Wednesday, 8/15

Plan—7:30am breakfast & 8am departure (cab awaiting us across the river). 5 hr drive to Terengganu. 1 ½ hr ferry to Pulau Redang (island on east coast of Malaysia).

So far we have had flashbacks every day at breakfast. Chuck Mangione (sp) was played every day for breakfast.
Walking to breakfast was a similar experience to dinner last night—the macaques were active in the trees. It was fun to watch them swing & climb around. They were not on the ground nor did they ever try to bother us.

Drive
There are wild cows in Malaysia! Instead of the deer crossing signs, there are cow-crossing signs. There are cows just standing in the middle of the road. We nearly hit one because it was a blind curve and he was just there, hanging out in the road.
The roads were quite curvy & hilly and carsickness was upon me. My only remedy for this is to look out the window. Our driver was funny. His English consisted of one or two words. It was hard to tell if he was asking us something or telling us something.
He was in no hurry to get us to our destination. He stopped a few times: almost immediately for gas, once for restroom break and once for lunch (for him, not us).

Approximately 3 hrs into the ride, the driver asked us about our ferry reservation. Frank didn’t have one, nor was he aware that one was needed. When Frank made the taxi reservation, he asked for help getting us there. He was never told that the ferry only had two or three trips. Several phone calls ensued and the phone was passed to Frank regarding the ferry. One time we were told that the ferry left at 1pm. We quickly did the math and figured that we may make it but it would be close. Another time were learned that it left at 1pm and 4pm—that would be helpful because we would definitely make one. The last call gave us news that the last ferry was at 1pm and that we would have to stay the night in Terengganu. The stress was setting in and the car ride was not helping. We encountered road construction everywhere. At one point the toll way was closed and we had to take a different route just to get back to it.
We arrived in Teregganu at 2pm (6 hr drive--one hour after the anticipated time) and Frank told the driver to take us to the ferry just in case. We learned that the last ferry was at 3pm; we had made it!!!!!

We had 1 hour to kill so we decided to find some lunch.
We had a 1 ½ hr ride across the South China Sea to Pulau Redang. Upon arrival, a motorized golf cart from the resort picked us up. There were goats on the beach. There were goats everywhere—most looked quite scraggly. I think they belonged to people but who knows because they didn’t have collars.

The resort is beautiful; completely different from Taman Negara—rainforest jungle vs. beach resort.
We’re staying at the Berjaya Redang Beach Resort and everything looks like a postcard. The waters are crystal blue, the sand is white, there are cliffs and a rainforest behind us.
Returning from dinner just now I thought I would turn my head skyward to see if there were bats; immediately my thoughts were answered. Yes and in all sizes. There are small bats (micro bats—smaller than Houston bats), medium-sized bats (bigger than Houston), and large bats. My first thought when I saw a large bat was that it was an owl. It was a huge fruit bat. I tried to take pictures (I patiently waited for them to keep flying over us) but the night setting on the camera isn’t great and things need to be still. The bats refused to hold still.

Plan for tomorrow:
Report to beach at 7:45am for Frank to scuba. I plan to snorkel. I’m not sure if I can go in the boat w/him or if I need to find my own place. There is a turtle watching tour (glass bottom boat) that we plan to do and there is a spa here. The prices are so good that it would be poor manners to skip it.

We’re here until Saturday afternoon. Frank & I decided that it would be better to fly back to KL—1hr flight vs. 6hr drive. The prices are very similar so we’ve opted to fly.

Haven’t had a chance to download pictures yet. It takes FOREVER. Hopefully I’ll find time very shortly.