Friday 30th March 2012 - Taman Negara

Friday 30th March 2012.

I woke up at 8.30, packed up my bags and made my way over to Burung's office where I would get picked up by the mini bus that would take me to Taman Negara. I got to the office and Burung's colleague called Burung telling him that I was there. I was not expecting to see Burung as he had explained the night before that he would be busy with work today so I couldn't understand why she was calling him but apparently he had told her he wanted to speak to me. He said he was sorry he couldn't be there but he hoped to see me again in Perhentian Islands in a couple of days, after Taman Negara. He said he would pick me up with flowers. As much as I loved my time there and adored Burung, I didn't have the heart to tell him that it wasn't going to happen I just said ok, bye Burung. About 20minutes later his friend turned up. I have no idea if it was planned but he helped me lift my things into the car of a man who said he was driving me to the minibus, I hugged him, said thank you and said goodbye.

The man drove me for maybe 3minutes! I could have walked! He spoke to me about finding myself an Asian boyfriend and that it was nice! I could only laugh!

I got to the mini bus and saw that there were 3 other girls getting the bus with me. They all seemed to be together and sat talking to eachother as I climbed into the back. We didn't really say much to eachother at first but they offered me some nuts and then when we stopped for lunch we all sat with eachother. They were all around 20 years old, from Sweden, and had just finished college. They were spending three months travelling through Asia. Their names were Frida, Mollin, and Rebecca.

When we got about an hour away from Taman Negara we stopped at a travel agents to get information on the different trips that they offered at the park. This is when something Maria had mentioned to me a couple of days ago replayed in my mind. She had just got back from somewhere when I met her and she told me she had done a trek through the jungle and stayed overnight in a cave. - There was a tour on one of the sheets i was given that had that tour - I didn't realise that was where I was going! I immediately started racking through my brains about whether this was something I should do. Maria had told me that she slept in a cave with no tent or anything, just straight out on a mat in a sleeping bag. When she told me about it I was adamant that I could never do anything like that! I am scared of all insects so didn't know how I would cope. But reading about the tour on this bit of a paper also echoed in my mind something else she had said - people are only afraid because they don't know. I started thinking and it was really true. I don't know the capabilities of most of the different things I see and am afraid of and so I decided that now was my time to deal with these insect fears that I have - I am going to do a 3 day 2 night tour in the jungle and spend one night in a cave and one night at a tribes village.

We arrived at Taman Negara at 6pm

- an 8 hour bumpy drive through endless woodland. Me and the Swedish girls walked off in separate directions to find somewhere to sleep for the night. There was an introduction video at 8pm at a floating restaurant called Mama Chop so I headed there to get some more information on the tour I wanted to do. I walked into the restaurant and saw the Swedish girls. I asked if I could join them. I ordered fried fish in chilli and fried rice. Whilst sitting and waiting for my food I was immediately aware of the hundreds and thousands of bugs that were flying around us and landing on us. We were on a river so it was expected i guess. In usual Natalie fashion I squealed and swung my arms around trying to get them away from me. I laughed and blubbered that I was intending to do the 3day 2night tour but I couldn't even handle these bugs and had no idea how I would cope. At that moment I decided, no I can't do it!! I will start small. But then they said that I had inspired them to want to do it. We all went to speak to the man at the tour counter to find out about everything. The first day we will take a boat to our starting point on the Keniam Trail and then hike for 5hours. Our guide will then cook for us before settling down to sleep in Kepayang cave with just a mat to sleep on and a sleeping bag.

The next day we will trek for maybe 5hours more and then visit the homes of the Batek Tribe - aka the Orang Asli Village, which means the original people. We will then spend the night with them before trekking back to kuala Tahan to get our boat.

Honestly, this is a massive thing for me and I am absolutely pooing my pants but the girls seem just as scared as me and I guess we will all have get through it together!!! I just know my luck - i will probably wake up with a tarantula on my face or a snake in my sleeping bag! But this is my chance, and they don't come around often, to try and face my fears head on.

I will not be able to update my blog as I will be in the wilderness but I will take a notepad with me to make sure I write down all the grisly details.

I leave tomorrow at 10 in the morning so Hasta la Vista!!!

Thursday 29th March 2012 - Kuala Besut

Thursday 29th March 2012

Today I packed up all my things with the intention of going to the Reggae festival in Langkawi. Before I left my room I thought I should quickly check my flights to make sure that my first destination was Langkawi so it didn't mess up my plans too much. I was kind of disappointed to see that my first stop was actually Penang meaning that if I went to Langkawi today I would have to leave Langkawi to go to Penang (just because I have heard some good things about it) and then go all the way back to Langkawi to catch my flight to Kuala Lumpur ready for my flight to Sri Lanka. Or, if i didnt go back to langkawi to catch my flight then i would have to make new arrangements to get to Kuala Lumpur. Despite buying my ticket for the festival already it really didn't make much sense as I would have to be paying for whole new travel arrangements so I decided that I would not go to Langkawi until the 6th April - as originally planned. In the meantime I would visit Cameron Highlands (a tea plantation) and Taman Negara (a national park with the oldest jungle in the world - suggested by Burung) and then get a bus to Penang for maybe one or two days. I walked out of Panorama armed with all of my bags ready to take on the ridiculously difficult task of walking from long beach to coral bay to catch my boat. Then who do I see calling me from behind, Burung's friend. Burung had sent him over to wait for me (he had no idea what time I was leaving my room) to help me with my bags. I only gave his friend the small day bag because I figured I am not going to have Burung or his friend at my next destination and I really need to start getting used to it. I was so focused on the walk over there that I didn't talk or anything. I just focused on the task at hand and kept in the zone. I had done the walk many times before but today i realised just how big the upward climb is once you first get on the path. I was so pleased with myself when I made it to Mama's Kitchen (coral bay) without having stopped.

Burung was waiting for me at Mama's Kitchen - i did not expect to see him. He told me that if I wanted to go to Taman Negara I would have to catch the 12pm boat to the mainland to get the 2pm mini bus.

Burung caught the boat with me back to the mainland as he was going to arrange the trip to Taman Negara and Cameron highlands with his company.

I actually felt quite sad on the jetty as I looked out towards the sea, despite being so contented and filled with happiness, i was sad because i had built a great connection to Burung and would miss him a lot. At that moment I felt a little twinge in my heart - I hadn't felt any movements in my heart for a guy since the breakup and I realised that my heart had taken its first step towards being mended - it was probably just a small stitch but it felt nice.

