Getting there is half the fun

Not quite "the beach", but close

Beach bums, banana pancakes, bikini girls, mellow music, white sand and sunburnt white guys....that basically sums up this past weekend. We took a quick trip up to Northern Malaysia to get a glimpse of what island life is like, and so far I like it! The Perhentian islands are said to be among the top 10 tropical islands and I can see why. They're cheap, beautiful and oh so fun. But this is not a sales pitch...

Friday night we (not the Wu-5, nor the PGP-five, but what I like to call the dysfunctional-5: me, Samson, Lisa, Misha & Raina) took the bus across the border into Malaysia and caught a night train. The first thing I noticed about the trains in Malaysia was they are nothing like even the crappier ones in Europe. The inside of our train was nice enough (actually not bad at all), but it was the train ride itself that stood below the rest. Despite leaving right on time we arrived 15 hours later at our destination - somehow during the night we managed to get a whole 4 hours behind schedule! And you think I would have noticed an extended stop given that after taking three (3!) gravols I would have been able to fall asleep at 4am, even with all the violent motions. Sacadevan told me today that the train track is in such bad shape because it was laid by Japanese controlled slaves in WW2 and has not been replaced since! A few times the train swayed so bad I smacked my head on the side of the train! But the ride wasn't that bad, it was actually kind of fun in a way in some sick and twisted way, like being on a super long roller coaster if you will.

Me and Lisa on the train:


Finally we arrived in Tanah Merah (red earth) at 1pm and paid some guy with a van 40RM to drive us the hour to the coast. Pulling up to Tok Bali (near Kuala Besut) wasn't anything like your typical dock in Asia, there were so many Europeans around I felt like I was somewhere in Scandinavia. Then after an hour boat ride we arrived at the island in the pouring rain:( Then the race was on between all the backpackers to find the last remaining acommodation. We walked up and down the beach practically elbow to elbow with the other backpackers trying to find a place to stay, but every place was full up! One place sympathetically accepted us in their 'dorm' since our other option was sleeping on the beach, but they had a water shortage so gave us the condition of staying there if we didn't take a shower and used the bathrooms of the other restaurants. We tentatively accepted and went on one last search for a place to crash. It was the last place I would have thought to have looked that offered us a room - a more upscale hotel type place at the other end of the beach. We gladly took a room with 6 beds for a modest 250RM.

Our hotel, Hotel Bubu:


So after that ordeal was over we didn't do much Saturday. Went for a swim in the bathtub warm water and had some delicious food at a restaurant that played some weird ethno-techno and way too much Jack Johnson. The waiters were super laid back, almost to the point where they took a nap before bringing us our food. All of the Bob Marley posters in the place must have an impression on them.

This is the restaurant where we ate most of our meals:


Sunday can basically be summed up by: eat, swim, nap, swim, eat, boat, taxi, eat, train. Nothing too exciting here except that the water was amazing! The sand was white and super soft and the water was so crystal clear you could see forever underwater. I spent the afternoon swimming and playing with the millions of tropical fish. There were so many around you could just stick out your arm and touch a few of them. Some of them even thought my arm might be food and poked me with their mouth for a taste.

View of the beach from our hotel:


Raina, Lisa & Samson eating lunch:


Another shot of the beach:


After getting sufficiently burnt it was time to leave the island. First we had to take the small boat shown here out to the slightly larger speed boat for the fun bumpy ride to the mainland.

Misha and Raina getting in the boat:


Travelling back home was straight forward enough. Our night train to Johor Bahru was only 1 hour late this time and we arrived in Singapore at 11am Monday, just in time to move a few things before we had to meet with Javed Iqbal.

All in all a wicked weekend, although a little on the short side. Would I go there again? Definitely. Well maybe not there, but some other tropical island, perhaps one in Thailand (going to Phuket in August!). We didn't really have enough time there to get settled in or meet many people, but I think I may like the tropical island vibe. I think I would have to be there for about a week to really enjoy myself, but no time for that on this trip. Month long trip to Thailand in the future perhaps??...

And as always there are a bunch of pics in the gallery here!

Posted by Evan at 8:53 AM