Traveling to the Perhentians

I woke up about 4:15 to catch a taxi to Sentral Station. He only charged about 15 or 20 RM which I felt was a good price at 4:30 in the morning. I then got on the bus to go to the Air Asia, Lost Cost Terminal. This was a place I new very well. However, it was great not sleeping there and having enough money to get a tea before my flight. I flew to Kota Bahru, at the northeast corner of Malaysia. I then needed to get a taxi to the little town of kuala Besut to get the boat to the islands. I asked a couple to share a taxi with us. They turned out to be French and Marc, who speaks fluent French, chatted with them throughout the 45 minute drive.

The little town was more like a corner. Unknowingly, we got dropped off by and at a little travel shop. We booked our boat tickets from them and then discussed accomadation on the island. the woman rang up a few places we were considering and "booked" us a room. I thought I had made it clear that I wanted the ability to move if I did not like it. Well, the next thing I knew, Marc had paid 90 RM for the room and that was that.

The boat ride over was quite bumpy, and we dropped all the other passengers off before we made it to Long Beach on the Kecil (the small island). We had seen all the beaches on both islands and I felt that we got a fairly nice free tour. We had to pay a local water taxi 2 RM each to take us from the boat to the island. We grabed our backpacks and found our bungalow.

Upon entrance, we were not impressed. It was hot, stuffy, and the electricity & fan were not working at the time. Rather than figure it out, as I was starving and marc was sweaty, we headed to the beach to get lunch and check out other acomodation options that we could get the following day. Long Beach was quite busy, and full of young backpackers nursing hangovers. We traveresed the length of the beach and stopped for a bite to eat. Nothing seemed to catch our fancy.

We decided to head across the island to the smaller beach, Coral Bay, to check it out. The walk was about 1-2 km, up and then down a rocky path. I spoke with a man who make spiritual waks throughout India, I guess for a living. Although, when I asked him if that paid well, he just laughed. We started checking our accomadation on Coral Bay, but did not look to seriously at any one place. When we got to the end of the short beach, I finally went up to reception at one place with a big restaurant to inquire about availability and cost. They showed us a room with an ocean view, hot water, and air con for 75 RM a night. We were very interested. After chatting with an instructor at the attached dive shop, we decided to move that day and "eat" the cost of the room we had already paid for.

We quickly walked back arcoss the island and grabed our packs. He hoped to catch a water taxi back around the island. But while we thought it would cost 10 RM, it actually cost 20 RM each. Since we had already spent an extra 90 Rm on a room we were not going to use, we decided we needed to suck it up and walk the 2-3 kms with our pack back over the hill. It was so hot and we were pouring sweat. But we made it and were rewarded with air con and a quiet, relaxing evening. I went to bed just before 7 pm, as it had been quite a busy day and the jet lag was still catching up with me.

I awoke to sit out on the porch looking at the sea. I realized this would be a place I could stay for quite some time.