My Roomies

We arrived on the Perhentian Islands yesterday.  I can say that I wasn’t too impressed with what I saw.  I guess we have been spoiled by Pulau Tioman, with our beachfront chalet, white sand beach and cheap beers. All that aside, I thought I would give it a chance, so I found us a spot on the crowded, rocky beach and headed for a swim.  EWWWW!!!  Not only was the sea really shallow, but the further I went out the more dead coral and sea cucumbers I encountered.  Speaking of sea cucumbers, has anyone ever stepped on one?  Luckily, I haven’t but the thought just terrifies me.  Are they squishy or hard?
I had begun to think the island was a lost cause- that was until we found a great chalet in the jungle.  It has one of the prettiest views of the sea, we can see the sunset from our large deck and we have a resident gecko (who I have named Peter), and he is HUGE and handsome :)  It didn’t quite occur to me why he was so huge until we came home from dinner last night.  We sauntered in, and before turning on the lights I grabbed my guitar to get in some evening practise.  As I grabbed it, I felt something crawl up my hand!  AH! I bolted to the deck, squealing like a little girl.  We looked around but couldn’t see anything-  I put it off as Elise crazy, then I felt it on my leg.  I did a frantic bug dance and bolted outside again.  OK- awesome :(  Our room fills with huge cockroach-type creatures when the sun goes down.  Dan put in a half-hearted effort into capturing the insects (‘cause I think he was equally as terrified as I was) but failed as one made its way behind our bed and the other down into the floor boards.  Sick!  After having my freak out session, I decided to get cleaned up for bed, but upon entering the bathroom I was greeted by two rather large jungle spiders.  Now, spiders actually don’t freak me out much.  They eat annoying mosquitoes and flies, so they stayed. 
Aside from the trouble I had falling asleep, our room was rather nice.  I awoke in the morning, all the night crawlies had taken to their hiding places, Peter was watching over our bathroom and the sea view from our bed was calm and peaceful.  When you travel, it becomes difficult to notice the beauty in everything you see.  Yes, this island isn’t quite as amazing as the last one we were on, but I would take a tropical beach over working any day.  I do have icky night crawlies, but I also have a pink lace mosquito net and a bad ass gecko named Peter to protect me.  Besides, never would I be able to afford a view like this back home :)  I am exactly where I want to be.
**Dan’s note: My effort wasn’t half-assed… Those things move friggin’ fast!! Believe what you’d like, but we have video with sound which shows the entire scene in High Definition which will be posted at some point. :) **

This is the view from our Chalet!

Coral Beach aka icky sea cucumber beach!

This is Peter.  He is so cute!

Another picture of the view from our deck ;)