Pulau Kapas - Mon 22/03 - Wed 23/02

Pulau Kapas…Kapas is a very small island about two and a half hours further up the coast from Cherating. You catch a boat from a place called ’Marang’ on the mainland and from there it’s a short 5km blat in a speed boat over to the island. When we arrived we went straight to the guesthouse that we had thought looked good in our guide book. We met the owner and the first thing that struck us was how much building work was going on. It’s the end of the monsoon season here where boats don’t run to the islands and most accommodation places close their doors. As they are now re-opening prices are comparatively low to the high season but a lot are still working on maintenance and renovation. The room the guy showed us looked like the cow shed at Kate’s Mum and Dad’s place only not as nice and initially he told us it would be 40 ringgit per night. He then came back and told us it was 30 ringgit, this is about $10 AUD and about what we expect to pay for a basic but clean and liveable room. We accepted and tried to ignore the blatantly shabby state of the room and put it down to it being the beginning of the season. The owner had a bit of a weird vibe about him, neither of us could really put our finger on it but something seemed a bit off.

The island was pretty beautiful but the stretch of beaches that were able to be accessed by us on foot was quite small so options for exploring were limited. We went on a couple of walks, including one ‘jungle trek’ to the other side of the island that obviously hadn’t been attempted for some time. There were the most mosquitoes I have ever seen swarming all over us, huge spiders hanging in webs that I kept bumping into along the track and a trail in the bush that we lost after walking for a while. What was supposed to be a 30 minute stroll to the other side of the island turned into a mosquito infested mission so we abandoned our planned walk and literally ran out of the bush back towards the beach!

While strolling along one of the beaches we did have a pleasant encounter with some local fisherman who had come ashore to get some coconuts. They motioned at us to stop while one of them scaled up a very tall coconut tree on the edge of the sand. This brave bloke then stood on the huge bunch of coconuts at the top of the tree. By jumping up and down on them he knocked one or two fee and they fell with a dull thud down to his friends waiting below. Once there one of the blokes chopped the tops off them with a machete and offered them to us. They had so much milk in them we couldn‘t drink it all! Then he showed us how to chop them in half, cut off a small chunk to use as a spoon and scoop the insides out. Delicious! After gorging ourselves and having a pidgin conversation with much laughing and acting out of what we were trying to say to one another, the fisherman jumped in their little boat filled with coconuts and headed back to their vessel.

Other than this really unexpected and nice experience the island (and the people inhabiting it) just didn’t seem quite right so we decided to leave after two nights. A major factor in our decision to leave came on our second night when I was reading in our room, laying on my back looking up towards the ceiling. I thought I saw a head poke out for an instant and then disappear. I thought I must be imagining things until I thought I saw it again. I grabbed our mag-light (an invaluable purchase) and searched the top of the wall with the light. I thought to myself ’aww it’s probably a cute squirrel or a cool lizard or something’ then I saw the head. I thought ’what is that’ then it turned around quick as a flash and I caught a glimpse of it’s long ribbed tail….RAT!! I leaped up and tried to follow it with my torch. It flew along the top of the wall and tried getting into the next door neighbours room but was thwarted by a wooden beam. It turned around came back along our wall, went through a gap in the wall and outside. We went round the side of the hut and scanned around with the torch. No sign of it. After this every noise and creak we heard from outside sounded like the dreaded rat returning. Most wildlife doesn’t bother me too much, unless it’s crawling in or near my bed (no sheep jokes please…) but I hate rats!! Kate didn’t seem to fond of them either and throw in a couple more spiders, a cat with enormous balls that sprayed all over Kate’s sarong (that was actually pretty funny and he was ginger, typical) and we had had just about enough of this island and it’s queer inhabitants.

The beaches were nice but there’s no shortage of places here with nice beaches so in the end we decided to pack bags and go. Kapas didn’t end up being our favourite place in Malaysia but there you go, you win some you lose some.

After this we headed back to the mainland with the idea of moving further up the East coast to the much hyped Perhentian Islands. Before we arrived there we spent a coulpe of nights in the state capital of Kuala Terengganu. As we were feeling like we had spent a lot of time at beachy type places recently we thought it might be nice to have a couple ’rest’ days in a small city. This place was okay with an interesting Chinatown and a few historical places of interest. On the second day here I had a classic ’fair skinned ginger in a tropical environment’ type moment where I drank too much coffee and not enough water and felt like I’d been run over by a truck. Might I add at this point that Kate, although rather fair skinned also doesn’t seem to be affected by the heat at all and indeed seems to gain strength and energy from the sun compared to my tendency to whither up and beg for mercy after very little exposure to the tropical heat. After about 10 gallons of water and a few hours lying down I was up and at ‘em again and ready for the trip up to Kuala Besut the following day to catch a boat out to the Perhentians, but more about that next time. Til then.
One of the many small beaches on Pulau Kapas.
The view from our bungalow.
A local fisherman was up in this coconut tree (unfortuately you can't see him) kicking down the coconuts for us and his mates. You can see one of the coconut falling from the tree.
Tim enjoying his coconut!
Tim eating his coconut. The fisherman made a 'spoon' out of the coconut flesh for us so we could easily scoop out of flesh.

Me drinking my coconut milk!
Tim relaxing in his hammock. This is our life when we are on islands - reading and chilling.
The cat that peed on my sarong - look at how big his balls are. All the male cats have huge balls and crooked tails.