31st July - Perhentian Island to Taman Negara

We were up and packed early to the boat back to KualaPersuit. The speedboat to the island was a rollercoaster journey with everyone hanging on for dear life but the return journey was a lot steadier.

We were approached with a price to Taman Negara but when we refused because it was more expensive than on the island, a man came chasing after us and offered us a lot better price. He took us to  'Watercolours' where we sorted our tickets and had an hour spare for breakfast.

We were pointed towards the only place that looked open but had comically terrible service. The lady there often totally ignored people or wandered off halfway through speaking to them. We eventually managed to get a couple of slices of toast with 'kaya' (local jam) and went to the shops to stock up on snacks instead.

Our minibus left at 10am and we were only expecting a 3 hour journey to our final destination. About 3 hours later we made a lunch stop at a hotel buffet place where we ate a pure-carb lunch of rice, noodles and chips (with a few pieces of chicken)  and then changed buses.

I think our bus must have had a carbohydrate-heavy lunch as well because it crawled up the hills on the way to Taman Negara and made pretty slow progress through all the palm plantations that now replaced the rainforest.

After a detour to 'Hans Travel' in Jerantut, we arrived in Kuala Tahan - the access village to the rainforest - at about 6.30pm.

By this time we were thankful that we had booked our first night's stay through Hans and made our way to Tahan Guesthouse - a brightly painted place with inspirational signs posted around the place. Our room was equally bright and was painted with pictures of trees and fruit. It also had a little balcony that looked out onto some green space behind and the neighbouring mosque.

We dumped our stuff and went in search of food. Most of the restaurants seemed to be floating on the river rather than in the village itself and we stopped for a surprisingly nice dinner at a place called 'Nusa'. There wasn't very much at all in the village itself though so we were soon back in our room, listening to the loud call from the mosque, signalling that the Ramadan fast should now have been broken.

30th July - Perhentian Islands

We should have left this morning but we really didn't fancy booking a ticket for an early boat and bus journey last night - especially when we were still 'bobbing' from being on boats so much recently.

Instead, we decided to spend the day doing island things - so basically going to the beach, swimming in the sea and doing very little.

After a frustrating morning of computer nonsense, we finally made it to Long Beach - and promptly fell asleep. Normally, I apply sunscreen before I go out and again when we're outside but I was fast-on before I even though about my second-coat. At least 3 hours later, I woke up very thankful that I was still in the shade. I quickly stuck on some sunscreen and spent a little time reading and swimming.

On the walk back to our room, I started noticing that a few places felt a little more tender than usual. After a shower, I assessed the damage. A few little areas were annoyingly red and sore but most embrrassingly, I realised my filtrum, eyelids and chin were all burnt - giving me the look of someone with a severe cold.

29th July - Perhentian Island

Today we had a wonderful day snorkelling around the island. The trip was run by Matt at Maya's guesthouse so I'll try not to mention him too much to avoid confusion! He didnpt come out nto the water with us because it was Ramadan but he was a nice guy with a good sense of humour.

First stop wasTurtle Point where we immediately saw a turtle. I felt a bit sorry for the poor thing because boat-loads of tourists all turned up at the same time and started following him around. He didn't appear to be too fussed but I guess it's hard to tell with a turtle!

Shortly after, one of the boat men pointed out another one and, for a while, it had a small entourage of about 6 people but it wasn't very long before that one too was pretty much mobbed. Matt eventually got tired of being kicked in the face by over-enthusiastic turtle-watchers and went back to the boat but I could barely drag myself away.

My favourite parts were when the turtles surfaced to breathe before suberging again. It was then we got to see its other more conventional fishy companions which were constantly attached to its underside. Less pleasant was having stern words with the morons who kept diving dive to touch it - or even worse, reaching for it when it was trying to breathe.

We had a waterproof camera from Maya Matt and Peter managed to get a few good snaps so hopefully our Matt will manage to post some of them up with the blog.

Next stop was Shark Point. Only Johan saw a shark here but we did get to see lots and lots of pretty corals and fishes, including some pretty hefty ones. Apparently, the shark swam straight past me but I was too busy watching something else.

Next on the itinerary was Turtle Beach. So-called because that's where the turtles go to lay their eggs. However, Maya Matt assured us we would be able to see sharks there. We were all swimming around, keeping our eyes peeled because it was quite a cloudy day so there wasn't much light, when Matt and Janet called us over to where they were because, as Janet said, there were the biggest fish she had ever seen.

She was not wrong! There were 7 or 8 MASSIVE Bumphead Parrot Fish and they were amazing! They were over a metre long with a kind of 'beak' and teeth that you wouldn't want to get close too. They are herbivores and not considered dangerous but it's hard not to feel intimidated by something bigger than you, especially when it has the tools to break and eat tough corals. They can also change their sex which is pretty cool too! Unfortunately, we hadn't taken the camera off the boat with us that time but I think Maya Matt may have given us some pictures that he's taken previously.

