It had long been my plan to head over to the Perhentian Islands (off the north east coast of Malaysia) once I had arrived in Malaysia. Many people I'd met had spoken of their beauty, great SCUBA diving and snorkelling. Adrian, Denise and Mette Louisa, also staying at the RV Inn were thinking the same. So we all headed over there together.

We caught the slow boat from the Port, Kuala Besut, about a ½hrs taxi journey from Kota Bharu. Of course, we came with Hadi (who was once a full time cabi himself), armed with an overspilling bag of Rambutans and Mangosteins each for our journey - left over from yesterdays pickings!

Having chatted with Neil from the RV Inn about Perhentian Kecil (he had previously spent almost two weeks there) to try and get a feel for the place and to decide where we were going to head for, we were all being drawn towards Mira Beach - he couldn't speak any more highly of the place! It sounded so very 'natural' and incredibly chilled out.

As the boat gets closer to the island it will either take you round to the different places you can stay, or another, smaller (taxi) boat will come to pick you up and take you, on request. From the two main bays on either side of the island (Coral Bay and Long Beach), there are only forrested tracks through to the more remote beaches. With a heavy backpack; realistically a boat is necessary. Although I did bump into several small groups making the trek on foot seeking accommodation after finding places full up!

Long Beach is by far the loudest part of the island. It's not really loud, by loud standards, but on Perhentian Kecil, it's loud! One or two of the restaurants/cafes pump out bassy tunes, although I don't think there's any kind of 'club' or anything though. It's the only place to buy alcohol on the island and is also home to the more expensive dive centres - they are all the same fixed price on Long Beach.

Anyway, by now there were just the four of us, Denise, Mette Louisa, Adrian and myself speeding away from the main boat in a little taxi boat on the way to Mira Beach. We were greeted by the lady of the family at Mira (Dang, what was her name?!) and she told us that sadly there were no more huts available that night, until tomorrow! Oh poo! But there was this one 'kinda broken hut' that we could have if we wanted! Oh joy! I think we'd probably made up our mind even before we'd seen it properly. It was missing a front wall, although there was a front door! There was a very large door-like hole in the rear wall and there was no shutter for the rear window either. There were two mattresses; we gave it the thumbs up!

Home sweet home!

There would be a communal meal that night, as every night at around 8pm. It's optional and price varies from 6 to 10RM, but everyone who's staying at Mira generally joins in (unless you've really max'd out on the Tuna! ) and you get alot of great food.

The Daneng Gang... And so the [Dan]ish / [Eng]lish gang was formed! The name (oh, but we had to have a name) was actually thought of a few days later - I think whilst sat on the beach with cards stuck to our foreheads or something?! The two Danish lasses of Denise and Mette Louisa and the English boys of Adrian (ok, Adrian's actually South African, although had been living in England for the past 4 years and had a British passport, so for the purpose of naming gang's, he's English!) and of course myself.

“Rød grød med fløde”
(The Daneng Gang)

I actually managed to repeat that phrase to a couple of girls I met at the Jazz Inn on Bali - and they understood me! Just goes to show I learnt something whilst at Mira!

NB: Whilst actually on the island I didn't update the diary at all since there was only one internet place on the island that actually worked (well, most of the time) and it was incredibly incredibly (yes, I've typed it twice) slow. What's more, everyone wanted to use it, so people were even Q-ing for it! There were better things to do; there was a beach and the sun was shining! I made some brief notes in my little notebook and the rest remained in my head until now. For some reason it's taken me ages to get round to filling in my life at Mira - no particular reason; it was a couple of the best weeks ever! So, after almost 4 months, here's Mira...

- Mira Beach -
You can see the seat on the large rock that looks out to sea.

Where Am I ...?

Mira Beach, Pulau Perhentian Kecil (Small Island). Off the north eastern coast of Malaysia in the South China Sea. Essentially 'half a hut' shared between the four of us for 2½RM each! Most definately the cheapest accommodation to date, and I don't think anything is going to beat it! There is no electricity here, no fan and consequently there is no running water. All water comes from one of three fresh water wells which are unfortunately running a little dry at the moment with the current dry spell.

Many prospective 'squaters' leave; some within the first 5 mins, others the next day when they realise there are no showers! We ended up being here for 2 weeks!