It really is a lonely planet!!

The plan was to go down to Rantau Abang to catch a glimpse of the world famous Malaysia leatherback turtles. August is supposed to be the best time to see them lay their eggs on the beach. And since they don't want their kids to get eaten, they only do this at night. This means combing the beach in pitch blackness trying not to fall into the sea or tread on one of the hundreds of crabs. Needless to say we were not very successful!

I will only move for beer. Salang Beach, Tioman.

The east coast of Malaysia consists mainly of kampungs (villages). Although this makes it scenic and unusual, it means there's not a hell of a lot to do. Cherating was no exception. This place is about halfway down the east coast and popular with travellers for its town, bars, and beach. The town was small and unspectacular, the few bars that were around were expensive, the beach was nothing to write home about. So we won't. The highlight of Cherating was our Batik masterpieces! We spent the afternoon with a local teaching us the art of Batik painting. (For you all not accustomed to the Malay ways: First, you draw a picture in pencil onto cloth and cover the outlines in hot wax, and wait for it to dry. This is done so when painting the colour doesn't seep over the whole cloth! The paint seeps through the cloth easily so this can be used to create good effects by blending different colours (and not so good if it blends through cos the wax lines were too thin... oops). After painting, it then gets boiled to remove the wax revealling crisp white outlines in the 'stunning' picture.) Vicky was in her element and could've stayed there all week trying different designs. Moz just fancied the pub... although once he got into it was quite proud of his 'Picasso' masterpiece!

Not many hagglers here - small paradise island!!

As we had 'done' Cherating in 3 days, we wanted to move on, but for the first time we encountered the problem of travelling on the weekends. Most Malays tend to be quite content in their villages, so buses are few and far between. No buses went to Tioman when we wanted to leave and so we would've had to wait for a couple more days! Our choice was to stay in Cherating and be restless, or move onto another village before making it to Pulau Tioman. So we chose to leave and sample Kuantan. Most people come here just as a stopover or because they accidently fell asleep on the bus down to Cherating. Within a few hours we knew why. The best, and only, form of entertainment was a large shopping complex (hide the wallet from Vicky!) with a bowling alley and cinema. This kept us amused for the one night that we were stranded here.

The hustle and bustle of ABC Beach, Pulau Tioman.