Beware of the Monkey Juice!
Trip Start
Aug 24, 2006
1
4
9
Trip End
Sep 06, 2006
Pualu Perhentian, Kecil, Malaysia
Monday, August 28, 2006
We took a 10-15 minute trek through the jungle to come out on the side of the island, Coral View. It was nice, but not as beautiful as our side, Long Beach. We found a place in the shade to relax and read. This was probably one of my favorite days. Just breathing in the air and not really thinking of any of the stresses of home. Just another beautiful day in paradise with my long lost friend Melissa.
After a few hours we ate and sent emails. I had some spicy fried rice, mmmmmm. We then walked down the beach and found a couple of hammocks to rest in. It was a great spot except for the tons of red ants that populated the tree. While waiting for the sun to set, which is supposed to be magnificent from this side, we saw our friend Sandro pass. We watched the sunset and played with some kittens. Unlike Thailand that has an overpopulation of dogs, Malaysia has cats. The sunset was partly hidden by some clouds, but a great view non the less. Luckily for us, Sandro had his torch (what the rest of the world calls a flashlight). Se we made it safely back to Long Beach. So we showered up and headed to dinner. I had this spicy soup with rice, was quite nice.
We then headed next door and found a spot on the beach to have a few drinks. We bought some 'Monkey Juice' and relaxed. After awhile we started taking some pictures and that led to many 'crazy face' shots. We then decided that it would be a beautiful night for a swim. So we headed down the beach a bit and found a good spot to go in. We left some of our stuff on the beach where we could keep an eye on it. There was not much moonlight this evening and we really couldn't see our things all that well. So after about 10 minutes we checked on our things. They were not in the manner in which we had left them! Melissa's wallet, along with her passport was missing. After searching the beach for an hour in the dark, we decided to sleep until sunrise and look again.
We woke up three hours later and still no wallet to be found. Luckily my money, which was also in the purse, was not taken!! So we used some of it to take a boat taxi to another part of the island to make a police report. They directed us to the mainland. So in spite of moving our flight back to stay on the island longer, we still ended up leaving it at noon.
Back in Kota Bharu, we made a police report and called the Embacy. We wouldn't be able to get the Embacy in KL before they closed, which meant that Mel would miss her evening flight back to Japan. This change would cost a lot of money in addition to getting temporary passport. We decided to try to take our original flight back to KL and get an early start on recovering her things. Unfortunately, they would not let us board. Because our flights were changed, we couldn't change them again!
Since we were starving, broke, and tired, we took a seat in a little cafe to rest and eat. While we were there, a Malyasian that we spoke with earlier, Joe, came to sit by us. He informed us that the wallet and passport had been found. We didn't trust him at first. I mean, how would he know about it? So a friend of his, a policeman, came over and told us the same thing. We used his phone to call the police on the island to confirm. What a relief!! They had found her things. We then took a taxi back to the port and picked up her wallet, only for a small fee of $100! Small compared to the cost of recovery! So Mel was able to keep her flight home and I took a bus from KL to Singapore. Good thing they didn't let us board the earlier flight!
