Gemas ➡️ Perhentian Islands

I arrived into Gemas around midnight and then had an hour wait til my next train. I'd heard from some people I'd met in hostels previously about this jungle train line that goes up through the jungles in the north east of Malaysian, all the way up to the Thai border. A bus would've been much quicker, but I fancied the adventure!
My train to Gemas was three hours, and then my train to Kota Bharu was 11 hours. I woke up around 7am to the sun peaking over the jungle, with misty mountains cowering in the distance. It was a pretty cool view and would change from deep jungle, to small villages, to limestone cliffs to palm tree plantations. Definitely more exciting than a coach, plus I was able to sleep better as the train didn't rock side to side like a sleeper bus does.
I then got an hour taxi down to the nearest jetty in a town called Besut, and was able to get on the next speed boat over to the islands in no time. There's two Islands which make up the 'Perhentian islands', Besu and Kecil. I'd opted to stay on the slightly smaller island, Kecil, as I'd read it was a bit more backpacker friendly. The boat was only 40 minutes, then I walked down the jetty to my accommodation which was a dorm room in a diving school. The accommodation here is crazy expensive when I was doing some research, this was one of the cheapest options and still £17 a night, compared to most hostel dorms which are £5-7.
I was nearly persuaded by one of the dive instructors to sign up to do my three-day open water scuba diving qualification. Which is something I have been thinking more and more about doing. However after going for a swim and thinking about it, I decided to leave it as I just wanted to properly chill out.
I walked just 10 minutes to the other side of the island, where the main beach was. The sand was packed with restaurants and plastic chairs lit up with string lights. I got some very mediocre fried rice, which initially came out with chicken in, before heading back.Read more