Paradise

As I sit listening to the Malaysian Rasta sat playing the guitar (very badly) outside my bungalow porchway, I ponder on why I stressed myself out so much working 8am-6pm only to provide for the 'luxuries' to sustain my ordinary life. This man lives on a paradise island called Perhentian on the East side of Malaysia, strumming away his afternoons and takes pleasure in closing his eyes and daydreaming about love and devotion.

Just a month ago, I couldn't stand the thought of sitting at a desk, in a closed cave of a concrete office, typing away all day trying to pleasre the others doing the same. Not even the comforts of home made me forget about the next day of repetitive motions and my only respite was the thought of our new adventure.

I cant even remember how many days we have been away so far or even what day it is today. I am sure if I think hard enough I could work it out. This ability to live without needing to know this is priceless. No plans, no one breathing down your neck to meet deadlines, nothing. My morning starter on the hammock on our front porch whilst saying goodbye to Terry as he went diving for the day and left me alone to read and sunbathe.

Whilst relaxing and reading an okish book about the Russian Revolution (yes, lack of choice on this remote island and the need to read and entertain the mind results in random choices of literature) I noticed a 1.5 metre long and then a 2 metre monitor lizard walk out in front of my porch. Interestingly, it seemed these two lizards lived under our chalet as they kept appearing randomly, to either scare off another lizard or to just have a look around. They move so gracefully to enjoy the sunshine. Another set of priceless, will never happen again moments as they were within touching distance from me and where we slept each night.

I interviewed yesterday (yes I remember it was yesterday) for a job in Christchurch when I was on the mainland. A small snip of the reality we've become accustomed to in the Western World poked into my escape to Malaysia. This reality check took place after a stay on one paradise island (Tioman) and before a stay on another (Perhentian); both requiring a speedboat or ferry ride to a jungle clad-white-sand-beach-crystal clear water rock in the middle of the ocean.

It was funny walking around a market in the mainland town of Kota Bharu to find suitable attire for it as it was a video/Skype interview. Aha, 5 pounds later and a very unfashionable, primark-esque shirt with an unmatching collar and buttons. Oh well, it was better than my usual travelling clothes. We opted to move from our 30ringgit / 6 pound a night, 'hostel' to an 80ringgit / 16 pound a night hotel in order to locate a good internet connection and a bit more peace and quiet. After many hotel visits, and wifi tests, we arrived at Sabrina Court.

After persuading our family run hotel to let me use their office and their internet connection at 06:30 when it was their day off (!!), I sat, jean shorts and 'shirt' and met my interviewers on Skype. Thirty minutes of impressing them and a clear connection and then disaster strikes. Skype fails as the internet connection was so bad so I had to play the 'can you repeat that again game for about 20 minutes'. After agreeing to email the last questions on the call, needless to say I didn't receive an email reply. Nevermind. Who was I kidding, finding a reliable internet source, its semi-rural Malaysia!


We left Tioman Island after a great stay. Panuba resort was lovely. It was actually a great upgrade to our usual travelling digs. With a huge balcony facing the sea, a/c and a clean bed (lol) we sat watching the ocean come and go for 2.5 days. The weather wasn't fantastic so we walked and took a snorkelling trip for a day before we left. It was incredible. Turquoise blue ocean reflecting the jungle high over it, palms gently swaying and white sand beaches drawing you in. We stopped in about five different snorkelling meccas and saw an amazing amount of fish, 2 black tip reef sharks and turtles. I thought it was the best snorkelling of my life until we arrived on the Perhentian.

On the Perhentian islands, you simply have to walk from your beach chalet onto the beach (all of 30 seconds) to begin your adventure into what can only be described as a tropical aquarium. Bright, colored coral metres long and wide, reds, purples, greens with fish long and short, small and large swimming around you. And that was just straight from the beach!

We saw huge angel fish, a family of nemo's, trigger fish, puffer fish....the list is endless (and quite frankly I dont know the names of most of them!).

We snorkelled in the warm tropical waters on two different days during our 5 day stay on the Perhentians in two different bays. Paradise.

