The Perhentian Islands

The Perhentian Islands were just stunning. Every morning I would get out of our dingy little cabin and step onto the sand and just say: "Wow, this is a-maze-ing!" And it really is. We took the boat there from Kuala Besut, a small port town that only really exists to send people to Malaysia's best known islands. The main part of the Perhentians is the Big and Little islands. The big island (though it is about the same size) is mostly comprised of expensive looking resorts while the small island has a few cheapies and a couple of bars. None of the islands have any roads or hassling sellers or loud music or anything that could otherwise annoy you at a beach resort. The water is turquoise blue and crystal clear making it perfect for snorkeling and diving alike. There is nothing about this island that anyone wouldn't enjoy!

The boat was a quick one and took just 30 minutes to get to the island where we managed to find a cheap place to stay. The room wasn't the best but since nowhere in the island offers electricity from sun up to sun down and there was little chance of air con at our price range, we spent our time mostly on the beach. We stayed with Yvonne, a Dutch girl we met in the Cameron Highlands, and she watched the England-Germany game with us so we watched the Holland-Slovakia game with her as honorary Netherlands fans. Speaking of the England game - that was terrible right? I cannot believe how Capello could get it so tactically wrong. We were so open at the back and could have shipped more than 4. Anyway, enough football. It was fun watching the game on a big screen with plenty of English and German banter and a few (expensive) beers. Being as we were on a paradise island I actually found it difficult to care much about the football.

So other than lounge on the sand, swim in the sea, and have some drinks, we did little else on the island and that worked out just perfectly. We met up with some really nice English people who shared our views on the shocking football display and showed us where the best food on the island is. The food was a buffet style barbecue where you choose your meat and are entitled to unlimited supplies of everything else. We made full use of that and suffice to say we felt quite ill after! We did this the last two nights and were treated to a spectacular sunset last night. I also tried a shisha pipe for the first time. I haven't smoked in over a year so it gave me a bit of a rush. It tasted a bit like apple flavoured Hubba Bubba. I was quite drunk before I tried it and for some reason it was just me, Briony and the bar owner left. I think that reason could be that it was 4.30am and all the English had gone to bed depressed and Germans can't hold their drink. Haha!

The island is quite expensive since they do not harvest or make anything on the island. It is actually a marine park meaning they aren't even supposed to fish (though they do) so everything comes from the mainland. Also everything is run on generators so the rooms, internet and anything cold or hot is expensive. I can accept the raise in prices for this island, it is definitely worth it.

We left the island this morning and have just crossed the border taking us back into Thailand. Next stop is Krabi. This bus doesn't leave for a couple of hours so as you might have noticed I have used this time to 'pimp' my blog up a bit. You may also have noticed I have added a new 'page' to my blog (if you haven't noticed you can spot it right beneath the header at the top of the page). I will be using this to keep a running top 5 of all sorts of things that I have seen and done, partly for my amusement and partly to make you all jealous! Haha! I will also try to get pictures of these places up as well in case you weren't feeling jealous enough. I hope you enjoy.