Perhentian Islands (23rd-26th Feb)

---

Hey Guys,

Wow....

This place is absolutly amazing, and has far exceeded any expectations that we had. The beach is as near perfect as you can imagine: white powdery sand, torquise water, palm trees and hardly another tourist to be seen (thanks for the tip Paul!).

We stayed at Paradise Resort, which was right on the beach, and there was a very good dive centre next door where we hired our snorkling gear. The snorkling was absolutly incredible. After checking in, we headed straight down to the beach for a snorkle in the next bay along. We saw so many beautiful fish, every colour you can imagine and were fortunate enough to run into a Hawksbill turtle feeding on the coral. The carapace (shell) was getting on for a metre long and the markings on it's face were stunning. It didn't seem to be too bothered by us and we watched it from a couple of meters away.

That evening we had a fantastic meal at the resort, the food there was some of the best that we've had and the staff were very helpful and friendly.

The nest couple of days were spent chilling on the beach and snorkling in the various different bays. We went on a snorkling trip on the first morning to get an idea of where was best to go and then after this we just went by ourselves. We ended up seeing, amongst others, Blue Spotted Ray, Eagle Spotted Ray, Nemo's (Clown Anenome's), Reef Needle Fish, Bump Head Parrot Fish (massive), Hawksbills turtles, Green turtles, Barracuda (very scary!!) and also Black Tipped Reef shark! Given that Dani only got to grips with snorkling a year ago, and even then only for a few days, it was quite an achievement to get her out there swimming with sharks. She actually proved to be quite a good spotter, seeing the sharks long before I ever did. While these sharks were only 5/6ft in length and reported to be timid, you still get an amazing buzz when you see them, (especially when they start circling you).

After our adventures in Taman Negara, we thought we'd take in a little jungle trek of our own. Unfortunately the path was very over grown, it really didn't look like it had ever been walked and we ended up having to fight our way out. Even so, we did see a wicked little snake and the largest ants ever!

We also saw a variety of other wildlife on the island including Dusky Langur, monitor lizards (about 4ft long), a Flying Lemur, bats and various species of birds.

On the 26th it was time to say good bye to this small piece of paradise and head on to Thailand. We caught a boat back to the mainland where we then got a taxi to the Thai border.

Crossing the border was really easy and after going through customs we caught a cycle rickshaw to the station and then a 4 hour train ride to Hat Yai. At Hat Yai we caught a mini-van to Krabi which took about 5-6 hours, arriving at the Andaman Holiday Resort about 11pm.

Dan's folks arrived the following day and we've been chilling out with them since. More on that to follow shortly...

---