Perhentian Islands

Yep, "island paradise" about sums it up. I stayed at a place called D'Lagoon on Pulau Kecil. The 'resort' was all by itself on the northern tip of the island, and the nearest civilization was an hour's trek through the jungle (no roads/cars). I pretty well succeeded in my goal of doing nothing. Lots of beach laying (in the shade), reading, and lounging. I did do a little snorkeling...we followed around some sea turtles until we got bored of following sea turtles, then went and saw some fish.

For my 4 days on the island, I had the following routine: wake up to see sunrise (630), exercise (much to the confusion of the other tourists there who woke up before 8), commence the nothing. I read a 600 page book. One morning I went for a run through the jungle, which was really fun. I felt like Tarzan. Another morning I did an open water swim. That was salty.

Food prices were actually really reasonable, despite that they had us cornered at the resort. Appreciated that. And I had a dorm bed that was $5 a night... so I spent around $20 per day on food, lodging, and snorkel gear. Not bad, for the view.

They had a zip line set up. I insisted on going "spiderman style". Clearly, I was just the image of grace. Also, questioning my choice of wearing a skirt...

There were a couple private beaches you could walk to through trails in the jungle. I spent one morning at one called Adam and Eve beach. It was literally my private beach, no one else was there. Everything was going awesome until I dropped my camera in the sand while entertaining myself with self timer. Got sand particles in my lens mechanism and it wouldn't close, my camera was dead. Luckily, after much blowing and cleaning with a toothpick, I was able to clean it out and bring it back from the dead. Whew!

Spending the night mainland in Kota Bharu. Fly out tomorrow for Thailand, en route to another island, Koh Tao. I plan on doing a week of Muay Thai boxing while I'm there, along with some diving. It's been fun, Malaysia...