We are finally leaving the Perhentian islands after a week and I am really going to miss this place. I’ve been out diving most days, hanging around the dive shop chatting to the owner Jakub and looking at his amazing photos of sea horses and cuttlefish, lying on our balcony with the boys from next door, Steve and Ben, playing guitar in the evenings, drinking M&M milkshakes, swimming in the warm waters, wandering through the jungle to find our own private beaches, hanging out with guys who work here (one of whom Pappa, has kept the python they found in one of the chalets and is feeding it rats he catches behind the kitchen), eating French toast and drinking pots of Earl Grey tea. The diving has been really good fun and there is some fantastic coral around the reef, bamboo sharks who seem to permanently lie under the rocks doing nothing, colour-changing cuttlefish, playing with the tiny Nemo fish and coaxing them out of their sea anenomes, crazy coloured nudibranches, huge Jenkins whip rays and brightly patterned blue spotted sting rays, giant angel fish, batfish, schools of mean looking barracuda and grumpy looking giant moray eels. Is it any wonder I don’t want to leave!