Upon arrival at Kuala Besut, Burung found out that actually there was only 3 of us that wanted to go to Taman Negara and the mini bus would not take us unless there were more people. Therefore I would have to spend a night in Kuala Besut before catching a 10am bus. Burung said he would take me back to the islands until the last boat back to the mainland so I wouldn't be bored.

We didn't make it make to the islands as he was picking people up and dropping people off which meant we got to the island, picked people up, and then went straight back to the mainland. Burung recommended somewhere for me to stay for the night and said he would borrow a friends car to show me around - he also drove me to the hotel.

The room was expensive but I was quite looking forward to staying in a solid foundation for the night having spent the last 6 nights in a wood hut with holes and bugs everywhere. I walked into the room and was so disappointed! There were Mosquitos everywhere as the bathroom window didn't shut. I got bitten whilst creaming after my shower!

Burung and I had arranged to meet at 7pm - I hadn't eaten a thing all day and I felt miserable and depleated as hell. Ok tell a lie, I had drank a lime juice in the morning and then on the last boat coming back to the mainland Burung had given me some dried fish things and sweetcorn juice. By the way, sweetcorn juice is amazing! The idea of it was a bit odd but to my surprise it tasted really nice. It was basically sweetcorn blended with some milk, ice and sugar I think.

I got ready, met Burung in reception and he took me to a street market to get some snacks before dinner.

The street market was so incredibly cheap - there were no foreigners in sight. I bought some prawn balls - like salt fish fritters but not as flavourful (four for rm1) and a kebab type thing (rm2) which was like a pancake that had some kind of chicken curry sealed inside. Also i bought a freshly made coconut juice. Burung was taking me to the beach to eat the food. It was a nice drive - we went through villages with some beautiful houses. I was so amused to see the cows just strolling across the roads again.

Upon arrival at the beach (it was dark by this point), I walked onto the sand heading towards a table to eat and felt something itchy on my foot. I started scratching it thinking it must just be me, and then Burung, who was just walking towards me, made an ouch noise and started scratching his feet! There were red ants everywhere!!! We both ran off the beach lifting our feet up like stepping on hot rocks. I couldn't stop laughing! It was small things like this that perhaps I would get annoyed about in England but this country had just made me see everything as an experience and thankfully lifted my heart to allow me to laugh uncontrollably at such situations.

We drove towards the restaurant that Burung had recommended - a place where they did barbecued fish. I was amused and slightly embarrassed when I walked in and all the locals turned to look at us - the place probably didn't get tourists very often. I probably didn't make it any better by standing there taking photos of everything. The place was cool though - it had stations where different parts of the magic happened. The first station was where you picked yor fish - Burung recommended the red snapper (it was a different type to the one I had tried previously). The man behind the counter weighed the fish before handing it over to the next station. This station is where they lay out a piece of foil, put a banana leaf on it, put the fish on, and then smother the fish in this special sauce (garlic, ginger, lemongrass, chilli). It is all then folded into a nice package and handed to the next station - the barbecue. The man barbecued the package, which means that no sauce gets out and also that the fish is so succulent. There was one more station where they made the drinks and rice. Me and Burung ate the food with our fingers - it beat kk food!!

After dinner I wanted nothing more than to sleep - the lack of food all day had exhausted me beyond mend. Burung took me back to the hotel. I turned on the light to my room thinking yay, I am not going to see any weird creatures tonight - sooo wrong! As soon as I turned on the light, I think it was a gecko, quickly ran down my wall and behind the cupboard. I don't mind geckos because they are super cute but this room didn't have a mosquito net and I could still see the mosquitoes flying around me. That night I sleep with my whole body and face immersed under the quilt - carefully positioning the blanket to tuck tightly around and under me so that no bugs could get it! I wanted to put my face out but I am always reminded of my time in Spain with my papa and brother. I was drunk one night and thought it would be a great idea to sleep in my sleeping bag on the balcony - the only thing that was exposed was my face - I figured Mosquitos wouldn't bite my face! Boy was I wrong! I walked into the room the next morning greeted by a huge roar of laughter from my brother and dad. I looked in the mirror and honestly, I looked like Quasi Modo!!! I had bites all over my face and even on my eyelid!! I wasn't taking any risks this time!

Wednesday 28th March 2012 - Perhentian Islands

Wednesday 28th March 2012.

My last full day in the perhentians.

I had decided from last night that today I would do a snorkelling tour. I woke up at 8, got ready and then walked over to Coral Bay - boats were still not leaving from Long Beach. I ate plain omelette and toast whilst drinking a beautiful mango smoothie. I had originally signed up to do the short tour which would only stop off at Fish Point, Shark Point and Turtle Point. Problem was that whilst on the boat I got talking to Maria. Maria was a German girl with Blonde Dreads. She had the most piercing blues eyes and was 29 years old. She told me she had never done snorkelling before and was really anxious. I told her it would be fine and that I would help her. Our tour guide was a bit of a waste of space and didn't help anyone so Maria really appreciated the tips and encouragement I gave her. After the first stop, fish point, the driver told whoever was on the short trip to go over to another boat. Maria was like "do the long trip, noooo!" It was rm10 more but i had nothing else to do and Maria seemed really cool so I stayed for the long trip.

At the second stop we were trying to spot Turtles. Again the guide was really bad and didn't point us in any kind of direction to see them. Luckily I spotted one and swam above it trying my hardest to keep up with it. It was amazing. So big and so elegant as it glided through the water. This one was a green turtle. I hoped it would come closer or that I would see more. I turned my head and then in the distance I saw a smaller one- I assumed it was a baby. It swam a lot faster than the other one. I tried my hardest to keep up with it but it out-swam me so effortlessly. This one was a hawksbill turtle.

The next stop was Shark Point. I was absolutely kakking my pants and the previous assurances from the locals that the sharks (black tip sharks) are vegetarian still didn't sit well me. No one else on the tour made any move towards the water and I figured if I thought about it any longer I would chicken out. So without further ado, I jumped in! I was reluctant to put my face under the water straight away because I had images of hundreds of shark circling underneath me and putting my face under the water would allow me to see it and no doubt freak out. Eventually I did and was surprised to see nothing. In fact I had to swim around for ages before I actually saw a shark. They were relatively big - perhaps the size of a crocodile, apparently they were babies (not that the guide came in and saw) and they swam very close to the sea bed making it impossible for me to take a photo because the water was quite deep. I saw three in total but every time I looked around for other people on the tour, safety in numbers, they were all close to the boat! I found out once I got back that some people had seen nothing, not even a turtle earlier. I was very lucky.

