Olivier and Sven goofing around in Asia

I had met up a couple of times again with my friend Mia (who was "partner in crime" for checking out the nightlife in Phnom Penh :)). She was in Kuala Lumpur too, recovering from a knee injury. She could barely walk and it would be like that for 4-6 weeks, which was driving her crazy as that would limit her in her travels.

Seeing that it would be hard for her to travel on her own, that I had no plans for the next few weeks and I hadn't been able to explore Mayalsia's islands yet, we decided to travel together to Perhentian Islands. I took the bus from KL to Kuala Besut, the jumping off point to catch the ferry. While waiting for the first ferry to depart (another 2 hours) I had a chat with Nico, a fellow traveller from Chili. Mia and I had planned to go to D'Lagoon, a place on Pulau Perhentian Kecil (Small Perhentian Island) - which people described as a truly relax and quiet place  - and as Nico hadn't made any other plans yet, he decided to join us there.

D'Lagoon beach looked great, it was indeed very small and quiet and a perfect place to relax. When I checked into one of the cottages though I noticed how basic the rooms were. Just beds, electricity only a few hours per day, holes in the wall through which mosquitos could come in, no mosquito nets and a bathroom which was even more basic. Well, we didn't need much luxury anyway so we'd see how it goes...

As I arrived in the morning and I'd have to wait for Mia to arrive in the afternoon, I decided to go for a walk. I walked through the jungle towards nearby beaches: "Turtle Beach" and "Adam and Eve's Beach", really nice and remote beaches... On Turtle Beach there was no one, on Adam and Eve's Beach just a few people. I decided to relax on the beach for a while, then headed back and on my way back I bumped into Nico. He had tried to walk all the way  to Long Beach but got lost and had to come back because he forgot to take water

As the "resort" (if you could call it that :p) was owned by muslim people I feared they wouldn't sell beers, and seeing how important it is for both me and Mia to enjoy a nice beach setting like this with a good beer in the evening, I called Mia for help. She bought some beers in Kuala Besut... so we were saved, haha

In the late afternoon Mia arrived. She, Nico and I had dinner and decided to have a beer and play cards... well, "Shithead" of course, Mia's favorite card game While we were playing, the owner of the resort ran in and told all the guests to follow him to Turtle Beach. There was a turtle laying eggs and we could see it.

Nico and I decided to check it out. Mia couldn't because of her leg, but we'd  take pictures for her to see. Funny to see 30+ people grab their torches and make their way to the other side of the island in the dark... once arrived there, we had to wait. For a moment I thought it was some tourist trap, but finally we could go and see, and indeed, there was a giant turtle. We only looked at it for a short while, then decided to leave the animal alone. You wouldn't want 30+ tourists taking pictures of you while giving birth either, right? Haha

That night Mia and I were eaten alive by mosquitos We both had applied mosquito repellent, but that only works for a certain number of hours, and they still keep buzzing around your head keeping you awake. We decided that the setting was a bit too basic for now and decided to check out Long Beach.

We discussed our plan with Nico, who agreed that this place was too quiet. Nico and I decided to walk through the jungle towards Long Beach. A nice and rewarding walk up the hills to a place with some windmills, nice views from the top. We saw many giant lizards too, seems like they're all over the island. A bit scary though, for a moment we thought there was a crocodile

Long Beach was indeed quite a lot bigger and had more of a backpacker and party vibe... which was great. Nico and I decided to look for accomodation first... which didn't seem easy. Most places were fully booked or too expensive. Eventually he booked into a dorm; Mia and I booked into a bungalow. Then we called Mia to tell her we found accomodation and she could come over... In the meanwhile Nico and I had a beer at the Reggae Bar, waiting for Mia's boat to arrive.

The next few days we relaxed, had good food, played cards, drank beer, swam, do internet stuff from time to time, watched movies, played some pool, read,... Really enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere there. Mia was having a hard time though, feeling really annoyed by not being able to move more (her leg really hurt whenever she'd walk along the beach).

In the meanwhile we figured out about what we wanted to do the next few weeks. Nico and I would go back to Kuala Lumpur (both just for a few days before going to Indonesia), Mia decided to visit Cameron Highlands. So we took the ferry back to Kuala Besut, where our ways parted.

As all buses back to KL turned out to be fully booked for days and both Nico and I had to be back there in time, we decided to book a flight back with FireFly. I was first a bit hesitant about FireFly, but the plane was comfortable and the service excellent. Nico enjoyed his nap and didn't even wake up when the stewardess brought us some food and drinks

Once back in Kuala Lumpur I did some more reading for my trip to Indonesia and I sent some e-mails to couchsurfers. I was planning to meet quite a few people there, and found a local person to stay with: Wisnu.

Don't remember if it's at this time, but Olivier e-mailed me to tell me that he would not go to Mongolia. I had a hard time deciding what to do as on the one hand my travel perspective had changed - I didn't really have the urge of exploring as much as I had when I first left; besides, Mongolia isn't the safest region to travel and not the easiest country to travel, didn't feel like doing that on my own, travelling there would be really expensive -, on the other hand I didn't want to leave Colour4Kids, the organisation, down. Eventually I ended up writing the organisation about my dilemma and they assured me that there were 3 other Dutch people going there, so if I would decide not to go then it wouldn't endanger the whole project. So eventually I made the decision not to go to Mongolia and to travel around Indonesia instead. Many people told me it's very beautiful, so I really looked forward to going there.

- Sven