which revealed a whole other World beneath the waves which was equally, if not even more, breathtaking. Creatures of all colours, shapes and sizes lurk between alien rocks, anemones and corals... Among my scuba highlights were 2 beautiful green sea turtles, a slithery moray eel, and an adorable junior yellow box fish. Finding Nemo is actually unbelievably easy, the cute little orange buggers are absolutely everywhere... I'll try and not bore you to death with a description of every tropical fish I happen to remember though - the point here is it's amazing down there so go and check it out! If scuba isn't your thing then snorkelling is still pretty awe inspiring but there's nothing quite like the magical feeling of weightlessness you get when you are under the water. I recon it is the closest I'll ever come to being an astronaut!
As well as all the natural beauty of the place the island is really sociable as everyone mostly hangs out on the same beach (long beach) meaning we were able to meet plenty of people from all over the World.
Perfect though it seemed we did discover a very ugly under belly after a couple of days... Stories of tourists and locals getting beaten up with sticks for trivial reasons - last year alone two people were beaten to death and the only punishment for this crime is the cost of a police bribe. On a less serious note my iPod and cash were stolen while I went swimming and on a very tragic note an English tourist was killed when a boat hit her whilst snorkelling. When you are presented with that kind of perspective it seems silly to mourn the loss of a gadget and some cash. Sadly you come across tragic situations like this that remind you never to let your guard down fully as there can be danger in the most serene of places.
We did have an amazing time though and I was really very reluctant to leave... Having met plenty of people on that beach who 'stopped' for a few days and still hadn't carried on after a few years, I thought it best to escape paradise before it sucked me too far in!
Key info:
Accommodation: Bintang view - amazing wooden huts with beautiful views of the sea. Electricity from 7am to 7pm which makes sleeping in after a night out somewhat difficult! But that's what the beach is for anyway isn't it?
Dive school: Turtle Bay Divers - friendly staff and good instructors with a maximum of 4 divers per instructor which is just right.
Bintang View:
Fire throwers and monkey juice at the beach bar:
Full moon rising;
Me being a sea astronaut:
Nothing much else to do but:
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