Perhentian Islands

I spent almost 7 wonderfuls days on Palau Perhentian Besar. This is the bigger of the two Perhentian islands, which are located on the east cost of mainland Malaysia.

The weather was not the very best, but I can't complain as it was every day good enough to go diving - and the diving here is AMAZING! I dig get to sea turtles, small sharks, lots of fish, moray eels, blue spotted sting rays. and a large variety of corals.

So sorry, not many pictures to show, as I was more under water than above... but instead of my ding the pictures, have a look at Tim's pictures. Tim is one of the dive instructors at Seahorse DC and he is adding new wonderful pictures every day. On July 15th, there are quite a few which he took, while we were diving together.

Cameron Highlands

On the way to the Perhentian Islands, I just stopped for one afternoon in the Cameron Highlands. This region is full of hills & mountains, tea, vegetable and flower farms. It would be worthwhile spending more time there... but I was faced between spending more time in the cool and the mountains or carrying on to the sea, beach and diving.... diving won! And the weather was not the best either when I was there. The picture above shows a tea plantation.

Tchoukball in Melaka

While in Malaysia I took the opportunity to meet the Tchoukball players in Melaka. I spent some fun two days sharing their training sessions and exchanging training exercises and experiences. I also had the opportunity to join Justin for two mornings introducing Tchoukball in a local primary school. Explaining Tchoukball for the first time is always hard, but when the kids are 11 and mainly speak Chinese it becomes a real challenge! For me it was a great experience to meet children and teachers in their local environment and they had a lot of fun meeting me as well I think.

Here some pictures - they tell the better story than what I could tell it... (some are of poor quality, but show evening training session by full moon)...

Melaka - discovering the old city

Like Georgetown on Penang, Melaka has some great historical areas remaining from the Dutch and Portuguese periods. The town house, built by the Dutch in 1640's(?) is still a very imposing building in the city center.

My guesthouse, called the River View Guesthouse, was a very peaceful spot and, as it's name tells us, with a lovely River View on the back of the house.

Walking the historic parts, there are always some new things to discover. I walked into a bar to get myself a drink and ended up getting a special "spa treatment" from fish eating dead skin from my feet. At the beginning a very strange and surprising feeling, but all in all very fun. And not at all expected or planed!

Amongst shops selling cheap souvenirs for the tourists, there are also a few artists having their shops. One was Mme Lee who hand paints all batik and T-Shirts she sells. All by herself!

Most of the time in Melaka I spent with local Tchoukball players - but more on Tchoukball in the next news.

Penang - Georgetown

As I extended my stay in Langkawi, my time on Penang was very limited. I just had a day to discover Georgetown - so I missed the beaches of Penang.
Georgetown is a lovely little city, with lots of historical and multicultural parts. Part from the British, part from the Dutch and today with a great mix of Chinese and Indian living in these historic areas. The day went by quickly and all to soon it was time to catch my night bus to Melaka.

Langkawi

After KL, coming to Langkawi was great! Although this island is very popular with tourists, there are some very nice places which are not crowded at all. The first afternoon I went to the beach closest to my guesthouse. All afternoon I saw about 10 people walk past and the sunset, which was great, I had it all for myself!

At Zackry's guesthouse I met a few very nice people, with whom I shared some great moments! Late night chats and drinks followed some great dinners at the excellent Indian restaurant next door. The days I spent them lazy on the beach or sitting in the lovely Yellow Cafe, watching the rain fall and playing Jenga for hours!

Yellow Cafe before the rain

Cactus restaurant serving excellent breakfast

The days however went quickly by and soon it was time to leave for Penang.

Kuala Lumpur

I started my discovery of Malaysia in KL. I have to confess my first action was to walk through some shopping centers - when you haven't seen one for almost two months, it is really fun! Just bought some essentials: new pair of trousers, sun cream and other stuff I was starting to run out off. I also went to the main sights to be discovered in KL: Petronas Towers, China Town, Little India,... all in all not all to much to tell...