more diving in malaysia

after leaving pulao tioman, i took a night bus from the island up to kuala terranganu (the home of malaysian batik art - below is a pic of an aerial shot i took of kuala terranganu town from princess hill, the highest point in the town) then onwards up to kota bharu. kota bharu is the central jumping ground to either the thailand border or pulao perhentian (another set of malaysian islands) - while in kota bharu, i managed to swing by the local cultural center to check out the shadow puppet show. the owners of my guesthouse in kota bharu convinced me to head to the perhentian islands before trekking up to thailand. the perhentian islands are actually much prettier than the tioman islands. the diving was incredible and snorkelling even better - i saw 3 turtles just snorkelling at the surface. though, i had the worst dive buddy who kept trying to lose me in the water - what a jerk.

though the islands are gorgeous, i must say, i really need to stop being such a cheap little indian with my accommodations. i think the hut i stayed in in the perhentians really takes the cake for some of the worst accommodations i have had yet. this hut (the rock garden chalet - please, this was certainly no "chalet") had 4 wooden walls, a tin roof, communal showers and free coffee/tea (BONUS!) -- you really get what you pay for - no fan, a padlock to shut the hut and secure your belongings and one mosquito net that i refused to even touch much less actually use -- i think renee had more plush accommodations when she was in her peace corps service in west africa. but considering i spent the whole day swimming around the island, the price was the cheapest on the island (RM 20 = ~6 USD). and yes, those are my clothes hanging out in front of the hut - i am doing laundry in a bucket out here (laundry service is atrocious - 3USD per kilo - i paid less for my laundry service in boston - and i dont think these people are using soap during the laundry service, at least what i heard from others...)

i was planning on only staying for 1 night but made friends with a couple of swedes and local malays who convinced me to stay one more night. well, off to koh samui and koh tao now in thailand...more soon!