Perhentian Islands

Dear All,

Having negotiated India and then the leeches we were certainly ready for some relaxing and stress-free holiday time (I know you were all beginning to feel sorry for us.) And boy did we find the place to do it!

We escaped from the jungle on a bus then reached our island via a very bumpy and slightly hairy hour long boat ride from the mainland. Having selected our accomodation from brief descriptions in the Lonely Planet we eagerly awaited arriving at our remote island retreat. We were not disappointed as we pulled up to a beach with clear blue waters, white sand, cold orange juice on arrival and a hut over-looking it all.

The view from our hut:

Desperate to get in the sea with changed into our swimming gear and waided our bright white bodies into the gently lapping warm water; heaven! The evening followed with simple malay food, Tiger beer and continuation of our Rummy card tournament (which I am winning 2-0).

The following morning after a substantial lie-in we headed round the coast to turtle beach (a 10 minute walk) for a sunbathe and snorkel. As you can see below it was picturesque and we were very pleased with our choice of location... More beer, food and cards followed that evening (now 3-0 to me!)

Keen to see some of the marine life we signed up to a snorkelling trip for the following morning. We were astounded at what we saw. First stop we saw a turtle, which was over a metre long, grazing on the sea floor; such a graceful creature despite its size and a first for both Simon and I. Then to some amazing coral with an array if sealife (too many to mention) via shark point (where we infact saw no sharks) and finally to 'the best snorkelling spot in Malaysia!' Surley not, it cant get any better we thought. But it did... We pulled up to a grim looking lighthouse and donned our snorkels and flippers into the sea again. Here we entered a Disney picture perfect under-water world. Coral, fish and colours like we only see in Finding Nemo. It was stunning; every shape, size and colour of fish were there in huge shoals. If only we had an underwater camera!

However 4 hours in the sun took its toll on us with both suffering with bad sunburn (me in particular as Simon was wearing a t-shirt; I was likened to a barbers pole). It was all too exciting to think of suncream in between the locations. So the following day we retreated to the shade, read books and discussed our next move. It was time to leave with lots of Malaysia still left to see.

To make the most of our last we day we went for one last snorkel the morning before our boat at 12 noon. We were in the sea by 7.30am and after an hour were disappointed with what we hadn't seen; we were in search for the friendly sharks everyone talked about. Near to calling it a day we spotted a black tipped tail of a shark; from there on in there was no stopping us! 3 sharks, 1 stingray, a family of Nemo's (AKA Clown fish), bright blue little ones, multicoloured big ones and millions of silver tiny ones. What a way to leave our island!

We were for once organised after our early start and had a relaxing half an hour in hammocks and on deck chairs before our boat arrived.

Reluctantly we waided our now red, white and slighty brown bodies onto the overfilled speedboat (capacity 12, actual 25; almost felt like we were in India again) to take us back to reality. We are now in Kota Bahru, an uninspiring town in North Malaysia ready to head to Penang tomorrow to a World Music Festival!

Bye for now, wish you could have been here...

Emma