Soon after that, we started to see black-fin reef sharks. They were hard to spot because they're the same colour as the water and they are pretty shy but I saw 3 and Matt said he saw 6! They were less scary than the Parrot Fish because they swam away from you pretty speedily, especially if they thought you were following them. It was still an amazing experience though.

After all the excitement of the morning, we stopped at the fishing village for some lunch. It was nice food but I felt sorry for Maya Matt because, even though he joined us, he wasn't able to eat or drink anything. It was still good humoured though and we were glad he was there.

After lunch we went to the Lighthouse where we dived the other day. We saw lots of big schools of fish  and enjoyed looking at the colourful corals again but, again, it was quite busy with people snorkelling and jumping off the lighthouse. We could see see the divers below the surface and the place where man-Holly had scratched 'Anji, Matt and Toby were here' into the concrete block that secured the buoy.

Last stop was Romantic Beach. Maya Matt (I haven't succeeded in not mentioning him much have I?) was clearly flagging with lack of food and water by then but he was still happy for us to take our time exploring the reef and looking for the blue-spotted stingray that were resting there. Matt and I managed to find one but there was no chance of getting a picture of it.

We swam across the beach to look around the rocks at the other side and it was sad to see so much broken, dead coral in the middle. This is hardly a surprise when we've seen the number of idiots who stand on the them but it also made us appreciate our impact as tourists too. There wasn't much on the other side so we returned to the first side and explored there until Maya Matt called us back.

After such a full day we were all shattered and keen to get copies of the pictures so we could go and get showered. I haven't had chance to look at them all yet but I'm sure they'll appear on the blog or Facebook at some point.

We had a very lovely evening at Shari' La restaurant, over-looking the sea, eating lots of food at their all-you-can-eat buffet. Matt was particularly impressed by the curious inclusion of old-fashioned British desserts of bread and butter pudding and blancmange.

28th July - Perhentian Island

We had another awesome day diving today. In the morning we went to the 'Temple' dive site. You can see the pinnacle above the water and it widens as you go deeper. We had a great time exploring the reefs and fishes with Rick and I could list all the stuff we saw but it'll probably be boring and I don't recognise most of them so I wouldn't expect anyone to be able to. With the exception of clownfish of course! There's must be very few people who wouldn't be able to identify Nemo.  Actually, dive-Holly says that Finding Nemo is pretty accurate so there's an excuse to finally get round to watching it.

At midday we had a quick lunch of super-spicy fried rice. It wasn't supposed to be but when we asked for it to be just a little spicy, I wonder if they misunderstood and thought we asked for really tiny chillies because I only picked half out and there were still at least 8 chillies on the side of my plate!

We also said our goodbyes to girl Holly who had made a spur-of-the moment decision to go to Siem Reap again.

The afternoon dive we went to the lighthouse. It was absolutely stunning and hard to beieve that so many amazing things were living so close to the surface. We had to be a little careful and keep close to the coral because people jump from the lighthouse and we didn't want them to land on our heads. Matt ran out of air earlier than us but we got to drop him off at the surface, see him to the boat and then continue diving for a little longer. We've mainly dived for around 40 minutes before but it was really great to be able to stay down for a whole hour. It still didn't feel like any time at all though!

When we got back, we filled in our log-books, chatted to everyone for a while and then went with Johan to look into snorkelling tomorrow. We've loved diving but even though it's cheap here, it still starts to stack up, and it's meant to be easier to see sharks and turtles on the snorkelling trips so we're looking forward to that!
Our evening was spent sitting on the beach eating a tasty (fish!) BBQ and chatting to Johan. Walking back along the beach to the sound of violins from Shari-La hotel was rather a pleasant change from the usual island soundtrack of thumping music.

27th July - Perhentian Islands

We got up at a reasonable time for the first time in days and got ready to go diving at D'Lagoon. Even before we started there was such a different approach with Ombak than DJL - much calmer, better organised, clearly explained. There were only 4 of us going and we just had a little boat so it was easier for them but we also preferred it.

The two guys doing the Open Water Course, Johan and Toby, went diving with Holly and we went with Rick, the owner. We both had a much easier descent and it made a big difference not to feel like we were holding people up. Our ears equalised much more easily and we were still going down when we saw a Hawkshead turtle in the distance. I was so excited and can't wait to go snorkling and maybe see some more, closer up.

The dive itself was amazing and, because it was a little boat, we only had to do a backward roll into the water rather than the horrible 'giant stride'. We also got to grips with bouyancy and swimming horizontally a little better. We took our time swimming around and felt like we were taking a lot more in and paying more attention to the fish and the corals. We even saw a huge Grouper in the distance. Rick was great and pointed out several things to us and even let us touch a sea-cucumber and play with some cleaner shrimp. We were doing pretty well with our air and had been down about 40 minutes when poor Matt got stung by a jellyfish and guzzled up most of what he had left.

Back on the boat Matt was treated with vinegar and was much braver and less moany than I would have been. We were soon joined by Holly, Toby and Johan and headed back to the dive centre for a debrief. Unlike our Open Water Course, Holly took some time to discuss the fish we had seen and show us some pictures so we could record it in our dive log.

