Blogs from Terengganu, Malaysia, Asia - page 17

On our final morning in Kota Bharu, Mr Lee brought us a filling breakfast of egg and chicken curry from the local hawker market and arranged a minibus transfer to the jetty in the next town along called Kuala Besut so that we could get the ferry to Perhentian Kecil, another tropical island off the east coast. Perhentian Kecil is the smaller and more attractive of a pair of islands collectively known as the Perhentian Islands. Unlike the large commercial ferry from Mersing to Tioman, the ferry from Kuala Besut to Perhentian Kecil was a private, powerful speedboat that seated 8 scared tourists and a few amused locals. The crossing was only 20 minutes but that's partly due to the fact that we were travelling at near the speed of light, bouncing across the waves with ... read more

On our first morning in Malaysia we woke up as illegal immigrants in a brothel. It wasn't the best start. It all started going wrong the evening before when our bus in Thailand was late getting to the border with Malaysia. It dropped us off at the border crossing at 8:50pm giving us just 10 minutes before the border closed. We were hurried along by Thai officials who said we had enough time to get across. So, having officially exited Thailand we set off across the 200 metre bridge that connected the two countries. Behind us we heard the huge iron gates close so there was no going back to Thailand. As we got to the Malaysia side of the bridge they closed their gate as well. At least we didn't spend the night on the ... read more

Ever since he pounced on me saying Orang Putih! and knocked a Ringgit off the price, he's become my regular fish vendor. The lady in front of me seems surprised (presumably by my buying fresh fish), and he explains something of which I only caught "Duyong". Yup, I stay in Pulau Duyong I explain in English, pointing across the river to the little kampung island (as LP would describe it). She smiles to reassure me. My fish-walla asks his usual "two kilos?" to which I reply with my usual istinggo kilo which he repeats in English: half kilo? That's enough to last me three dinners, even with my voracious appetite. These are Ikan Kembong, meaning "fat fish", 9-10cm long grey-and-black scale-less fish: I daub them in a mixture of salt and turmeric before frying them. That ... read more

Today we had decided to check out of Maya's and move to the larger island of Besar. After saying our goodbyes we hopped into the taxi boat and sped over to Abdhuls Chalets. Alot more expensive but we wanted to live out our last few beach days in style, with air con at night! The chalets were great and nice and quiet. There was even a fenced off section in the water to swim in. We checked in and headed for the pretty much private beach. Here we lazed all day with Rachael getting very brown indeed. When it cooled off Rachael walked around the headland and into the next bay before I followed and met her on her way back. Here we sat on the rocks and watched the horizon, beautiful. That evening we ate ... read more

After a quick breakfast we met Matt, the brother of our guesthouse owner, for our snorkelling trip. He was going to take us to the best snorkelling sites on both islands for the whole day for only six pounds. We climbed into his fast boat and we were off, speeding through the clear waters to Shark Point. There were also two Americans and one Spanish lady joining us on this trip. We were to drop in the shallows around the rocky point before drifting with the current to deeper waters to be picked up. Just before Rachael climbed in Matt warned her to be very careful with any Sharks because they have been known to hurt people! Not the best thing to tell someone who was already unsure as to whether or not to enter the ... read more