Blogs from Terengganu, Malaysia, Asia - page 32

I wake, sprawled out, tired, where was I last night? - out partying again? I extract myself from the tangle of sarong, pillow and mosquito net that my bed has become during the night. My wooden beach hut, now my home, an upgrade from the shed in the jungle where the mosquitoes won the nightly battle for territory. I open the door look out across the kilometer long beach, through the coconut palms, and over my hammock... another hard day as a divemaster trainee begins. It's 7:30am the beach is still, the boatman and local cleaning lady from the fisherman's village are making their way from the sunlight speedboat through the water to the restaurant, "Selemat Baggi!" - good morning! I've been a scuba diver since 2002 when in Honduras I found that I was near ... read more

I may have lied when I said that Koh Phi Phi was the most beautiful beach. The Perhentian Islands are a definite challenger. The crystal clear aquamarine water definetly tops Koh Phi Phi or anywhere in Thailand for that matter. We spent countelss hours playing in the huge surf. The rainy season is just ending here so somtimes the waves get big enough to surf in! Such a fun time in the water. After our first couple days though the surf died down and that was equally as beautiful as we could just lay on our backs and float through the waves without getting a face full of seawater! The view from the beach is superb as well; lush jungle all around and the water gets progressively darker as it gets deeper but still remains inpecably ... read more

Yes, where is it? I am getting a bit tired of being lied to. Customer Service means nothing in some places in Malaysia and although some people may differ with me in Thailand also. I personally find it rather low and it annoys me, giving me a bad time when I only want to enjoy the country. The lies mainly come from the travel agents (I will not consider them in the same category as their fellow countrymen). Firstly, I don't know if I mentioned it (in a previous blog) in Thailand, to be more precise Koh Lanta, where we bought tickets "TO" Kota Bharu (Malaysia) to later find out that they meant "the border" (Thailand). We found out while we were still in Thailand (Hat Yai) and when I asked the girl behind the ... read more

After a few days relaxing in Singapore we caught the bus to Melacca in Malaysia. Melacca was very hot and we felt we only needed a day there to see the sights, we spent the morning visiting some of the old Portuguese and Dutch buildings, followed by a few very interesting hours exploring Chinatown. From Melacca we caught a bus to the manic city of Kuala Lumpur. We both really enjoyed staying in the heart of the city, our hotel was in Chinatown in the middle of a bustling day and night market, where you can buy any kind of fake item your heart desires (including cheap dvds!) and many it doesn't! Our only dissapointment in Kuala Lumpur was that we couldn't watch the sun setting over the city, we didn't realise that you could only ... read more

Short and sweet one here as I’ve got so far behnd again that it’s just too daunting to write in depth. =================== We finally left Phi Phi on the Monday by boat, which would eventually take us (by bus across the country) to the Malaysia Pulau Perhentian islands. Without breaking tradition, I was very hungover from the “goodbye” celebrations the night before and as such, I fell asleep on all modes of transport we took to reach the islands. After a long-endured bus ride to the border, and a stay at a random hotel before we could cross in the morning, we finally walked into Malaysia and said goodbye to Thailand for this journey. Via taxi and an extremely bumpy, wet and painful boat ride, we finally reached the islands (Perhentian Kecil (small) and Perhentian Besar ... read more

Moving from beach (Tioman) to jungle (Taman Negara) I was forced to stop in the less-than-touristy city of Kuantan, apparently some distances really are too far to travel in a day, despite what look like teensy distances on a map! Kuantan was alright, though rainy, but it was quite obvious that it doesn't receive the same number of Westerners as other places... I'd gotten used to be being invisible, and suddenly I was once again being stared at, and the recipient of compliments, marriage proposals, and less polite advances from the groups of young men which apparently make up the entire population of the city. Oh well, it was flattering(?) and I had a stranger buy my dinner at the local restaurant I'd visited - I'd thought he was staring because my method of eating with ... read more