The Great Getaway

Visited my favourite shop the other day – OK it’s a little exotic, Borneo Pearls in Kuala Lumpur. The fact that my other half is something of a globe- trotter has it’s advantages; I might have been abandoned in shivering UK in January whilst he drifted through Australia, but now it’s payback time and I’m lounging on a sunbed on a remote Malaysian Island.

Whilst Kuala Lumpur is in every way modern with copious bustling shopping malls, gleaming high rise tower blocks that trap the heat and roof top pools, Redang Island is quaintly rustic. I think we have come out of season; the resort, nestling in the edge of jungle, with stunning views of turquoise seas, brightly painted fishing boats and craggy distant islands, is blissfully quiet. We have the pool to ourselves, not to mention the beaches :) Snorkeling in calm, warm waters we have discovered a myriad of jewel-like fish and even glimpsed a wild turtle!

The jungle leaks into our living space here; monkeys chatter to us from trees and fruit bats skim overhead at dusk, bombing us with unripe olives, which splatter the ground or bounce off the tin chalet roofs, clattering like steel drums. At bedtime we are serenaded by the nocturnal creatures, a mixture of hoots squawks and chittering. If the TV only has 5 channels, and the internet is slow and unreliable, who cares? Let the world go by for once….