Perhentian Trip, by Hannah

          A shimmering school of fish swam past flicking their tails to change direction.  The pink flowing sea anemone below held a 'family' of clown fish.  My mind snapped a picture stunned at the simple beauty of this world in the depths of the ocean.  The different sightings of fish surprised us all.  I managed to catch a glimpse of an eel slithering shockingly close.  Mr. Sawatsky, a man from Dalat that went with us to the Perhentian Islands, saw a frightening sting ray.  At first, when seeing the sting ray, he mistook the creature for a much less harmful manta ray.  After studying a poster with different types of sea creatures and their names on it he realized that indeed, it was a sting ray.  It is a wonderful sensation of being below the waves in a silent communion with these sometimes menacing yet always beautiful creatures.

Another aspect of our Perhentian trip that I so very much enjoyed was the endless relaxation.  On this vacation there were no tours booked.  That created the awesome consequence of being able to sit on the beach whenever we wanted to relax.  I immediately took to reading books.  Some were only good books, some were awesome but every single one put me in a different world.   In the meantime,  between reading and sleeping, I learned hoards about the Holocaust which was what most of my books were about.  The authors I read were all very well researched making for good learning, even from fictitious characters like pilots and housewives.  I know it might not be the time to share this but Hitler was interested in black magic.  He put fortune tellers in concentration camps and the swastika he created was an evident symbol of bad luck. I admit I learned a lot, even on vacation.  

Lastly, I really enjoyed the scenery on our cross country drive.  The drive was extremely pristine.  As we left Penang, going across the bridge to the mainland of Malaysia, the most beautiful sunrise greeted us, starting off our vacation (we had left really early in the morning).  As we drove through the durian groves and coconut tree rows, a gentle mist settled in, making the trees look neat and the mountains up ahead something to look forward too.  The road weaved its way leisurely through the trees, as if it was yawning to the extent I was.  As we moved past rusty cars and messy bright Malay style houses I began to wonder how much longer.  After a while we moved past the plains and into the mountains.  I felt more tired then ever and fell asleep.  When I woke up, we were out of the mountains and nearing evidence of civilization.  Sadly there was no evidence of McDonalds or western toilets, just roadside stalls and "squatty potties".  When we finally got to the town where the jetty was we were overjoyed to stretch our legs and unload our luggage.  After waiting in a stuffy blue room and suffering from lack of air conditioning we were happy when a worker pronounced our boat ready.  A few minutes later, I found myself on a bone-jarring ride of our small boat bouncing over large waves.  After getting used to the feel, I let my hair loose and let it whip in the wind ready for my vacation.  I savoured the moment, then as we arrived at our rustic resort I set my feet on the ground below the water, slowly making my way to shore, hoping I could remember this ocean forever.