Malaysia- Days 5 & 6: Perhentian Islands/ Snorkelling

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I woke up at 7:30 in the morning because the sun was streaming into our room and I just can’t sleep if the sun’s presence is obvious. I got some writing done and stared at a lizard on my wall for awhile while Joel slept (not a huge fan of the lizards, that one).
We knew that we wanted to go snorkeling and that the trip left at 11, so we headed down to the beach at 10, bought our tickets and ate breakfast at one of the small restaurants on the beach. I ordered a blend of strawberries and bananas and they brought this overflowing glass. It was WAY too much food.
We left at 11 with an older French couple and our boat driver, Yo. First we headed to fish Point, which was an extremely literal name (this was a theme). We saw tons of parrot fish, which are my favorite. We also saw these enormous fish that looked liked oversized parrotfish with big knobs on their heads, as well as many other kinds of smaller fish.
Our next stop was Shark Point. I saw a lot of the same fish as at Fish Point, but eventually I ran into Joel and he said, “Do you know how close you were to a shark?!? It was right next to you!” I was pretty disappointed that I didn’t see it, so I swam around a bit more. Eventually I headed back to the boat and on my way there I saw two sharks about my size! They crossed right in front of me and it was pretty exciting.
At that point I couldn’t remember the name of our next stop, but right in the middle of the water between the two islands, there was a bunch of people swimming around in circles and our guide was speaking excited Malay to the other guides and all of the sudden he yelled, “Get out! Go! Hurry!” I didn’t have a clue what was happening, but I scrambled to put on my gear and hop out of the boat. I landed in the water, looked straight down, and there was a giant seaturtle! The stop was called Sea Turtle Crossing. Obviously. Yo said that they’re always there between the islands. The guides have to keep an eye out to find them, though.
After that we headed to the fishing village on Kecil for lunch. We had seafood fried rice and Joel made fun of me for freaking out about having to disassemble my shrimp. (In LOUISIANA we just eat crawfish whole. You’re wasting your time deveining that shrimp. The boat will be back before you’re done with that one…) But whatever. Where I come from, shrimp come out of the freezer section.
We next headed to an area called Mystique Point. There wasn’t a lot special about this particular dive site except these cool blue fish. We swam over to a beach to meet Yo and we all took naps for a bit, as well as took some pictures on the beach. It was at this point that I realized my back would be very badly burned thanks to lying face down in the water all day. Whoops.
When we landed back on Long Beach we took showers and rested before heading to the other side of the island (Coral Bay) for dinner. We went to Mama’s Restaurant and I ordered fish fried Malay style, which meant with garlic, onions, and a lot of vegetables. I don’t know what kind of fish it was, but it was delicious! After eating and exploring Coral Bay (nowhere near as nice. A lot quieter and the beach was small and rocky), we had to walk back through the jungle in the dark. The island jungle at night was interesting, but I was a bit preoccupied with not falling off the path.
Joel had been feeling pretty sick all day, so we called it an early night and prepared for the next day of traveling. That night we saw our first rain in Malaysia and it was intense! The rain was heavy and the lightning was impressively close. The music from the beach kept going through the whole thing, so we have no idea what was going on there. Maybe people stayed to dance in the rain?
The next day, I got up first and got some breakfast since Joel still wasn’t feeling well. I got roti canai with curry, which is a typical Malaysian breakfast. It was the best roti canai (pronounced row-ti chen-eye) I’d had on the trip. It also came with fruit (watermelon and pineapple – just the best!) with yogurt. I realized at that point that my jaw was sore from clenching the snorkel and scuba gear the past two days. I also got tea, which I had missed since I’d left Korea.
We had the option to leave at 10, 12, or 4 and I chose to leave at 12 instead of 4 because we had to be out of our hostel at 12, I couldn’t be in the sun for another 4 hours, and Joel wouldn’t be able to appreciate the beach because he was so sick he was practically comatose. So we went down to the beach after checking out at about 11, Joel got a little to eat, and we said goodbye to the pet monkey that lives on one end of the beach named Milo. We just made the ferry out at 12 (have to catch a water taxi first) and made our way over to the big island to pick up the family vacationers. SO MUCH MORE luggage than on our first trip across!
From the jetty we took a cab to Wakaf Bharu, the train station. Because we had left the island so early, we had about 5 hours to spare at the station. Luckily there was a nice breeze and a small convenience store that made reading and napping on a bench fairly pleasant. I made friends with a street cat (they’re everywhere in Malaysia) who I named Oliver (every street cat I Oliver to me thanks to the Disney corporation). When I stopped petting him, he decided to nap next to me while I read.
At 7 we got on the sleeper train headed back to Kuala Lumpur. I finished my book (One Hundred Years of Solitude) fairly quickly in, so Joel lent me one of the Terry Pratchett books he brought. I was asleep pretty quickly, on my way back to KL.

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