Island paradise

Hey everyone, sorry it's been long time no contact.

We've been all over the place since I last wrote, so there's much to catch up on, and tonight is my last night in Malaysia so I'd better get it all in now!

We left K-L on Sunday lunchtime, after Claire was starting to feel a little better. Our next destination was the perfect restbite after the chaos of the capital: The Cameron Highlands, set 1,600 metres above sea level, is a mountainous region in the centre of the country, where, due to it's height, the temperature remains firmly between 18–23 celcius. After 5 days in smoggy sweaty 34 celcius K-L, this place was heaven!

We splurged a little on a nice room, to help Claire get better: attached bathroom (woo!) a carpet (double woo!) and a TV with cable (triple woo!). Unfortunately the TV was controlled by the manager so it flicked between BBC World and movie channels at the most inappropiate moments.

The Highlands themselves have colonisation written all over them. They were discovered and named by a British surveyor, and since then the region specialises in Tea plantations, strawberry farms and garden centres (grandma, grandad, nana and grandpa- you'd love it!). We went on a tour of the area and visited more garden centres than I care to remember.

The following Wednesday (I think!) we got on a night bus to Kota Baharu on the north east coast, hoping it would save us paying for accomodation. That it did, but the sacrafice was sleep. We were unceremoniously dumped at the side of a road in Kota Baharu at 5.15 am and a great haggling battle ensued with several taxi drivers to get a good price to our next stop.

We arrived by (cheaper) taxi to Kuala Besuh in the early hours of the morning, a sleepy fishing village, which is invaded by backpackers at 6am, 12pm and 5pm everyday, as this is when the speed boats leave for Malaysia's pride and joys: The Perhentian Islands. 2 perfect islands, full of all those cliches you only ever see on holiday programmes: white sand, deep turquoise seas, swaying palms, falling coconuts..this place has it all. We got dropped off on the smaller and cheaper island and had a job finding anywhere cheap to stay. We found the cheapest option at RM20 a night, but this was essentially a shed, which we shared quite generously with many insects and 3 different species of Ghecko.

The highlight came on Friday when we, our 2 Slovenian friends, a Kiwi, an Aussie and another Brit hired a boat for a snorkelling trip. Our guide, a smooth mover called Pirate Mat (or indeed, the Panther, after his attempts on Claire!) took us to several spots, and we saw some incredible things. A huge turtle that came up to the surface to breathe and dived back down with us in tow; Clownfish (as in Finding Nemo) hidden in their anaenomies, which could be teased out by waving your fingers at them; and we also saw at least 7 Black tipped reef sharks swimming just a few metres below us. We were assured by Pirate Mat that they were harmless, and luckily he was right.

The rest of the time we spent lounging on the perfect sand, and drinking several Snickers milkshakes, a fantastic invention which I can't believe I had to come all the way out here to discover. We've met loads of cool people on the island as well, and so it was really hard to leave, but with a flight to catch we had no choice.

For Claire though, leaving was too much, and she's thinking of returning to the island tonight for another week to do a Scuba course. Not my sort of thing though so I'm going to head on up into Thailand as planned. We're both currently on another island this time on the west coast – the first British colony in Asia apparently: Georgetown on Penang island. It's a nice old colonial town and we're staying in a cool hostel just off the edge of Chinatown. We've met a British couple our age who are both at Exeter Uni and so we've been hanging out with them today. We spent the day at a HUGE buddhist temple on top of a hill over looking Georgetown – a very relaxing place, with incense drifting through the air, perfect for personal reflection and mushy stuff like that.

So tonight is my last night in Malaysia – its been great fun and a very relaxed and friendly country that has been surprisingly easy to get around. I recommend it to anyone, especially for those beach lovers out there – you know who you are! Wednesday lunctime and I (and maybe Claire..she still hasn't decided!) will be in Bangkok – a city that quite frankly scares the hell out of me. But we've got several friends waiting for us there: Rob, Eliott and Ewan,with Ally flying out on Thursday – it should be a great laugh when we're all together.

So until then, keep safe, and keep in touch!

Love
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: 02 Aug 2005 10:10 |  Tags: Travel |  Comments (2) |  Report a problem