Kuala Lumpur & Perhentian Islands

Whilst the events and experiences with the orangutans and large chimpanzees left us breathless with unforgettable memories, Becky and I had one last voyage to make before heading back to Singapore and for me, finally after almost 7 months away, Australia.

This post is the last one to conclude the amazing trip I had. The world has so much to offer, so much to see and so many different cultures to experience; you can choose to stay in the relative safety and confinement of what you know or you can go "live", and yes there are dangers and conflicts, there are wars and viruses, but if you travel with the expectation of safety and awareness it can be a hell of a joyous ride. It has always been that way for me! All my life my travel experiences have been nothing short of incredible.

We spent a day to sight see KL and had a good look around, not so large a city, we visited the main spots, the king's palace, markets at night, but two places in particular took my attention. The "twin towers" in KL are incredible. An architectural feat no doubt, we took the lift up to view the sight across the city. Remember the movie "Entrapment" with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones?? We ate at fabulous street cafe's and markets and enjoyed a couple of massages. The weirdest part of the time there was the "nibbling fish" - I had NEVER heard of this but there it was!! There are shops in the main part of Bintang, where we were staying where you can have the dead skin off your FEET nibbled off by small fish! Yep, tis true! They LOVE it, as soon as you drop your tootsies into the water they SWARM around you and NIBBLE. Naturally I screamed with laughter and fear! It felt like a mixture of pain and pleasure!! Very weird! Don't think I would 'rush' back for that one! But hey, you gotta try it all!
Our last day in Kuala Lumpur started at 4.00am to catch an early flight to northern Malaysia, a town named Kota Bharu, just south of the Thai border. Taking only small back packs, from there we bused it south to a small coastal town called Kuala Besut to catch a ferry out to the Perhentian Islands. Now I am not sure if you have heard of these two remote pristine pieces of land dotted in the South China Sea, I hadn't but boy did they have 'WOW' factor. Becky's AJ suggested we go and spend a few days there to round off our Asian stay. Surrounded by CRYSTAL CLEAR warm water, white beaches, cheap cheap cheap good food & lodgings and friendly natives, we spent our days snorkeling, dozing, exploring, eating and sleeping. It was wonderful. The photos say it all. We hired a boat to go around the island one day and you can see a turtle in the crystal water some 20 feet down! The days were hot and sunny with one afternoon of heavy rain, a light relief, the interesting photo shows the dark sky in front of our "beach hut" with my Becky walking up from the beach! How gorgeous is my gal!!! The final photo is of the two of us having a fabulous seafood lobster dinner on our last night! It was without doubt a perfect ending to a memorable and touching time away!