We stopped at 3 other places including romantic beach and a light house and then went back to Coral Bay. I had been talking with Maria the whole day. She

was extremely spiritual and worked/lived in Thailand in the north managing volunteer projects. They sounded amazing and helped the Hill Tribes to build things to improve their communities. Apparently the Hill Tribe people are not recognised citizens, like the aborigines of Australia, therefore the government will not help them with anything - some of the tribes have no water sanitation, no roads in or out or their communities and generally have a poor standard of life. The company that Maria works for tries to get volunteers in to help with improving the lives of these communities with building and conversation projects.

Maria told me that she was going to Langkawi for the Reggae festival which brings together reggae bands from various places in Asia. In my head I was supposed to be going to Langkawi a couple of days later so if I went earlier by bus then it wouldn't be much of an issue as I could just catch the rest of my flights as normal - so we made plans for me to meet her in Langkawi on the 30th March where we would share a room.

After the snorkelling trip we sat at Mama's Kitchen talking and then made our way back to Long Beach to get ready and arranged to meet back at Coral Bay to watch the sunset at 7.30. We missed the sunset as apparently it sets at 7pm. Ah well. We walked back to long beach to have dinner at Panorama - me, Maria, Burung and his friend, and Amin. I was talking to Amin about the Reggae festival as he had told me previously that he was going and had been so excited and even flashed me the ticket he had bought in advance - i was going to ask him if I could go there with him but then he told me he couldn't go anymore because he had to work. I was really upset for him because I knew how badly he wanted to go. He asked me if I wanted to buy his ticket from him, and so I did - atleast it might help him out a bit. This time I ordered seafood pizza - very English I know!!!

After dinner we went for shisha where Maria was talking to me about this girl that she sees wherever she goes. She said she feels some kind of weird connection. I jokingly asked if she was attracted to her - she said she was. I then asked if she was bi-sexual (I knew she had a boyfriend already). I'm not going to lie, it did surprise me a bit when she said yes - just because i was only bantering but then we spoke about something else.

Burung had to run off as usual, but this time it was different. Four people had died on long beach during the day - two foreigners and two locals. As mentioned a number of times, the water was really dangerous to swim in and apparently the two tourists were in the water and started to struggle so two locals went in to try and save them. All of them drown and one of the bodies had not been found - they also didn't know the identity of the missing person. It was now Burung's job to visit all of the hotels and guesthouses on the islands to work out who had not come back to their room. The news really saddened me. Four people. It's crazy. Maria and I had told Burung that the lack of signs to warn people of the tide were really worrying.

I explained about my time in Phuket last year and how I had gone in the water and had no idea about the undercurrent - I started to panic and the lifeguard had to come and help me. The undercurrent is the killer. It doesn't matter how shallow the water is because although your feet may be touching the sand and you may only be knee deep, the undercurrent moves the sand from under your feet so you cannot move forward. The pure exhaustion of trying to get out is killer enough as once you get tired the current keeps pulling you down and eventually wins the battle.

Maria and I went to the Monkey Bar to watch the band - regardless of how talented they were, especially Anas, their songs were so repetitive and so I left quite early and went to bed.

Tuesday 27th March 2012 - Perhentian Islands

Tuesday 27th March 2012

Another quiet day.

I woke up quite late and proceeded to the restaurant and ordered toast and a fruit salad - when the fruit salad was placed in front of me the words wow creeped out of my mouth because it looked amazing. When us British people think of fruit salad we usually think of bits of fruit cut up and added to a bowl. This one however was presented with umbrellas and big chunks of fruit that were presented with their skins in some kind of decorative manner. There was apple, orange, pineapple,

mango, watermelon and banana. The good food here and my eagerness to eat everything on the menu before I leave has led to me ordering way more than I can handle - I ate one slice of toast and despite each and every one of the fruits being so sweet and succulent, I had maybe one piece of each and couldn't eat another bite.

And then out of nowhere I could see one of Burung's friends walking towards me. He seemed to be looking for me because as soon as he saw me he lifted his phone to his ear and a few seconds later Burung came strolling casually towards us from the beach. Seeing Burung and having him look for me didn't bother me like other people I have met on this trip. He never made me feel uncomfortable and after not seeing him last night and having to put up with sleazy Zook it was comforting to have him next to me for protection!

The tide was still extremely strong and no boats could come to or leave long beach- this had been the case for the passed two days. Burung, who was surprisingly aware that tomorrow was my last full day on the island advised me that I would need to walk over to coral bay to get my boat on Thursday. Also he said that because I also wanted to do a snorkelling trip I should probably just move over to coral bay for my last night as snorkelling trips are also now being forced to leave from there.

I told him I wasn't very keen on that side of the island because the beach wasn't great. He asked me if I had seen the other side to where I had been laying the day before. I hadn't felt much like exploring the day before so had no idea there was another side (behind the pier) and so we walked over to coral bay so he could show me. Burung's jetty was also over on coral bay because he had to leave at 4pm to take people back to the mainland.

After looking at a couple of places he showed me the restaurant where his mum worked as a cook - Mama's Kitchen and introduced me to his cousin who worked there also. It was always quite funny when he introduced me to anyone or when i walked anywhere with him because everyone that he knew would talk playfully to him in their language and laugh. I kind of guessed it was about me because it always occurred after i walked past. He would tell me that because they never see him with tourists as friends they were teasing him.

After chilling in the restaurant for a while he took me to see these beaches that I had no idea existed. We went up a path that I probably would have been too scared to venture up on own, climbed over some rocks and there they were -three beautiful secluded beaches. Each beach was separated by some rocks in the middle but they really were gems that were hidden from the none-the-wiser tourists.

They were lined with trees, palm trees, and there were even pineapple trees with pineapples everywhere. Burung explained they weren't the pineapples that I knew, these ones had to be cooked. We went swimming and honestly it couldn't have been more romantic. Again he was such a gentleman and didn't make me feel uncomfortable at all. At this moment I just thought, damnit! Why can't I like this boy!

