Tucked away in the northeast of Malaysia, the two main islands PP Kecil and PP Besar (Little and Big Island) are postcard beach island destinations in southeast Asia.
After a very extended match of "This would be worse if...", our favourite travel game, in the cramped and under air conditioned minibus to the ferry (which we thought we had played very quietly until the Aussie girls next to us commented that their favourite was "if we were riding sneezing donkeys the whole way"), we were ecstatic to arrive on the islands. We were told there are no phones on the islands and no banks so we had cash and energy to go hostel to hostel until we found accommodation. What we forgot was that it was Friday, and literally every place at Long Beach, the main accommodation drag on Little Island, was full. Everyone kept asking why we hadn't made reservations like we were idiots. We would love to know HOW we were supposed to do this when there are no phones or email addresses for the hotels. Turns out everyone has a phone; they're just secret phones to discourage guests from asking to use them. Sigh.
I parked it with the packs on Long Beach while Mehr went door to door to prevent us from being homeless that night. She had been gone a REALLY long time and as the sun set I was getting concerned. Had she fallen down a hole? Had she had an asthma attack? A number of terrible possibilities flew through my mind. Nope, she was fine, just really winded from trekking across the island to Coral Beach on the other side, where she had triumphed and found us nothing less than a treehouse chalet! Sweet.
Not so sweet were the 77 creaky wood plank stairs that were a one way trip between the beach and our digs. Super sweet was the wicked views of the sun setting on the ocean. We weren't told in advance that our treehouse (so named because of its backwoods location and height off the ground) came with roommates. Sultan the Spider (maybe a Huntsman... not too sure) lived on our door. Gilbert the Gecko was on mosquito patrol on the porch.
Andre the Giant and the twins were the huge monitor lizards rustling about below the verandah (Andre was over 1m long and definitely large enough to eat Mehron, hence I maintain that he was a dragon, not a lizard).
We parked it there for 5 days and were even debating jumping the ferry to swim back upon our departure. We spent our days snorkeling in turquoise waters with black tipped reef sharks, giant sea turtles, baby squids, parrot fish, jellyfish and sea cucumbers (which really do feel like soggy cucumbers!). We devoured roti canai and coconut lassi and iced watermelon drinks. In case you think that lacks excitement, we also braved the invisible baby jellyfish that stung us in the water regularly, which was like being pinched with tiny elastics while swimming. Uncomfortable but not agonizing. And we risked our lives sitting in the coconut drop zone, where a coconut slamming into your head would easily give a concussion. However, I don't last long in beach sunshine and I had to risk my head for my skin and sit in the palm tree's shade.
When we weren't frolicking outside, Mehr indulged herself and finally bought a second pair of pants, which turned out to be a constant source of entertainment.
Firstly, they're one size fits all and that size is enormous. Secondly, they're bright purple. Thirdly, we're still not sure how to tie them up. We were in stitches for almost an hour trying to work out how the purple pants are supposed to work.
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