Prepare yourselves to see a lot of mango smoothies. :D

It was a bit of a journey to get to the Perhentian Islands, but it was seamless. We flew to Kota Bharu, then caught a one hour Grab to Kuala Besut Jetty, and then a half an hour ferry that delivered us right to our accommodation. We got the last two spots on the boat, right at the front with all the bags. This ended up being extremely painful because the boat only seemed to have one speed (very fast), and every slam of the boat onto the waves reverberated up our spinal columns and turned them into dust.

We had three nights booked on the small island, and two nights on the big island.

We ended up arriving at our hotel in Coral Bay way before our room was ready so we went for a swim, checked out the restaurant next door (10 out of 10 mango ice blended), walked to Long Beach on the other side of the island, and swam again.

Ramadan had just started, and it was only the very very beginning of the tourist season there, so probably about 75% of the resorts and restaurants were closed. Options were quite limited at some points but there was still enough open for us to be looked after, with some flexibility. And on the plus side, there was barely anyone around so nothing was busy or crowded.

The customer service at Ombak was really great, like fancy resort style, but our actual room was pretty dingy, so we didn’t spend a lot of time in there. And there was A LOT of mosquitos so you need to have bug spray and cover up as much as possible at night.

Playing games in the resort restaurant area with my emotional support bug spray and my anti mosquito pineapple pants.

The view from our resort.

We booked a full day snorkeling trip for the next day, as this was what we had come to Perhentian Islands for. We went to a bunch of different places and they were all pretty amazing. At one of the places we saw more reef sharks than I have ever seen before, combined. Dozens and dozens of them! Very cool. Another place had huge turtles. One place had sooooooo many anemone with clown fish in every single one. We also saw sting rays, and lots and lots of types of fish.

I don’t have any underwater pictures because my GoPro died on Christmas Island.

We stopped at a beach as well. Rose and I did a game where we had 5 minutes to find the best piece of coral we could. I picked mine because I think it looks like a lizard, and Rose picked a piece of ROCK ON coral.

Back at Amelia Cafe for a pre-dinner snack (and game) because how could we possibly fast from 5:30pm to 7pm while the restaurant people had a break during their DAY LONG fast. Hehe. We had banana Sneakers roti, and mango ice blendeds, of course.

Exploring the much fancier resort next to ours at sunset. (Waiting until we can eat again.)

Then fish BBQ for actual dinner! We tried barracuda and kingfish. It was like $10 for a big piece of fish, rice, potato, salad, and fruit. Loved it, although it did take a very long time to come out.

The next day Rosemarie booked a few dives so I had a solo morning. I went for a walk and found another big monitor lizard. And got eaten alive by mosquitos.

Alone-y lunch back at the local. Delicious nasi goreng and a low mango mango blended.

I saw a lot of support for Palestine all throughout Malaysia. So refreshing.

When Rosemarie got back from diving we went for a little hike up to the windmills. It was hot. I got even more mosquito bites. And you probably shouldn’t go for a hike in a damp full body bathing suit. We got really stinky.

We had fish BBQ for dinner at Amelia Cafe again. I got barramundi and Rosemarie got a whole squid.

The next day Rosemarie did one more dive and I tagged along and snorkeled.

We had one last breakfast at Amelia Cafe before catching a boat taxi to the other island. We had three types of roti. We always had the same waiters looking after us every time we ate there because they get no days off! They were always asking us funny questions. When we told the waiter guys it was our last meal there they wanted to take a picture with us, haha.

Quick and easy boat taxi trip to the other island. The big island is bigger, but has less options on it. Again the service at our hotel was great (complimentary banana bread!), but the entire building felt like it was made out of sponges.

Hammock time. And the view from the big island to Fishermans Village on the small island. We heard a lot of prayers sounds from that mosque, at all times of day.

This was not our best meal. Really missed Amelia Cafe at that point. Probably our fault for going out to eat right before sunset when the staff was probably at their most exhausted and hangry.

The next day we booked a half day snorkel tour that would bring us to a few new locations. It ended up being a private tour with just Rosemarie and I, and our very sun smart boat driver who looked like a ninja.

It was good to go to new snorkel spots but there is probably a reason why they weren’t on the popular tour. Some were a bit choppy and it was a bit harder to see stuff. But it was still great! We didn’t get to see any Napoleon fish unfortunately, even though our ninja guide told us exactly where to look and how many to look for (one, and four, lol).

Post snorkeling mango ice blendeds. These might have been the best ones yet. Look at that height! Look at that shine!

We were hanging out in the hammocks and heard a weird sound that we hadn’t heard before. Went to check it out… MONKEYS! The best!!

