Tuesday 18th August 2009 Taman Negara-Perhentian Islands

Another travel day today!! We left our shack in Taman Negara at 7:30am and took the steep walk up the hill with our bags around to the bus station. The bus left at around 8am and headed in the direction of the islands. Along with a couple of stops and one change of bus we eventually reached the port town of Kuala Besut at around 4:30pm. Here we waited for half an hour before catching a half hour speed boat over to the islands.

There are 2 main islands, the big one and the small one. The big one is called Pulau Perhentian Besar and is generally resorts and more expensive but quieter. The small one is called Pulau Perhentian Kecil and is more frequented by backpackers as it has the cheaper accomadation. It also has 2 beaches called Long Beach or Coral bay. Long Beach is the nicer as Coral bay as stated in the name as loads of coral on the beach and as soon as you step into the sea. But its still beautiful!! We chose to stay on Long Beach as there were a lot more options.

We arrived on the island at about 5:45pm and decided that it would be best if one of us stayed with the bags whilst the other went to try and find accomadation. So I got the short straw. Caroline stayed with the bags, a nice cold drink and her book whilst I huled my arse up hills and through sand to find us a bed!!! Because on the islands you couldn't always book accamodation and also when we had tried to they all once again said they were full. Also we had been told that you couldn't book so it was pot luck!! We had been re-assured by the travel agent in Kuala Besut that this was the case. I checked a few places out and found us a few places, they were all the same sort of standards but varying prices. We decided on the cheapest option, The Rock Garden, as because there were no ATM's on the island and there had been non on Taman Negara either so we needed to make our money stretch. But prior to taking Caroline to the place I did worn her that basically it was a shack with shared bathroom but I was certain it had a fan! I was wrong, it didn't-ooops!! Imagine a wooden shed with a small wooden balcony, 2 beds and several holes in the walls and ceiling so therefore shraing the room with various forms of wildlife!!! Thankfully mossie nets were included!!! The bathrooms were a little walk away and cold showers again. But I actually find it quite nice to have a cold shower when its so hot!!! Caroline doesn't quite agree!

Once we had checked in, we dumped our stuff and then headed out for dinner. All the accommodation, shops and restaurants are on the beach, as the area between long beach and coral bay is jungle. We ate at one of 3 beach bbq places, which are all next to each other. What we didn't know at this point was that these 3 restaurants were basically it!! And there menu's were all the same!!! There was a resort at the end of long beach but there menu was too expensive and we found out on our last night that Panaroma chalets and restaurant had a different menu and did good pizzas!! So for the first 4 nights we ate at the 3 bbq restaurants, swapping our buisness between the 3. So our 1st night was red chair restaurant and I had bbq Barracuda, sauce, chips and salad (you also got a soft drink and fruit included in the price) and Caroline had bbq prawns (all 3 of them!). The restaurants didn't serve alcohol as they were muslim owned but there was a beer man on the beach so we had a couple with dinner along with a coffee and then we headed to a bar for a few more. Whilst here we also got talking to a guy called Tom who we had previously met in Penang. Now we had intended only to have a couple of beers and then go to bed but this ended up being a 4am bed time!!!

Wednesday 19th August-Friday 21st August 2009-soaking up the rays on long beach and coral bay!!

The next 3 days were basically the same. We got up when the mood took us or it got too hot in the room!! Showered and put on our bikini's. For these three days we headed out about 11:30am/12pm and then went for late breakfast/lunch.

Day 1 was at Lemon Grass Chalets and cafe-We both had cheese and tomato toasties (plastic cheese) with strawberry milkshakes. Day 2 and Day 3 were over on Coral Bay for lunch. The walk over to Coral Bay is about 15 minutes through the jungle. After lunch on Day 1 we just headed to an umbrella on the beach and then sun bathed and swam in the clear blue sea until about 6:30pm.

Day 2- we used the internet briefly over on coral bay (it was cheaper than long beach but still pricey) and then came back to sunbath on long beach. Today's sunbathing was not as comfortable as we appeared to have sat on an ants nest!! We did move but they followed. Thankfully they didn't bite!!

And then Day 3 after lunch we stayed and sunbathed on Coral bay under a large palm tree until about 6pm before using the internet briefly again and then heading back over to long beach before dark. All around the islands there are various forms of land wildlife including monitor lizards and flying squirrels. We saw loads of monitor lizards and a lot of them are enormous. On our 3rd day when we were over on coral bay Caroline was in the sea with some others when they were all advised out of the water as there was something near the shore swimming that looked like a alligator. Now I wasn't close enough to comment but I'm pretty sure it was a monitor lizard from what I could see but Caroline still swears it was either a small croc or alligator!! Who am I to argue??!!!!

Dusk on all 3 of these nights was spent beating away mossies and night times were spent on the beach having dinner at the 3 restaurants. Night 2-I had Blue Marlin and Caroline had King Fish. NIght 3 I had Pasta bolognase and Caroline had Malysian Curry. And Night 4 I had King Fish and Caroline had Pattaya Fried Rice. So as you can see 3 full days of relaxing, reading and observing some stunning views!!!

