Malaysia!

We knew it woud be a challenge, but it turned out to be a much bigger challenge then we anticiated. We flew into Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on March 13. We decided when we got there we would find a travel agency and see if we could leave that day for the Perhentian Islands. Every city we have visited has had copious amounts of travel agencies... except this city. We were incredibly disoriented in the city, our bags felt like a 100 pounds after the first hour, and it was insanely hot and humid. We checked everywhere asking how to get to the islands or where the nearest travel agency was and everyone sent us in different directions, it felt like an episode of the amazing race. We were near giving up and the sun was going down and one woman told us of a bus that was leaving that night, but the bus station was on the other side of the city. Instead of dealing with the metro we decided to fork over the dough to taxi there. Well, we told the taxi driver and he laughed saying that bus station doesn't do buses to those islands. It had been hours of walking around with our backpacks in the heat and we decided we were going to try it anyway. We got on the metro and made it to the bus station just in time to find out they had a night bus leaving for the islands in an hour... yeeehaww! We arrived the next morning and ferried over to the small island, Perehentian Kecil.
Once we arrived we had to choose which side of the island we wanted to stay on... Coral bay or Long beach. Our book said Coral Bay was the more expensive chill side and Long beach was more of the cheap party side. There is a path through the jungle connecting the two beaches and only about about a 15 minute walk. We chose Coral bay as thats the side we were dropped off on and it seemed really nice. We found a nice, basic bungalow along the beach. Once we moved in we decided to walk around and check out the island and wow we were glad we stayed on the side we did! Not only was the other side more expensive but the beach was crappy! There was trash on it from the party the night before, the waves were huge (although that is fun sometimes) but it also washed up a lot of trash from the ocean. On the way back to the other side we saw this giant lizard, supposedly its what the island is known for... the thing was huge it was about 3 feet long! The rest of the day we enjoyed hanging out on the beach. Later that night we were chillin on the front porch playing cards when we started talking to our neighbors and came to find out they were from Boulder! What a small world! It was fun swapping some ski/snowboard stories with them and learning about their travels too.
So if you ever head to the Perhentian Islands you must try there evening bbq. All the seating is right on the beach and in the very front row the waves wash over your feet... sounds cool right? After the first night we realized why no one was sitting in the front row... When the waves wash up your chairs start to sink into the sand and the next thing you know your about to tip over! Well any who back to the bbq... Yummy it was so delicious! For $6 you get to choose between a variety of meat including different fish, stingray, shark or chicken, choose your sauce, then it came with a potato, rice, a salad, watermelon, pineapple, banana bread and a welcome drink! A great deal!
The following day we decided to rent some snorkeling gear and head out for the day. It's crazy how much more you see with a mask on even though the water was so clear, there were fish 20 feet of shore that you couldn't see before when you were standing right next to them. Some of the fish we saw were amazing! Every thing was going well till the second half of the day. After lunch we went the opposite way and before long we started getting these stinging sensations all over our bodies. Finally after I had enough I asked Teala if she was getting them too? She said yeah so we headed in. By the time we got to shore my arms had all these bumps and swollen marks on them! One of the locals told me it was Sea Louse (Sea Lice) I know your immediate reaction and no its not the little bugs creep around your hair, its just some organism in the water. My arms only looked scary for about three days or so before it finally went away. I had to pour vinegar all over my arms and sqeeze a lime on them, the locals said it helps it heal quicker. That night we went back to the famous BBQ we enjoyed so much the night before and brought Cassie and Tres, our neighbors from Boulder, along to check it out.
It was hard to sleep in on the island because there was only electricity from noon-3 and 6pm-8:30am. When the electricity turned off in the morning we almostly instantly woke up because the fan stopped and it would get super hot. The next day we just spent chilling at the beach and reading books. It was nice and relaxing. Later that night went back to the bbq on the beach and ran into Tres and Cassie. We decided to join together to buy a big Red Snapper fish to share for dinner. Since we ordered the big fish we got a few choices of dipping sauce along with all the usual goods. After dinner we both were good and stuffed and headed staight to bed.
Our final day on the island was pretty laid back. We were leaving at 4 so we checked out as late as possible and spent the day reading our books on the beach. At 4 we took the ferry boat back to Kaula Besut and walked around there till our night bus left at 8 oclock pm headed for Kuala Lumpur.