Khota Bharu

So, it rained again this morning, delaying our departure from the island for about an hour...! From what we've heard, this rain is pretty atypical for this time of year, but what can you do. We haven't had much bad luck this trip, and if this is the worst we get then I can't really complain. But yes, our 9:00 departure from Perhentian Besar was pushed back until the rain let up at 10:00. It's a good thing we left right when we did, because as the boat was pulling out another storm appeared over the island, bearing down on us from the south. Compared to the calm waters on our trip TO the island, these rough seas were quite a change! We caught a bit of it, with the driving rain and large swells rocking our boat, but we were able to outrun it and get back to the mainland in one piece. The waters were still pretty rough, though, with swells of at least 5 feet at times! Personally, I didn't mind it at all, but some of the people on the boat were none too happy about the weather.

From there, we took minivans into Khota Bharu, about 2 hours away. We checked into our hotel, and headed out into the city for a look around. Walked through a mall and then several street markets. We also saw a couple historic buildings, but then it started to rain again so we headed back. The group was supposed to walk through a night food market, which is normally quite lively and with many different food choices, but it's an open air market and was closed due to the rain. A few of us stopped at a nearby Chinese restaurant for a good meal.

Tomorrow, we've got a 7-hour bus ride to our next destination, a homestay on an island in the middle of a lake. Sounds quite nice. After that, it's back to Kuala Lumpur, and the end of the tour--I can hardly believe it's almost over already. And, in one week's time, I'll be back home... crazy!