Terry arrived back from his second day of diving and said the ocean was amazing. He'd now done his deep dive, underwater navigation, an awesome wreck dive (Sugar Wreck) and another fun dive to the Police Wreck site. He'd seen sharks, rays and a whole host of other fish as well as finishing his advanced Open Water PADI course with Matahari Divers. Hes totally addicted again and I dont mind. I'm enjoying soaking up the sun, reading, drinking pure mango shakes and swimming in the clearest ocean I've ever seen.

The generators have just turned on now for our 3 hours of electricity during the day so I must go shower and get the salty water out of my matted hair.

My only wish would be to have you all here to enjoy this and to share this little slice of paradise.

Star gazing again tonight.

Back on the road again - Singapore and Malaysia update

Goood morning Vietnaaam! Well, not quite Vietnam, but I had to start with that as the bus ride through the very south of Malaysia today reminded me of the deforested jungles of Vietnam. Of course, theirs was due to war (54-1975) but the Malaysians forest clearing is clearly due to palm oil and agricultural or logging. In fact, it is reported that between 1990 and 2010 Malaysia lost 8.9% of forests for these reasons! Scary.

Anyway, back to the awesomeness as I sit here sweating profusely in an internet cafe for 2 ringgit an hour (roughly 39p) in the tiny town of Mersing, South East Malaysia. Its hot, hot, hot here but without clear blue skies. I seriously dont know how its 21,670 inhabitants deal with the heat! Then again, I am a lame-ass-shade-bathing-pale-veggie-Brit!! LOLOL. 

We arrived in Singpaore after the fab A380 flight with Singapore airlines at circa 0900 yesterday morning; ready for the heat! The flight food was great, they even had Toffee Crisps on tap!! Sweet! And the inflight movies, boy oh boy was there a selection. I mean....we were on the upper deck of a plane! Its ridonculous that it can fly!!!

Luckily we'd booked the accommodation for our stay in Singapore as we only planned to stay one night. We'd booked in at a 'pod' boutique hotel. Essentially a coffin style bed with a pull down blind at 10 to a room. We were top bunk! Easy enough to get there as Singapore is very well set up. Traffic lights, signs, swanky subways, you name it. The hotel was great and literally brand new as they'd only been open 3 days! Shared toilets/showers, but this was fine as they were lush! Free wifi and posh coffee too. Cant go wrong for 52 squids a night!!! I KNOW, those who know me, will understand that I was physically sick when I realised I had to spend this much to stay PER NIGHT!!!! IN ASIA!!! But we did it. 

We got in, slept for 3 hours and then hit Singapore. One of our first walks was to Little India to get some food. After much exploring and visiting various establishments, we found a little back-alley type restaurant and BOTH ate for 5 pound including a drink each. Good you say...yes for Singapore...but no for Asia. We could eat like kings for a fiver in India man! Crazy. But food was what we needed. 

We walked around the neighbourhood where of course, it wouldnt be 'Little India' without a few random Indian dudes asking me for my photo. I duly obliged and had 4 shots, including a group shot. I have no idea why they chose me though and not my beautiful wife! So weird. 

After pushing through the hustle and bustle that was Little India where Im sure there were at least 2000 guys all hanging around, talking and watching the two random foreigners walk through their neighbourhood, we made our way towards the marina in Singapore. After all, it was National Day! 

Now I didnt actually know much about Singapore, still dont, but apparently (google tells me) there are 63 islands and it became its own sovereign state in 1963. It has the third highest per capita income in the world! No wonder it was so flipping expensive! It was S$8 for a coke!!! Thats 4 GBP! 

National Day meant three things to me. 1. heaps and heaps of people to wade through to get anywhere. 2. fly by's from jets (that were epic!) and 3. fireworks over the Marina Bay hotel! 

Ok, so the people bit was annoying in that heat. The jets were brilliant despite Jen pooping her pants when they flew over. And the fireworks were very, very disappointing. But, big but, they were over the Marina Bay hotel which we plan to go back and go up when we leave in just under a months time from Singapore. The word on the street is its S$20 each (10 pounds) to go up. Big expense, but has to be done!

We got back to our pod and prepared to be squeezed into a tiny bed area in total silence as there were others in the room that we didnt want to upset (aka that we didnt want to make snore in retaliation for our lack of respect!). 