We walked back to the main beach where he got his jetty back to the mainland while I walked back to long beach.

Burung said he would meet by 8 for dinner if he was able to make it back to the islands. I got ready and sat on my deck reading but then decided to go to the bar where they play the live music until he came. I ordered a G.G cocktail (basically apple vodka with cranberry juice) and drank it on a deck chair watching the sky turn to night- it was gone 8 now and I had decided that because I had no guarantee that Burung would actually make it back i would drink my drink and then go for dinner. And then, as if Burung could hear my thoughts, one of Burung's friends came along and told me that Burung had rang and was on his way.

I had seen Amin while I was waiting and he asked me if I wanted to have dinner with him but I told him to join me and Burung instead. One of the dreads from the band also joined us - I had many laughs talking to him. I asked him if he smoked weed - he did but he told me it was very difficult to get over here and if you are caught with it you get hanged. I was astonished to hear they still had the death penalty! Anyway to my pure and absolute amusement he showed me how he got around it - he pulled out a box of cigarettes and told me to smell them. They smelled like cloves but were apparently black market cigarettes that had weed in them!!! He told me that he had once tried to grow weed but that the ants always ate it. He said he used to watch them to see what happened after they ate the leaves and he had me in absolute fits explaining how they would walk, stop, wipe their face with their antlers and then walk back to where they had come from. While others would just walk around in circles.

I had Tom Yum seafood soup and rice, it was ok. During dinner I had gone to my room to use the bathroom, lights all left on as usual to avoid any surprises - that apparently doesn't work though because despite looking around anxiously when I walked into my room, whilst peeing I looked up to see a humongous spider. I jumped off the toilet so fast and straight out of my room! I got back to the table and sat their upright and silent. Burung asked me what was wrong and I used my hands to explain the size of the spider in my room - perhaps slightly exaggerated!!! Matt, the guy who worked on the reception at Panorama, who was jokingly said he wasn't scared and would get rid of it, I gave my key to him so fast and said, "ok, do it!!" There was no messing around with me when it came to spiders!!! He looked surprised but took my key and walked very valiantly towards my room. About 5minutes later he plopped himself back where he had been sitting flinging the dead spider around!!

After dinner we went to the beach and had shisha again but Burung told me he had to go to drop his mum back home and might be back - I rightly didn't hold my breath but he had left his friend with me, to look after me I assume because he never told me why he was leaving him. It definitely wasn't because we got on or anything because he didn't speak very much English so conversation was sparse. I told him I was going to bed and walked towards my accommodation, not before passing monkey bar (where the band played). Anas saw me - he is the main singer of band, and asked me where I was going. I had been drinking monkey juice ( it is malaysian Rum) and had a really bad headache but he insisted that I stay out. I sat at the bar and ordered a bottle of water whilst twiddling my key around. Anas came and spoke with me and asked to see my key. Then when I said I was going he took my key, put it in his pocket and then went and started performing. Grrr!!! Eventually he gave it back and I went to bed.

Monday 26th March 2012 - Perhentian Islands

Today I walked over to coral bay as long beach had massive waves that made it pretty unsafe to swim. Coral bay was nice but tide was pretty high making the beach really small. Also I noticed how much more brick there was on this beach than long beach- brick hotels, brick huts, brick resturants and a massive eyesore brick pier. I much preferred long beach and was extremely thankful at that moment for having met Sara as if it wasn't for her, I would have been staying on Coral Bay. Upon arrival back at long beach, I sat there just peacefully watching the waves. I was there for maybe two hours when along came Zook. I had seen this man the night before whilst watching the band - he knew Burung.

Zook was a 52 year old Malaysian man with a massive grey beard. He's originally from the mainland and used to be a fisherman. Now he lived on the island and earned his leaving building and doing maintenance work. I discovered that he has ELEVEN children, the youngest just 5months old!! What a gangster!!! Hahaha! His wife is just 40 and he married her when she was 18. His family still lived on the mainland so he goes back every two weeks to see them. He asked me when I wanted to get married and all I could say was when I met the right person to which he flatteringly replied in broken English "you are very beautiful and I think a lot of people like you so you will find someone". It was very sweet to hear that but given my time in Malaysia, getting them to like me doesnt seem to be the problem, keeping them is :-(

The sweetness of the comment soon turned to disgust when later that night I was watching the band again and Zook came and sat with me. He spoke about how much he loved his wife but when I told him about the rat in my room he sleazily offered to sleep in my room to "protect me".

Sunday 25th March 2012 - perhentian islands

Today has been a super relaxed day.

I set my alarm to wake up at 8 because i wanted to move from the Rock Garden accommodation to somewhere less strenuous and wanted to find somewhere before check out so that i didnt need to carry my backpack with me. Instead i would find somewhere and then get my rucksack. I walked along the beach to check out Symphony, accommodation that Burung had recommended. They were fully booked so they I went to his second recommendation - panorama, where we had eaten the night before. To my delight they had one room left and so I made my way back to the Rock Gardens.

I was absolutely delighted when I bumped into Burung who offered to help me carry my bags. He came up and waited at reception for me to pack everything up. When I was done I looked like I had just come out of the shower because the fan in my room did not work and it was a very hot day. I walked to the reception as tried to hand Burung the small day pack as I didn't want to take advantage. He wouldn't have it though, he told me to give him the big one. His nickname is now superman because he carried it so effortlessly all the way to the reception of Panorama. I was so grateful.

He said that he hoped to catch me later but we had no way of contacting eachother and so I didn't see him for dinner. Instead I went to the bar at Panorama where the bar man, who looked about 16, spoke to me while I waited for my drink.

I went to the beachfront with my drink to update my blog and then out of nowhere the bar man came and asked me if I was eating dinner and if so did I want to eat at Panorama with him. Again I agreed.

The bar man was actually 24 but had a baby face. He was in fact not a bar man but played bass for the bar's band and was just helping out behind the bar before the band's performance at 10.30. He was from Kuala Besut but moved to the island to work - so he could support his mum. He sent money back to her regularly as she was twice widowed and because, and I quote, "I love my mum a lot".

I told Amin that I ordered King fish the night before but didn't like the sauce as it was not spicy enough so he said he would order for me. He ordered me barracuda fish with a spicy chilli sauce which was delightful.

