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We’ve just arrived back from the Perhentian Islands after 10 relaxing days. For the first 8days we stayed at Coral Bay on the smaller of the two islands, it was nice and quiet compared to Long Beach on the other side of the island (where we had originally planned to spend 4 of the 8 nights). The beach itself was quite small and scattered with coral, unlike Long Beach where the beach was large and made up of white sand, but the atmosphere was much more relaxed and welcoming. As soon as we arrived we dropped our bags and went snorkeling but there wasn’t that much to see near the shore which was slightly disappointing. When we got out of the sea we started to walk back along the beach and got tangled in a really sticky web from a massive spider, luckily it didn’t get onto either of us!
On our third day there we were sat outside of our room when our neighbour (a crazy 50yr old man with a grey ponytail) shouted “shut up” really loudly, we thought he was talking to a bird or something but he soon came out and made it clear he was talking
to us! He told us we’d been slamming our door since 6.30am, obviously he was mistaken (imagine us being up at 6.30!) and we put him straight on the matter; luckily we were off on a snorkeling trip which meant we didn’t have to put up with him for the rest of the day. The snorkeling trip was excellent; we went to 5 different spots around the island each with a different thing to see. The first stop was Shark Point where we saw about 5 reef sharks, loads of swordfish and clown fish. Second stop was Turtle Point; the visibility wasn’t that great as it was right near a boat channel but we managed to spot 2 massive turtles. Third stop was Coral Garden, where as soon as you jumped in from the boat you were surrounded by fish (all after food) which was so strange, they’d be brushing up against you and swimming right past your mask. Fourth was Lighthouse where there was lots of coral and smaller fish, one of which bit me! It was no shark bite but I was back in that boat straight away, I’m sure they were after blood! Our fifth and final stop was Stingray Bay where we saw loads of sandfish and a couple of stingray. It was lucky we went back at around 4pm as that evening was quite stormy; we were sat in the restaurant and the wind suddenly picked up causing the embers from the BBQ to go everywhere. I seriously thought something was going to catch on fire.
We spent a couple of days relaxing on the beach before deciding to rent a canoe… what a bad idea that was! It was awful… my arms were aching and I certainly didn’t like the big waves sent over from passing speed boats! We eventually made it to a small bay further down the island which would have made a perfect postcard picture; it was beautiful. On the Sunday we were invited to a beach BBQ where we were staying, it was £1 to join in so we jumped at the chance. It was so funny because they just chucked a load of coal into a wheelbarrow and put a grate on the top. Half way through just as the food was nearly done it started raining really heavily so everyone crammed into a tiny shop. About 10mins later we were told to move down the beach to a dive centre and they would wheel the BBQ down the beach. We all got absolutely soaked and everyone (plus the wheelbarrow) ended up inside the dive centre sheltering from the rain. It was the strangest BBQ ever!
After 8 days we caught a boat taxi to the larger of the two islands to celebrate our anniversary. Nick found a really nice place to stay but it was pretty expensive. When we went for dinner there were loads of flying lemurs around just jumping around us from tree to tree which was really cool. On our anniversary we had a relaxed morning around our chalet and in the afternoon I had a full body massage on the beach while Nick went snorkeling. When he came back he looked quite shocked, apparently there had been two reef sharks following him in the really shallow water near the shore, they could have been no more than a foot or two below him! In the evening we got all dressed up and went for a walk along the beach to take some pictures of the bay. Whilst I was posing for the camera ready to have my picture taken Nick slyly put it on record, strolled over, got down on one knee and proposed! Obviously I said yes. The ring is 18ct white gold with two diamonds either side of an internally flawless blue topaz, he had it custom made and designed it himself; it’s absolutely beautiful! We had a lovely meal before lying on the beach having a celebratory drink under the stars.
Once back on the mainland we caught a12hr train to Chumphon in Thailand, unfortunately there were only 3rd class tickets left so we had a bit of a rough journey, I actually ended up sleeping on the floor at one point!! We’re now slowly working our way back up the east coast to Bangkok.
Hope all is well xxx
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Mummy Jo
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SHARKS
You never told me about swimming with Reef sharks that closely! Or being biten by giant tropical fish!!!!