtain rock and had a great time as he seen a Stingray, a leatherback turtle (very rare!) amongst other fish like box and puffa fish, not bad for 10 pounds!

It was a scrocher so we spent the rest of the day topping up the tans and at about 4.30pm i srolled up the beach to see if i could see Chef Wan filming. Sure enough he was in full swing, cooking away and joking with the camera. He rememebred me from last night and asked me to be on the show, so i ended up being on the show with a danish family sampling his gorgeous food etc! It was fantastic! He also interviewed 2 english girls that had also been in BUBU bar the night before.

So I am going to be on TV!! The show is called Seafood Odessy and is goin to be aired in Malaysia in Spetember and then in England it will be on in January on UK Food. Pleas tape it for me Mm, ta!

We seen him again the next night at the resort where we went for a meal, "Hello darlings, I'm about to have a massage but I am so hungry you know? "

Next stop Cherating ....

Miss you all, please keep the messages and emails coming, tons of love Michelle and Simon xxxx