Well we went to the the Perhentian Islands under high recommendation and were expecting some kind of paradise - We had our ups and downs.
We arrived in Kuala Besut just after 7am in the morning on 1st May after our overnight bus journey.
Now the bus was lovely for the 8 hr journey with wider seat and leg rests, However i didn't really pay much attention to the advice from the lonely planet which states quite clearly that - Malaysian buses like to refridgerate people. Well, come 2am in the morning after looking at the ice cube next to me called Ciara, we realised we were frozen and a fleece jumper would have been an idea. - Although Ciara did have a small blanket which she had stolen off the airplane.
After the bus we had what seemed like an F1 ride in a taxi from Khota Bharu to Kuala Besut. How much i asked the taxi man - RM40 (6-7quid) he replied.. How long, i asked and he said 1.5hrs roughly. Sounded ok as it was just after 6.30am in the morning and we had no idea where another bus stop was. We arrived in Kuala Besut 45 MINS LATER !!.
Well, at the jetty we paid for our return tickets by speedboat (RM30 each - and it was half hour to get there)but we had to wait till 9.30am for next departure. It was only then that we realised that the taxi driver had carried our bags into the first travel agents place - and we thought it ws the only one (obviously yet again the taximan was on Commission),as passed the travel office there were plenty more boats, some even cheaper and leaving earlier.. ah well
We just went and had our breakfast of a Rotai Canai (Which we have become quite addicted to - Made from a flaky bread (like a light pastry) and a filling such as egg added for only RM 1.50 Quite a delicacy in Malaysia.
It all started to kick home about the island, when we arrived at our hotel by speedboat. No roads at all on the island.. It just left us on the beach.
We went to the bigger island called Besar as we were told it was quieter as we just wanted to laze about for the week.
We stayed in a place called Flora Bay resort - which was quite cheap (RM50 a night)
All week we just lay on the beach, which was lovely or swam in the ocean which was very shallow and clear - with pleant of fish (Ciara was quite excied by the "Nemo's"
We did have a few bad days though, with some mental rain showers throughout.And plenty of thunder and lightening.
The food was gorgeous in the restaurant and we chose from an extensive menu.
On the first night we realised one of the only things we could do (Apart from diving - which none of us fancied - apparently Flora bay is the best PADI (Diving) resort in Malaysia)was a jungle trek.
Not knowing anything about this, only that it took about 40 mins We ventured into it just after 6pm.. What a mistake..
It truely was a jungle trek - and we stupidly thought we would end up back on our beach. nope....
We arrive on another side of the island just before 7pm - after both of us had nearly broken our ankles and had donated blood to half the mosquito population.
After walking along the other beach - which was quite nice - we realised we still had to get back to our own beach and sunset was fast approaching.
We had 2 choices - get a taxi boat (yes a taxi boat - who needs value cabs) - that had just went to double fare after 7pm (RM40) to get back to our beach or walk back through the jungle trek in the dark.
And so we produced our own short film of the Blair Witch project - Unfortunately we had no camcorder with us to record the moment. We panted and screamed our way back through the jungle - tripping over everything and hearing different noises of bats/tree snakes etc. - and Ciara had found a level of speed called "fear speed" which left me trying to catch up mostly. And to make matter worse i nearly collapsed of heat exhaustion halfway through - but Ciaras offer of going to get water and bring it back to me was not appealing - so i struggled on.
We eventually made it. We both must have looked like we had just come back from Swimming as we were soaked to the bone in sweat.
The next day i awoke to find about 20-25 mosquito bites on my back and countless other places and Ciara's legs were resembling a dot to dot book... Never again.... ever!!
We decided just to relax the rest of the week.
No internet access/no phone reception/ most places on the island only had 12hrs electricity - but thankfully we had a generator for other 12 hours.
We read books, lay on beach, watched a few movies in restaurant and ate mostly.(Got a bit badly burnt too, although Ciara is starting to tan quite rapidly now)
Only one place sold alcohol on our resort, so we also detoxed for the week on lovely fresh fruit juices. (Well bar one night)
On our first day there we also met up with a lovely English couple who had been travelling already for 5 months. Phil was on a diving course every day so we hung about with Julie during the day and the 2 of them in the evening.
We picked up a lot of tips on backpacking on places to go etc, so in all we had a good relaxing week.
We left to go back to the mainland on Sun morning - 7th May. Phil and Julie were also going our direction so we both got the speedboat back at 8am to Kuala Besut.We then hung about at the bus stop till about 10.30 and got a bus down to Terangannu. Here we then had to wait for another 3 hours for a bus that would bring us to Cherating, on the east coast for a stop over.
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