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Published: June 28th 2006
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So usually i'd just start the blog with us arriving in Pulau Perhentian, however on this occasion i will have to start with our journey from Taman Negara....
We arrived back on our motorised kayak to the dock where a guy had previously booked us on a coach to the jetty, a boat to Perhentian and our hostels on the island, this was our first mistake, TRUST NO-ONE! When we arrived back he advised us that our coach was running half hour late, no problemo mate still more than enough time... An hour later we were started to get a tad annoyed as the man advised the bus may not be here in time ad we may need to take a cab. Fine as long as we don't have to pay anymore, but he was attempting to get another 300 ringgit out of us, doubtful!! After about two hours waiting and arguing he said his friend the cab driver would take us and he would call the boat to tell them we would be a bit late. Then we saw the car we were to travel in for 5 hours across Malaysia. This had to be a former stock car
that had been crashed into, rolled over and potentially burned out at some point and it got worse from there, i noticed the panels on my side of the car had all been replaced and there were no seatbelts but it would be fine i'm sure he was a very safe driver... Yeah right. As we powered down the road, overtaking even when we approached corners and roundabouts i realised we were playing Russian roulette with our lives, i was expecting to see Gina in her crash position once again! Anyone who has ever been in a car with Matt Fowler (the man who's had about ten crashes including one incident of running over an old lady) can just about begin to relate!! He stopped at an ATM as i needed to get some cash out, the message 'This machine is experiencing technical difficulties, your card will be retained' was not what i wanted to see, could it get any worse??? We eventually arrived at the jetty, god only knows how and got on our speedboat to the island. As if the car journey hadn't been bad enough we were now being thrown around like rag dolls and i could
feel my ribs crushing together on every big wave. We stepped onto the beach of Pulau Perhentian about 8pm, the fact that we had made it this far alive astonished me!! We went to check into the hostel the guy had booked for us, but there was no reservation, funny that as we'd already paid the guy, yes i know how dumb of us to hand over money to this conman. NB For other travellers do not arrange anything at the jetty in Jerantut at taman negara.
We eventually got into our room, after payig double bubble for the pleasure just to find out there was no hot water, fabulous!! We decided to go for a meal grab a bottle of vodka and watch England vs. Ecuador and hope that our luck wouldn't transfer to the England squad. Thankfully it didn't (except maybe for Frank Lampard) and our morale was boosted back up.
We spent the next couple of days relaxing on Long beach, working on our tans, swimming and switching hotels, thanks to Gina's birthday money from her mum (we love you Den!) Now this was paradise, nice hotel, white sands and the clearest blue water i've
ever seen. The place was gorgeous and after our first day tanning we headed to the hotel's restaurant for dinner, mmmmm delicious, i'm loving the Malaysian food!!!
Next day much of the same sunbathing, swimming and me and Jem went for a snorkel. The water was incredible and there were so many fish, lots that we'd seen before but a few new ones including baby Nemos hiding in the spaghetti coral, cute! There was rumoured to be an octupus out there too but i couldn't find it, probably was on the menu in the restaurant that night, oops!!
Gina and Jemma had apparently seen some massive komodo dragon style thing behind our hotel but i took this as a exagggeration then i saw it, it was more like a dinosaur! I wasn't incredibly happy about our new neighbour but did feel the need to photograph the 6 foot iguana before heading out for dinner just to be sure it wasn't going to be in my curry!!
After another gorgeous meal, for me anyway, the girls spring rolls and fries were still frozen, there was a fire show. The show on the beach was pretty cool although i'm
glad i wasn't one of the volunteers as they were having fire swung all around them!!
And then it was time to go, to leave paradise, definately a place i would reccommend, stunning.
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Den casey
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Hell Fire
Sounds like your trip was a trip from hell but I have to say I expect that you have all been told not to trust strangers or hand over money in advance to someone you don't know. I doubt that it will happen again.I am glad that you all survived the car ride and that Gina is now an expert at the crash position.Shame about the grotty hostel but I am pleased you found a nicer one so that you could enjoy the lovely beaches that you keep finding.The fire dance photo looks good maybe it is a good job that none of you got involved in that i dread to think what could have happened.Still loving the snorkelling then girls I take it Gina didn't fancy trying to fing the octopus.Your neighbour looks interesting i take it that it didn't make it into your room.I don't know how you sleep at night I would want someone on watch.I hope the next journey is better than the last. Be Careful Lots of Love Mum and dad casey xxx