Perhentian Paradise

A picture can paint a thousand words.. and in this particular location there can be no exaggeration - just look at the ocean as we sit in the boat stunned by what we are arriving to stay on for the week.

The Perhentian Islands are situated 600kms away from Kuala Lumpar. Our day started very early in order to get there in the morning before the chalets fill up - as you can't reserve rooms here. In high season, backpackers are known to sleep on the beach waiting for their turn at one of a handful of resorts on offer. The trip out there is slightly like the amazing race, with many detours and options to outsmart other teams. We started ours with our Indian hosts ordering us a 5am taxi, which ended up being a friend of theirs in his own car. He told us on the way that if police pulled us over we were his friend and he was giving us a ride... Mmmm.. Sounds likely as we don’t even know his name and are sitting in his back seat nervously while his 'proton' vibrates at 130kmh.. Upon delivery to the airport we had to pass the money under the seat so the coppers wouldn’t catch on to 2 white people being in the backseat of his car at 5am being a legit scene. We then hopped onto a flight for 600kms to the postcard looking coastline where we caught a taxi for 70kms to a jetty called Kuala Besut. From here we hopped onto a 40 minute speedboat that was like a spa pool with 2 oversized V6 engines on the back..

Desh found those spa pools could really get up and go - leave the hair straighteners at home.


A few jabs of the throttle and we were in paradise - Perhentian has 2 Islands - but most of the beaches are quiet and dozey, except for long beach which is where the backpackers go for a bit of a party up atmosphere, snorkelling and diving.. apart from that you really must chill, catch up on a good book or 3 and work on that golden syrup tan.

This is what we decided on, and to do so checked into some really cool Chalets at Panorama Resort. On check in you have to sign the register which gives your name, country, profession and AGE >> it was the latter that concerned us as the whole page ranged from 19-22.. We were here for a week and the youngins kept coming and coming.. The whole being born in 1990 saga scared us to no end.. but we dealt with it through a method known as denial. Shoot, do a feel the tickle of a 30 crisis coming on?

Our Chalet..

Our Chalet after hiring George Lucas to direct the shot with the Jedi lightsaber.

The wildlife on this Island is awesome - There are flying chipmunks.. flying.. between chalets and trees
Monitor lizards the size of alligators crawling about and CLIMBING trees with their huge claws..
I was having a beer at the end of the week and a humming bird hummed past me (first beer in a week, possibly hallucinated that).
The biggest Spiders we'd ever seen were everywhere, with webs that span 3 metres between tree trunks all over the place.. Holy - it’s like being in a David Attenborough documentary/Steve Irwin run for your life situations..
Today we were sitting on the deck when what we thought were 2 dragon flies mating hovered in and broke apart. It ended up that it wasn’t the sweet cycle of life - but the dark circle of death instead. The dragon fly ended up being a huge red wasp that was carrying a giant red cricket (size of a weta) and had dropped it by accident.. It hovered a bit, grabbed it’s ridiculous sized prey and took off again like a loaded helicopter struggling to pilot the goods.

We were biding our time here with very simple relaxing activities such as;
*Renting umbrellas and sunbathing under them.
*Reading stacks of books
*Drinking fruit shakes and milk shakes
*Swimming the azure blue ocean that was as warm as a bath and as picturesque as only a postcard could be.
*People watching - recommended by us - then following these people about like stalkers behind dark glasses. They all got *names like; Pro wrestler, sparkle butt, Hollywood boobs etc.. you kind of get the drift.

The one activity we will take away as a life memory will be the full day snorkel trip we took. It was absolutely fantastic! We got put on a speed boat and taken to 7 different spots (some in the middle of the ocean) where we got to swim with Sharks ( I was by myself when a 5 foot shark swam beneath me the first time.. makes you a little nervous), amazing giant turtles, many multicoloured fish out of finding nemo and floating through coral. I wish we could have filmed it or taken photos - there is nothing like being by yourself in the ocean and seeing a shark beneath you with our guide trying to feed them fish chunks, or free diving to tail a turtle while it carouses the ocean floor. The water was so clear and the fish were so beautiful. When we got back to the boat after Shark point the guide told us through his language barrier that people have been bitten before.. I’m glad he told us after. When we found the turtle spot the driver told us to get in - so I did - and then he drove off with everyone on the boat. It ended up that I had volunteered myself as a turtle spotter in the deep blue.. That was cool.

It was a real detox week, as the ruling religion here is Muslim - so there is alcohol - but it is really expensive and no one seems to drink - not even the hoard of youngins on their party Island O.E. Instead you order fruit shakes on the beach at sunset - kind of a nice way to end the day. we saved up our Ringgit all week to buy 4 beers on the last night.. wohoooOO!

Leaving was damn hard, but damn easy. You will miss the beach, but you are ready for something new when you've hit groundhog day again. Our ride home was more entertaining than depressing luckily. Once we landed from the fast boat a old crazy looking man approached us and said he would take us to the airport for the same price as a taxi.. I leapt at it straight away sensing a story.
He said wait here, I'll get the car... and about a minute later we got a baby toot - and to our surprise he had a Daihatsu Mira.. it's still a puzzle how we got the packs in with us???
I told him we didn't want to speed to which he replied - good! I like to go slow.. I have many friend who drive fast.. but my car is so small that I always beat them when I squeeze through de trafiiiiic. Then I light a cigarette and wave at them at the end - they hate that!
he was classic - he didn't stop talking the whole way to the airport at 60kmh with streams of traffic constantly overtaking our nana mobile. Some things he told us;
* In 1969 he became a commando and lived in the jungle killing communists.
He worked with men who lived in the jungle. He used a big gun, and they used poisonous blow darts!
* He has seen more in the jungle than we could believe - I believed that straight away - cause he literally had crazy eyes like in some war movie comedy - one was discoloured and the other wonky.
* In the off season Thai Pirates come and steal mattresses for good sleeps from the Perhentain Island resorts.
* They also steal mangos and eat the monitor lizards
* He owns 2 Daihatsu Miras
* He has 3 boats with giant engines
* His full retirement plan.
* When coconuts ripen many people end up in hospital from injuries walking under trees.
* The price of everything we drove past.
* Naughty boys are called naughty boys, not bad boys.

Here is a small example of his story telling to give you a hint of what we got;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTwusuNJIYg

Tonight we sit in a airport hotel awaiting tomorrows departure to Thailand for our final.. sniff.. final.. Ahhhhh don't say it... 30 days.

Some extra photos of the Perhentians.
One thing I loved about the businesses - is that every sign and advertisement was hand painted - and all the signs looked fantastic and simple - here's a few of my favs;

mmm Burger

This was really cool - It was like the guy had built his little stall/shop out of cardboard.. he probably taped it together every morning