At this point we had a real quandary. We planned to go up to Malaysia to the Parenthian Islands to basically chillout for a week or two, do some diving, jen catch some rays (of the sun variety) etc etc. However, they're fully booked, EVERYWHERE! All chalets/hotels in our budget range (between 20 and 40 pounds a night if Jen has her way and 10-20 if I have mine). Gutted. The other complication is that there are no buses to get there. None. You have to take an overnight bus from Singapore for 12-13 hours. Im sure it goes via Kuala Lumpur as well but thats unconfirmed. 

We had an amazing nights sleep in the most comfortable bed, in a totally pitch black room with the ac pumping away and 9 other strangers in very close proximity to us. In bed by 2230. Boy we lead exciting lives in the evenings. But, to be fair, we were shattered and bellies full of sexy indian food. Happy bunnies. 

I was up nice and early but Jen really struggled to get out of bed! Now the decision time of where to go next and how to get there.....   We spent the next few hours deliberating, weighing up options in terms of pro's and con's. I was also really excited by the fact that they offered vegetable spring rolls, cold 'peach' tea, a coleslaw-in-water and bright green cake for breakfast at the Pod. What a delight. Not! Fruit for me then. 

So, do we: a. stay in the pod one more night and see if we can book the bus for the next night, b. go on a 6-8 hour bus to KL and go from there or c. get a local bus for one hour across the border for the princely sum of 1 pound and see where it takes us!!! Boom! Option C please! Done. 

Checked out of the pod, used a bit more free wifi and we were off, refreshed, on the 20min walk to the local bus station. 

It was one of the easiest border crossings I've ever done. Fast through immigration and the bus was fine. Only an hour so cant complain. We arrived at Johor Bahru, a population of 1.3 million (!) in a very busy bus station, ready to explore our options. Realistically we should go to KL, a 4-6 hour bus ride for around 35ringgit each (6.91 pounds). So this is exactly what we 'planned' to do. We paid our 70 ringgit and boarded a nice, ac, reclining seat bus, ready to depart at 13:30. 

Luckily for us it didnt as whilst we waiting on the bus, Jen read about Johor Bahru (JB) and realised it could probably offer us everything we were looking for (diving, jungle trekking, beaches, chilling) that the Parenthian's could...at either the same or a better price. And in fact, it was right on the doorstep of the Pulau Tioman Island, a stunning, white-sanded beach island. This island actually came recommended to me too. 

We jumped off the bus to the surprise of our bus conductor, ran over-backpack-in-toe, to the ticketing office and Jen, the ledge, got our money back! Nice work babe! 

How do we get to the Island? It looks amazing. After further research by my research guru (aka Mrs C), we discovered we'd need to take a 2-3hour bus to Mercing, on the east coast of Malaysia and get a ferry over. Interestingly, Tioman, with its 8300 hectares of protected rainforest and duty-free-resorts, played host to both the Japanese and British during WWII. I am going for the diving as I'd like to visit the HMS Prince of Wales wreck and ideally finish off my Advanced Padi course. Jen is going for the sunbathing (although it doesnt look too amazing in this regard at the moment...but dont tell her that!)

So that brings you up to date. We're in a much more reasonable 50 ringgit a night room (10 pounds)...still steep in my opinion for Asia but a total hell hole according to Amanda and Lewis Clists standards...believe. Lol. Its clean, has a nice cold shower, AC and a pizza hut round the corner!!

Yep, Mercing has a pizza hut but we haven't eaten there as it looks rank + expensive. Not a good combination. We have, however, had the pleasure of receiving a little pot of mash potato covered in meat gravy which I duly refused to consume. Back to the old trusted crisps (usually a Pringles rip off) in Asia then for us, lol. 

We're excited to get to the island and have some chilling time. Its also all arranged for two nights, which gives us peace of mind. Hopefully Jen wont spew on the boat as she usually does!

There may or may not be internet so im sure we'll update you in a few days time! Im not sure where we'll be as it could Taman Negara or the Perenthians. We're even toying more with the Borneo idea or even, wait for it...going back to Thailand!!! HAHAHA. I feel like Thailand is our second home for some odd reason. 

I strongly suspect it'll be the Perenthians. See ya. Peace

P.s. MERCING HAS MARMITE!!!!!! Im not kidding...MASSIVE jars in the local supermarket. Life can be so cruel as they dont eat toast! What the heck do they have it on then???? 

Pics to follow (once I've found a trustworthy computer to plug our card into)