June 4, 2004

We've now been here at Abdul's Chalets for a week, and we're definitely living life at a different pace. The simple wooden chalets, with shutters where there should be windows, and unfortunately screw holes where there should be door handles, are right on the beach, so it takes ten strides (14 when the tide's out) to be in the sea in the morning.
Hmm, perhaps door handles would be good - we were down the beach snorkelling and Charlotte managed to lock herself into the bathroom yesterday just by pushing the door closed. One of our neighbours had to let her out!
The Perhentians have a range of different beaches and chalets - Long Beach for cheap and grungy; Flora Bay for the divers and the Malaysian tour groups; Perhentian Island Resort for the rich; and Abdul's for families and people who can live without beer. We're paying 80 Ringgit (£11) for a family room with two double beds, and the best beach view we've seen this year.
There's nowhere else that we need to go - Abdul's has a restaurant serving great food, including whatever fish the boat brought back at the end of the day (shark, kingfish and barracuda yesterday), and a small shop renting out snorkelling gear. Today we wandered 50 yards down the beach to snorkel over the reef outside the marine protection headquarters. After an hour we'd seen scores of different fish, giant clams and a 3-foot turtle!