So quite a fair bit has happened since my last update...I ended up staying in hospital for 5 nights in the end to fully recover from my Dengue Hemorhagic Fever. My platelet levels dropped to 35,000 as opposed to the 150,000 - 450,000 that they should have been. I almost reached the stage of needing a platelet transfusion when they finally picked up and I started feeling much better. I did start to get a bit worried when they told me that I wasnt allowed to walk around too much in case I tripped and caused internal bleeding!! The hospital was really nice in KL and the staff were all lovely, I ended up needing 20 bottles of IV fluid and had 12 blood tests before I was finally allowed to leave - on the condition that there was someone to look after me. Luckily for me my Mum and Brother flew out and arrived the evening before I was allowed to leave the hospital and they had arranged an amazing apartment for us to stay in.
I was reaching major boredom by the 6th day when I was finally able to leave the hospital and it was brilliant to go back to the apartment, 22 floors up overlooking the city! We also had a pool, fluffy towels (a BIG excitement when you are travelling!) and were fairly close to a 'Megalmall' shopping centre. Seeing my mum and brother again after 7 months was really good and we had a really lovely two weeks exploring Kuala Lumpur once I started to feel a bit better. It took ages to sort out insurance payments and everything on the day I left hospital so we didn't arrive back to the apartment until fairly late, had some dinner and then went to bed. The next day we had to go over to the shopping centre to get some food and I was starting to feel a bit better, apart from tiring really easily. Mid Valley Megamall is huge and we soon found a big Carrefour to get some food and water to take back to the apartment. That day tired me out a fair bit so we spent the following day by the pool which was hardly used by anyone else in the apartments so we had it all to ourselves. The following day we went to the Vietnam Embassy to get my visa and then went into Chinatown to explore the market. In the two weeks with my mum and brother we also booked tickets to go up the Petronas Towers, went to the zoo, did a canopy walk through the jungle and saw Batu Caves. The Petronas Towers felt even higher when you got up to the top on the 86th floor and the view was pretty amazing. Batu Caves was also good fun and there were loads of monkeys everywhere that attempted to steal anything that tourists were carrying! The zoo was great, the animals were in pretty small enclousures which was not so good, but they had lots of different animals and I got to feed an elephant! We also managed to go and see the Botanical Gardens one afternoon and got lost walking around for ages before we found our way out. In between those trips out were days by the pool which were great fun and by this time I was feeling almost back to normal again :) On the last day before my mum and brother flew home I had to go back to the hospital for a final check that I was fit to fly for insurance purposes and then Jude arrived in Malaysia for 9 days before she flies back to England. We arranged to go to the Perhentian Islands together and it was really nice not having to be back on my own again just yet and we had great fun!
It was lovely seeing Jude again, especially as it was unexpected as I had planned to be in Thailand for the full moon party by this point. We had a day in KL together once my mum and brother had flown home and we went to see the Petronas Towers, Batu Caves and Chinatown together. That evening we got a night but to Kuala Besut ready to get the first boat over to the smaller Perhentian Island to stay on Long Beach. Unfortunately, the night bus wasn't one of the better ones I've been on...it kept stopping and the lights came on, was really noisy and we had very little leg room! However at 6am we arrived at in Kuala Besut and bought our boat tickets for the 7am boat. The boat was pretty expensive for Malaysia (£14 return) and so I was expecting a fairly biggish boat. Turns out it was pretty small and they filled it with as many bags and people as they could! By 8am we were safely on the sand of Long Beach trudging up and down looking for accommodation in the boiling heat with our backpacks - not fun! Becuase it was a friday most places were full but we did eventually settle on the first place we had looked at. We got a lovely little hut with a verandah and private bathroom just set back in the jungle overlooking the beach at Panorama Chalets and Dive Centre. Whilst we were waiting for our room to be cleaned we had some food and an amazing milkshake each, possibly the best one either of us had ever had and they had all sorts of flavours - coconut and chocolate, peanut M&M's, Snickers, Mars Bar, chocolate orange were some of the better ones :) We then headed up to our room to shower after the night bus and then fell asleep for 5 hours...we didnt get a lot of sleep on the bus! That afternoon we went to find out how we could book a bus to Singapore where we were both due to fly from, me to Bangkok and Jude to England. We managed to book a nightbus for 9pm on the 8th May, leaving us 4 nights on the Perhentians. We then booked onto a snorkelling trip for the following day - 5 snorkel sights, a trip to the fishing village and boat transport all day for £8!
