Blogs from Terengganu, Malaysia, Asia

Wir fliegen nach Kota Bharu und machen uns auf zu den Perhentian Islands...in den paar Tagen hier werden einige Tauchgänge unternommen. Die Unterwasserwelt hier ist der Hammer...so viele Fische und Korallen...zu den Highlights zählen mit Sicherheit die riesen Schildkröte, die aus dem Nichts auftaucht und völlig uninteressiert an uns vorbeigleitet...Wir haben Glück und sehen abends nochmal ein Monsterexemplar am Strand...locker über einen Meter lang robbt das Teil über den Strand um seine Eier abzulegen...wir sitzen gespannt im Sand und verfolgen, wie sich das Riesentier langsam wieder Richtung Wasser begibt... Jetzt seid ihr wieder auf dem laufenenden. Auch wenn ich nicht wirklich viel geschrieben hab in den letzten Berichten, schaut euch die Bilder an, denn die erzählen ja auch einiges...es geht weiter nach Borneo, nach Kota Kinabalu um genau zu sein und von dort weiter nach ... read more

The thing about living abroad is, that it's not always comfortable, there's a lot more isolation and you miss family and friends, being a part of their day to day life. But, the thing about living abroad, is, it teaches you so much about what you take for granted as being "normal" for you. And the thing about "normality" is, you don't even know you appreciate it, until it becomes something abnormal in your day to day living. So, my new learning, over the course of this week, is that diversity really is the "spice of life". I was in KL for the past week and Helen and Jo were down for the weekend. We were sitting in a jazz bar, when the lead singer of the Stevie/Lionel tribute band, a total Diva, walked up to ... read more

Well.. Up I got, 7.00 am, all bright and breezy and it was raining. Opened the door of the room and was greeted by total greyness and stair rods. Worse still all the clothes that I had washed yesterday were now either soaking wet on the "dryer" outside of the room or had been dashed to the floor by the rain. So this was tropical rain forest weather. OK lots worse things happen in life so I rescued my running kit, wrung it out and after an initial shiver set out on today's run (I'm still pursuing Likey's 365 challenge). To the end of the beach, then back, to the end of the beach, then back, to the .. You got the idea. 35 minutes later, job done. When we got to breakfast we found that ... read more

The buses are honking. A woman on the overhead speaker lists off scheduled departure times. Incomprehensible chatter surrounds me. Noise has taken over the Kuala Lumpur bus station. Luggage wheels scraping, cell phones ringing, loud voices. I crawl onto my bus, pop in my earphones and let my music drown out the chaos. The bus comes to an abrupt halt and spits me out at 5 AM. It's dark, it's quiet. I'm on the Northern East coast of Malaysia and in the distance the silence is interrupted by the Muslim "call to prayer." I walk down the lifeless streets with the haunting prayers echoing off the houses. Exhausted, I find a bench, fall down on it, earplugs in, and I'm out. Two hours later I jolt awake and have one of those, "Where am I, I ... read more

After an overnight bus journey and a Valuable lesson about essential clothing for night busses I arrived in Jireth and got a taxi to Kuala Bisu and caught a boat to long Beech. On the boat I get chatting to a couple of Germans (easily the most common nationality to meet travelling asia) their names are David and Hannah, David is at uni studying to be a nurse and likes to quote big bang theory, Hannah is also at uni studying to be a teacher although isn't sure if it wants to teach. We all go to stay at the same place which is again called Matahari Huts like in Cherating. Arriving on the island the water is perfectly clear as is the sand, so quickly ditch bags then go in for a swim. Whilst in ... read more

Perhentians All the blogs and reviews promised we would swim, snorkel and play with the turtles at the waters edge. Well, yes you probably can, but not in September! Turtle nesting finished in August and also the number of turtles has declined partly due to frequent oil spills from nearby oil production platforms and oil tankers. You get to see some turtles on the snorkelling trips though. Perhentians are made up of 2 islands, Kecil and Besar which are a few minutes by boat away and both have many beaches. The sand is white and the water is pristine. We arrived at Tuna Bay Resort after flying into Kota Bharu on Fire Fly, driven by a heavily uncomfortable, extremely tired taxi driver who kept slapping his face to keep awake, grunting and loudly sloppily munching on ... read more