Hi everyone, and sorry for not posting anything in the last week and a bit...but I have a perfectly good excuse! I have a lot of new things to add and I might not have enough time to talk about it all at this moment, but I'll finish at another time if I can't now.
So...last time I left off we were just leaving Australia. Caught the red eye flight leaving Perth International Airport around 1:00 in the morning and arrived in Kuala Lumpur again around 6:30 am on July 3, 2009. Since Perth and Kuala Lumpur are in the same time zone, I was fortunate that I didn't have to deal with another time variation since I FINALLY got adjusted to the jetlag (after almost 2 weeks). We met up with my aunty Mary and uncle Chiang at the airport and boarded a transit bus to the LCCT (Low Cost Carrier Terminal) just a few minutes from KL International. At the LCCT we took an Air Asia (cheap, discount airline that honestly isn't that bad in relation to what you pay) flight to Kota Bharu Airport which took about an hour. At the airport there, my uncle Meng's cousin picked us up in I would say, a 1985 Datsun minivan, complete with only two functional seats. We crammed 8 people in the back of this van. Yes...eight. I sat on a milk crate while my uncle Seng sat on the floor and everyone else sat on a makeshift bench at the back of the van. Really sketchy shit, considering that the roads of Kota Bharu are congested at almost all times of the day with traffic and motorcycles. This is probably the most asian thing that I've ever done in my life...and for the record, I AM Asian. It's like trying to cram a whole bunch of Chinese or Vietnamnese people into a boat and shipping them overseas in the most uncomfortable situation possible. The only difference is that there were no parasites and foul odours in the van.
So this continued on for an hour and a half until we reached the sea port located on the furthest north eastern point of West Malaysia (close to the Thai border) around 5:00pm. We boarded a pretty shady looking speed boat that claimed to make the 10 nautical mile trip to Perhentian in less than 30 minutes. I didn't doubt this claim as the back of the boat had twin 150 HP Mercury outboard motors. We crammed eleven people into this boat (see the picture) which didn't seem right in Canadian safety standards, but whatever...this is Malaysia! Everything is safe (that was huge sarcasm which I'll explain later if I remember). Anywho...the boat raced to the island, but only to discover that Long Beach, the most popular part of the island, had all it's chalets and suites booked solid. Apparently, someone in my family didn't think it was necessary to call and book in advance (even thought he said he did) so back on the boat we went and made our way to the opposite, more quieter, side of the island where we finally found a chalet. I wasted no time and dropped my stuff off, took a shower and hit the hay for the night - 35 degree weather with retardedly high humidity doesn't make people happy at all.
The next day, we woke up around 8:30am and headed down to Long Beach - a short 10 minute walk through the middle of the island from our chalet. The first sight of Long Beach made me so excited I almost made me soiled myself. If you imagine the most beautiful beach in the World; this is it (maybe a slight overexaggeration, but this is my blog so I can do what I want) - complete with crystal clear, blue waters and pearl white sand laden with colourful umbrellas across the entire span of the beach (umbrella rentals are 10 Malaysian Ringgit - about 0.325 RM to every Canadian Dollar). We rented an umbrella (sounds stupid), threw our stuff down and jumped into the water. The water was so warm, almost like a bath tub and since the island is located in the South China Sea, which is a branch off the Pacific Ocean, the water is thus salty. About halfway into the day, around 2:00pm, I noticed that the liberal coating of SPF25 sunblock I put on was rendered absolutely useless. I was red like a lobster and didn't care. My cousin Gaby and I swam close to the shore near some rocks and realized that there was tons of beautiful, colourful tropical fish swimming within some of the rocks and coral littering the sea floor. We spent the rest of the day snorkeling around the area until the sun went down. Packing up our stuff, we headed back to the chalet...my back on fire and everything.
I have to stop typing right now since dinner is almost ready (p.s. I'm in Kuala Lumpur at my aunty Mary's house). I'll hopefully finish this up later tonight, or if not, tomorrow at some point since the best part is yet to come.
Talk to you shortly.
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