The road from Kuala Terengganu yesterday to Kuala Besut today was a quiet coastal road recommended by Al–thanks Al for all the great advice so far! It really was great to get off of the busy highway and be able to look around more, and actually hear ourselves talk to each other. Riding this bike tour makes me appreciate what a special ride the Great Divide was. It was so remote and quiet most of the time, we could sometimes go hours without having to really watch for cars, all the time hearing the birds sing and the air whoosh through the pines. This is a different kind of tour, and after riding some highways, already I look forward to these quieter roads like today.

We arrived in Kuala Besut at about 12:40, and almost immediately were approached about a boat to the islands. The young man was very helpful with information, even offering to let us park our bikes in their office while we were at the island. There are no roads or paths to ride on the Perhentians, and taking a bike isn’t recommended. But it was all very fast and he was putting the pressure on big time, so Dave wanted to check around just a bit before we got on board. He found out that the kid was right, that’s the only boat going out today and the price was fair, though higher for the monsoon season. We decided to go with it, so we stashed our bikes, grabbed all our panniers and got on the boat.

The ride was insane, in my opinion, but Dave was laughing his way through it. He’s nuts. But he’s been on rougher boat rides while working in the Maldives. I had prepared myself for another ferry boat ride like we had to Pulau Tioman, which was slightly alarming, but not so bad once I relaxed. At the very end. This time we were faced with a speed boat ride in a much smaller, open boat. Yikes.

The ocean was rough from the monsoon winds. Even though it hadn’t been stormy in the full monsoon way, the winds still work the seas up into a choppy mess, and we crossed right over that choppy water, sometimes flying through the air and landing so hard I thought the boat would break. Dave says boats don’t break from that, but I don’t quite believe him. Yikes! The swells were big, but uneven. So we’d skip over the top of some of them, landing hard on the other side, and others we’d go up and down with the swell like a roller coaster. Dave had told me to keep my eye on the horizon to avoid getting sick, and it worked. Boy was I concentrating on that horizon.

I was sitting next to a bar, and I held on to that bar behind me so hard that my entire right side is stiff and sore, and the fingernails of my left hand are still numb from gripping the seat. Yes, I am over dramatic. No one else on that boat looked like they were gripping so hard, but I couldn’t help it. I sort of enjoyed little bits of the ride when we weren’t flying off the far side of a swell, the driver was obviously slowing and working through some of it so that we wouldn’t, but then he’d speed right up again and I’d tense right back up. All this stuff IS going to teach me to relax and go with the flow, right? I certainly hope so. I really do need to relax.

We checked out all the accommodations, four different places with different types of rooms, and as is our habit, we decided on the first one we had seen. We’re staying at the Reef, and the owner, Anuar, just arrived for the season yesterday, so we think we’re some of the first customers. He gave us a beautiful chalet for 50RM, a discount from the usual 80RM price because of the season. Anuar later gave us some great information about the island and some advice for where to swim and hike. He’s a very laid back, quiet man but very friendly. We really enjoy it here.