After dinner I sat on a chair on the beach sipping a cocktail as the sun went down, hoping that my pal Burung would come along, and along he came looking for me with one of his friends that I did not recognise.

We went to have shisha again and then I told him I wanted to watch the band perform so we went back to the bar. The performance space was a little wooden shack type thing with cushions on the floor for seating. There were two Malaysian men in the band with dreads that wore Jamaican Bob Marley hats. The band played a mix of reggae and indie music.

After the band had finished we went back to the beach where Burung and I spoke for hours. He asked me about my breakup and informed me that he had been married before and had a child aged two. He was 29 now and had met his wife while she was in the perhentian islands on a scuba diving holiday from the Kuala Besut - he was her instructor. She was a city girl but apparently once they realised they liked eachother they had agreed that she would move to the islands to live. They got married and had their little boy and then she decided after 3 months that she no longer wanted island life and wanted to move back to Kuala Besut. He told me that he knew that the relationship would not work in the early stages when he first met her parents before the wedding. They questioned him about his job, his earnings, assets etc and seemingly disapproved because "he was from a poor background". However, because of their culture it was not acceptable for them not to get married and so they did.

He told me that he also had a broken heart and no longer believed in love. I agreed and told him that I was still deeply in love with my ex and could not see myself loving anyone else.

It was a really nice talk and took place while lying on mats on the beach watching the star filled sky hoping to find a shooting one.

Burung and I got on great and laughed a lot. He asked me if I knew why stars shot across the sky and continued to tell me that when he was younger his grandad had told me because they were pooing. We now call shooting stars peepoo stars! Don't ask me why!!

Anyway, a great conversation ended with Burung saying that he thinks that if I stayed longer we would be a good couple. I could only laugh it off and hope he didn't mention it again!!!

I got back to my room at 4am, turned on the light to see a HUGE cockroach scurry across my floor and under the skirting boards. Obviously in England this would be a massive issue but I was staying in a wood hut that had holes everywhere - didn't mean I wasn't shit scared though! That night I slept with the light on hoping it would keep the insects away - I was extremely thankful for the mosquito net that surrounded me though because I think without it there is no way I would have stayed another night!!

Saturday 24th March 2012 - Perhentian Islands

What a truly amazing day - I met some absolutely wonderful people!

I woke up at 4.30, caught a cab to Kuala Lumpur central station where I then got a coach to the airport. Today I would be going to the perhetian islands.

My flight to Kuala Besut was quick - only 45minutes. I had done some research before arriving and discovered that there was a local bus that would take me to the jetty where I could then catch a boat to the perhentian islands. I asked at the information counter where i could get the bus from and was simply told outside the airport. I walked to the closest thing that looked like a bus stop and waited there - i had no idea if it was in the right direction but was hoping to ask the first people i saw. Then out of nowhere appeared three people - a girl of around my age with what looked like her parents. I asked if I was going in the right direction to the jetty but the girl warmly informed me that she was not sure as she was a tourist as well. Then along came a man offering a taxi. The girl kindly asked me if I wanted to share the taxi with them and split the cost (60 ringgit) She seemed like a very lovely person immediately and her parents who didnt speak very much english had a very humbled and warming aroma about them and so i agreed. The cab ride was a bumpy one through lots of villages - there were cows just casually crossing the road at points. I talked with the girl (cannot for the life of my remember her name - I think it was Sara so I will call her that for the purposes of this blog!) about many different things - my instincts were correct as she was just so lovely. She was from Iran but came to Malaysia to do a degree in electrical engineering - which she had now finished but was working. Her parents were over in Malaysia visiting her for a month. She was 26 and you could see that she absolutely adored her parents. When she spoke to her mum - who was sat in between us, she gently and affectionately rubbed her leg and talked with a quiet soft voice. It was adorable to watch.

Sara explained to me that the Iranian government do not care about their people and make it very difficult for them to leave the country. She told me that her dream is to travel, like me she said, but her Iranian passport restricted her and visas were very expensive because of it. She continued to tell me that she was trying to get residency in another country so that by the time she was 30 she could go travelling. Studying her degree in Malaysia was just the start. In Iran she said that it was very hard to get into university and you have to do vigorous tests - i'm talking all the subjects you study in school (english, maths, history, geography and other tests) but because there was such a small intake that they would only take the people with the highest marks and if you weren't in that selected group, then you would have to wait until the following year and go through the whole process again.

This was why she studied in Malaysia - which was just her route into trying to go to the USA to study her PHD. She explained that you need to live in the states for 3 years to gain permanent residency and the student visa was just her gateway in. I honestly admired her determination and patience.

When we got to the jetty it was like they had taken me under their wing. Although Sara's parents could not speak English, i could see her dad was very caring from his actions - when I tried to put my rucksack on my back he made a noise of concern and lifted the bag to help me. He kept making signals to Sara and making comments in his language whilst pulling a concerned face and then he eventually took my day pack and insisted on carrying it - he guided it like a baby the whole way to the perhentian islands. He was very sweet. Upon arrival at the jetty port, Sara took the lead role and walked around trying to haggle the best price for us for the boat to the Perhentian islands. Originally I was planning on staying at Maya accommodation on Coral Bay but Sara said that long beach was nicer so I went to long beach instead. She told me about the place she was looking to stay at - huts on the cliffs overlooking the sea. It sounded amazing and so I said I would check it out.

Upon arrival at the pulua perhentian kecil, long beach, (there are two islands to the perhentian islands and kecil is the smaller one) I was blown away. It looked stunning. The sea was crystal clear and the beach was long (hence the name) with pure white sand. The beach was lined with a couple of wooden shacks - restaurants, bars, and snorkelling companies. I was not disappointed.

The walk to check out the Rock Gardens (the accommodation Sara recommended) was awful!!! It was soooo hot and my backpack weighed a ton. To make matters worse, to get to the accommodation you had to climb hundreds of extremely steep steps. By the time i got to the top I was dripping with sweat and my body was aching all over.

I dropped down to the steps of someones hut and sprawled out in exhaustion while Sara went to ask at reception for someone to show us the rooms. The first room we walked into I didn't care what it looked like, I dropped my bag on the floor and said "I'll take it!" I could not imagine walking even one more step!!!

