Giant Monitor Lizard

Sunday, April 17, 2011
Pulau Perhentian Kecil, Terengganu, Malaysia
We woke up at 9am and went straight for breakfast before packing up the rest of our stuff. Our taxi boat turned up right on time and we got dropped off at Coral Bay. As soon as we got to our new chalet I had a shower, which felt like a luxury after the trickling tap! We went for a drink at a beach front restaurant before walking to Long Beach. We were looking forward to a day of relaxing so set down our towel on the sand and went for a dip in the beautiful sea. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky and it was scorching. We spent the whole day sunbathing as it had been over a month since we were last on an island. We were in the sea at one point when Andrew looked rather sad as he had lost his sunglasses out of his pocket. I spotted them on the sea floor, which wasn't really that difficult as the water was so clear. We had spent so much time in the sea that Andrew burnt his back so we had to rent a parasol at a rip off price of RM10. 

We had slow walk back to Coral Bay as the afternoon sun was still so hot . We reached the end of the trail and spotted an industrial cool box with different alcoholic beverages lined across the top of it, an opportunistic local clearly cashing in on the tourist demand to buy alcohol. It was strange having to sneakily buy a bottle of 'Stanley Morgan' rum and it felt as though it were illegal! There were very few places on the island that sold alcohol, so we were ecstatic at our find! We were just walking back to our chalet when I stood frozen at what I saw in the dirty water. I grabbed Andrew and pointed at the giant monitor lizards, but as always it took him a while to realise that there were two huge lizards right next to our chalet. However, he soon jumped backwards as they darted in our direction! They really were huge in comparison to the other monitor lizards we had seen on the island. I didn't like them one bit as they were literally underneath our chalet. Andrew took the opportunity to take many photos out of the back of our chalet, but this led to the discovery of a huge spider web and a nasty looking black spider that sent shivers right through our body! 
 
We went for a BBQ at 'Mama's Kitchen' on the beach front. It was a fairly good deal as you got to choose a piece of fish and a sauce, which then came with rice, coleslaw, banana bread, melon and a soft drink, all for RM18. I got King Fish which was really meaty and Andrew went for Barracuda. He was a bit put off though as his 'Sweet & Sour' sauce tasted like vomit! We went back to our chalet and drank our sneaky bottle of rum and coke on our veranda. 
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