The Beach.

From the instant we stepped off the ferry, we knew it was going to be hard to leave this place. The island, about 20 km long and 10 km wide, has a few towns dotting the west coast and a rather isolated tropical east coast. The narrow, northern tip of the island has a rocky shore with a jungle interior and as you move south the spine of the island rises into a small set of vegetation covered mountains. Although the island is geared for tourism, there are still a few native residents living outside of the tourist's eye, along the coasts untraveled by ferries. In the budget backpacker's town (dubbed ABC), we never felt we were in an overly touristy area, and the locals running the few guest houses and hotels met us with genuine kindness.

We stayed in a simple bungalow a stone's throw away from the crystal clear water, and the best spot to snorkel was right in front of our hotel. A perfect setting for a 26th birthday. Although we didn't do much for Paul's bday - ate a lot, swam, lazed on the beach (we attempted to play bad mitten but our rackets fell apart) and had a few happy hour beers with our neighbors- it was a perfect way to ring in a new year.

The island is known for its snorkeling and diving, some of the best in Malaysia due to the clarity of the water and the 233 species of fish and 183 species of coral flourishing along the coast. We rented sets of snorkels and fins and dove into the water. We could swim about 300 feet away from the coast and still see the ocean floor, the clearest water we've seen yet. With goggles on and snorkels up, we swam with schools of tropical fish and over clusters of neon coral (some spiky or with fluttering tentacles, others like big brains coming out of the ocean floor). We saw several sting rays gliding over the sand, barracudas, alligator garrs, clown fish, rainbow fish, jelly fish, and even a giant angel fish (about 3 feet high). For the next few days we spent several hours floating above this wild marine life.

The land wasn't so bad either, we had several visits from the local monkeys and saw the famous six foot monitor lizards. The entire interior of the island is a largely untouched jungle. With our neighbors, we did the hike across the island, 9 km each way (and really steep in both directions) to the isolated beaches of Juara on the east coast. Although completely exhausting, it was rewarding and exhilarating. We made it back in time for the 5-7PM happy hour and a delicious pineapple pizza.

The restaurant associated with our little cluster of bungalows was the best on the island. We pretty much ate a combo of fish and chips and vegetable curry the whole time we were there - and never got sick of it!