Perhentian Islands Malaysia

After a sleepless night on the "sleeper" train, dawn broke; we could see huge vertical cliffs and lots of jungle as we rattled along the track. Our train was due to arrive at Tanan Merah at 10:03. We got off at the duly appointed time, which turned out to be 4 stops too early, so had to take a taxi for 80km to Kuala Besut. From here we caught a boat to the Perhentian Islands.

The two islands are beautiful, set in a marine park so there are no pesky jetskis. There are also no roads on the islands so transport is by boat or foot.

We were pleased to find our chosen accommodation at half price as it's low season. We can live on 10 pounds each a day here and that's eating out 3 times a day.

The water is turquoise and we've been snorkelling and scuba diving. We saw our first non-baby shark (a black tip reef shark), a group of huge bumphead parrotfish, along with a stingray and some green turtles.

Two metre long monitor lizards also roam around the islands but we have yet to catch one on film.

We have another week to spend here in paradise as all the trains back were full, due to Hari Raya (a muslim festival marking the end of Ramadan?).

Paul thanks for telling us about these islands, they are beautiful.