After having the full Asian experience - aka. A night spent on the toilet vomiting our guts out from a bout of food poisoning we gladly got on a boat to the Perhentian Islands. They are a group of small coral-fringes islands on the northeasten coast of West Malaysia close to the Thai border. We stayed on Long Beach at Matahari Dive School in a little wooden chalet about 30m from the beach. White sandy beaches with crystal clear water and flanked by rolling jungle covered hills made the views from the beach spectacular. I think we may have landed in paradise. Our first few days were spent recovering under an umbrella on the beach engrossed in books or swimming in the 30° sea. Every night the beach transformed, everyone who had spent the day underwater sat around on candle lit tables or bamboo mats on the sand eating freshly caught barbecued fish and listen to the gentle waves crash. We tried to many types of fish while on the island including shark, barracuda, blue marlin & the mighty king fish. Breathtaking fire shows caught our eyes, where local men casually swang balls and hoops of fire around. Most evenings as evening became night the once brilliant blue skies blackened and finally ruptured and cracked. Lightening ripped into the southern Chinese sea and thunder followed with deafening applause as we retreated to our hut.

But the best sights to see on the islands were underwater, where we saw reef sharks and sea turtles against the colourful corals and tropical fish. No better spot to learn to dive, I signed up to do my open water PADI licence for four days but because Hugo has difficulty with his ears he only did snorkeling. So we spent the next three days on opposite schedules, mine underwater learning the art of diving and Hugo's on the beach. On the third day my ear was causing pain after our second last dive and I couldn't finish the course. After a night of excruciating agony and a tried but failed attempt of using local medicine (banana stem sap) and no doctor on the island we headed back to the mainland to see a professional. Turns out I ruptured my eardrum so that's the end of my scuba diving days for the next few months. But otherwise a great week well spent on the island - we'll be back!