MALAYSIA II: WITH GRANDMA ON THE BEACH

I have to admit that last two weeks I was loafing around a little bit. We had a few hours of sleep at the hotel by the airport in Kuala Lumpur and then for half a day we were travelling – on the bus to the smaller airport, on the plane to Kota Bharu, another hour to the jetty and then finally 45 minutes by speed boat to our island.

“Our” island by the way is not Perhentian Kecil, but Perhentian Besut. Another example of mum´s diminishing organizational skills: she convinced everybody (including herself) that our bungalow was going to be on the quiet side of the small island. She even “pre-booked” herself at the Turtle Bay Divers on the Long Beach. Hahaaaa… I am sitting on our terrace close to the beach on the big island, thus I know very well that the Reef Chalets are, have been and will always be on Perhentian Besut.

Apart from playing on the veranda of our bungalow, where there is shade, I also go to the beach. There is no shade on our beach so we have to walk a little bit further – in fact to the very end towards the Turtle Beach. There are big rocks and I practice walking around them while mum and grandma are snorkelling. Now I know what snorkelling is. But when grandma put that scary mask with a pipe on for the first time, it frightened me a great deal.

There is no supermarket on the island and mum and grandma had to bring everything for me from the mainland. Nappies, food etc. Most of all I like those Japanese meals, which we bought in Kawagoe. But I taste pretty much everything what mum and grandma get for breakfast or dinner – so far the most I liked the fish curry – it was hot twice though. Saving nappies is not a problem at all – most of the day I am simply without them.

One day we took a taxi (understand: a boat) to the Turtle Beach: apparently turtles lay eggs there at full moon and it is beautiful. We went to have a look at the small island twice as well.

For the first time we were dropped off at the Long Beach - it is the famous party beach - and we walked from there to the other side of the island, where Coral Bay is. That is the place where mum thought we were going to be staying. I honestly think that none of us regrets that we are not there or on the Long Beach, but on our “boring” big island.

Our second visit of the small island was the village with a mosque, where “normal” people (understand: non-tourists) live. Mum liked it. Grandma didn´t like it. And we couldn´t get out of there because there were no water taxis. In the end the man who was taking cans of petrol and boxes with food somewhere drove us home.

Grandma has to go back to work now so we are leaving tomorrow. Mum doesn’t have to go to work so I guess we are not going home yet.

Your Annie

Some facts

When: 15. - 29. 6. 2017 Where: Kuala Lumpur - Subang - Kota Bharu - Kuala Besut - Perhentian Besut (Malaysia) How: bus, plane, taxi, speed boat

How long: 1 hr. + 1 hr. 5 min. - 1 hr. + 45 min. How far: (57 + 349 + 52 + 15)*2 = 946 km