What a hard life, huh? So, we had 2 nights and 2 days on Kecil. We spent our first day relaxing, swimming, reading and sleeping on the soft, white sand. B tanned. I laid out under the umbrella. And yet, the equatorial sun got me!! Stupid me. I don't know what I was thinking, but I didn't put on any sunblock for the first half of the day, as I thought the umbrella shade would be enough protection. Oops. I am burned to a complete crisp. My forehead looks like rock monitor skin, and I have raccoon eyes. Dammit! What's wrong with me.
Our bungalow was one of the most defunct accommodations that I've ever stayed in, but on this expensive island, we had to deal. It was an A-frame shed, with just enough room to fit two twin beds pushed together. There was perhaps no more than 2 feet of empty space on each side of the bed, so if you had anything else other than a rucksack, then oh well. When we opened the door, we were literally touching the bed. We had to walk a bit to the left and close the door just to get to the right side of the bed. Our mosquito net was bullshit. And the shared bathrooms were way on the other side of the central lawn area. The shower was a spout spitting out water from a pipe hanging from the ceiling. No hooks, no shelves, no sink, no towels, no toilet paper.
Oh, and the final kicker... no power/ electricity until the sun goes down. The island runs on a generator, so power is limited on the entire island. Not that having it on even in the dark mattered too much. As our fan woudn't have moved a fly a few feet in front, and we had absolutely no light source in the room. But! We did have a single lightbulb on the porch. All this luxury for 30 ringgit a night (15 each). Last time I checked, the conversion was about $1 to RM 3.2. So, we immediately decided that this room was a place to lie down at night and keep our stuff in. We were not about to spend any extra time in there, other than what was needed. We also decided that we were going to have to come back to the room drunk to be ok with the situation.
However, that did not happen. This island is exxxxxxpensive!!!! We tried. We sure did. But after 3 beers, at one of the two bars on Kecil, at RM 10 (ringgit)/ $3/ 100 Thai baht per beer can, we called it. We called it a night, and looked forward to our snorkeling trip the next day. Oh, and they only serve Tiger beer on the whole isand of Kecil.
Six different spots. Three Black-Tipped Sharks, a large sea turtle, Nemo in anenome and giant blue grouper are just some of the fascinating marine life we encountered on our all day snorkeling excursion. Very cool. We enjoyed the King Fish BBQ that evening on the beach, watched a movie at one of the higher end bungalows, and headed back for a good's night rest in our A-frame shed. However... mine was not such a good night. I was literally attacked by a platoon of mosquitoes, and there was not much to do about it. Oh, and my sunburn was burning. But, all's OK, more than OK, because look at where we are!!
Anyway, as we saw our wallets drain, we decided to book it to Cameron Highlands... next stop on our Malaysian Rucksack Adventure.
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