Finally, leaving the beautiful city of Kuala Lumpur on a full bus to Kota Bharu. We’re in the back of the bus with the a/c barely working. Hot, dripping with sweat, it’s no wonder no one smiles. It’s too hot and too much work. We all seem to be staring ahead waiting, waiting, waiting to get off the bus and be able to breathe some fresh air. We take a 30-minute break into four hours on the bus with another four hours to go. I try not to fall asleep but by nature, put me in a car and I fall asleep. The landscape and vegetation are spectacular. We’re in the jungle! The plants are enormous, leaves are giant-size and we are dwarfed by its splendor.
We arrive around 4:30 pm, find the Bunga Raya Backpackers Lodge for 25 ringgits ($6) and go to dinner at A&W. Oh, this is how A&W stays in business, the overseas clientele. Not our usual meal but sometimes it’s nice to eat something familiar.
Saturday morning, we’re at the bus station by 6:30 am. As we are waiting, I see a big, brown cockroach climbing up Andy’s leg. Swat it away and gross. On to the city of Kuala Besut; just 25 miles away, a 2-hour ride, costing 4 ringgits on a bus with air conditioning that works.
As soon as we get off the bus a local lady helps us get a ticket for a “fast” boat (70 ringgits) and tells us how to get to the jetty. She meets us at the jetty and tells us about a larger boat of 40 passengers. It will take 15 minutes longer but is a smoother ride. I’m up for a smoother boat ride. This boat goes to a couple of islands. The first island has a dock for the boat. The second island had a small boat come out to us. At ‘our’ island, the boat slides in as much as it can onto the beach. We take off our shoes and wade onto the shore. As we walked through the clear turquoise blue water onto the pure white sand it was like being in a movie. This beach was worth all our days of traveling to Pulau Perhentian Island.
Now, the hunt for a place to stay. It’s 11 am when we start walking down the beach. The first hostel is full but the place next door is available. Andy says, “Yes”, it’s so hot he’d say yes to anything. This place is ‘interesting’. The rooms wooden huts with tin roofs. Each hut is accessible by climbing a set of stairs. Five rises up to the porch that has two chairs, a small table, and a clothesline. Inside the door is a table with an oscillating fan on it and two twin beds pushed together covered by mosquito netting. The bathroom is across the field; two toilets, two showers, both with no lights. We also have a beefy, 10-inch gecko living above our front door, one light bulb hanging on our front porch and our fan is operated by the office; on at 7 pm and off at 8 am.
The beefy, 10-inch gecko above our door is one thing but walking around the grounds are a couple of giant Monitor Lizards. They live between us and the bathrooms. I just hope I don’t have an encounter with them at night and that just means seeing one close by.
We ate lunch at the Lemon Grass Café, walked the beach and in the water, you could see fish with blue and yellow stripes, schools of other fish in clear, beautiful, warm water. So beautiful and peaceful.
Dinner at Lilly Café. Sitting outside on mats on the beach with a spectacular view, eating good food at the perfect temperature, enjoying each other was blissful. Let’s take one more walk by the water. During the day, beach umbrellas are set into the permanent pipe holders to rent and sit under. Tonight I didn’t see the holder and ran right into one with my right shin. It was a deep, cut. With blood running down my leg I made it to our hut, washed it out with some bottled water and soap. Fortunately, I have Neosporin and band-aids. It was a painful night’s sleep.
