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Published: April 1st 2006
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A short journal update following on from the previous one where I believe I signed off on Cameron Highands.
We did indeed attempt some more trekking but took a wrong turn and ended up sliding down in the mud, attacked my mosquito's and upsetting an angry monkey that kept shaking the trees and screetching at us. We turned back and Richard looked at me and said "I think maybe we are more City and Beach people rather than jungle and trekking people". I agreed and off we went to the perhentian Islands!
Please view the below link if our pictures don't make you jealous enough!
http://www.perhentian.com.my/
We stayed on Flora Beach which was a gorgeous stretch of white sand and we had our beach hut right on the water front! It was the very end of their rainy season so we did have the occassional storm that hit and then quickly went away again so not so bad, still got plenty of sun-bathing time!
Finally completed my final dives and qualified as a Open Water Diver whilst Richard is now and Advanced Open Water Diver!
We went to shark point (Perhentian Islands - Gorgeous!) and it
was just me and my instructor and he pointed past me and did the hand signal that I'd been dreading, hand held up to face like a fin...a shark! It came towards us looming out of the dark and just kept circling the reef but getting closer to us each time until it began to circle us! I thought this was normal (what would I know? I was told they were shy and harmless!) and just stayed watching thinking "cool a harmless shark" although a bit concerned that it kept getting quite so close. I looked at Hari, my instructor, and he looked a tad wide eyed and edgy and pulled me behind me and motioned for me to swim away. I thought "but I wanna watch the shark!" and he starts moving backwards pushing me along but watching the shark and gived the handsignal to make the ascent to 5 metres from surface to do the 3 minute safety stop (to lower our bodies to a safe level of nitrogen) and up we go still looking below us where Mr Friendly shark is still circling. As soon as we surface Hari was saying "O my goodness I have NEVER
seen a shark so close before they normally spot you and dissapear off in fright but this one was getting so close I was a bit worried! They don't normally come that BIG either!".....I stick my face in the water and say "....he's still their Hari! Don't tell me these things til I'm on the boat in future!". Our boat comes over with Richard and his instructor on board and Hari, who normally helps push me and my tank onto the boat, is up those steps sooo fast and going on about the shark and I'm like "Hari! I'm still in the water with the shark! Someone wanna get me out now!!!". I also realised that I had cut my leg on the coral......was v cool though! Another dive school has been trying to film the sharks for weeks but they can never get close enough so they were very jealous whereas I am just feeling glad it didn't come any closer thank you!
Richard followed a huge turtle around in the water just inches away from it and got mobbed by Trigger fish that like to try and bite you so Richard and his instructor were doing kung
Swim swim swim!
On my last dive, I collected a big shell to post home for my nephew Jake! foo moves under the water to kick the evil fish out of the way. Another instructor said to us "I was told that Trigger fish try to bite because they are just territorial, but I don't don't think that's true, I think it's because they're arseholes!" (sorry for the language parents). We found that rather amusing and Richard, having had his fins covered in bite marks said he agreed completely!
Richard also went on a little trek through to the other beach and came across a helicopter and it's bored occupants whilst in the jungle! There is some kind of training army camp nearby and we spotted them practising water rescue operations. They were also spotted underwater in all black ninja type suits with black head gear behaving all stealth like, and spotted again (and heard!) yelling karaoki from the shore (not so stealth like)!
We missed the Island as met a lovely couple there called Fiona and James (Hello guys!) and were therefore sad to leave our new found friends but promise to keep in contact.....it's good to have a girl to moan to again!
We shared a taxi with another couple back to Kota Bharu
New pals!
James and Fiona!
Hello! (save those pennies where you can!) and they told us that whilst in Pangkor Island (as mentioned in previous journal entry) they had their visa card stolen.....by an angry monkey! Apparently they were on the beacj and 20 monkeys showed up on the rocks and they watched them from the water thinking "wow monkeys how cool!" until a big fat balding male monkey strolled towards their bags and clothes on the beach and proceeded to go through the zips and pockets and pull things out! They ran at it thinking it would get spooked and lolop off but instead it started waving it's arms and screaming and running towards them until they turned on their heels and ran screaming and waving back into the sea! Can you imagine them trying to explain that to the police and visa company! A monkey stole my visa officer! Ha! I wonder if the monkey went to the store and brought lots of bananas or headed off to one of those "massage palours" we keep seeing?
We stayed just one night in Kota Bharu and met some nice girls who wanted to interview us about the town....we'd only just arrived and didn't know
Beach hut bar!
We managed to find the only guy on the island who could slip ober booze! Big bottles of vodka please! Thank you! what to say as didn't see there was much to do there!
We ventured back to Kuala Lumpur and found a nice area called Bukit Bintang and we've been enjoying spending time in the wine bars treating ourselves to the much missed red wine! Have a hangover most days but hasn't stopped me from going up the Petronas Twin Towers twice and before we leave on Monday we plan to get some more site seeing in but it has been rather difficukt due to the ridiculous thunder storms that appear above your head and when then lightening streaks across the sky it is sometimes so close that you can feel pressure and heat blast across you. The locals barely seem to notice whikst I nearly jump right out of my flipflops and yelp flapping into the air!
We keep getting asked if we are Israeli?? Richard is refusing to cut his hair and looks a bit like Jesus! Plus, it is illegal to be gay in Malaysia! I have therefore instructed Richard to stick with me at all times, keep his wrists in a firm stiff position and refrain from wearing tanktops or crossing his legs too often.
Kota Bharu
These lovely ladies interviewed us for their English language course and then I went back to the hotel and put more clothes on.... He does get odd looks from men at times and people used to mistak him for being gay a lot in London. Probably shouldn't have shopped in Soho so often then! Have no fear parents I'll protect him!
We are now rather excited to be heading into Cebu in the Philippines on Monday as have put our flights back to Australia for aprox 2 months...what's the rush! Not like we've got work tomorrow! HA HA HA! Sorry, couldn't resist.
May not have much in the way of e-mail communication for a while but will update again when I can.
x
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