Trouble in paradise!

Four days in the idyllic Perhentian islands sounded like heaven. I mean, when every beach looks like the setting for the Bounty chocolate bar ad… what could possibly go wrong?

Throw torrential rain and gale force winds into the mix and you quickly find you have a problem.

We were transported to the island by a rickety old boat that bounced off every wave so forcefully we were constantly thrown from our seats.  I’ve stayed dryer on the rapids at Alton Towers.

But 3 constant days of water falling from the sky was not enough to deter us from scuba diving, though maybe it should have.  We geared up, boarded another tiny boat, rode out on the choppy ocean and plunged into freezing water where the visibility was around 2 metres.  On dive 1, martin went missing.  On dive 2, I went missing.  Needless to say when we couldn’t even see each other, we didn’t see many fish either.

Martin in less than ideal diving conditions!

When the sun finally graced us with its presence and the murky sand turned to gold, we went for a walk. 

Sadly, just a few metres off the beaten track, we discovered a shocking amount of rubbish.

Not quite sure where our 'island conservation fee is going'!

So our trip to the Perhentian islands was not exactly what we’d expected, but on the plus side we ate some great BBQed fish and I made very good progress on my book.