The old adage that travelling is better than arriving was probably written by someone who travelled on the deck of a ship cruising the coast of Africa en route to some hellhole not by someone who risked their life in a minibus whilst listening to Thai techno. No. Its one of those things I can look back on and laugh, our journey from Ko Lanta to Malaysia but at the time it was no craic at all, we got up at 7.30 to get the bus which picked us up at 8.30, left Ko Lanta to get the ferry to the mainland and then sat in a queue, a hot, sweaty queue for about 3 hours waiting to get on the agonisingly slow boat which did the job a bridge could do in 2 minutes in about, well 3 hours. I chose a window seat, I got baked by the sun and everyone else in the buis was wondering why I was almost crying and half naked, ughh. Once on our way, we stopped and transferred in Trang, a hours drive away. Our minibus driver from there was literally, the worst driver we've had, I know I go on a bit about them but this guy was the pits. From the start when he took our bags and body slammed them into the boot, he was a grade A idiot who pounded out the worst music Ive ever heard the entire 3 hour journey - think the kind of music a hyperactive Thai kid would have at his 10th birthday which he held at the local ADHD clinic with all of his Ritilin fiend mates. AND the CD skipped if that wasn't bad enough, bloody hell. So he decided that 70mph was a suitable speed to take mountai turns, no problem there mate, seen it all before, oh you're going to flick through you're CD collection at the same time as having a drink and take the corners at that speed. The Thais on the bus found it more amusing when we almost crashed a few times, they were also more patient with his frequent stops which he took every 15 minutes or so to go and have a chat with his mate or pick up laundry, eaving us wondering what was going on on the road. Bastard. So one more change and we were heading out of Thailand for good (sort of) and towards Malaysia. In southern Thailand they have a majority Muslim population, whether that had something to do with the road blocks every mile or not I don't know but it stopped our next driver from getting and ideas about speeding and in fact, slowed us down tremendously. Jen fell asleep and woke up with some Thai teenager deftly trying to touch her leg and probably craftily cracking one out into his hoody, dirty bastard. Getting towards the border the bus was stopped and the (armed - like big guns) police had a look in, saw us in the back and opened the back door to have a word:
Him: Hello
Me: Hi
Him: Where you from?
Me: England
Him: You crossing the border?
Me: Yeah
Him: Where you been?
Me: Ko Lanta
HIm: Where else? Northern Thailand?
Me: err...yeah (where he goin with this one? its lata and all)
Him: How was the weather?
Me: umm ok, nice, nice I mean nice
Him: Have you had Papaya Salad?
Me: Yeah (hoping Papaya Salad isnt code for 100 kilos of heroin in your bag)
Him: OK goodnight
Christ, now eveyon on the bus is looking at us like we're f'ing fugitives or smugglers and the bloke was just a wierdo ond a wind up, wanting to look at Jen's tits or just a bored arsehole policeman.
Eventually we got to the Malaysian border, worried about Papayas in our bags and more worried that the border looked like a disused lorry depot. We got through OK, about 5 hours late but OK. Apparently we were just in time as the border closed in 5 minutes, just as well eh?
Soo, Pulau Perentian, the star of the entry, we did get there in the end I promise. We got a speed boat from the mainland which also almost killed us as it sped into a storm and ignored 6 ft waves and subsequent 10ft drops in order to meet their deadlines (they're very particular about those I tell you...). Anyaway enough about near death experiences and ahhhhhhhhh, the Perhentian Islands, Kecil - small island - to be exact, one of the nicest places we've been so far without a doubt. It's a really small island and is almost completely jungle apart from two clusters of beach bungalows and cafes and a Mlay fishing village, it makes most Thai islands look like downtown Manhattan. The beach we stayed on in Coral Bay was the quieter of the two and had a fairly short beach, still big enough for the 10 or so people on it and amazingly clear water, the restaurants did amazing seafood barbeques everynight for about 2.50 (Barracuda, Kingfish, Lobster, Spanish Mackrel, Crayfish, nice) and there were little to no hassles from anyone trying to flog you a dive course or get you to come to another bloody Reggae chillout bar with a Bob Marley flag in it.
As with all of these island entries, the activities onthe island are limited to lazing around and eating and so aren't all that interesting, the snorkelling we did here however was amazing and blew all the other trips we'd done out of the water (ba-zing). We did the trip with another Malaysian couple, one of whom was sea sick and the other who couldn't swim more than 5m away from the boat (god knows), the water was amazingly clear and we got to swim with Black Tip Sharks (about 5 of them, circling me, oh yeah) and saw so many different kinds of fish and a couple of mammoth sea turtles lugging themselves along the floor. It really was spectacular, a couple we were with told us it was better than the BArrier Reef so thats one destination checked of my list thatnk you very much. We ventured over to Long Beach on the opposite side of the island that night which entailed a 15 min hike through the jungle aided my my trusty wind up torch (Woolies. fiver) apparently there are Moniter Lizard on the island, we didn't see any but it made every twitch in the leaves that more exciting. this was the night I discovered its possible to dance without the aid of drink, I guess thats what people mean when they say they find themselves on travels like this, possibly, this was also the night Jen discovered that leaving conditioner in your hair makes you sweat like a diabetic in a sweet shop.
The next day Jen put tanning oil on her face and got burnt and peeled. ha ha ha
It was a very good island, I'd venture to say the best we've been to. So there Thailand, too may cooks spoil the broth and too many concrete building sites make your island look like crap.
