The Perhentian Islands - the big island

Well, after all of the 'challenges' of the previous couple of days our luck finally turned when a) we arrived at Mamas and there was a choice of rooms available, b) the bungalow turned out to be lovely, and c) the bungalow actually cost less than the advertised price for a chalet complete with collapsed bed and an en-suite rat on Long Beach.

Mama's Chalets was a great place to stay - run by a family including two brothers who seem to run everything efficiently and 'Mama' who cooks good food and, no doubt, keeps everyone in order - and the Perhentian Islands are very beautiful.

The islands have a small population who live along the shoreline, with the interior being jungle. No roads, no cars and limited electricty (even Mama's, which was quite high standard only had it power 21 hours a day). What the Perhentians do have though is clear, clear blue seas. You can see the sea bed clearly when you're speeding about in boats between the islands and out to snorkelling sites.

It also has some great snorkelling right off the beach and that's what we spent pretty much most of our time doing, seeing reef sharks, clown fish (nemos), masked angel fish, trigger fish, massive clams, shoals of fish so timy they looked like excited blobs of mercury, vibrant sea anemones, beautiful coral and much more. The highlight, however, had to be swimming with a turtle. So graceful (the turtle that is - not me).

I could go on and on about the snorkelling really (including very funny instances just off shore of fish thinking Alec's abundant leg hair was a food source - he has the bites to prove it). We do have some pics and I will let you know when they're available.

The Perhentians were great for wildlife all round (aside of the uninvited guest the first night and the mozzies). Monitor lizards and a monkey roaming the garden at Mama's, the tiniest birds I have ever seen (feeding off flowers), the turtles.

We were sitting on the veranda playing scrabble (ravers that we are) the first night at dusk watching the small bats flit about eating all the mozzies and Alec said, 'whoa - look at that huge bat'. I watched a while until I saw what he was pointing out and was like, 'that's not a bat, it's far too big. That's the size of a really big seagull'. At which point it turned and you could clearly see the distinctive bat-shaped wings. A massive beast - must have eaten a lot of mozzies in its time.

So, we mainly spent our time snorkeling, swimming and reading. We both read 'The Time Travellers Wife' by Audrey Niffenegger - really good book. I can highly recommend it.

I did also try my hand at diving, the Perhentians being one of the best places in the world to learn as the water is so warm and clear and it's so cheap. However, possibly owing to the fact that I never really got over being knocked over by a big wave when I was very small and don't like water in my face, I came across stumbling blocks when I had to let water into my mask for a couple of the tests. I completed a trial dive though, which was cool, but I think I'll just stick to snorkelling.

All in all, the Perhentians were a good way to round off our visit to Malaysia, though 2 boats, 2 taxis, an overnight bus and 2 local buses later paradise does seem like a long way away...