Up for breakfast (not
nice – lukewarm buffet, flies everywhere) and then a walk around the resort
grounds before checking out and heading to the ferry for Pangkor. The resort in
nice – it just needs a clean up and some care: it seems to be going to ruin and
would probably benefit form a large corporation hotel chain taking it over…
After a game of pool we left and headed back to Lumut and to a waiting ferry.
I wasn’t sure what to
expect, but the weather changed as we approached the island, so we were
somewhat limited as to what we could do. Easy option would have been to stay on
the ferry, return to Lumut and buy a fridge magnet to say I’d been there
(seeing as lying on a beach was probably out of the question). But as we
disembarked, we noticed a load of car hire places and thought that would be a
good idea. The island is so small; we’d be able to see the whole place in a few
hours. Car hiring here is nothing like the UK… basically you hand over your
cash and they give you the keys to some beat up old banger – without checking
anything like whether you can actually drive or not. Oh well – actually it was
OK as the roads are tiny, no-one can go fast, so it’s just a bit like driving a
big dodgem car round a track really. 
We stopped off at most interesting places around the island
– starting at the Dutch Fort, and this rock with an inscription on it which was
supposed to be done when a family’s children had gone missing – suspected to
have been eaten by a tiger. To be honest, these were probably the only bits of
interest – though the beaches were ok, quite pretty and not spoiled by huge
developments.
We had lunch at this local hawker stall on the beach
(delicious) but I wanted to head back to the steamed fish place for dinner
tonight before heading home, so didn’t want to eat too much.
Arif drove on the
island, giving me rest (well, I had driven 350 km yesterday) but some of the roads
were a lot less developed than ones I was used to in KL – and that’s saying
something – and they were also really steep, either up or down, and were just
wide enough to get 2 cars up/down. There was a point where I wanted to take
over, but I let him carry on. Then we got stuck behind this car full of Chinese
people, who were so nervous about the roads, they were going slower than a
snail. Irritating.
Luckily they stopped
in the middle of the road to let us pass and I resisted the temptation to lean
out of the window and hurl some advise at them – so on we went…at about 5 miles
per hour! Oh well, we were not in any hurry, but to be honest, without the sun
shining, it was a bit dull on this island, so I was OK if we made our way back
to the mainland: it was a long drive ahead and I had forgotten to pack my
contact lenses, so I wanted to be on the road whilst it was still light. 
Stopping to collect a few fridge magnets we got in line for
the ferry (actually we pushed our way to the front but no one stopped us!) and
about forty minutes later, we were back on the peninsular mainland and driving
home – in the dark, without contact lenses.
Luckily I had my glasses on me… and even tough they are
really old, they at least allow me to see where I am going.. just.
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