Blogs from Terengganu, Malaysia, Asia - page 28

Thailand had given us a lot of things, but it hadn't given us the crystal clear water, fine white sand and kick arse marine life that's needed after three months of living out of a backpack. For that, we headed south of the border to Malaysia's beautiful Perhentian Islands. It's hard to believe that two such stunning, relatively undeveloped islands can lie only 30 minutes boat ride from the Malaysian mainland and not halfway between Tahiti and Tonga, but thankfully it's true. And even though I had been here five years earlier, it was nice to see the amazing water clarity and rustic jungle feel (nothing over two storeys high, generators everywhere) still very apparent. All Kako had to say was sugoi, sugoi, sugoi! (Japanese for this rocks, this is dope, this is damn sweet!) Being ... read more

The journey from Cameron Highlands to Kuala Besut Jetty was an 8 hour journey in a minivan that holds 10 people. There were 10 of us plus 9 big backpacks! A bit of tight sqeeze. The start of the journey was not so bad, as i said before its really cool up in the highlands but after an hour so you caould feel the temperature creeping up as we got lower and lower. Luckliy for us, three of the girls were not going the whole way and that got us a bit of extra leg room but we were all happy to get out of there and on to the boat. The boat was a Fast Boat - thats what it said on the front - and we had to choose which of the beaches ... read more

Well we have left another country, and made our way into another. This time we have crossed the border into Malaysia and to be honest i am glad of it ! Its not that i didnt like southern Thailand, but i just got sick of it and i was happy to move on. REWIND ! anyway so when i last spoke we were in Krabi ...... well to be honest there was not much at all to do there, except watch some dvd's as we were staying in the town which was well away from the beach, but either way we were sick of the beach at this stage, and even getting in the water seemed like we were just going through the motions. I guess we kinda lost a little steam, which i suppose ... read more

Not what you expect to see outside your hutThe Perhentian Islands, off the West coast of Malaysia are famous for lizards. Big bloody monitor lizards. Some get to 5ft long. One afternoon there was a 3ft lizard sat on the sand just outside our beach hut. They are harmless, but a few things go through your mind when you see one, and if you are unlucky some things seep out of the other end aswell. Ok I'm overexagerating a tad, but you get the picture. It was pretty smart to see such wildlife close at hand. What else to say about Malaysia so far. Well, we pretty much came straight to the Perhentian Islands straight from Krabi, about an 8 hour bus ride, followed by half an hour on the speedboat. The Islands themselves are pretty ... read more

On the 28th June we finally left Thailand and headed into Malaysia on an 8 hour bus ride. Our first destination was the Perhentian Islands, which are two islands, the large and the small. The larger one has slightly nicer accommodation and is therefore slightly more expensive - needless to say we stayed on the smaller island! The island is quite stunning. As we got off the boat the sea was so clear it was unbelieveable, you could see right to the bottom and the sand was so white and fine. One of the main reasons for going there was for the scuba diving. However, thought I'd better avoid it this time as I didn't want my dog bite being chomped on by the Wrasse fish - the little buggers. So I just chilled out ... read more