Beaches and Jungle

The Patenthean Islands may not be the easiest place to get to, but my God they are worth the effort. Pilau Parenthean consists of two islands, the backpackers haven called Kecil and the more upmarket Besar, and are off the North East coast of peninsular Malaysia. From Langkawi we had to make a 12 hour trip comprising of no less than 3 taxis, 1 bus and 3 boats, but the reward was an uncrowded pure white sand beach, and crystal clear turquoise seas. We may have spent a week living in what amounted to a wooden shack, completely cut off from civilization, but that was fine as doing absolutely nothing has never been so enjoyable (and I consider myself quite an authority on this subject).

Our daily routine began at 8am when the electricity to our room was cut. Without the cooling breeze of our fan the sweatbox was unbearable within half an hour and we were forced to get up. Beakfast and lunch were usually seperated by some reading and a morning swim, before commencing an afternoon of snorkeling and sea-frisbee (a sport we are laughably bad at). A couple of films and a beach BBQ was the evening entertainment, along with a few hits from the bottle of JD we had the foresight to bring along.

The snorkeling was unbelievable. Box fish, puffa fish, turtles, sharks and enormous tuna-looking fish that a Malaysian assured me were called "Bumheads" were amongst the myriad fish and coral within easy reach of the coast. One day we were feeling brave and snorkelled our way round to Shark Point in hope of an encounter. We were out there 2 hours and on the brink of giving up when 2 black tipped reef sharks materialized from out of the blue. We had been assured that they were not dangerous, but I don't care what anyone says, when a 6ft shark eyeballs you and then darts towards you, you are going to shit yourself! Of course, trying to out-swim a shark is fairly pointless, and I regained my composure within 30 seconds or so - by which time Kerri was half way to shore, without showing any signs of slowing!

The scaredy-cat theme continued enroute from the Parentheans to the jungle. During a brief bus change stop-over at Kuantan I was exposed to a very unnerving experience. There I was, casually strolling across the terminal, on my way for a pre-departure tinkle, when suddenly, and rather dramatically, a blacked out 4x4 came screaming into the station and screeched to a halt, not 10 meters away. There were probably 20-25 people standing around, but at this point everyone (and I mean everyone) instantly scattered and started running for their lives in all directions. I was caught like the preverbial rabbit in the headlights, in a split second trying to decide whether to succumb to the sense of panic that had overcome me and leg it with the others, or to remain rational and confident that it was nothing to do with me. In the end my legs made the decision for me, and as 4 burly chaps with guns ran past me I was rooted to the spot, legs like jelly, finally assured that I wasn't about to be killed in some gangland war. Some minutes later, these chaps returned with several handcuffed youths, and proceeded to beat the crap out of them in their 4x4. By this time I had stopped hyperventilating and had wobbled my way back onto the bus, where Kerri was waiting with typical sympathetic laughter.

So we made it into the heart of Temah Negara, the oldest rainforest in the world at 130 million years and home to Malaysia's remaining 300 or so wild tigers. It wil come as no surprise to you to learn that neither of us were particlarly keen to spend 3 or 4 days trekking into the depths, surrounded by untold nastys and sleeping under the trees. Instead we made do with a 3 hour stroll round some of the parks recomended routes, including a precarious canopy walk suspended 25 meters above groundlevel. Unfortunately, we got a bit lost (cue more panic as the afternoon turned into early evening) but we eventually made it back in one piece, completely drenched in sweat and having turned a relaxing 3 hour stroll into a gruelling 5 hour trek through some really "bad bush".

After 2 days we bade farewell to more insects that you can imagine, and headed back to KL for our flight back to Singapore airport (the 4th of 5 visits, but undoubtedly the best airport on the planet) and then onto our transfer to Bali...