Paradise Lost

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Obviously before you lose paradise you'll have to find it. We found it somewhere in the South Chinese sea, at least for a couple of days. Jet our arrival at paradise wasn't that great.

It was in the middle of a tropic storm to be precise. We tried to outrun the storm by quickly jumping on a speedboat. But it caught us mid sea anyway and had us soaked in mere seconds. Its a great experience though, jumping from the bus into a speedboat, racing on waves that get bigger and bigger. catapulting our boat right into the next one. All the while looking then back, then forward noticing the storm closing in on us while our island destination grows larger at a terrible slow rate. In the end it loomed over us spelling ill fortune for those in it. Than it swallowed us whole.

The amount of rain and wind were immense and if that wasn't enough, the speed of our boat turned those raindrops into small needles forcing us to look away and protect every inch of bare skin. The boat still managed to drop us of at long beach and there we sought shelter against the onslaught. After a bit of rest I changed clothes and put on my jacket. Then we started our search for a place to stay.

In hindsight it seems incredibly stupid of me not putting on my "storm proof" jacket before the storm had hit us. But the scene was so mesmerizing and intense that the thought never crossed my mind. Nor did it with anyone else at the boat.

We managed to find 2 dorm beds and an option for a double room the next night. As a result we were paying 40 ringgit a day (around 10 euro's) to stay at one of the most beautiful islands of the world, the Perhentian islands.

Next day we explored our little beach and it proved to be a great idea to go to the smaller (backpacker) island of Kecil. We were expecting full beaches with massive amounts of tourists but instead we found a decent amount of peace and tranquility. This was mainly because the islands accommodation can't support more tourist and because many divers stay here, they spend most of their time under water, as did I.

For our second day we arranged our open water dive course. This 3 day course supplies you with all the knowledge and experience you need to dive to 18 meter without supervision. Yet disaster struck again and Ilse caught a cold. Probably because on arrival she bravely soldiered on with little more protection than her already soaked shirt when we were searching for accommodation. Sadly you can't dive with a cold due to problems with clearance, relieving pressure. Therefore it was just me and Steve (the dive instructor). With no group slowing us down we went through the course in no time and therefore had lots of time for the actual dives.

On diving I can be quite brief. Its brilliant, certainly in an environment such as this. Just 2 things: the underwater world around reefs is so diverse, colorful and busy that there each dive seems way to short to see it all. Also, few things beat the majestic classic shot of a massive turtle cruising by just 7-8 meters above you.

Yet to all things comes and end and we left Kecil after 5 great days on the Island. Luckily Ilse in the mean time managed to entertain herself with snorkeling and island exploration. but we might just get out of our way in Thailand or Australia to still get here that experience.

Our night train leaves at 20:30 from Kuala besut. Next stop: Uptight, consumer mad Singapore!

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