Just a quick update as just arrived in Bangkok. I’ve spent a few days on Perhentian Kecil just before they pretty much close up for the season. A few days more would have been good but I had to get up to Bangkok to try and get a Myanmar visa on Monday.
I did a dive on the island and saw a blue spotted Ray, turtle, and many more. We went snorkelling the following day and saw a load of stuff, despite the visibility not being too great – razorfish, and then went swimming with a turtle and ray…particularly the turtle – didn’t want to freak out the ray after recent news! Absolutely amazing. We met a decent bunch on the island which meant more folk to eat and drink with, and share the boat trip costs for snorkelling trips. We stayed on Long Beach and also walked over to Coral Bay to snorkel around there. Climbing was planned for one day, but some late night booze put paid to the others, but hey, we managed to get swimming with the turtles. I never realised there was rock climbing on the Perhentians, but someone has bolted a few sports routes on the sea cliffs from french 4a to 7b. I made a few enquiries about doing a divemaster there next season…’just in case’. I was also told you can stay there off season for next to nothing sometimes if you are willing to help repaint the places.
I seem to be having a few issues about leaving stuff around recently. I’ve left my travel speakers somewhere (Labuan I think) which is really annoying. I left my shirt somewhere yesterday, but amazingly found it again on the beach today, next to the taxiboat station we used yesterday! How many places would you manage to that in nowadays! There were only a handful of folk on the island now though. Apparently it can be great surf there off season – 3-4metres, but no-one has cottoned onto it yet!
I’m already experiencing some of the ‘issues’ of travelling with company. Its great to catch up with folk though, but I was on the budget side and Tracy was on the ‘lets get up there with least hassle’, so our procrastination ended up in us paying £150 to fly from KL to Bangkok at the airport. Kerching!! I preferred the ‘up through the thai border’ option but the guidebooks warn you about the area so I had quite a bit of convincing to do for that option!
Anyway, Tracy’s mate Jeff very kindly picked us up from Bangkok’s flashy new mega airport and took us into town to find accommodation, so we have a night in a hostel at Sukhumvit before heading to rather quirky Atlanta Hotel tomorrow.
Hopefully Monday will see me get a Myanmar visa issued so we can head off there for 7-10 days on Tuesday or Wednesday.