Diving the Perhentian Islands, Malaysia

After the combination of Kuta and Kuala Lumpur, a serious craving for a relaxed atmosphere and the ocean were kicking in.  The Perhentian Islands were the perfect answer.

We jumped off the boat at Long Beach on the smaller island which seems to be oh-so-creatively named...'small' and as always with our hefty backpacks stumbled to the nearest, and cheapest looking, accommodation available, 'Symphony'.  Which we later found out was known for robbery and abuse from the staff - brilliant.

Perhentian Islands, we were told, are one of the cheapest places in the world to gain diving qualifications whether it be basic Open Water or your dive-master.  So, after refreshing on one or two delicious lassies, we spoke to Matahari Dive Centre and managed to swing an excellent deal of around 200 pounds each to for both our Advanced Divers course and accommodation (with a power shower!!!!).

We highly recommend diving with these guys (it's the bright orange dive shop out of the many dotted along the shore).  They treated us amazingly well and were all lovely! They warned us of the negative stories they'd heard about Symphony and allowed us to stay in the Staff Accommodation for a night as all the rooms were full.  Although, this ended up with the entire dive centre seeing Jodie completely stark naked as we were sharing their shower room and failed to control the foreign locking system.

Adding to our wonderful stay, was the family's three year-old, adorable daughter who allowed us to attend her birthday party and was forever grabbing our hands for a dance with her.  Her father gave us fruit straight from the trees and helped us to arrange our boat off the island and bus to Penang.

The diving itself was pretty amazing.  We were able to see small sharks, turtles, sting-rays and of course many incredibly colourful fish.  We were able to experience wreck and night diving which we hadn't previously and both were seriously cool.  During our safety stop on the night dive, we each turned off our torches and as we moved our arms and legs the plankton lit up luminously green! Amazing!!!!

Our navigation dive on the other hand was hilariously dire! I (Jodie) managed to forget how to control the compass leaving us well and truly lost.  You know you are in trouble when there's not a reef or a single fish for company.  HAHAHA very confusing.

Anyone thinking of diving, do it!!! Just go to Perhentian and become a dive master!!! (that's our plan) and say hi to Dee and Crumb from us!

Meg and Jod xxx

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Although everyone insists that KL is a place you HAVE to stop... we are not quite sure why.

We may have missed something, or it may just be that we are island girls and panic when we cannot see the beach... but two days was defiantly more then enough to see and escape the city.

However, we did slightly over indulge in western life with a little shopping and tourist attractions.
On our first day we decided to jump on the hop-on, hop-off tourist bus, which showed us around all the attractions in KL, we pondered around museums, visited the palace and explored the aquarium, which was actually really good (we love sharks!).

We filled up on amazing street food in the streets of China Town, cooking our own tofu and broccoli in the steamy pan in front of us, then smothering it in satay and chili sauce - delicious. China Town is also the place you want to be for a bargain; a mulberry purse for three pounds? - Yes Please.

On our second day we headed to the 'Biggest Bird Park in the World' because Jodie loves the feathery creatures. From Flamingos to kingfishers, we were well and truly surrounded by lots of colourful egg laying specimens and also an entire park full of bird poo, mmmm.

We made our way to the Perinthian on the overnight bus, which was delayed 2 hours, followed by 8 hours on an wild ride through the trees, a 2 hour coach and then a speed boat- but WELL WORTH the journey.

:)