I changed straight into my bikini and proceeded to the sea to cool down. I was laying on the beach when I stupidly realised that after paying 70ringgit for the room I had only 100ringgit to last me 5 days - that wouldn't even cover accommodation. I asked a boy at the snorkelling hut closest to me if there were any ATMs around. It was a long shot! We were on this jungle covered island with just beachfronts! He said the nearest on was in Kota Besut town- where I had just come from! I would have to pay another 25 ringgit to get the jetty back to the mainland and then get a cab into the town....and that's what I did costing me 90 ringgit.

The boat journey back was at 5.30. I got talking to the guy that was driving the boat. He was really friendly and offered me some coconut fish inside a banana leaf that had been barbecued - they were supposed to be transporting it from the mainland to the islands!!! It was actually amazing and so tasty. I asked him where was good to eat on the island and he advised me of a place called Panorama where they do barbecue fish.

He dropped off the last two people in the boat and then told me that he had a volleyball match that he was late for - the big island local people vs the small island local people, and asked if I was in a hurry. The excitement of seeing the locals doing their thing excited me so much that I quickly responded "not at all - does that mean I can come and watch?!" I squealed with excitement when he said yes.

We picked up some of his friends who also played on his team - I instantly took a shine to them when one of them starting singing Pitbull and Neyo- love you tonight. The biggest smile spread across my face as I thought of my beautiful friend back home, Lahari! This song always reminded me of her because when I got back from my trip to Thailand last year we went on a night out. The DJ played this song and Lahari went nuts dancing and singing her heart out with her whole face and eyes gleaming with happiness. I remember watching her with a big smile on my face thinking, damn I missed you! I had never heard the song before because I had been away but now it just reminds me of her every time and how much she makes me smile.

Whilst the men played, me and a girl that we had picked up ealier sat and talked. Her name was Hagemarueguchi, aka E. She was 21 and married to one of Burung (the guy who drove the boat)'s friend. The friend she was married to had introduced himself to me on the boat as Jack Sparrow. His name was really Ejay. She was so very cute and innocent. She told me that she was from Terrenganu - 110km from Kuala Besut, and met Ejay when she came over to the perhentian islands to work. She had known Ejay for 2months only when she made up her mind that she wanted to marry him- and so she told him "I want you as my husband." And now here they are one year later married. Her mum had already passed away and she didn't have a great relationship with the rest of her family. I asked her if she wanted children and again, squealed with excitement, when she told me she was 3months pregnant. So cute.

Anyway, after the volleyball match Burung asked if I wanted to join E, Ejay and himself at Panorama for dinner to which I of course agreed!

They took me to their village first so that they could have a shower which I saw as a massive privilege. It was very quiet apart from the prayer that was being echoed for everyone to hear.

The food at Panarama was ok - Burung ordered me King Fish but to be honest it was nothing compared to the fish I had at the street market in kk. The company definitely made up for it though. The group were very warm and tried their hardest to include me in their conversations by speaking English or translating anything that was said in Malay. During dinner I mentioned that I liked shisha - Burung said something in Malay to Ejay and then Ejay made a call - they had arranged for us to have shisha on the beach after food. Seriously, how much nicer could these people be.

The rest of the night (until 5am) was spent laying on mats on the beach, smoking shisha, looking at shooting stars and talking with Burung.

Burung was very caring with a very kind and loving heart. E's nickname for him was Aba (translation "dad"). He had apparently looked after her when she came to the island on her own and made life here easier for her. As she had said earlier, she didn't get on great with her own father and had now found a better father figure. She also regarded her close friends who we saw throughout the night as her family. Even when I needed to go to the toilet, which was only a five minute walk down the beach, Burung asked E to walk with me. It was just so humbling and comforting to feel apart of it all.

The whole of the day couldn't have been more perfect.

Friday 23rd March 2012

I got up at 6.30 this morning to catch a 9.45 flight to kuala lumpur -leaving plenty of time to get to the airport and drop off the hired car. I left the hotel armed with my ridiculously heavy backpack that killed my sun burn, went to get the car from where I remembered parking it but it was not there. I walked along the street and then onto the street behind but I still couldn't see it. I thought it had been stolen. I thought I had parked in the street across from where I was staying. I walked around sweating my socks off and nothing. Honestly, the first thing I thought was that Max had taken it so I could not leave. I saw some police officers and explained that my car was gone. They told me not to worry and radioed the licence plate number to their other police friends who had bikes. 10 minutes later the men on the bikes came back laughing saying the car was on the street I had been staying on. I was so embarrassed and laughed whilst apologising profusely!!! I felt like a bigger idiot for thinking that Max would do that.

My journey to the airport got me thinking and despite not calling the man who warned me about Max to find out why I should be careful, I knew deep down that Max was a good person and so what if he is not legal and doesn't work for a tour company (he had actually told me previously he just helped his friend out at his tour company) because actually he had been amazing and made my experience in Kota Kinabalu a truly unforgettable one. Lessons learnt though - despite being extremely lucky this time, I will only book tours through agencies from now on!!!

I arrived in Kuala Lumpur at 12.15 and caught a coach to Bukit Bintang where I would spend one day and one night before flying to Kota Bharu ready to travel to the perhentian islands.

I got a coach to bukit Bintang which cost me the equivalent of £3. The driver advised me where the guesthouses were located and recommended the Green Hut. It cost 60rm per night (£13) for my own room but with shared bathroom and toilet facilities. I asked if I could see the room before taking it and thought it looked ok, basic but ok, and they had free wifi too. I said I would take the room and then went to drop my stuff in their. Upon further investigation, my room faced the main street and had sliding doors onto a little balcony - the door did not lock! This made me concerned as someone could just walk through and take all my stuff. There was a metal gate on the inside of the window but that also did not lock. I went downstairs and spoke to the very rude guy on reception who laughed nodding agreeingly when I informed him the door did not lock. He said "yar, it very safe.".

I replied quite firmly "but I am not happy with that. My belongings are in the room so what if someone takes them. I wouldn't leave my door unlocked in England and I am not taking the risk here."

He said "we have cameras" to which I replied that It wasn't enough. He then continued and said I should not leave anything in my room and bring everything downstairs. Put special items in locker, and everything else in a cupboard in reception. Is it me or does that just sound like the most hnappealing thing in the world. Lugging a big 110lL rucksack up and down the stairs everytime I go out. I think the disgusted look on my face must have made him realise that I was ready to leave and take my money elsewhere so he finally relcuntantly said "I will get someone to look at it, maybe now or later".

