Blogs from Perhentian Kecil, Terengganu, Malaysia, Asia - page 2

It had been over a week since we were last on a beach and while we had gotten used to (and enjoyed) the cooler climate in the Highlands over the last few days, this is the tropics and we knew it wouldn’t be too long before we were back to sweating in the heat. It was with the heat in mind that we took an early mini bus for 6 hours towards Kuala Besut, the jumping off point for the idyllic Perhentian islands, just off the East coast. On the way we met a nice girl from Holland (Debbie) who was travelling alone so our group of four quickly became five, which would grow more in the next few hours. After the obligatory stops for lunch/petrol/toilet breaks we arrived at Kuala Besut ready to take the ... read more

After an overnight bus journey and a Valuable lesson about essential clothing for night busses I arrived in Jireth and got a taxi to Kuala Bisu and caught a boat to long Beech. On the boat I get chatting to a couple of Germans (easily the most common nationality to meet travelling asia) their names are David and Hannah, David is at uni studying to be a nurse and likes to quote big bang theory, Hannah is also at uni studying to be a teacher although isn't sure if it wants to teach. We all go to stay at the same place which is again called Matahari Huts like in Cherating. Arriving on the island the water is perfectly clear as is the sand, so quickly ditch bags then go in for a swim. Whilst in ... read more

So the rainforest was fun, such as boating out on my own to the hotel to use their highspeed internet. We were planning on setting up an internet relay system, beaming a signal from a router hooked up to a hard line on the mainland, picked up by a satellite dish suspended from a tree at a half-way point, in turn hooked up to a repeater router with smaller solar panel to broadcast it around the island obstruction to our resort. Blazed trails on my own through the jungle, only to find out later that the strange purring sound I heard was not a bird, as I originally thought, but an Asian tiger, which grow to about 40-50% larger than African tigers and twice my weight. Never returned there on my own! We were also discussing ... read more

We arrived at the Perhentian Islands with our bucket, spade, suncream, snorkel and mask... what do you think we did? There were 2 islands big and small, we based ourselves on the small one where diving was the main activity. As soon as we arrived we got into the water surrounded by jelly fish (a bit scary) and remembered how much we love scuba! Next day we started our Advanced Open Water Course which was really good fun. We did a navigation dive, wreck dive, deep dive (up to 30m), night dive, underwater photography and fish identification. Our favourite was the wreck dive which was a cargo vessel carrying sugar between Thailand and Indonesia which sank in 2000. Were not fully aware why it sank but don't fear the sugar and crew were saved. It was ... read more

Our arrival on Mira beach really was like being dropped on a desert island. The dude that owned the place greeted us as we jumped from the speed boat into the shallow clear water. We were so glad we'd read up on the island and it's beaches as this was a real gem. Ten huts and the most gorgeous beach we'd both ever seen, the only problem being we were unsure as to how welcome we were! It turned out those staying there were friendly with the owner and had been visiting for many years. He had one hut free it was big, meant for more people but we took it and spent the remainder of the afternoon enjoying the place. After a power cut during dinner and a great nights sleep we packed up early ... read more