The Perhentians

The last evening in Malacca we go eat at the best Italian in the region. We order some nice antipasti and then go looking for the wine list. Unfortunately, this Italian restaurant sells no wine (!?). Because if they would sell wine by the bottle, they must pay an additional tax and they have apparently no sense. But we do have meaning in wine ..... We walk go back to our hotel and get there in a bottle of wine bar and restaurant only put additional load on the account. While figuring out the starters sitting Juriaan too dream of a tiramisu on the dessert card. After a delicious meal he ordered a tiramisu, and we never have him after the first bite so dirty look see: the cook has no mascarpone used, as it should, but known as Gorgonzola and horrified Juriaan of blue cheese in any form but also especially in the desert where he was so pleased to have

After dinner we walk a bit through the city and do it at the weekly Chinese night market visit. It's crowded on the street and there is really sold everything: the famous fake-brand watches, medicines, food and pets. It also has a large stage on which the Chinese people their Karaoke show their skills. After a last drink we go back to the hotel because we are the next morning at 5 am picked up at the airport.

At a quarter past 5 is finally the van to take us to the airport can take KL to Kota Bahru to fly. The van has no suspension and quite sick we come here for 7 hours at the airport. We check in and an hour later we take off on the way to Kota Bahru and from there to the Perhentian Islands. From the airport for another hour by bus (this time with slightly better suspension) and then another half an hour on a boat before we arrived on our tropical island itself: Pulau Besar or the big island of Perhentian Islands. The weather is just not so tropical, it's overcast and quite windy. But the sea is a pleasant 30 degrees so the afternoon which we swim, we read a book and we can arrange diving for the next day.

If the morning we wake up if the weather is restored, there is some veil clouds but the sun during the day is through. We go diving at Seahorse Dive Center next to our resort. It is a tiny dive school with 2 instructors and 2 boats. We dive with a number of Dutch people who live in Malaysia and do a course and 3 guys from Singapore. The underwater visibility is poor compared to the bad days Lankayan, but we love it after a week under water. In the afternoon the sun broke through and we really enjoy relaxing on the beach, the one under the umbrella and the others in the sun on their beach beds.

When we woke the next morning to be raining and windy again seriously. So far you can see the sky is dark and it looks unlikely that it will soon clear up. Juriaan and Marije diving while Marijes parents decide gepalnde jungle walk on the island but just to allow for what it is. The underwater visibility is surprisingly good and we do that morning 2 beautiful diving on a wreck 4 years ago sunk and around some rocks which heads just above the water. After a hot shower after diving we do not feel like afternoon weather so cold in the rain on the open boat (under water is significantly warmer than above) so we stay ashore and read something and go around a about 4 o'clock on beer and card games. It is a pleasant afternoon and evening but we hope we better weather on our last day.

And the next morning the sun shines and the sky is actually blue! This is a real tropsiche day. Juriaan and Marije make 2 dives again and Marijes parents go in the morning through the jungle to a few paths (which are not always clearly identified as paths) to a beach walk around the corner, through the dense, humid jungle and steep . After lunch we sit down on the beach chairs we like real tourists morning already claimed by a towel to impose . If you do not put down towels for an hour or 9 in the morning (at least if it does not pour with rain) then you're the rest of the day in the sand ....

We pack our bags and leave now at 12 hours by boat and then a bus to Kota Bahru where we are tomorrow morning at 5.30 am train to the jungle Taman Negara: the national park itself with tropical rainforest located in Malaysia. It is therefore rise early and a long travel day but we do look forward to a few days real jungle.