I went back up to my room sitting on the edge of the bed trying to read the reviews of this place online when there was a knock at the door - it was him with tools to lock the metal gate- now I was satisfied.

Anyway, my day consisted of me walking around KL looking at the different shops. I spotted shisha!!! That was me for the rest of that day! I had watermelon and mint flavour and ordered an amazing beef shawarma. Not very Malaysian but it was sooo good.

That day I smoked so much that I was lightheaded and dizzy on my walk back to my accommodation.

So here is a lesson to everyone, the one question I did not ask the rude reception man was whether there was hot water! This is a question that you MUST ask if you like to have atleast a warm shower!!! I got back to my room and was excited at the thought of having a warm shower but noooo, nothing but cold water!!!! Despite it being a hot country, I am never hot enough for a cold shower.

That night I slept pretty rubbish as the main road was very loud and there were people coming in and making loads of noise in the corridors - i actually jumped up a couple of times because it sounded like there were people actually in my room because the walls were so thin.

I had to get up at 4.30 to catch a coach to the airport ready for my flight to Kota Bharu

Thursday 22nd March 2012 - Borneo

Today I decided to go to Sapi Island again after not finding a tour that I hadnt already done or that I could fit into one day.

I slept in that day and didnt get to the boat port until 11am. I got on the 11.30 boat, looked behind me and low

and behold, who was sitting at the back off the boat.....Max!!! Aaahhh!!

Seriously starting to feel like I am being stalked. Last night may have been a coincidence but this was just too weird. We got to Sapi and Max jumped off the boat and onto his friends boat and that was the last time I saw him.

I went snorkelling and went behind the rocks - where Max had told me all the beautiful bright coloured coral was. I couldnt see any! Then I saw a boat and swam towards it hoping that they could tell me where to go. They were friendly guys and one of them said he would show me. I didn't see bright coloured corals like in Thailand but it was amazing nonetheless. The guy whose name I cannot remember lived in a hut in the forested part of the small island . His front teeth were missing and his finger nails were dyed orange. He was very kind and swimming came very naturally to him - it was like he was a merman or something. He held my hand and pointed out all the various fishes to me. It was a whole different world down there. He picked up a blue starfish from the seabed, a sea cucumber and even caught a Nemo fish with his bare hands for me to take a photo. It was an amazing experience - so amazing that I was in the water with him for maybe 2 hours and got burnt to smithereens!!!!

That night I went back to the street market Max had taken me to previously and ordered Red Snapper fish, crab, steamed rice and vegetables. Whilst eating a white man walked passed me and asked if the food was good. I told him amazing and he joined me. His name was Alan, he was a retired man (although he didn't look old enough to be retired) from Canada. He moved to Kuala Lumpur two years ago and spends near enough all of his time travelling cheaply from place to place with AirAsia. We talked about all the different places he had visited and he informed me that this trip was to determine whether he should move from Kuala Lumpur to either Kota Kinabalu or to the Philipines. He told me that when I go to Langkawi I must visit the skywalk where you take a gondola up into the mountains and walk from one mountain to another. Alan has inspired me to travel during retirement. The exchange rate means that with a british pension I could live nicely in Asia!

Wednesday 21st March 2012 - Borneo

Once again Max met me at my hotel at 8.30 in the morning. We stopped for breakfast - peanut butter on toast again but this time we had japanese tofu and fried egg afterwards - who knew adding a bit of chilli and nam pla (fish sauce) to a fried egg could make such a huge difference!!! Amazing!

After breakfast we took an hour long drive to the Mari Mari Cultural Village where we visited the traditional houses of the different tribes of Borneo. My first question was "Where do they keep their clothes!?" The biggest tribe is the Dusun tribe. The houses were made of different materials depending on which tribe the house belonged to, but there was bamboo, bark, banana leaves, pandan leaves, all sorts! They were really sturdy though was suprising. An interesting thing in all of the long houses, apart from the headhunters, was that they had a raised room for the women for protection.. My favourite longhouse belonged to the Bajau tribe - which happened to be the tribe that Max was from. It had bright coloured decor everywhere unlike the other longhouses. Max gave me a history on all of the different tribes and explained that they came about when different groups from surrounding countries discovered certain parts of Borneo. The Bajau tribe were from the Philippines and are Water Gypsies and believe in the spirit of the water. When a new baby is born into the Bajau tribe they dip the baby in the sea as a blessing.

In each longhouse I got to try something new. In the Dusun house I tried the wine they had made from rice.

I saw bamboo cooking at a stand outside the house. They had lots of local ingredients and let me make my own recipe that they would cook for me to eat later. You basically have a bamboo leaf which you put your recipe on, you then roll the leaf and put it inside a hollow bamboo. The bamboo is then barbecued.

In the Rungus house I saw a boy make a fire using a piece of wood, bamboo and the shavings of a bark tree.

In the Lundayeh house I saw how they made clothing out of tree bark - they even made me a bracelet. This tribe is supposed to be very strong and have a crocodile figure outside their houses to warn the Muruts (aka headhunters) that one of their tribe lived there. This is because apparently when the Muruts first came to Borneo they didn't have a tradition so they created one. The tradition was that when a man and woman get married, to seal and authenticate the marriage the man must take someones head. This meant that they would attack other tribes to get heads. The headhunter would then hang the head in their house. Because the Lundayeh tribe were known to be strong the crocodile symbol basically meant stay away because we will fuck you up bruv! Lol!! Where the headhunters attacked the Lundayeh tribe unsuccessfully, the Lundayeh tribe would take the head of the headhunter and hang it on their wall as a sign of strength.

Because of the wars that came and the amount of people that were killed as a result of the "headhunters" tradition, an agreement was made that they would instead just drink a lot of alcohol to authenticate a marriage.

Anyway, after this house I saw the Headhunters house. Upon arrival at the door a man of about 23 walked up to me in the traditional clothing with a very solemn face. He put his hand on my shoulder whilst staring into my eyes intently and spoke to me in Malay - Max translated. He told me to put my hand on his shoulder. He then asked if i was alone. I said yes. He asked if i was aware of the local customs and said that he hoped I would respect them. He then asked if I would like to be blessed and turned me around where an old lady said something and waved something over my feet. I then walked towards the stairs to the entrance where another boy stood with a dart blower (not sure of the actual name!) - a long wooden tube that you blow poisonous darts through to hunt animals. He demonstrated how it was done by using a handing coconut as his target - he got the coconut first time. He then handed the dart blower to me, I aimed, blew and poo, I missed by like an inch. He signalled for me to try again and this time POW! I got it!!! I walked up the stairs dusting my shoulders off like yeahhhhh!!!