Our first evening on Long Beach was really stormy...as per usual in the tropics!! We had the fish BBQ in the restaurant attached to our accommodation (we had one free meal included per night). We both tried Baracuda and then watched a film that was played on a projector in the restaurant. It was still raining by the time we were finished so seeing that we couln't go to any of the bars on the beach we headed up to our verandah for a bit before bed. The following day was the snorkelling trip which was brilliant!! We got picked up by the boat at 11am ish and then went around the two islands collecting as many passengers as possible for the trip - there was actually one stage where we did almost capsize - the boat was really only designed for probably a maximum of around 8 people but somehow they managed to cram 14 of us on and when adults didn't fit they found some children! The first snorkel spot was Fish & Coral Garden where we saw a LOT of fish!! Our boat driver gave us bread and before long there were hundreds of them surrounding us. Then we headed to Shark Point and saw several Black Tip Reef sharks crusing around and a little baby one. After that it was Turtle Point where we saw a massive turtle, I swam down to watch him eating and saw his beady eye watching me...I managed to give him a little stroke on his shell too which he didn't seem to mind :) :) Then it was lunch time over in the fishing village before the final two stops - the Lighthouse, where there were again loads of fish and coral, and Romantic Bay which was a white sandy beach. On the way back to Long Beach we dropped all of the many passengers off back at their beaches, and then ran out of fuel. Luckily our driver had his phone on him and before too long a boat filled with 5 children (the eldest being 10) came to our rescue and brought over a can of fuel to get us back to Long Beach. That evening we had the Fish BBQ again, Blue Marlin this time and fried ice-cream (!?) for desert. As it wasn't raining we headed out for a few drinks, we tried the infamous Monkey Juice that is 'only' sold on the Perhentians (also sold as Arak in Indonesia...). Then we moved down to the beach to sit on the mats by the fire torches where we saw a friend we had met diving in Indonesia which was very random!! The bar, Black Tip, was really nice and pretty cheap the only slight problem was the lack of toilets - 'everyone just uses the jungle' was what I got told by the barstaff...We finally headed to bed at around 4am, due to a huge thunderstorm, which meant to following morning was a complete write off. After getting up and going for lunch we went down to the beach but it was wayyyy too hot to sunbathe so sat in the crystal clear sea (the most amazing sea ever!!) for most of the afternoon. That evening it was stormy and raining again so we headed down for dinner before a fairly early night to bed.
The next day was our last so we wanted to make the most of the sun, after lunch we headed back up to the room to get our beach things. On the way back up I nearly trod on a toad and then two seconds later heard Jude let out a massive scream, as I looked around to see what was wrong I saw a HUGE black fat hairy spider on my shoulder...I screamed and threw my water bottle as I flung him off, pretty traumatised but luckily a local came to the rescue and hurried the spider along with a leaf. I needed a few minutes to recover but we then headed down to the beach for the afternoon. At around 5pm we walked over to Coral Bay on the opposite side of the island to watch the sunset. We made the 15 minute walk through the jungle, only spotting two spiders to our relief, to hear the thunder rolling in and lightening flashes. We quickly had to walk back over the Long Beach to make sure that we didn't get absolutely soaked (when it rains it really rains) so our sunset was a bit of a write off. After dinner that evening we went back up to pack but as Jude went into the bathroom I heard her say 'Ohh no...'. I assumed it was Colin our resident cockroach and his baby as he was usually hanging out somewhere in the bathroom but went I went in to investigate it turns out it was a giant hairy huntsman on the cistern. He moved slightly and we both screamed, sending him scuttling off behind the back of the toilet. I armed myself with the broom and Jude with the bathroom hose thingy that they always have in Asia and together we heroically washed and scooped him out of the bathroom down the hole we had in the wall...which we then frantically blocked up with toilet roll to match the hole on the otherside of the room that Colin the cockroach kept coming through (turns out Colin really liked the new toilet paper home we'd built him...!!). After that we both headed outside to recover, after 5 minutes of sitting down suddenly a massive flying grasshopper flew at us and by this point we couldn't cope with any more. We screamed and the couple next door to us came out to rescue us, again the broom was used to attempt to squash it but it was so big it didn't work and instead finally flew off and left us in peace. By this point we gave up packing just in case anything else came out to attack us and instead I decided to write my journal from the safetly of our mosquito net. As I went to pick up my bag I saw something scuttle around, I soon realised that it was Colin and that I had disturbed his sleep under my bag and sent him into my open backpack - WONDERFUL! I really couldn't cope with any more bugs that evening so left him to it and we went to sleep (with the light on). On the plus side we did have a very pretty ghecko type lizard that hung out outside our front door evey night eating any bugs that came near!
The next morning we both had to pack, emtying our backpacks item by item until I found Colin in mine. I still don't know where he went but by the time I'd finished emptying my bag he was no where to be seen. After packing and checking out we had lunch before getting on a very unstable boat over to the boat that would take us back to the mainland. By 1pm we were back in Kuala Besut waiting for our nightbus at 9:15pm that evening. 9:15pm finally came round and we set off in the bus for Johor Bharu where we could get a local bus over to Singapore. By 1pm the following day we had made it to our hostel in Singapore, 24 hours later, where Jude would have one night and I would have two before flying out. That evening we went to Chinatown for dinner and to look around the night market before bed.
Today was our last day together (for the second time) and we had a look around Singapore (again for the second time for me). We went to see the Merlion and Marina Bay Sands and headed to Bugis Market where we both found some dresses and I replaced my watch which I had lost running from a storm on the Island. Tonight Jude flies back home and I'm back on my own again for the first time since I caught Denge Fever. Tomorrow I fly to Bangkok for 5 nights, staying on the Ko San Road, before I meet up with a tour for 30 days through Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. After that I have two and a half weeks on my own again before my family fly out for a two week holiday and then I'm back home...time is flying by!
Latest Photos:
Rest of Indonesia: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150640921301491.389145.516011490&type=1&l=c4935130f7
Singapore and Malaysia: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150777296866491.396845.516011490&type=3&l=6ed7694d95
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