Paradise Island

     Kevin had a craving for swimming and I still had not quenched my love for snorkelling, so off to the Perhentians we went. We took a bus to Jertih because there was no direct bus to Kuala Besut, which is where we had to go to catch the ferry. The bus ride was relaxing because the driver was actually driving as if he was riding a bus and not a mini car. It was nice. I read A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson and Kevin finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Hadden. Currently we are reading much sadder books, which we might write about later, but the books we were reading at the time, well at least mine, was very funny. Though it did not tame my environmentalist attitude in the least. There are many stories about trees, animals and birds being entirely wiped out because of human carelessness. America is no exception to this global problem. 

     When we got to Jerantut many taxi drivers stopped us, saying with absolute certainty "there is no bus to Kuala Besut". We told them we had things to do in Jerantut and would consider their advice. Of course, after getting to the bus station, and being persistent in saying we didn't want to take a taxi, we finally managed to catch a bus that went to Jerantut. We have learned never to trust anything a cab driver will say, its most likely a hogwash story he will concoct in order to get business from you. Don't trust a word a taxi driver will say about directions. I learned this lesson especially here in Penang. The taxi driver had said, "oh to take the ferry costs fifty ringet, its better to take a taxi, and the ferries only come ever two hours". Well, after going to the ferry we discovered that it in fact only costs one ringer and fifty cents and it came every half an hour. Like I said, don't trust them, they are very friendly but they still need business. I can imagine it to be a very hard business, being a taxi driver, and I understand they need to make a living and compete with all the other taxi drivers around. One day, when Kevin and i have more money, we will take taxis, but at the moment we are so limited that forty ringet is like forty dollars canadian to us. but taxi drivers do not understand this of backpackers it seems. Oh well.

     After waiting in the shade, it was incredibly hot that day, we started on our journey again. A young man offered us some gum and tried talking to us in English. He was very sweet, but his stop was near and he only seemed to want to make small talk. He was very friendly though. 

     As it turned out, we had to transfer to another local bus to get to our destination, this wasn't so bad, but we were a bit weary and didn't want to move because it was so hot. We waited at the bus station and drank some 100PLUS and ate some unlabled potato chips and coconut cookies (very sweet cookies). As we waited a man on a motor bike stopped to talk to Kevin, he shook his hand and asked him if he was Muslim. We were a bit surprised by this, I was wearing my head bandana, so maybe that is why he though that? Anyhow, he asked Kevin where he was from. I have become used to this, Muslim men generally only greet men, so they usually only talk to Kevin unless I approach them. I don't mind, but it is sometimes funny that when I go to buy a ticket or something, the men will address me as "sir". I guess they are not used to addressing women. We have been told that Malay Muslim men will greet each other by covering each others hands, but only with men, they cannot touch a woman's hands. Sometimes, some men don't follow this custom, so we usually just go with how the people greet us.

     So we finally reached Kuala Besut and caught a boat to the smaller island, Pulau Kecit, the island with the cheapest accommodations. Being a bit weary about what the Lonely pLanet said about private boats, we asked some locals and ended up on a boat with some Malays from KL who seemed very hippy, some men had dred locks, and the girls did not wear headscarfs. 

     After waiting for some time, patience is something you need when using public transportation in Malaysia, we finally took the boat. Now this day the waves were not exactly small, but ignoring this fact and also that the boat was not exactly large, the driver decided to driver directly into the waves. The boat bumped like a car would if it drove some road in Cambodia without any shocks at high speed. The covering to the boat seemed to be coming at the hinges, and kept bouncing and tugging at them as we bounced our way through the water. We observed one smaller, one person boat, bumping almost vertical against the water. The driver was at the end of the toothpick like vessel, and his body seemed to be the only thing keeping it from flying directly up into the air. He seemed to jump over the waves, and sometimes it felt like we were doing the same. Kevin and I were sitting on a small seat in the centre of the boat, when the cushion sunk with thump to the ground of the boat. Our butts got stuck in-between the seat frame and our knees stuck out over our heads. Everybody burst out laughing, and we to could not help joining them. It was rather exciting, and painful, crashing through the waves.

     Finally we made it to the place we wanted to go called D'Lagoon. A little boat came to pick us up and it brought us to the little reception where lady offered us some orange juice as a welcome present. We got a room for 60RM a night. It was a bit pricier but we felt like having an attached bathroom. 

