A random few days of easy living
Trip Start
Feb 11, 2009
1
69
74
Trip End
Ongoing
Pulau Perhentian Kecil,
Terengganu,
Malaysia
Monday, June 15, 2009
The Perhentians really are all they’re cracked up to be. I’ve been on plenty of tropical beaches in my time, but the water here was without doubt the best I’ve ever seen. Even at 5 meters depth you could see the sea floor (and the assortment of corals, fish, turtles etc) with perfect clarity. The weather was top drawer (maybe a little too perfect if I must gripe, leaving the shade for 10 minutes between 10 and 3 o clock would fry me to a crisp), the food was tasty, the local beach boys were friendly, funny and honest (far more genuine than their Thai counterparts). Pretty much everything you need at a beach stop was there, and in excellent quality.
Mine was the one on the right
I went snorkelling a few times and caught sight of giant sea turtles and sharks, as well as the best coral and variety of fishes I’ve ever seen. I’m obviously not a diver, but plenty of people I knew there were and said it was the best diving of their life. We’d left the Germans on the Big Island, and so Bert and I stayed alone on Long Beach on the Small Island. The busiest beach on the islands, but also the cheapest and most social. A good choice.I settled into my fairly standard beach routine. Rise in the late morning, read for a few hours on my porch, grab some lunch, read some more, then hit the beach and the sea when the sun was slightly less intense in the late afternoon. Everyday we played beach volleyball for two hours before sunset, playing out the classic beach scene from Top Gun - it was great to do some activity and work up a sweat for once. Bert plays V-ball a lot at home and I’m not TOO bad either, and during our 6 hours of combined play we never lost a set. CHAMPIONE! We struck fear into the hearts of challengers from all over the beach. I once spiked a ball straight into the very pretty nose of a Malaysian girl on the other team. Cue shocked groans from the crowd, a bleeding nose, a brave face from the girl in question and embarrassed apologies from myself. A most regrettable incident, despite it being an accident I think my popularity went down on the beach somewhat - she was much loved.
It was a relatively social affair, as a number of people from Daniel’s Lodge in the Cameron Highland’s had also found their way there.
boat?
We played volleyball regularly with a friendly if slightly odd Danish chap (Arnus?) and chatted in the evenings a few times with the talkative and hugely enthusiastic/opinionated Danish medical students. Bert himself was a top guy. He’s 27, although from the looks of him I’d have put him closer to 21. He quit his PhD to go travelling, saying he couldn’t be bothered with all the politics associated with getting anywhere in academia - rather confirming my long held suspicion that that the academic world is populated more by egotists and bullshitters than the great minds and thinkers that the romantics lead us to believe. Or perhaps great minds and thinkers just also happen to be egotists and bullshitters. Bert is a bright chap, speaks about 5 languages and was another who thinks before he speaks. He’s also a genuinely nice guy who seems to get along with everyone. Glad to have met him. The lowlight of my stay would undoubtedly be the accommodation. I really don’t mind roughing it, and despite having stayed in a few dives on the trip so far I haven’t felt that budget lodgings have been detrimental to my enjoyment of my surroundings. Not the case in this instance. The shower was pitiful, closer to a slow drip, and it took me about 5 minutes to get wet. This wouldn’t have been a huge problem anywhere else, but at the beach it meant that I couldn’t even wash the sand off my body. This, combined with high temperatures and a fan that didn’t really work meant that every night was a sweaty, sandy affair.
Bert
The bed lacked sheets, and every person who has ever stayed there has presumably sweated tons of liquid into the mattress and pillows. Again, less than pristine beddings doesn’t usually bother me, but the stench from my pillow suggested it had never ever been washed - it was literally difficult to breath through the fumes of stale sweat munching bacteria. There were also an abundance of bedbugs, and sitting here in KL a week later I’m still scratching the 50 plus (literally) bites all over my body. The only thing separating the rooms was a thin piece of wood, which meant that soundproofing was non existent and every time my neighbour emitted a violent bottom burp in the middle of the night, I’d be rudely awakened. It was also quite a small double bed, and while Bert is a lovely chap I found him rather too close for comfort in the evenings. Pathetic, but I found it off putting.During the day, these issues weren’t really a problem, but combined together they made the night and trying to sleep a bit of a nightmare. I literally dreaded trying to catch some shut eye. The remedy to these night terrors was obvious - I had to get myself thoroughly drunk. I cracked into the emergency bottle of rum that had been carried in my bag since the Rishikish Booze Run, Bert got through his spirits picked up cheap on the mainland, and each night we’d grab a bottle or two of the local sprits - affectionately dubbed ’Monkey Juice’. Not much else to do at night anyway to be honest, and while we weren’t exactly partying it up we had a few good chats on the beach in the evenings.
Lodgings aside, it was a good few days and I would highly recommend the islands to anyone. Better beaches than in Thailand, and enough going on socially to keep you entertained. I wasn’t sad to leave however. Realistically my gut feeling that I’d had enough of beaches had proved correct, and I was keen to hit KL and get on with seeing new things rather than just essentially killing time in a pleasant location. Before I left, I found out an Italian girl who we’d spoken to a couple of times was going to be on my bus, so company (very chatty, dramatic company haha) was assured for the evening. Incidentally, the overnight bus was plush and for the first time in my life I slept solidly through the 8.5 hours bus journey. A minor miracle!
