Blogs from Perhentian Besar, Terengganu, Malaysia, Asia - page 9

Next stop: Malaysia. Our first port of call will be the Perhentian Islands, two tiny specks off the coast of Terengganu Province on the eastern side of peninsular Malaysia. The trip from Koh Tao is quite straightforward (in principle...). Back on mainland Thailand in the city of Chumphon, Alex and I catch another southbound sleeper all the way to the Thai-Malaysian border. The train leaves Chumphon at about midnight and is due to arrive in Sungai Kolok (the Thai border town) at about noon the following day. After our night on the train I wake up and look out of the window in our little cabin, to find a Thailand I do not recognise, a Thailand many people don't know about. The natural landscape may not be that different, but the human one most certainly is. ... read more

Our arrival in Georgetown was met with a search for a room in sweltering heat that eventually ended after stumbling across a not too scummy guest house. The standard of accommodation in Malaysia seems to be the worst value for money compared to everywhere we have stayed so far, and it took a while to find a place that didn’t resemble a prison cell or smell of dead things. After securing a couple of nights at a friendly guest house, we took a stroll around the colonial streets of Penang’s capital. Georgetown possesses a diverse mix of race and religion and both China Town and Little India represent the huge mix of different cultures present throughout the whole country. The main religion here is Muslim, although both Hinduism and Christianity have a following but as a ... read more

We've just left the Perhentian Islands to go back to KL. We had a really great time there. None of the hectic dives as we had on Pulau Mabul - just one dive a day and snorkelling in the sea. We saw reef sharks and turtles while snorkelling. We had two really great dives and the second one at Tokong Laut (Temple of the Sea) was truly spectacular. You'll just have to wait for Russell to describe it. As far as I'm concerned it was simply, "big fish, small fish, balls of yellow-coloured fish, clown fish living around ananome with purple coloured covering". Confused? You won't be when you see our pics! Almost end of hols :-( Love swimming in the sea every day.... 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

Days 144 - 151 After a long bus journey followed by an early morning boat, we landed on a gorgeous white beach with clear blue sea lapping up onto the shore. We were at Coral Bay in the Perhentian Islands. We walked along the beach looking for somewhere to stay and checked into a bargainous beach hut a stones throw away from the beach. We got ourselves sorted and planted ourselves on the beach under the clear blue sky. The sea was so still and clear, it was literally like a luke warm bath, with lots of little fish swimming around and attacking Stuart's moldy old feet. This pretty much set the scene for the rest of our days on the Perhentian islands. A couple of days in, we went on a brilliant snorkelling trip. It ... read more