Brendon & Kristin's Travel Report: 2006-08-20

By: Brendon

We left Kuala Lumpur on the west coast and headed to the N.E. corner of Malaysia to go to the Palau Perhentians (two islands of the coast...Perhentian Kecil is small island and Perhentian Besar is the large island). We first stayed a night in Kota Bharu and the next morning got up early and headed to Kuala Besut to catch the ferry over to the islands. The ride was short and sweet...about 30 minutes. We had decided to try our luck and see if we could find a place on Kecil (the cheaper backpacker/party island) but when we got off the boat we soon found that it was extremely hard to find a place to stay and the 3-4 places we tried were all full! So...we jumped on a water taxi (a little tin boat) and went to Besar. The first place we tried there was also full but luckily we found a place after that. We had a small chalet and our own toilet/shower but it was very basic and quite expensive (not in USD but for our budget it was)! The weather was also not that great and the beach was a reef! The one great thing was the food (although it was expensive as well)! The portions wer gigantic!! For one dinner I had a full chicken breast and a large steak while Kristin had the two largest chicken breasts I've ever seen stuffed with and topped with Mango!!! It was actually too much food and Kristin and I wondered if the locals thought that all North Americans eat huge meals!?!?!

Anyway...we had planned to stay 4 nights but cut it down to 2 nights as the weather was bad and it was expensive as well.

We did go on a snorkelling tour and it was the best so far. We were very lucky and saw 2 black-tip reef sharks (only about a metre or so long) as well as clown fish (Finding Nemo!!), a large Maori Wrasse (also close to a metre in size) and many other tropical fish. It was great but we got a bit sea sick...Kristin din't have fun (that's all I'll say!! :) )!!!

The jetty at Kuala Besut.