Trying out another BBQ joint. This time we split a whole tuna. I asked what type of tuna it was and the man was like “It’s just tuna tuna”. Haha.

One last mango ice blended. The two ladies running this beach restaurant just sat in the shade as much as possible. You want food, you get the menu yourself and come to them, ha. I get it.

And then finally we caught the ferry back to the mainland. This time we were much smarter and sat right at the back of the boat. It was much more comfortable.

Our next stop was Penang. Mostly for eating, hehe.

We decided to get off our bus early and take the ferry to Penang Island rather than sit in traffic over the bridge because our hotel was right next to the ferry terminal anyway. The ferry felt just like the Seabus in Vancouver!

We went to the Jetty Food Court for dinner the first night in Penang because someone had recommended it, and it looked cool and had tons of different options all in once place… but it was very mid. We had noodles and then walked around and tried to find another place for a second dinner/snack, but ended up in an Indian garment making area that was interesting but not food-filled.

Eventually we found a little roadside place where we could get cool drinks and finally try kaya toast (liked it).

Penang has lots of street art.

The next morning we caught the city bus (Penang has a lot of easy to use buses) around the north of the island to Escape Penang, because I wanted to go on the Worlds Longest Water Slide.

The amusement park actually has 4 Guinness Records:

1. Longest Tube Water Slide – 1,111 metres – chairlift to the top, takes like 5 minutes to get down, very fun, you can see monkeys from the slide
2. Longest Zip Coaster – 1,135 metres – absolutely terrifying, do NOT ask for an big push, wanted off the ride after the first 30 seconds, also lasted about 5 minutes, legit thought I was going to fall out the entire time
3. Longest Tubby Racer – 453.3 metres – still pretty scary, worried about flipping and grating off all of my skin
4. Largest Tipping Bucket – 28,757 litres – RIDICULOUS, requires several lifeguards to make sure that people don’t actually die when it tips, knocked me back about a meter into the stranger sitting behind me, a funny bonding experience

The park also had other extreme waterslides, like a carpet racer with automatic launching device, an aqualoop, some steep drop slides, a banana shaped slide that launches into the air (with a sign warning of high risk of dislocations). Also a lazy river that had no current and you had to legit paddle a boat with the shortest paddles ever to get around, and a Wipe Out type inflatable course that was fun and hard.

There was even more activities on the dry side of the park, like high ropes and rock climbing, but after our terrifying experience on the Zip Coaster, and sweating our way through the seven sketchy ziplines we decided we’d had enough and headed out.

Overall the park was extremely exhilarating. I’m glad that neither of us hurt ourselves.

We had to wait a long time for a bus on the way back because of a downed power line. By the time we got back to town it was dinner time so again we got off the bus early and headed to the Kimberley Street Food Night Market. We saw a big line for this little cart so we lined up. Turns out it’s a Michelin Guide joint famous for its braised chicken feet. (We didn’t get that… we got some type of koay teow soup.)

There are a bunch of restaurants nearby that will let you bring in outside food as long as you order a drink or a dessert. So we also got some satay skewers from another street vendor and some deliciously refreshing icy desserts. Such a good meal.

The next morning we checked out the jetties near our hotel. They are quite touristy but it’s neat that people live right on them. And I like their concrete bucket piles/footings system.

Then we went back to the night market we were at the night before, but in the morning, so we could try Penang-style laksa. Did you know that laksa is a breakfast food? We also got one of these Chinese meat pastry thingies that was super oily delicious.

We caught a Grab to Penang Hill and took the funicular up to the top. It was very high!

There were monkeys at the top and they were very funny, even though they were totally pests. We greatly enjoyed watching them dig through bins, try stuff, and throw things they didn’t care for.

Another couple of funny monkeys.

It was very hot up there but the view was nice we did a few little hikes. We were strategically picking routes that were mostly downhill, but ended up walking too far down and then we couldn’t get back on the funicular unless we walked way WAY further down, and it ended up being quite a long and tiring and sweaty experience.

On the plus side, we found a different type of monkey at the funicular midstation! So cute!!

Then we caught another Grab to a hipster market and had some kimbap and did a lil’ shopping. I got some cute stickers and Rose bought some socks that have roti on them.

For dinner we had nasi kandar, which is similar to nasi lemak but more curry-y and even more customisable. There were dozens of choices of proteins and vegetables. To be honest we were quite overwhelmed, but the restaurant dude was super helpful and patient with us! We chose a piece of fish and some marinated chicken and then he picked out a bunch of sides for us. It was tasty and the perfect amount of food. I liked seeing what plates the other people built for themselves.

The next morning we were up before sunrise to catch our flight to the East Coast!

Penang was great. So delicious.