Inside the headhunters house we watched the tribe play a traditional game which consists of a wooden platform in the house being lowered and turned into a trampoline type thing. Two of the tribe made the platform bounce while the third member had to jump to reach a target that was attached to the ceiling. Inside the house they was a boy giving henna tattoos - of course I got one!

After the headhunters house we went into an open area where all the different tribes performed a traditional bamboo dance - I have never seen someone's feet move so fast!

This is where things got a bit scary for me. We went to lunch at the village and whilst I was washing my hands a man washed his hands next to me and in broken English said, "that man you are with, be careful". I asked him if he knew him and he walked behind the toilets, it looked like he was trying to avoid Max seeing him talk to me. Then another man who was also washing his hands said, "yes we all know about him. He said he is a tour guide or something yeah?" I said "Yes". He replied "he is not malaysian, he is not local people and not legal".

At lunch i was so anxious, Max told me to sit next to him but I just kept looking around at everyone seeing if anyone else was looking at me cautiously. I felt really special having Max showing me around like some kind of body guard and literally sticking to me by the hip but now I felt like he stuck so close to avoid other people talking to me and warning me about him. My mind was going crazy and whereas usually I would sit and talk with Max whenever we had the chance, now I was silent with loud alarm bells going off in my head!

After Max had finished eating he walked into the souvenir shop, I walked behind him looking nervously into the eyes of the second man that had spoken to me. As I walked passed him he slipped me a piece of paper saying "If you want an explantation call me" followed by his name and number. I slipped the note into my bag and walked into the shop where Max was facing towards me. I couldn't work out if he had seen the exchange so all i could think of was where I was going to hide this paper. It wasn't safe in my bag and Max always went in my bag to get my camera to take photos while I was driving. I trusted him to do so. I slipped the note into my bikini top under my dress.

We walked to the car and drove towards the next stop - the waterfall. Although i had been given these warnings i felt that so far Max had been good to me and the fact that he was not local did not come as a surprise as he had told me previously he was from the Philipines. The fact that he might not work for a tour company concerned me but again, although I had perhaps got myself into a bit of a predicament, I just thought of how he showed me these amazing places and went above and beyond the whole time, introducing me to amazing food, picking me aloe Vera for my sunburn and he was just literally a great travel companion. He had many opportunuties to do something bad like rob all my money, my passport or even kidnap me but he hadn't so I figured there was nothing I could do at this moment so I would wait until our tours were over and then end our journey together.

The next stop was the waterfall. We had to trek for 30minutes into the jungle to find the waterfall. Max led the way with me following anxiously behind. At one point I stopped to take a photo and dropped the car key! We were on a ledge and the key fell down to ledge which was so steep and covered in brambles and trees. Max had to climb down and find the key!!

We finally arrived at the waterfall - it was definitely worth the trek. We got into the water and although it was cold it felt amazing after the long hot trek. I was standing under the waterfall squealing in excitement and Max came towards me with his arms out for a hug. I said "No!" and moved away from him. He then walked away to the other side of the water again sulking like a child. I walked away and sat further down the stream refusing to take him emotions on board. I had been clear throughout that I am not looking for anything more than a friend, it was not my fault!

Anyway, after maybe an hour of sitting at opposite ends of the waterfall I decided that I wanted to go and started getting dressed. Max saw that I was ready to go and proceeded towards the way we came from. On the way to the waterfall Max kept an arm reach distance from me and kept checking that I was ok. The journey back he stormed ahead and I could barely see him. He would stop maybe every 5 minutes until he could catch a glimpse of me and then marched ahead again. Even if before this moment I had an inkling of intention to do anymore tours with him, they were now gone!

We got to the car and he did not say a single word to me. He gave me evil stares. I wouldn't have minded but I looked down at my hand and I had a leech stuck inbetween my fingers!!!! "Max, Max...is this a leech?" He looked at me from over the car and cut his eye at me. I continued "Max, Max...what do I do?!" I poured water over it but nothing happened, it would not budge. Anyone that knows me knows that I hate insects so was seriously having to stop myself from running around in circles, shaking my hand and screaming. He finally walked over to me and without saying a word ripped the leech from my hand. My finger bled and kept bleeding.

I started driving and Max closed his eyes and wouldn't say a word to me. I didn't know where I was going as he directed me everywhere. I just said to him "look I know you don't like me but seriously you need to direct me, the sooner you get us back, the sooner you can leave me". He simply said "I hate you" and closed his eyes. "I don't care if you hate me, if you don't direct me we are not getting home. Wow, you hate me you know!" He then started laughing and grabbed my hand and kissed it.

Anyway, we were driving towards to beach I explained to him that we would not be doing anymore tours and that this was it because he crossed the line. He kept apologising and grabbing my hand and I just said "no!" and pulled my hand away. He went flip mode on me!

"Who do you think you are!? This is why you are single. This is why your boyfriend left you! You will always be alone. I don't know why I helped you. Lots of other people calling me for tour and I say no because of you. Why did I help you?"

I simply replied, because I paid you, I paid you for your time".

I dropped him off and then he went from angry to sad begging me to talk to him and telling me how much he liked me. I just said "Bye Max, thankyou so much for everything you have showed me and for being so kind and going above and beyond but this is it. Goodbye"

That night I went back to my hotel, got ready and was going to try and find a tour company that I could book something with for my last day. It was dark and I was crossing the road when I heard a noise. I looked behind me and guess who was behind me...Max. He said he had been having a drink and saw me but I was seriously freaked out. He asked where I was going and hoped that me saying i was going to my hotel would make him leave me alone but no, he asked if he could have a lift. I definitely need lessons in saying no because I reluctantly said yes. In the car he asked if I wanted to go for dinner. I lied and said I had eaten already - truth is I was absolutely starving. I got back to the hotel and despite my stomach rumbling I refused to leave my room in case I bumped into him again. That night I ate vege crackers (like Jacobs cream crackers) and chocolate peanuts!!!