Roads of Asia: East Coast: Last Days in Malaysia

Market Colors

Perenthian Islands are located on the North East coast of Malaysia, two islands with beautiful beaches, amazing marine life and thick jungle. We arrived there by a sunny afternoon and the water was really amazing. During our snorkeling trip we saw black tip sharks, manta rays, many corals and tropical fishes, murrays, turtles...the water was actually warmer than the air because......it was raining!! Tropical paradise starts with tropical and the east coast of Malaysia is one the most humid. After a few days of unsettled "paradise", we decided to leave for Kota Barhu, the last step before crossing the border to Thailand.

Kota Barhu is one of the most Malay town of Malaysia. It means it has one of the lowest concentration of Indians and Chinese. The population is nearly 100% Muslim. We spent an interesting hour at the cultural center where activities are organised a few times a week. We saw a band playing big drums, traditional games and martial arts, traditional paintings...all in a familial and nice atmosphere. The town looked quite dynamic. For dinner we went to the night market and tried the blue rice, the local delicatessen....people were really enjoying taking their food in the market from pancakes to noodles, rice, cakes...a local saturday night!

The day after, despite our embassies advising not to cross on the East side (there are some terrorism activities in some Thai Southern provinces but usually targeting government or military basis) and following the comments of the locals "No problem at all", we took a local bus to the border. Bye bye Malaysia: such an easy place to visit, a cosmopolitan country where people are friendly and rarely hassle you, such a green country and we now know why...we will come back at the end of our trip before flying to London!