     Everything was very laid back. There was a zip cord you could take by climbing some rocks, a little floating dock you could swim too and a few trails around the place. We talked to a local man, who was British decent but born and raised in Malaysia. He had a very cool accent and could speak Mandarine as well. We had some long conversations with him over dinner about Malaysian sultans, asian drivers, scuba diving and such. He kept mentioning how he wanted to be a diving instructor again, as it felt like he was on holidays every day. He was currently working as a trainer for teacher in the Malaysian education system. He taught teachers the "western" style of teaching, which is the 'ideal' form of education for some people? 

     It was really beautiful to swim in the underwater world again. We 'hiked' to a small beach called Turtle beach about 10 minutes away. It was a beach out of time, fringed with palms and sparse jungle and the coral far from shore was beautiful. We saw huge Bow Head Parrot fish more than a meter long and perhaps a meter tall. They were gigantic, and we saw at least four of them. We saw Nemo, our favourite fish hiding in their little anenomies, spotted sting rays gliding along the bottom, hard and soft coral and so much more. The next day, with the advice from a French man "go to those rocks there, I just saw so many reef sharks, it is incredible", we saw some sharks. We had just finished snorkelling, but we ran back in the water in the direction he mentioned, telling our Swedish neighbours about them, so they joined us in the search. At first we didn't see them, then there one was. It looked just like in the pictures, but smaller. It was comforting to know that they only ate crabs and that they were no longer than half a meter, because they were so fast. The speed at which they turned was amazing. Soon we saw so many, at least 10 swimming here and there. You could tell by the way the other fish were swimming too that sharks were in the area. 

     On the third day we hiked to "Adam and Eve" beach, which was about a twenty minute walk through the low jungle, and it too was very beautiful. We swam along the rocky shore, observing crabs running along the surface of the rock near the water and below we saw how the water shone light about the rocks and coral and found tiny fish and little hidden areas, protected from deep water with tiny fish here and there. It was like being a child exploring the hidden nokes between rocks. 

To Turtle beach

     We saw another sting Ray and Kevin spotted a larger shark in the distance. We were a bit scared to go to deep because we didn't know what was out there and our Malay friend had told us he had seem giant trigger fish, and these, we also agreed were scary, because they do attack people and they have large teeth. Just before we left the beach, a reef shark, almost longer than a meter came right up to the shore line.

     Later that night we sat on the darkened beach and discovered to our amazement an army of hermit crabs, in all sizes. Kevin also saw tiny little bioluminescent "things", we thought maybe jelly fish, being washed up onto the shore. They glowed a clear bright blue. It was so beautiful.

     The next day we hiked further towards the "windmill" which is actually a wind powered electricity generator. It was cool to see, but the hike, especially when we no longer were under the cover of the trees was unbearably hot. Sickeningly hot, heat stroke hot. But there was shade near the windmill and far below us we could see an abandoned jetty that was broken in two near the water. Near it was a beautiful bay of white water, and we really wanted to swim. We walked down, risking the fact that there may be no way to get into the water, but luckily found access into the water by the rocks, which were like steps into it. It was shallow and incredibly refreshing. We discovered a small cave between the giant rocks, but stale water was inside of it, because the water from the sea could not reach into it, and there was garbage and standing, stinky water. We just looked into it. When we wanted to climb back up the rocks, there was a pool surrounded by rocks that was unfortunately very deep and had a strong current. When I tried going in that way I almost got caught in the swirling water, but got out in time to find another way out of the water.

View at the top of the hill

After our hike in the shade

Stairs to the broken jetty

The view

"I dare say" said Kevin, "It's a windmill"

"What are you looking at?" said the monitor lizard.

     Other than relaxing on a hammock or swimming on a piece of wood tied to a sting hanging from a palm tree, we swam out to the floating dock near just in front of the hostel and relaxed while the water rocked us.

     We left on the fifth day with reluctance. Unfortunately, we ordered our breakfast at the time the boat was suppose to arrive, because we didn't expect the boat to be on time, nor did the staff for that matter. So when the boat arrived, on time, our breakfast was too hot to eat so we offered it to our british malay friend and left our little island paradise.