26th July - Perhentian Island

We slept in in our lovely clean bed and then joined girl-Holly for a nic breakfast at Ewan's.

We took a wander across the island to Long Beach which is actually what it says on the tin - a beautiful, long, white, sandy beach with stunning blue, calm water. We skirted the crowds and found a nice shady spot for a laze and a read for several hours. We swam in the sea and enjoyed the fine, sandy sea bed in comparison the the rockiness of Coral Beach but, because of the loack of rocks and coral, there weren't any fish or sea-life to look at.

After dinner, we booked our dive with Ombak and enjoyed a bit more of a chat with charasmatic dive-holly. We tried our equipment on and were impressed by the newness and quality of it, as well as the fact that it wasn't just thrust on us on the morning of the dive.

I spent the rest of the evening trying to write blog but, after I'd got sucked into Facebook, the battery was low and I couldn't face sitting in the hot room so it could charge. Instead, I enjoyed more time reading and chilling on our little balcony outside our room.

25th July - Penang to Perhentien Island

We were up at 4am to get ready for the 5am minibus. We commandeered a seat on the front row in the hope it would be a more comfortabe ride but I had a rocking, clicking seat that kept reclining itself onto the legs of the poor guy behind. Combined with the windy road and sharp braking, we didn't get much sleep but the bus driver very nice and friendly and made regular short stops so the 5 1/2 hour journey still flew by.
We arrived at Kuala Besut about 10.30, signed in at the surprisingly helpful desk and took our first speed boat. It cut through the water at a thrilling speed, bouncing up and doown dramatically and  spraying us all with water. It was really good fun and the kids on the boat didn't stop grinning. The water was an amazing colour and the islands looked a lot better preserved than the Thai islands we'd seen.

We dropped a few others off at their respective beaches and arrived at our destination, Coral Bay. We were last off the boat because I couldn't stop looking at the school of fish that were next to boat and resting in the shade of the pier. We hardly walked a few paces down the pier when we saw a shark gliding through the shallows. We also spotted a long, thin swordfish type thing and big, pretty, colourful ones.

I left Matt in the shade and enquired along the beach about accomodation but most places full or too expensive. It came to a toss up between Ewan's and Aur-Bay. Ewan's was not available until after 3, was only free for one night and even though it had nice chalets, they looked onto a patch of land that was being landscaped.  Aur-bay was not so nice but it was on the beach, available immediately and cheaper. We went for tight option to save a couple of quid a night.

After a quick shower, when I realised there was no sink and the floor had a constant pool of water (which meant I had to take my trousers off to take a wee!) we asked around a few of the schools about diving. We stopped at Ombak diving school first. We were expecting a price and the name of a site or two but were given a very detailed and passionate explanation of the options by a guy called Holly. We both took to him immediately and foud ourselves wishing he'd taught us to dive. We also asked at Quiver and, though they were nice, we preferred the personal approach of Holly. Unfortunately, Matt's ears were still feeling bad with the 'Baro Trauma' he sustained at Koh Tao after not equalising properly and so decided to give it a day or so before taking the dive.

Back at the room, Matt fell to sleep but the bed smelled funny so I couldn't drop off. Instead I wandered the few metre to the beach. There was no shade at all by this time so I went in the sea. The tide was out and it was really rocky underfoot and so didn't swim. I could have braved the rocks and walked in further but to be honest, even though I knew the sharks weren't dangerous, I didn't fancy running into one alone and so gave up and sat on the balcony outside our room.

Under the opposite bungalows, there was a large 'swamp' where all of the shower water ran out into the ground. I thought I's seen something swimming in it earlier but,as I sat there, 2 HUGE lizards over a metre long came out and faced each other off for a bit. They scrurried back in the water before Matt got a look at them but they were like mini dinosaurs.

We went to a beach front restaurant for food and to watch the sun set. We bumped into a girl called Holly who I'd briefly met earlier and so asked her to join us so we could pass the time while the family at the restaurant broke their Ramadan fast and started taking orders again. We had a nice chat about her job which was interesting because she works at a mine in Mongolia teaching safety and had a few funny stories about how strange it could be, especially at the fortnightly disco.

We went back to go to bed but the bed smelled so fusty that I took a closer look. The pillow cases were mouldy and the bed covers didn't look much healthier so I asked at reception for some different ones. When I took covers off I was horrified to find that the pillows themselves were black with a respiritary disease level of mould. I quickly ran up to Ewan's to ask if the room was still free and felt lucky to discover that someone had cancelled. Back at Aur-bay, I spoke to the cocky guy there and found out that he was well aware of the problem. He would not give us all our money back and was quite rude and dismissive. We packed our stuff, asked whether they fancied returning the rest of the money in exchange for the lock and, since they didn't, we out the padlock on the foor and took the key as a souvineer.

Ewan's Place was even more lovely than I remembered now that it wasn't full of workmen and I kicked myself for not checking in there in the first place. Ewan himself was as sweet and generous as when I met him earlier and offered to make us some food even though the kitchen was closed. After all the excitement, it was about 1.30am before I feel asleep.