April 4 : Rawa Islands & Scuba Dive

• wake up & eat breakfast at the Tuna Bay Restaurant
• time to suit and sunscreen up…and time to catch our boat guided snorkeling trip to the Rawa Islands:

• Rawa Islands: tiny cluster of islands just off the coast of Perhentian Kecil 

• amazingly clear water, lots of sea anemones, clownfish, moray eel, one sting ray… looks like a crystal clear, fully stocked, colorful salt water aquarium. 

• Check out the teeny tiny neon blue fish swimming around this coral:

•  We got to spend an hour at a beach on one of the Rawa islands.  Lovely fine white sand.  We spent the hour snorkeling & playing in the surf.  While there were other tour groups at the beach it did not feel overly crowded.  We chatted for a long time with a few younger women from Great Britain (one was a school teacher on her Easter holiday).  

The light areas are sandy and the dark spots are coral. I didn't want to leave this place!!!

• Met a Dutch man who called Malaysia "Ma-LAZY-ia".  I guess that explains their indifference??? Or maybe he was just grumpy.  
• Saw several pods of dolphins while heading back- or one huge pod. Technicalities aside, we saw lots of dolphins!!  They were all over the place!!  Sadly the camera ran out batteries during the first part of the trip so no photos of the beautiful jumping and leaping dolphins. Darn.(PS.  apparently we got a very rare treat today.  It is NOT a common thing to see dolphins in this area! Lucky us!!!!)
• Last stop was to see the giant sea turtles (same place we went to before but this time with fewer people).  
• Quick but yummy lunch.  Fast & friendly service today! :-)YAAAAAY!!!!!!
• Back out on another boat.  This time Mark will go with a diving instructor and the girls and I will go snorkeling close to the boat.

Yep- that's Mark!

I think this is some sort of angel fish.It's difficult to judge the size of the fish from the photo but apparently it was about a foot long.

A school of fish….

Mark:

Slightly alarming:

What's alarming about this creature? Apparently it's an invasive starfish and it's very POISONOUS! We had no clue that there were poisonous starfish! 

• Annika can't seem to follow my simple instruction- please don't crowd me. It's both dangerous for you and for me if you swim so close to another person.  I've asked her repeatedly to stay an arm's length away and yet she refuses to listen.  Then I asked her to go on the other side of me and she refused to do that.  She asked to go back to the boat but she doesn't want to go by herself so Ava and I will take her back.  Ava and I are still going to snorkel for a bit more while Annika is safely on the boat.  Ava is saying her mask keeps filling up with water.  Unfortunately I can't help her so she asks to go back to the boat as well.  I'm snorkeling for a little bit by myself.  Funny.  I don't like snorkeling all alone.  I don't feel comfortable by myself either. I see other divers getting on the boat so I think I'll head back.  The water clarity isn't all that good and we've seen many of these fish in other places and in clearer water.  
• Glad Mark had a good dive!
• I'm not sure what we'll do for dinner tonight.  I'd rather not go back to Tuna Bay's restaurant.  Ah!  Problem solved!  We found a sweet little restaurant very close to Tuna Bay (it's the restaurant for the neighboring Cozy Chalet resort).  Service is superb and fast and cheerful!!!  The food is yummy!  

Fried rice dish with prawns. We ended up ordering a lot of dishes- our eyes are always bigger than our stomaches!

It's time to relax and settle in for the evening!  Good night!