A short boat ride to Perhentian Island

We stayed in Kuala Lumpur for three nights. I made it clear to Matt that three days was enough time to learn about the people, the place and not get to attached to any one location, and had no intention of staying any longer. So we caught an over night bus that would take us to Northern Malaysia, very close to the border of Thailand. Our intention was to catch a boat that would ferry us across the water to a group of islands that were home to several beach shacks and tourist destinations. The town we arrived in at 6am was a small water side settlement. We walked around, looking for a cheap boat ticket, however soon we began to get harassed by a local, telling us to stay in his hostel and how he could give us a ticket for half price. He was insistent and followed us for a while on his motorbike, and when we firmly refused we watched him ride back down the road, talk to another group of six men who then proceeded to mount their motorbikes and began riding towards us.



Matt and I both had the same idea going on in our head: In about thirty seconds it would be for young and old and I would be leaving behind one extremely beautiful corpse. So we began to run, but how the hell would we escape a group of seven guys on motorbikes? We frantically searched for a back alley or some road that would lead us back to the bus port we had arrived before, but it just didn't seem to exist. So I stopped in front of a house, pulled a picket fence railing from the front of some old guys garden and held it my hand while we ran. If these guys were going to try to mug me, I was at least going to hurt one or two of them. Luckily it didn't come to that, because just as they closed in we did manage to find a back alley that led to a store with plenty of friendly foreign faces from the bus we had caught that night. They eyed me carefully as I still held the huge piece of fence in my right hand and kept peering around waiting for the guys on bikes to appear like an irritated meerkat. Catching their surprised looks I simply said to them in between heathing breaths, "Big guys... On bikes... Want to kill me!"



The boat to the island was really enjoyable. We flew across the water in a long dingy pushed a long by two fair sized outboards. When I say we flew, I mean we literally left the water surface at points and became air bound before slamming back down onto the next series of waves. The timing was perfect and we got to see the sun rise up over the horizon, just behind the islands we were quickly heading for. Combined with a perfect warm morning breeze and a light spray from the waves as we traveled, it was one of those moments I was really grateful to be traveling in a new country and doing something no one I knew had done before.

As we came closer to the island and entered a bay area the boat began to slow and the driver threw his anchor over board about a kilometer from the shore. For a moment I thought we would need to swim, until I realized that a huge setup was occurring. Yellow boats with the words ' Taxi' spray painted in black on the sides kicked off from the beach and over towards us. They soon stopped next to the boats and began to pack our bags into their little 'taxi' boats, and told us it would cost 2MYR to ride to the shore. What choice did we have? I begrudgingly handed over my money and sat down in the boat, Matt following shortly after. Little more then five minutes later and we were on the beach, I grabbed my pack and hung my shoes around my neck and easily jumped in the water. Matt, fumbled with his 20kg bag, threw it to me, and proceded to fall in the water. One he managed to pull himself up and take his own bag, it was a matter of finding a chateau somewhere and then enjoying the rest of our time. I was content to find accommodation first, eat later... but that was not to happen. So while he found a restaurant and ate, I took it upon myself to find a place to stay for the next three days.



Most places were booked out, the one place that had any vacancy was about 500 meters up from the beach among the forest trees and I suspect (later confirmed) hordes of mosquitoes. Not knowing if I would find another place I took all that was left, a honey moon bungalow for two people, with one bed. I didn't care! Inside was dingy, it consisted of exactly these things: A bed equipped with a mosquito net and a desk fan mounted on the roof. Who in their right mind would spend their honey moon in this thing?! The bloody fan didn't even work until after sun down when they turned on the generator anyway... I had to remind myself, it was a place to sleep, that was it.



Once I got past the state of the bungalow and took the time to explore I realized just how nice the island was really was. It was exactly what u would expect from one of those tropical get aways you might see stamped on a postcard at a milk bar. Palm trees, exotic food, clear blue water, crystal sand, girl's wearing bikinis and sun... Of course it wouldn't be a tropical paradise with out locals trying to ring you dry of every dollar in your pockets. In all honestly, the place was beautiful, but damn they knew how to charge. Like in Bali if I sat under an umbrella I would get charged, so I found myself a nice palm tree and planted my butt there for a large portion of my time on the island. Here I could watch people swim or walk past, enjoy the sun sparkling on the water, or just fall asleep in the shade.



On the island there were about five restaurants; two of them expensive and three of them expensive, but cheaper then the others. We had to succumb to the prices because we couldn't just say "Oh, well go some where else..." because obviously there was no where else. There were five restaurants, and about seven different villas on that island, and I'm sure the people that owned them were all related. Admittedly the food wasn't too bad, although I got a nasty bout of gastro for about 24 hours after eating a tuna pasta meal. My favorite item was the Mars Bar Milkshake. They were huge and awesome, I'm not sure if I ever got around to taking a photo because I always ate the so fast. But imagine milk, ice cream and mashed up mars bar pieces mixed through. A mere straw couldn't tackle this thing, it demanded the precision of a long spoon... and a master to hold that spoon!



Besides eating I enjoyed my time swimming, or sitting in the sand and reading. I had the pleasure of watching a huge storm roll in over the Island, which I found out later was the remnant of a cyclone of shore and was cause for me to get trapped in a restaurant for three hours, which wasn't so bad. I just sat and watched the clouds roll by, the lightning crack over the ocean and listened to the roar of the thunder. It was incredible.



Another amazing thing was each day at the exact same time five huge lizards would come out of the forest and travel down the road that led from our bungalow towards the beach and the restaurants. I wondered where they went, but never bothered to follow. Just speculating what their journey was like was much more enjoyable. One of my most enjoyable experiences was laying a towel down out the front of our bungalow, and falling asleep on a warm, lazy afternoon, and just watching those lizards wander along the road, ignorant and oblivious to the ways of the world.

"How amazing," I thought, "Would it be to live such a care free life like theirs..."