Geo: 6.12, 102.24Breakfast was amazing - a lot of everything, but Jean mostly enjoyed roti canai. Why not?Our tour guide was here at 10:30 on the dot, and off we went, stopping first at a master kite maker - intricate layering of tiny bits of colored paper; batik by stamping method; a puppet maker (the shadow plays, which came to Malaysia via Thailand from cambodia from Java); a very ornate Buddhist temple built by the King of Thailand (Siam then) in the 1880s; and a traditional fishing village.We were tired, but went off to find some artisans and shops after we returned at 2.Having the GPS on my phone worked very well for walking too!We even visited a Tesco's, which is always fun to compare cultures and foods.Then off to find the site where the Japanese ... read more

Geo: 5.21678, 103.269Well, listen up, John Legan....By now we know everyone at the hotel who is staff, and they know we are keen snorkelers. Allen, the chef, sees us every morning for breakfast and has invited David out for drinks on night 2. Saw, the dive instructor, a Christian from Myanmar, by the way, has arranged by day 3 that we just wait near the jetty at 11:30 am today, and when the divers go off to the other side of the island to dive, we hop on and slip the boat man a few ringits. When we have a beer with Allen on night 3 he too says he has made private arrangements for us to hop onto the boat trip (package) to go snorkeling on the other side of the island at 2:30--for free. ... read more

Geo: 5.21678, 103.269What can we say? We snorkeled for at least 2 hours each day, sometimes twice a day. We did find that the mornings had clearer waters. Our 4 days settled into a routine: buffet breakfast: fascinating mixture of western (omelets, over-easy eggs, toast with marmalade) and Chinese (hot soup w/ noodles, strange vegetables), fruit, and Malay dishes (char kuah teow, nasi lemak), and the strongest coffee you can imagine.Then we would snorkel at least 2 hours. Download photos and try to identify them (we probably have 40 identified, any more not sure). Lunch at the snack bar - satay, nasi goreng, and a very strange dish from Kota Bharu that looked like pinkie fingers ! And many iced milky coffees - yum.We chatted with the staff, who were very nice and from many places, ... read more

Geo: 5.31679, 103.117Today was a mixture of interesting discoveries and trials.It seemed like we couldn't find anything - not the Tourist Bureau in Kuantan, nor the Turtle info center. Even having the GPS didn't help when we didn't have the exact address, so we kept pressing on after having a relaxing start and lovely breakfast buffet at the Ancasa, and walking outside by the large river to sight kingfishers.The further north we went the more decorative were the welcomes and the flowers in the center of the divided highways. We didn't include the photos but there were enormous refineries on the E. Coast and lots of pipelines (deep sea drilling). We stopped a few times at gas stations for snacks and potty breaks, but otherwise just pushed northward. Our longest stops: the floating mosque and the ... read more

Geo: 3.12433, 101.684It truly is amazingly hot.By the way, last night the Malaysians took silver in the men's doubles in badminton - so we did not hear the final roar from 15 stories below last night. We were too tired to drive south to Kajang for famous satay food court, so we ate in the restaurant connected with the hotel, and then walked around along with thousands of others. These people know how to dine alfresco!Today we went to FRIM, another attempt to enjoy nature. Sadly the canopy walk was fully booked, and you couldn't walk the jungle trails without a guide ($$$$$) but we enjoyed seeing the enormous trees, some monitor lizards, a few birds, 2 traditional Malay houses, a museum. Getting there with our new gps was a breeze, as was finding excellent ice ... read more