Perhentian Islands

From Kota Bharu, we drove to Kuala Besut and got on a boat that sailed to Perhentian Kecil, where we spent 4 days. We then went to Perhentian Besar for 2 days before coming home. The original plan was to get our scuba diving certification here, but Jenn's asthma meant that we couldn't do it without her having a chest x-ray checking for air pockets in her lungs. So instead, we were forced to sit on the beach the whole time - that's gotta suck!

Our wonderful accomodations. As you may be able to notice, the mattress sits on the floor and has no sheets. This meant the ants would have a comfortable night's sleep. The bathroom was intelligently designed so that the showerhead aimed directly at the toilet. It definitely brings the "poop-du-jour" to a whole new level!

This is the view from our patio... it sorta makes up for the ant-covered mattress on the floor....sorta. Ok... not really.

To get to the nicer beach we had to walk through the forest to the other side of the island. It took about 10 minutes and you would often see huge monitor lizards on the way.

The amazing beach on Perhentian Kecil... easily ranking in the top three beaches we've ever seen.

We saw amazing sunsets like this from our patio every day. Now THIS makes up for the whole mattress situation!

No comment.

So we managed to get away from our cats at home only to run into more cats on our vacation. You can see that I've clearly learned how to get along with cats.

Another sunset.

Kota Bharu

For our first actual "vacation" we decided to head to the east coast of Malaysia before monsoon season hit. We took the overnight train into Khota Bharu, where we stayed for a day before taking a boat to Perhentian Kecil. We stayed there for 4 days and then went to Perhentian Besar for 2 days before flying back to KL.



At this point we were actually excited about the pending train ride. That excitement rapidly faded when more and more and more people kept boarding the train all through the night. Kids running up and down screaming at 3am. Fun. Then the train was 2.5 hours late arriving at the station....

Once in Khota Baru, we went to the local museum where they had displays set up depicting various ceremonies and traditions of native Malays. Included in these was a wedding and a circumcision.


Perfume anyone??


We then went to the cultural center where a bunch of local men get together twice a week to practice some of the traditional pasttimes. It had the feel of an old boys club, with many older villagers gathering together to chat it up over a few pints and cigarettes. They seemed to be completely oblivious to the 10-12 people who gathered around to watch. These guys started by playing the traditional drums.

As the drum session started winding down, the top spinners started getting ready. They would wrap the top up tightly in a rope before tossing it.

They have two types of top spinning competitions - battles and spinnning time. This was an example of spinning time. The spinner is on the left. He throws the top onto the mat in the center and the scooper scoops it up on a small wooden plank. He then transfers it to a stand where it can spin for well over an hour.

This guy had nothing to do with throwing or catching the top, but he was very proud of "his" top nonetheless.

By the time we left they had 8 or 9 tops spinning in these little holders.

The final activity at the culutral centre was a band playing traditional music. There were two dancers doing kung-foo type moves to the music.

Adopted Cats

You all know the story of Jenn stumbling upon a stray cat that had just given birth and insisting that we adopt them all until we could find a new home for them... so here they are. After keeping them for a little over a month, we managed to find a home for all of them - including the mom. We gave the cats names (except for the mom, cause we couldn't think of one) only to find out that the one with the feminine name was a male and the ones with male names were female. Figures.

Me and Dexter

We called this one Malay

This was Buster

Smog Day

In September we had huge problems with smog... to the point where they actually had to cancel classes. The school wasn't closed though, because many of the students live in the hostel, which has no air-con. So they wanted to give the students a place to go during the day where they could stay cool. The government blamed the poor air quality on slash-and-burning in Indonesia, but Malaysia was just as responsible.