Kuala Lumpur- Taman Negara - Perhentian islands

Kuala Lumpur 12.6.17

We arrived in KL at about 3pm after a very rushed transfer at Qatar. Picked up our bags, and got a bus into KL, ended up at Pudu central rather than KL Sentral but we found our way to the hostel eventually. 25 by Ohana was on floor 25 of the building and was small but clean. We did some planning then headed to the nearby mall food court as it was raining. Josh was horrified to see rats running around the kitchens... Welcome to Asia!!

13.6- After a bit of a lie in and breakfast in the hostel we headed out to explore Chinatown. The wet markets were an experience, with all varieties of live and dead animals.... Now nicknamed salmonella street. Then we looked around a Hindu temple and walked to the botanical gardens in the Colonial district. 

Next up was little India, we looked at the markets and tried and failed to find a restaurant from the guide book... Turns out a lot of the others were closed due to Ramadan. We ate in another mall food court which was a lot cleaner, and the nasi goreng Tom yam was good! We wandered back through the markets, bought some fruit, a high quality £3 watch for Josh and £8 'mulberry' bag for me. Got the packed monorail back to Imbi. Went for a swim and sauna in the pool in our building- 3rd storey and unexpectedly nice. Did a bit more planning and then walked to Jalan Alor for dinner- really nice satay, lemon fish, veg, rice and drinks for under £9 each. 

14.7- early start to get the bus 8am bus to Jerantut. We were collared at the bus stop by a guy who could take us to the national park in a minibus. So an hour later we arrived in Kuala Tahan, a little village just across the river from the park, and we stayed at the Yellow Guesthouse, where Katie had stayed las year. The owner was a quiet old man but the room was fine. That afternoon we went into the park for a walk to the swimming spot, decided not to swim as the water looked a bit grim, then I headed back to try and get wifi for a Skype interview, while Lizzie and josh carried on and got covered in leeches. That evening we ate in one of the floating restaurants on the river, and then went for a guided night jungle walk, where we saw a lot of massive spiders, scorpions and a snake. 

15.7- had breakfast in one of the floating restaurants and bought some snacks for lunch and headed into the park again. We did the £1 canopy walk which was really cool, if a little sketchy being so high up! Then we walked through the jungle to a viewpoint, Bukit Indah and we were all incredibly sweaty and gross when we got there, but it was a fab spot for a lunch stop. Next we walked the couple of hours back relieved we had spent the whole day leech free. We spent an hour of so chilling and planning back at the guesthouse before dinner. We got to the restaurant just in time before the heavens opened, but luckily the rain doesn't last too long here. 

16.7- 8am bus from Kuala Tahan back to Jerantut, and the 1h 15 journey took just 45 minutes this was due to the psycho driver going 70mph around blind bends on the wrong side of the road. We were very relieved to reach Jerantut in one piece and had a new driver for the next leg of the journey. After a slight delay at the lunch stop we arrived at the jetty about 5pm and got on a speed boat to the Perhentian islands. When we arrived on Kecil (small island) we wandered along the beach to find the best deal for diving; Josh was doing his open water PADI and Lizzie and I the advanced. We settled on Matahari dive school and our own room rather than the mosquito full dorm. 

Next was the moment we had all been waiting for; results. The wifi is crap so it wears maybe the longest 15 minutes of my life waiting for the page to load... WE ARE VETS!!!! We did it!!! It has taken a while to sink in, but we were also delighted to find out the entire year have passed :) I then had a FaceTime job interview and finally we could celebrate with dinner and our first alcoholic bev of the holiday :) 

17.7- Dive courses started, boring videos and a dive for Josh, a wreck and buoyancy practice for me and Lizzie. Our instructor is a Malay guy called Aslan and Josh had a Dutch girl called Mira. More nice food and relaxing in paradise 

18.7- Deep dive at Vietnamese wreck for me and Liz, followed by some sunbathing while Josh did a few more dives and videos. Later on we did a night dive, we went down as it was getting dark and had torches under the water, saw lots of stingrays and a couple of octopus which was cool. There was also a storm going on outside and the lightning flashes would light up the water which was awesome. Slightly scary little boat ride back though! Had some nice redang curry at our fav chill out cafe on the beach. Next we tried to have a session booking more flights but the wifi wouldn't play ball. As we were sat in reception lizzies bag got nicked. Whoever did it must be well practices as it went from right under our nose. Luckily it only had a few pounds in, and the whoever took it chucked the room key about 5m from us. Relieved to still have out passports! 

19.7- we all went to the same dive site this morning, where we did underwater navigation. It was a nice reef and saw some cool  fish. Josh finished off his open water and we finished our advanced. 

We walked to the other side of the island for a disappointing cloudy sunset and BBQ dinner. 

Next stop Penang!