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Published: October 31st 2008
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Home On The Island
This is the front entrance to our family room. Slightly more expensive than the huts that were available, but it had air con and a little patio area Perhentian Islands.....
So we left Penang with fond memories of the Island and headed to another island on the East Coast of Malaysia. We set off on a long, overnight coach journey with the idea that we would be arriving in the morning and we would be well rested and will have saved money on accommodation for that night. Well, the coach dropped us off in the middle of nowhere at 3am, after very little sleep on the journey we were all sleepy and confused. We managed to get a couple of taxis to Kuala Besut, our destination for catching the ferry to the Island in the morning. When we arrived there were tourist places still open, trying to flog us their tickets for the morning. Ecto and I realised we were very short on cash and set out in pursuit of an ATM. The helpful man in the travel office assured us that there were no ATMs in Kuala Besut (later found to be a complete lie) and we would have to pay for a taxi to the next town. Well I would hardly call this guys tiny clapped out banger a taxi, but we didnt have much choice.
The View
20 metres from our door and we had this. Thats Don, Ecto and Wilsy playing around in the crystal clear water Ecto, Wilson and I set off on a scary journey with this stranger to try to get cash. We reached the first ATM which was conveniently out of service, so we would have to pay extra to get to the next one. When we finally got there and got our money for the trip to the islands the so called taxi decided to break down. There was a massive language barrier between us and the driver, which strangely enough we hadnt experienced much of in Malaysia as most people are quite fluent in English. Ecto is a mechanic but couldnt be understood and this guy was rather reluctant to let anyone touch his mustard coloured tin can for a car. His battery was flat and he didnt know what to do. We finally managed to get pushing the car and got it moving. No luck with the lights though. The road back to Kuala Besut was a very dark and windy road and the idea of driving along these roads with no headlights was pretty scary! The car conked out several times on the way back, leaving Ecto and Wilson to jump out and push. The driver was hammering on
Popeye
Don, Dave and Wilsy buried Ecto...as usual hes pulling a stupid face. This time looking quite like Popeye we reckon with no vision out the front. Flinging us round corners in desperation to get home. I was clinging on for dear life. We were all pretty nervous. Somehow we did make it back in one piece and the cheek, they were still asking loads of money for taxi fare! We got a reduced price after some bargaining, we kinda felt sorry for the guy, after all he needed the money to get his car fixed! After a couple of hours kip on the travel office sofa we got the ferry across to the islands.
We decided we would stay on the small island, Pulau Kecil. There is a beach popular with travellers with lots of accommodation and restaurants, perfect for a good chill out! We stayed in a more expensive guest house, we felt that we needed some air conditioning, hehe. It was a decent sized family room to fit all of us with a private bathroom. This island is beautiful! Picturesque! Palm trees, white sand, warm turquoise water, pure bliss! There are lots of cafes and shops lining the beach, all huts in the sand. The beach was buzzing with travellers, but still it was quite deserted. This
Forest walk
Making our way across to the other side of the island. As you can see the scenery is fantastic time of year is generally quiet on these Islands due to the monsoon season which we narrowly escaped. All the guest houses and resorts shut down for the wet months which can begin late October. We really spent our time, in this beautiful place, chilling out after rushing around, trying to see as much of Malaysia as we could, keeping to our schedule, we could now kick back and have a few days holiday time, swimming and sunbathing. The boys all hired body boards and played around in the water for quite some time, where as I hired an umbrella and lay around dozing on the beach. When we were feeling slightly more energized after our wee relaxy, we went on a little adventure across to the other side of the island. It is only a 10-15minute walk, so nothing too strenuous. It was a little jungle path weaving through the palm trees. The animals surrounding us were amazing. Rustling in the leaves, lots of lizards, big and small. The larger ones were huge monitor lizards like the one I saw on Whitehaven Beach in Aus, big and black with yellow spots up to a metre long. The birds making
The Eagle
Don't know exactly what this is but it was massive. Cool cool the craziest noises, high up in the trees. Loads of little chipmunks climbing branches and calling to each other. Amazing! Unfortunately with all the lovely animals come the horrid ones! The mozzies went mad for me, munching away and having a feast at my expense. We were in the jungle for 10mins and in that time I was bitten 10 times. Grr! They dont seem to bother anyone else and if they do manage to get a bite of Don or Ecto the boys dont even feel an itch, where as I swell up like elephant man! Boohoo! The West Coast of the island was beautiful, much more quiet with a jetty with perfect views of the bay filled with little boats. We stood and watch the water at the end of the jetty for ages. Hundreds of little fish sticking together in the shade of the structure we were stood on. Large, long brightly coloured fish circled them waiting for a feed. We could see zebra fish and much more. Wonderful.
As we returned to our side of the island we spotted an eagle on the beach taking in the sea breeze. This mammoth bird was amazing, unafraid
Jungle Chloe
Chloe looking happy as she finds various wildlife on the jungle walk. Unfortunatelty not so happy at getting eaten by mozzies of us humans. We were able to get in real close for an excellent photo opportunity. A dip in the sea to freshen up and wash away the sweat, as it is unbelievably hot here and back to the guest house in time to take full advantage of the free movie being shown in the bar. We ate in a lovely little restaurant on the beach, with our feet in the sand and the salty breeze on our faces, unfortunately the food was a bit crap but the surroundings were wonderful, the sky full of stars and a tropically warm evening, with the waves crashing on the shore nearby. All the boys had gotten sunburn from lying on the beach and body boarding. Oops! The sun is fierce out here, we are so close to the equator in Malaysia that you burn so quickly. SPF15 just wasnt enough for the guys and they all ended up very sore, luckily the most of it had healed by the time they had to have their heavy backpacks on their crispy shoulders.
Well, after 3 nights it was time to leave our little island. We awoke early to get the first ferry
Lizard
Seen quite a few of these around our wee house on the island. Amazing creatures i believe are monitor lizards at 7:30am. We were escorted to our mainland vessel by taxi boat trying hard not to get the camera and laptop wet. Phew, we managed it. Davey, however, got soaked. He went wading waste deep into the water to get to the taxi boat, which was battling against the waves. We left a sodden Davey on dry land and got ourselves to the ferry. Davey joined us in the next trip. Teehee! There were loads of jellyfish floating around in the water. Bright orange things with extremely long tentacles. Swimming about in all directions, the boat was surrounded by them. Amazing things, I was glad not be swimming though! So it was on to the mainland and on to Thailand for the next leg of our journey. We were only 2 buses away from the boarder and a whole different culture.
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