Paradise.

Had a nice, but bloody hot and humid final day in Singapore, bought my ticket for the train from Singapore to Johor Bahru (was going to take the bus and transfer to the train, decided this was easier!), and hung out with my new friend Catherine basically all day. We went back to Sentosa Island by way of the the skyride (gondola).. which was more expensive but super fun.

After bidding farewell to my new friend and the nice hostel owner lady (overheard her name mentioned at one point but now I forget.. lol)... off I went sweaty as can be to the rail station (only 10 minutes walk, fortunately). At the rail station you clear customs procedures, do you have anything to declare bla bla bla, then onto the train and up the track 25 minutes, you clear immigration out of Singapore and into Malaysia in one step (although I never actually got stamped into Malaysia, just out of Singapore). The train ride started out lovely.. basically double bunks running along both sides of the train (with privacy curtains).. I had a bottom bunk right next to the door. Good times. The door was opened by air pressure, which made a fun hissing sound, which people opened and closed ALL night, in addition to talking until wee hours of the morning. Long story short, I got about 15 minutes of sleep.

We pulled into Wakaf Bahru station (in northeast Malaysia) at about 845am, one of the conductors was nice enough to tell me we were there as it wasn't well signed or otherwise obvious. A taxi driver greeted me almost immediately, where I didn't believe the RM80 ($28) fare to get to Kuala Besut (which is where the ferry goes from out to the islands).. there was a sign posted in the station listing all the fares, which he showed me, and indeed it did say RM80. Sigh. $28 for a 90km taxi ride, poor me.

Friendly taxi driver, although he didn't say much on the hour long trip (during which he drove like a bat out of hell). Delivered me right to the front door of the ferry ticket sales office, I bought a ferry ticket, and paid the taxi driver (even gave him a tip, which he was very happy about.. not sure if tipping is the norm so I just did it, lol). The owner of the small ticket-sales office said I could leave my bag there while I waited for the boat, which I was only to happy to do.

Went to a little cafe across the street as it had been 15 hours since I last ate (14 hour train ride, 1 hour car ride).. had a yummy banana pancake and a coke, strange combination I know, but I was suddenly afraid of adventerous eating while travelling solo, so I kept it simple.

The ferry left at about 11am, I had to pay a extra fee as the islands are part of a marine park, I guess they charge the fee for maintenance, etc. Was about a 30 minute ride, we went to Pulau Perhentian Besar first (Pulau means island, Besar means large, in Bahasa Malaysia) and dropped off some folks, one of which was a nice girl from KL and I chatted with her a bit, then over to Pulau Perhentian Kecil (Kecil = small), which took about 5 minutes. I was very wet from the trip, we hit some rain on the way.

A smaller boat came out to pick me up (larger boat was too big to run up on the beach), I was on the beach of the second most beautiful place ever (the first being where I come from, perhaps I'm a bit biased!). Long Beach is the main beach on Kecil, with a number of beachfront chalets, a couple of bars, a few restaurants, a few scuba/snorkel shops, etc. I found my place after asking, as it was up in the trees a bit, slightly back from the beachfront. A nice guy got me checked in and showed me where my room was.. a bit dank and dark. I guess that's how it goes in a super humid environment that gets monsoons for 4 months of the year. No electricity at this place from 7am-7pm in the off-season, which is now. Each place generates their own power, as there is no supply from the mainland. Anyway, certainly comfortable. I had a bit of a nap and went to one of the restaurants for a bite to eat, mid-afternoonish by this point. Saw an enourmous monitor (sp?) lizard on the way to the restaurant, but couldn't get my camera out quick enough. Started to rain so I went and sat on my balcony, swatted away mosquitoes (another side-effect of the humid environment) until the rain stopped, and came down to write this rather enormous blog.

Internet is quite expensive here (by comparison to other places), so no photos until I get to Bangkok on the 14th, and I likely won't write another blog either :)

Ciao!