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Suddenly our surroundings changed. One minute we were sat waiting for the mini bus to pick us up, surrounded by mountains, forest and a cool morning mist... the next being thrown out of our seats by the 2 metre waves on a speedboat to a desert island.
The speedboat from Kuala besut to Kuala besar took us an hour and the guys in the port initially decided that due to the storms (it was peeing it down) there would be no more boats for the rest of the day. After waiting around for an hour we were on our way. The sea was rough and a few waves threw our rib cages painfully into other bits of our bodies. One or two people on the boat looked green, holding their heads between their knees and hoping for a safe arrival.
The island became larger and after 3 stops we were dropped at our designated beach. Our choice was Flora bay, named after the sea plants waving in the water below. The beach is lined by clear water and a kilometre of powder white sand. Unlike every other beach encounter in Thailand ,this time it was actually sunny!! how strange!!
maybe we didn't have a curse after all!!!
We were greeted by our hosts and an Otter (yup they had a pet 'otter' named after the chocolate drink 'milo"?!) and checked into our super clean beach bungalow.
It's difficult to write a blog about beach stays as you can imagine you don't really get up to much... apart from sunbathing, eating and sleeping but a few 'exciting' bits happened during our stay.
Lee picked up a sea injury. 75% of the beach is occupied by bungalows (only a handful) and the other 25% are past the dock and deserted which Lee decided to explore. The reason no one really goes that way is the sea is not as clear and a bit rocky. Lee took a walk out into the very shallow water and cut his foot on what felt like broken glass. After getting back to the shore he picked out some sharp spikes from both feet. Hobbling back to Michelle and covering the pretty beach with foot prints of blood the owner of the huts said it may of been a crabs nest!!
We also booked a half day snorkeling tour of the island
which was cool but not without its problems. Just the two of us headed out on a longtail boat with our young driver shay, and headed for the reef on the opposite side of the island. After jumping into the ocean (which is sometimes scary even with a life jacket on!) we were soon gazing at multi coloured fish swimming around randomly shaped coral. Illuminous tropical fish glanced up at us wondering who we were and we returned the stares. Some of the things you see under the ocean are simply mind blowing.
The previous night a storm has soaked the island and the sea was very choppy. After being thrown about a little we hopped back on the boat and headed for our next stop, We arrived at a secluded beach to regain our balance, adjust our sea legs and take a breather. Suddenly 3 boats pulled up and we were descended upon by Chinese tourists. Like ants covering the whole bay we were shocked how in seconds the place changed. We quickly told our driver to move on and take us to the next spot.
Next on the agenda was snorkeling with turtles only our driver
could not find any. He expertly reversed the boat along 'turtle bay' scouring the ocean for a sighting. Out of nowhere another boat arrived and a couple were in the water thumbs in the air indicating something exciting. We quickly followed and jumped overboard. Out of nowhere a giant turtle appeared... feeding off something tasty on the bottom of the ocean. We swam closer for a better look but the 10ft creature decided feeding time was over and swam straight at us!!! Noticing our shocked expressions it did a sudden U turn and headed away. The cumbersome creatures are not the fastest swimmers and we managed to catch up with it. Soon we were side by side within touching distance .. and it was almost like we were all mates just down the public baths for a couple of lengths ...well kinda!
After that we forgot about our sea sickness and headed to shark point. Michelle saw two baby sharks and a stingray and Lee was soon back on the boat clutching his stomach (from sea sickness, not a shark bite).
5 lazy days passed and we booked an internal flight across Malaysia to head for the capital
Kuala Lumpur. It's our first flight with Air Asia and we are assured they are great.. just like Ryanair or Easyjet back home... we checked on the net and it the planes look OK!?
Bye for now.
Lee and Michelle
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