Kecil Island Paradise

It's a hard life, but someone's got to do it.

Ok, we planned to stay only 4 days on Kecil Island, the smaller of the Perhentian Islands and yet here we are, nine days later! As ever, if you want to make God laugh.....tell her your plans!

We took a bus from the Cameron Highlands straight to the jetty point in Kuala Besut, where we collected our tickets for the boat to the island. The boat to the island is actually a speedboat, something I intellectually knew, but hadn't really allowed myself to contemplate, as those of you who know me well, will also know about my fear of open water (intricately linked to my fear of drowning, intricately linked to my lack of swimming skills).......

I'd never been on a speedboat before.

We stood on the jetty and waited for the speedboat to arrive. It steered gently into the bay and I thought, that's not too bad. We had a bit of a wait until we could get on, in which time my nerves had plenty of time to increase exponentially with each second, then finally we boarded and were issued with our life jackets.

Mira Beach and our very own taxi boat - this little boat does everything, taxis us around, brings the supplies every day and even takes out the rubbish!

Soon enough though, we are clambering over our rucksacks onto the little vessel. I try – and to a certain extent fail, though I do not have the chance to dwell on it for long – to ignore the sign on the boat that clearly reads ’10 passengers only’, having already completed a mental headcount of at least 14people waiting to board. I ignore as best I can the Lynn Faulds Wood voice in my mind chiming ‘It’s a potential deathtrap!’ over and over, along with the unnecessary and obvious mantra of ‘I can’t swim, I can’t swim, I can’t swim.

The boat steers gently from the jetty as we secure our life jackets. I buckle mine tightly as it may be the only thing that ensures my survival if we don’t make it. Kate and Ang are deep in conversation with a couple from Auckland, New Zealand, about their travels and are swapping notes on their favourite places and I am grateful for the chance to hide my terror while their attention is distracted. However, my terror gathers momentum as boat starts to gather sudden and not inconsiderable speed. A glance around the boat tells me that I am not alone in this as I see several faces wide-eyed and feigning calm. A hand on my knee and Kate’s voice in my ear tells me that I may not be able to conceal my own fear as well as I suspect.

“How you doing there, monkey?” she asks.

I turn back to her, grinning, “I think I’m ok!”

Our very own chalet with all our washing outside! Those stairs were steeper than they looked - thank Goddess there's no alcohol on Mira!

Oddly, I actually mean it. Nothing could have prepared me for the thrilling exhilaration of my first speedboat ride: the nose of the boat in the air, the sheer speed of movement, the wind that whips across my skin and the slap slap slap as hull hits water at regular, bouncing intervals. At first, I was terrified, but wild-eyed terror soon turns to wide-eyed enjoyment as I become more accustomed to the sensation. The fear never leaves entirely, but instead combines with excitement to create an electric sense of joy that I can only compare to the early days of love, where I am often terrified, but always wanting more.

After a while, I turn back to Kate and admit, "This is the best thing we have done so far! Without a doubt!"

I would get plenty of time to get used to speedboats, as they are the main form of taxis around and between the islands, but the thrill never wore off for me!

Mira Beach in all her glory! This is the centrepiece that greets you on arrival - public art! Look at those waves!

Describing the island is very hard, as it really defies words. White sands, brilliant blue sea, bright sun and blazing heat, lush green jungle, teeming with lizards of all sizes, birds with beautiful voices and even possums and rats!! We stayed in a place called Mira Beach, the most deserted of all the beaches on the island and a far cry from the tourist resorts of neighbouring Long Beach and Coral Bay.

We lived in a small wooden hut, with enough room for a double bed and a mattress for me on the floor. Rats and lizards come and go with impunity and you just have to get used to it - something that we mastered quite quickly!

A whole blog post without a mention of Misssssssssssster Lizzzzzzzzard? Don't be ridiculous.

It's a writer's paradise and I can honestly say I've written more in the last few days than at any other point in the trip, including some poetry of a quality I can't promise, even some of my crazy doodling, which the locals thought I should get made into Batik! Our first night brought a sunset so beautiful, it made me cry. The air is so still, well, apart from our last night, when a wild and crazy storm raged all night, with the sea only metres from our hut!! Lightning crashed silently across the horizon is brilliant strokes of red and white - the urge to get naked and stand in the middle of it was almost overwhelming, but I contented myself with standing on the beach in my new sarong!

Apart from writing, I managed some shopping (two sarongs and a new skirt - score! and I managed to dump one of my pairs of now too big trousers as a result), did some walking through the jungle (the only alternative to the taxi boats), plenty of reading and - now strap yourselves in, you won't believe it! - some snorkelling!! Yes, snorkelling! Me! Kate was lovely and helped me in the water loads and showed me how to breathe (then kept making me laugh so that I kept inhaling water through my nose) - and not only did I get to see loads of very friendly fish, I loved it!!

Over on Coral Bay for the afternoon and Kate and Ang tough out the hard life of the island over an iced tea...

There were some darker sides to the island. It is primarily a tourist resort, and has a growing drug problem on some of the more commercial party beaches. This problem is starting to cause outbreaks of thefts, and we fell victim to this on our third day or so, when someone came into our hut and stole Kate and Ang's small rucksacks. As ever, we had all our valuables on us (I go nowhere without my phone, passport, money and computer) and the thieves obviously did not check what they were stealing as their biggest catch in both bags were Kate and Ang's memory cards, which had all their memory cards from New Zealand, and means they have lost almost all their pictures from the last seven months. Obviously they were both heartbroken and the thieves are facing some serious bad karma. The only thing of mine taken was my spare toiletries bag, which had some suntan lotion and my electric shaver - nothing I'm worried about.

The sunset that made me cry - I'm officially a sap.

This was the only black spot marring an otherwise beautiful trip, and after our paranoia in some of the cities we have visited, to be struck by theft on an idyllic island just seemed perverse. Nonetheless, we were very sad to leave the island this morning, but excited at the prospect of the journey ahead, and we were glad to arrive in Kota Bharu today. KB is usually thought of as a passing through town, but we've met some great people here already at a local guest house (not ours, but run by the same family, who have taken a shine to us and are already asking us to stay another day) and ate out tonight at the local night market, where we feasted on a variety of Chinese food - hmmmmm.

Tomorrow we are planning to walk across the border to Thailand, but in all likelihood we will stay another day. There is a museum here that contains some fascinating instruments used in circumcision, and Ang and Kate think it would be a terrible shame to miss it. As ever, I'll keep you posted!

Finally - a record number of followers, thank you everyone! Now where have all my comments gone...........?

Is it because you is all emailing me instead????

Our final sunset on Kecil - the island of darkly etched beauty.

Oh, ok, if you're going to beg - just one bad poem that I wrote on the island then.

The lizard, disturbed from sleep
by the scratching step of the squirrel
pokes out his head between two beams,
licks his lips and looks for food;

The squirrel, disturbed from scavenging
by the lizard's sudden face,
scrambles fast and far to the edge of the hut
and leaps in brief flight to the tree;

I, disturbed from my wonderings (my wanderings)
by this tiny drama played by natural actors unaware of me,
liuft up my gaze from my pen, from my self
to see instead the poem that is everywhere around me;

(my gaze especially likes to rest
on the tree where the fearless squirrel lands -
the one where the red flowers grow
each like a wonderful accident, or perhaps a miracle).