We've again lost track of time and have now been on the beautiful Perhentian Islands for well over a week. We're staying on Perhentian Besar (Big Island) in some really nice chalets looking out over the white sand beach and crystal clear turquoise waters, and about 700m across the bay is the second of the two islands, Perhentian Kecil (Little Island).

We did have quite a problem finding accommodation when we first arrived as it's now the high season and there's very few places to stay on either island. We'd reserved a room before leaving Kota Bharu, but when we arrived and checked it out, it turned out to be really grim. Instead we checked into another rather expensive chalet for two nights until a room came free at the place we're staying now.

Since then most of the days have been taken up by laying on the beach, swimming or reading books. There's a couple of restaurants along the beach and we've spent most evenings sat at one of these chatting to John and Christine, an English couple who are also taking year off to travel around the world (although in the opposite direction to us). All the restaurants put on a barbecue in the evening with intriguing choices of fish like Barracuda, Marlin, King Cobia and Queen Fish. Helen's favourite is of course Shark.

About four days ago we went on a fantastic four hour snorkelling trip that stopped at about five points around the island. The first site we stopped at was quite unbelievable - the water was so clear that we could easily see for ten or fifteen meters, and the amount of coral and colourful tropical fish was amazing. From here we stopped at a point between the two islands where we were lucky enough to spot a sea turtle a few feet in length gliding through the water below us. At one of the later stops we were swimming past a coral shelf when Helen spotted a shark swimming ahead of her, but by the time she'd recovered from the shock and called me over, it had long gone. The sharks around the island are Reef Sharks about four or five feet long and are extremely timid, so it wasn't until the last stop at Shark Point that I managed to catch sight of a few as they darted between the rocks. We had toyed with the idea of buying an underwater camera but in the end had decided against it which was really a shame. A couple of days ago we went back to the first snorkelling site with a camera, but typically the water wasn't as clear and of course there were no sharks around. Even so we managed to snap off twenty seven shots, so we'll have to wait until we get back to the mainland to see how they came out.

The diving courses here are very cheap compared to what we'd expect to pay back home, so today I left Helen on the beach and decided to try out the 'Discover Scuba Diving' option. This involved a half hour lesson on the land where we were shown what all the equipment was for, and also some useful hand signals - most of which I promptly forgot. Then we were taken out in the boat to a spot just off the small island where we were quite literally thrown in at the deep end. Actually there were only three students and two dive-masters, so we were well taken care of. After we'd tried breathing through the regulators (which is quite and odd experience), we were taken down to about six meters were we then went through some emergency procedures like swapping regulators and clearing our masks. When we were all happy with this, we were taken down to about eleven meters and spent half an hour swimming through the corals and spotting some of the larger fish that live at this depth. It was a really great experience and well worth paying just over twenty pounds for.

It's now time for us to drag ourselves away for here, so we're heading back to the mainland tomorrow where we'll be spending a night back in Kota Bharu before heading off for a jungle experience in the National Park of Taman Negara.