Saturday 22nd August 2009, Snorkelling day.

Our snorkelling day was due to start at 10:30am but before that we needed to sort our bus tickets out for the following day. There was a slight problem with them but we left it in the hands of a helpful lady at the shop and said we'd be back to see her after snorkelling so around 5pm. By now it was around 10:10am so we grabbed a coffee and belted that down as we had to be at the snorkelling shop by half ten. We shouldn't have bothered rushing as we didn't actually leave the shore till 11am. Between sorting out payment, new people arriving and gear sort out it was 11am before we left on the boat.

There were 10 of us in total. 2 other English girls, an English couple, a Kiwi couple, 1 guy from Holland and 1 guy from Argentina. We had a total of 6 stops for the day, 5 of them were snorkelling points and the sixth was the village where most of the locals live where we stopped for lunch.

Our first snorkelling point was The Lighthouse. As the name says it was indeed a lighthouse with a large area around it for snorkelling. Caroline and I originally headed away from the immediate lighthouse and all the people as we thought we would see more in a quieter area as is often the case. But no not this time, visability was poor the futher we went away from the lighthouse and it turned out that most of the fish were in the area with the lighthouse, boats and people. Now as neither of us are underwater experts we are terrible with naming fish. But I can tell you we saw loads of very colourful ones including Nemo's (clown fish). We also saw some Manta Ray's and lots of other underwater life.

Our second stop was Shark Point and yes we did get too see a shark. Caroline saw 2 I just saw the 1. After this it was to Turtle point. This was a little bit more difficult as our guide had to circle around for a bit until he saw a turtle and then we all jumped in and scared the turtle off!! Not strictly true but if you weren't quick you missed them. I didn't see one Caroline did for a bit and so did some of the others. But what people were saying was that unless you spotted it straight away, they swam that quick that they were out of sight in seconds!!

After here it was over to the village for lunch. We all sat together and Caroline had some form of fried rice and I had pasta. They were very nice but took a little time to come out. Not really surprising thoughy as about 4 boats were all their together and the restaurant's kitchen like most places in Asia was in the owners living room!!! It is a very rare occasion in anywhere in Asia when your food will all come out together!!!

After lunch we went to The Coral Garden for our 4th session of snorkelling and then after that to The Beach. We had a really good day and saw lots and lots of very interesting fish. Thankfully neither of our backs were too badly burnt unlike some of the lads. You have to remember when snorkelling that your on the surface and although most of your body is underwater your back is not!!!

Once back on dry land 8 of us all went for a drink (the other English girls didn't join us) and then decided that we would all meet at 8pm for dinner. We also whilst having our drinks sorted our bus tickets out and discovered that the Kiwi couple were also doing the same journey tomorrow as us.

We met the group just after 8pm (we were running abit late, but they had waited) and then we all went to Panarama chalets for dinner. We didn't know about this place until Kieran (Kiwi) had told us and she also mentioned that the pizza's were very good. So Caroline and I along with 1 other decided on Pizza. The others all decided on regular meals. Pizza crew were waiting about an hour after everyone else for food- not happy bunny's but when it came, it was worth the way!!! We think they were having a problem with their generator because the power went off about 5 times whilst we were waiting for food which could explain some of the delay.

Forgot to mention that the whole island is generator run only. Most places only have power between 7pm and 7am. Some, like the shops and internet places pay more and have it longer. But I suspect that this is also one of reason's why things are more expensive on the island!!

We said our goodbyes at about 11pm as we had to pack but not before bagging an invite for Sunday dinner in New Zealand and an offer of a place to stay in Oz!! Not bad for one nights work!!!

Sunday 23rd august 2009, Travel day from Perhentian Islands to Penang

We were up, checked out and on the beach by 7:30am. From here we then had to get a water taxi to the speed boat, then change boats and make the half an hour speed boat journey back to Kuala Besut. We reached here at about 8:45am. We then had some breakfast with the Kiwi couple before we all got very confused on exactly what was happening with the bus. When we bought the tickets we were told the bus would leave for Panang at 11am. But when we got to the travel agent in Kuala Besut he said 10am. Not a problem, better for us so we weren't hanging about. Next thing we knew they weren't so sure if they were going to take us all the way too Penang as there were only 4 of us for one big bus. This was our problem, how? They were the ones who sold the tickets. But Caroline feeling very assertive challenged this and wanted to know if we would then get a refund. Well once she started talking money then suddenly they were taking us all to Penang!!! By now it was just after 10am so we all got on the bus and waited. And then waited some more!! Some how they managed to find some more people to go to Penang and we were eventually on our way by 11am!!!

The journey although long was comfortable as we were back in armchair bus seats!! We arrive in Penang at about 5pm and this time we were dropped off in Komtar so we only had a 15 minute walk back to Hutton Lodge!!!