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Published: February 19th 2009
I took the night train from Singapore and it was a lot like the night train from Bangkok, I spent the first two hours just sitting next to the open door and we made our way through the jungle and then when it got too dark to see I finally made my way back into the sleeping car. I had the same problem as I had the last time I was on the night train as well, I woke up about every hour (even though I had set an alarm) convinced that I had missed my stop. Finally one of the conductors asked where I was heading and he told me that two girls in my car were going to the Perhentian Islands as well and that I should get off with them at an earlier stop than I had originally planned and we could share a taxi there. He woke me up at the correct stop and we had a taxi driver waiting at the train door for us, stopped at an ATM (because they don't have any in the islands) and then the taxi driver spent the next hour playing chicken with traffic in an attempt to give his passengers a heart attack before we arrived at our destination. His favorite place to drive was DIRECTLY on the center line, regardless of whether there was some sort of 18 wheeler headed our way or not. But we arrived all in one piece (a little shaken maybe) and bought our tickets for the ferry. I spent the time while we were waiting chatting with a french woman who was traveling with her 18 month old daughter for five weeks (while the child did what every 18 month old does - try to kill herself in the most imaginable ways possible at every second of every day).
The trip to the islands was uneventful, about half an hour in a speedboat and so I got to the island around 10:00, found a room at the Matahari, (regular A-frame hut, divided into two separate huts by a middle wall) and spent the rest of the day lounging on the beach and splashing in the crystal clear waters. Paulu Perhentian Kecil is EXACTLY what Ko Phi Phi promises but never delivers on, beautiful beaches, clean water, the works. I lounged, read and listened to my iPod all day and then trekked back and forth down the beach looking for an Internet connection, which I eventually found (accompanied by kittens!) and then ate dinner as the sun set over the water (no fish available, on an island?). I went to sleep really really early that night, but I did spend a bit of time just staring up at the night sky which was the clearest I've seen it since the time we camped in the California desert (it was like being in a planetarium).
The next day I went snorkling with a Argentian man and two English fellows. The first place we stopped was actually the area between the two islands and the water is about four meters deep but you can see all the way to the bottom and we got to see these giant ancient turtles swimming around the bottom. Next stop was "shark point" where with the guides (exasperated) help we got to see black tipped reef sharks and got viciously stung to death by tiny plankton. The next stop was just an area of the reef, and I was the first one who slipped into the water, DIRECTLY into a giant school of fish, immediately started screaming and laughing because they kept nibbling on me, and no one of the boat was in a hurry to rescue me. After lunch at the fishing village we went on to a "coral garden" which is exactly what it sounds like, only waaaaay cooler, and then ended the day at this tiny little piece of heaven (a little beach you can only reach by boat) and I swam and sunned on the rocks and chatted with Lucas (the Argentinian, about Obama, naturally).
I spent the rest of the afternoon making the trek across the island (all of a ten minute hike) to "Coral bay", which I was walking along thinking to myself "gee, not as nice as the other side of the island, too many little rocks, wait....coral, coral Bay, right". I watched the sun go down and read a book at one of the resort's restaurants and then crossed back over to my side of the island, completely unable to find anyone with a working Internet connection - this sounds quaint but it isn't.
I went to dinner with my neighbor, Olaf and then instead of turning in at a reasonable hour spent the night with all of his German friends, watching them polish off bottle after bottle of whiskey while I resisted the urge to drink (since I had to wake up in the morning to catch the ferry). It was a fantastic time, and I highly encourage everyone to visit the Islands if they get a chance, everyone there was sooo friendly and it's such a small place that it feel like everyone knows each other. I LOVED Malaysia.
I'll try to catch up more tomorrow!
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Miracle M Lewis
non-member comment
You are so courageous!
I am so happy you are sharing this journey with us; you have a wonderful story to tell and hope pictures to go along with it. I am so glad to read you are okay and you are meeting special people along the way.