Bangkok to the Perhentian Islands, Malaysia

Getting from Bangkok to Malaysia is relatively easy and I had arranged to met Will and get the train to Sungai Kolok in order to get across the border.

I packed my stuff up and thought that it would be better taking my stuff to the train station, put it into left luggage and then go back into Bangkok as I had a few chores to sort out.

I got to the Hua Lampong station and went to buy my ticket, I thought that I would be able to get the same train that Lauren and myself had got to Trang. When he said yes here is your ticket and it leaves in an hour and half (15:15) I thought bu**er, not gonna be able to tell Will. Anyway thats how it goes, I still managed to get my ticket and catch the train with 5 mins to spare!

The sleeper train was fine, though it arrived 2 hours late. I got off and caught a moto to the border. Crossed the border no problem and then something strange.... no one was hassling me to get a tuk-tuk, great! I walked into the town centre as I had no money, no idea where the bus station was but in an hour I had money, had eaten and was on the bus headed for Kota Bahru.

My final destination is the Perhentian Islands which I have been told is a great place to learn to dive as its cheap, has some of the most amazing sites and unlike places like Ko Tao doesn't have a conveour belt PADI teaching system. Two of my friends are complete diving geeks, and one in particular has been travelling the globe and boring us with his diving tales for a few years now and I thought well its about time I saw what all the fuss is about. (check his site: Mr Burton Travel site - the photos are on the right hand side).

To get to the Islands you need to go to Kuala Besut and get a boat from here to the Islands (50 RMT with some haggling!).

I stayed overnight in a bit of a dive of a guesthouse (KB Guesthouse) and met a few other people who were also going and grabbed a taxi in the morning with them to Kuala Besut (32 RMT between 4).

Once there we bought boat tickets and some booze as its pretty expensive on the island (and hard to come by). I was with 3 lads from the UK, 4 Americans from California and a Swedish guy. The fast boat was just that it bombed towards the island and about 30mins later we had arrived on Long Beach. My timing was pretty bad, Malaysia is currently in holiday season and thus everything was booked up. We managed to find 4 huts for us all, the last 4 huts on the island (probably) and settled down.