Kota Bharu & beautiful Perhentian Islands

So many happenings in the last few days.
After a spontanous decision to go all the way up to Kota Bharu and only got a day bus with an 8-hour ride. this was actually quite nice and interesting - most of the time we went through jungle and jungle and jungle. here and there you could see these typical building but mostly not bigger than a small village. the bus was suprisingly comfortable - only 3 seats in a row and i had a single one. when arriving i was trying to find a hostal from the lonely planet and found it eventually after a long walk and being wet... my backpack is way too heavy and really needs to be lightened after the internship. well i arrived only to notice that all dorm beds were full. well, since i didnt want to walk all the way back, he offered me a single room for doulbe price... yes, and i took it. but at least i had internet for free and could call holger. while going through town in started to rain and so I only got something to eat in one of these many cheap but really delicious food stalls. then i wanted to get some batteries and i even found a big supermarket. this is something new to me: on the left side is the entrance, in the middle a counter where you have to leave all your bags and on the right the exit. on every door standing security guards. so i went to leave my bag there, but i wanted to ask to take my dslr with me inside since it is too expensive to get stolen. after looking at and several tries to understand each other and finding nobody who at least understood english, they gave up and i could take all my stuff inside ;) and could get my batteries.
i really do get along well with english in malaysia. in kuala lumpur there was always at least somebody around who could help out in english if one couldnt. but the more rural it gets, the less do people speak english and sometimes it was hard to get all the stuff done because of the language. but nevertheless, the people are really nice and also try to help if they see you looking at a map or so. and the more rural zou get, the more exotic i become... and it is really cute to see how little kids stare at me and others are waving and shouting hello from the car... you need no language knowledge for that :)

i found out that the next morning a shuttle went to Kuala Besut to take a jetty to Pulau Perhentian - 2 beautiful paradise islands about 20km from the mainland. since the hostal boss organized all that i decided to go there, too. he even arranged a place to stay there for me. it went all so well - i was very suprised and happy to arrive there with no need of self-organisation at all. the islands were so beautiful. i went to the smaller and cheaper one, Pulau Kecil. I arrived in an isolated lagoon, where there was only one hostal. i felt like robinson crusoe. turkis and warm ocean, sun, palm trees and hammocks, wood houses with no glass in the window, the door standing open during night, electricity only from 9pm to 9am and some very basic bathroom facilities and the jungle right behind you. the atmosphere was relaxed and quiet though still very social. and a pretty coral reef to snorkle and dive right infront of the hostal. you just had to get into the turkis water. the underwater world was gorgeous - lots and lots of tropical fish... i even saw a real sea turtel of about 1,5m length and the biggest fish of the southeastasian sea, 21 double-headed parrot fish. that was scarry when i discovered them but then just impressive. the warans came really close and in the jungle we saw a spider as big as ny hand. horrible!!!
i spent 2 nights there and relaxed and enjoyed the beauty. yeah, that was paradies.