Puteri Bayu Beach Resort Pangkor

... variety, so I don't know if it counts as two whole books really). It was nice, but it quickly became clear that my plan to "lie on the beach and do nothing in order to spend no money" was not going to work, because after about 2 days the "peacefulness" of an empty beach will turn into the "lonesomeness" of an empty beach...so I was again *forced* to continue traveling on to Penang, which is bustling with backpackers, so all is well. :)

... the beauty of the place became commercialised. It is still beautiful, but cheap rooms and bungalows are few and far between. We're currently staying in a guesthouse but will be moving to a bungalow in the morning, near Hippy Bar (Lizelle/Juan, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about). Thailand is still amazing though and man, it is HOT! I'm talking walking out of your room and perspiring like you won't believe! We lay by the beach ...

... the display too...they were taking as many photos as I was. I came across several processions like that as I drove around the island...weird stuff. I never found out the meaning behind the festivities. Back at the relative normalcy of my beach, I rented a kayak and paddled out to one of the nearby islands. The sea was calm so it wasn't too hard. The beach on the island was gravelly, so I paddled to another beach on the mainland that was only ...

Friday 28th July '06 (Diary) '...OK - so up and out by 11ish - taxi to the bus station and then the 12.30-pm bus to KL, couldn't get any money at the station from one ATM and waited nervously at another (Maybank)- really didn't fancy a repeat of Delhi! Bingo got some cash - bought some sort of hotdog and climbed aboard the bus. About 3hrs to KL - the last 40 mins in the pouring rain and the traffic of the big city, saw the Petronas towers - fairly impressive and another ...

... are so many people to meet, to talk to, fellow travellers, but also the people who live here. Highlights of my journey are the conversations I have with locals, when people are kind enough to give me a glimpse of what their live is really like, the way they see things or how they live, because although while travelling you already get to observe a culture from a bit closer up, still you're ...

... less???) - it's called Teluk Nipah. Pretty much half the shops, resorts, and restaurants are closed and there's a construction site next to where we're staying. We're in a bungalow again, which is nice, but it's way back from the beach (and there's no hammock). Luckily for us though the restaurant is highly recommended by lots of travellers and the rough guide (it has it's uses). The problem with the beach, as with most of what we have ...

... urges get the better of me and soon I am standing in a 10ft deep hole in the beach admiring my efforts. Back to the bungalow, we do a load of washing in the shower then watch the hornbills again, this time above the rain forest whilst our clothes dry. Sit and listen to the chattering monkeys and other whooping and squawking noises coming from the dense green jungle. We are back at the jetty to catch the 6.00pm ferry, as ...

... hanging out by our clothes, which made us uncomfortable. So we got out. We walked down the beach to try a restoran (where most of the other campers ate) but it was a big mistake. The service was slow, the servings were miniscule, and nothing was tasty. Ugh. We walked back along the road. The boys retired early, but Pat and I stayed out on the beach talking to Sandy and Kevin. To bed again after lights out.

... and tea for a long time. There was a lovely sunset walking back to mini-camp. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me at the time. When we got back, Markus and Moshe went to bed while Pat and I stayed up by the beach -- talking about Malaysia, AFS, and almost everything else. Soon, two suspicious figures approached and we decided it was getting crowded. I should deviate from my narrative for a moment to mention that this was an almost entirely mat-saleh camp. There ...

... to fit comfortably. Ours was two-story: Pat and I took the loft and the boys had the lower half. We could even stand up in the center of ours. When we opened the shutter doors, we got quite a nice breeze flowing through. (Pat and I decided we felt like pigeons with the shutter doors ... then we decided we should poke out our heads every hour on the hour and say, "Cuck-oo, Cuck-oo!" Then we started laughing so hard the boys thought we had lost our senses.)