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Published: October 6th 2006
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Well, we, the intrepid travellers, have returned to the mainland! We have had the HARDEST week! Its just so difficult...enjoying yourself, surviving on approx 4GBP (including accommodation) waking up to turquoise waters lapping sandy shores with the jungle as a back drop....I really don't know how we are surviving!!!!
I say that...but it is worth mentioning that the travelling to and from these places is trying.... to say the very least! After a pretty stressful morning picking up our Chinese Visas at one end of Singapore, then catching the Bus at the other, we arrived in Mersing a smelly little village on the East Coast of Malaysia (described as a quaint fishing villlage - rose tinted galsses I ask you?!) to be pounced upon and sheperded into a little shed where we given our accommodation and travel options and told to sign on the dotted line! That done (we are now learning that this is what they do and you don't HAVE to use them!) we tootled off to get some dosh (no ATM on the island) and some food (also told no market on the island - LIARS!!), some careful selections later - based on what we might
be able to stomach and we headed back - fairly laden down to catch the boat!
We were told it would be a ferry, and that there may be some problems given the low tides at the time, but that it wouldn't prove a problem as they would provide free transport to get out to the ferry.........what they failed to mention was that the free transport was a floating (although only just) barrel, which they proceeded to load up to the max! Thus rather heavily loaded and sitting extremely low in the water we bumped our way out to sea...... progressing forward only on the wave peaks and bottoming out on the troughs. At which point we began to wonder what we had got ourselves in for!!!! We were then man handled between the boats, followed closely by our bags - slung across, onto what can only be described as a shell of a boat with plastic chairs, several hours later and we were questioning our choice even more loudly!!! Having been told that the trip would be approx 3 hours.... we still hadn't arrived after 4......rolling waves, juddering engine, exhaustion and general discomfort had begun to put what
can only be described as a bit of a dampener on things! It seemed hard to believe that one night could change all this....HOWEVER...waking to turquoise waters lapping sandy shores, blue skies and be-oootiful temperatures, all with a backdrop of the jungle ............we had indeed arrived in paradise!
The first day saw some enquiries to the dive centres to do our PADI Open Water Scuba Diving qualifications, where we secured ourselves an instructor and course for a whole 110GBP - bargain! Got all our confined dives in and 4 open water dives on the local reefs! However course completion did require some pretty intense study of a rather thick text book, which limited our eveining activities somewhat as well as 5 quizzes and an exam - and here we were thinking that we had left studying behind! Such a hardship lying on a beach reading isn't it?! Well anyhow, we passed with flying colours, got ourselves some snorkelling and diving practice in and all in all thoroughly enjoyed oursleves! Saw some amazing fish which included angel fish, trigger fish, a sting ray, clown fish, tusk fish, moray eels......amongst many others, as well as nudibranches (which our instructor was somewhat
keen on) sea slugs and shoals of mackerel and barracuda - to name but a few!
Mid-course we did allow ourslves a day off, where we took to jungle trekking. We set off, that's me and the resident elephant i have for a friend (JEN!!!) in hope of spotting some wildlife on our way to the next bay around.....the heat was incredible and a few litres of 'glowing' later we arrived at the beach - which was all but deserted and pretty cool! On route I managed to spot a flying fox, a tiny little black thing.....possibly a deer....both of which Jen missed! On the return journey (after milling around on the beach and taking some pictures 'monkeying around' on monkey bay (why do I let Jen convince me of these things?) we spotted some of the very same and saw a little family of them swinging through the jungle! Thankfully we missed the snakes which are apparently a possibility!
PADI course completion gave us another afternoon to ourselves where we decided to go and explore a rather large hotel that has been abandoned for the last 8 years. After another close monkey encounter, and tenderly making our
way across the rather dodgy access route we were there, next to an empy pool and standing below a pretty huge (what would have been 5*) hotel - which has never been used! Where our close encounters were to continue...so much so that a mean monkey took a bit of a dislike to me!
Our final evening was our evening of relaxation - finally we could drink without a dive the next day (instead we had a 6.30am start to catch the ferry to the mianland!) After a pretty good meal at Salang Dreams (hugely recommended!) we took the bar by storm...well as much by storm as Jen and I do! And got a number of cocktails in at a whole 1.75GBP a drink! Man life is good over here!!!
Next we're off to endure yet more torture in the Taman Negara (national park) Jungle......
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