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Published: June 10th 2008
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After just over six months in South East Asia, our last real destination was the tiny island of Pulau Kapas. I was there just nine months ago and already there are signs of more development appearing. For one, an ugly concrete toilet block is under construction just metres away from KBC Resort's restaurant (charming!) and a new white concrete stairway has taken the place of the old method of accessing beach #5, namely the "tie-a-rope-to-a-tree" method (see before and after photos).
Still, the island is definitely a gorgeous paradise getaway. While three beaches have resorts, there are another three beaches that are completely devoid of development. They are your typical picture-postcard scenes and I lost track of the number of times I caught my breath before turning to Scott to say, "Look at that, how beautiful!" Unfortunately, I also lost track of the number of times we looked at each other, rolled our eyes, and said, "Damn orange lifejackets!" Yes, it is school holidays in Malaysia and the locals are out in force. We wouldn't mind, as they are really nice and friendly, but the problem is that they just don't have any "beach etiquette" as Scott put it, leaving
huge piles of garbage (including lots of plastic) and broken coral in their wake. Why can't they see that they are ruining their own country's most gorgeous attractions through a complete lack of education or care, I can't figure out which one.
Anyway, back to describing Kapas...So, the beaches, as you will have figured out by now from the pictures alone, are truly idyllic. Another bonus is the wonderful offshore snorkelling, the best we have seen in Malaysia (outside of Sipadan, of course!) Once you get past the shallows, where the coral is dead from being trampled on (grrr!), it is truly gorgeous, like a fairy-tale under the sea. On the backdrop of some nice coral and some huge rocks coated in softly swaying anemones and their resident clownfish (Nemos), we spotted a school of batfish, several docile puffers, a few massive bumphead parrotfish, eels, a big ray, and dozens of cute little blue spotted rays. Everywhere you looked you could see shoals of fish, some of the tiny ones in their thousands like confetti in the wind. Scott got momentarily freaked out when he suddenly came across a black tip reef shark but unfortunately it swam away before
I got a look at it.
To sum up Kapas, if anyone is reading this and considering a visit, you should definitely come and experience this gem. My only advice is to come soon before it's too late, and to
definitely avoid the school holidays (just trust me on this one!)
We are now in Bangkok for a few days enjoying the return of tasty Thai food and cheap beer (finally!!!) We are mainly running errands, for which Bangkok is fantastic, and I'm getting my backpack re-organized. That means packing shorts, string tops, and bikinis at the bottom (boo hoo) and pulling out my "respectable" cover-up clothes and winter woolies in preparation for the next leg of the trip - the Indian Himalayas. Mind you, having said that, I have just seen on the internet that Delhi is a not-so-cool 47 degrees C! And we thought Malaysia was hot!!!
***An International Perspective on US Politics ***
Congrats to Obama for becoming the first black nominee for president!!! It is interesting that, as we travel around, we have noticed that a lot of people are following the US elections more closely than you might think. We are constantly
asked about who we support: Hillary or Obama. It seems that most foreigners think that Obama will start to improve the image of the US again. Indeed, as we came on the short plane ride from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok, a Danish guy next to us was reading Obama's book, and an air hostess walked by, saw it, and exclaimed, "Obama! Malaysians love Obama!" It seems that the world is going Obama-crazy!
**N.B. The underwater photos are actually my own this time. I took them 9 months ago when i was last here right before the camera gave up the ghost!**
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