We took a few days from our annual leave entitlement, and returned to Laguna Redang Resort on Redang Island.
Bea managed to cross "drink a whole coconut" off her bucket list ...
We had rooms that opened right onto the beautiful beach.
We went snorkelling right there, as well as elsewhere around the island.
And this time we had our clever little Lumix camera - works underwater, as long as you don't go too deep.
The fish maybe remembered us from last time ... because they seemed HAPPY to see us!
These fish seemed particularly interested in Bea ... fortunately she had some bread for them.
The other hand is above the water, trying to keep the rest of the bread dry - it's quite tricky to do, with the waves swooshing you back and forth at the same time.
Now you're getting the hang of it.
No, Bea! DON'T bite the fish!
Ow! What was that! They can't tell the difference between fingers and bread!
This is the safe way to do it. But not nearly as much fun really.
Ah, there's one biting "this little finger on my right"!
This chap is considerably bigger than the rest - found it was safer to let go of the bread before he grasped it.
And, yes, there were sharks!
A couple of these babies (about two feet long) were swimming around under the crowd of fish I was feeding, trying to catch some of the small fry that were after the scraps.
Other Wildlife
There were squirrels running boldly all over the place - this one had a definite evil glint in its eye!
But we wanted to see monkeys!
Everywhere there were signs "Please don't feed the monkey", and we were warned that if we left stuff on the balconey the monkeys might take it to play with.
They said that in the evenings a family of monkeys come out of the jungle to feed at this spot ...
And they told us to make sure we had a forked stick to protect ourselves. *sigh* well, they didn't come.
Jungle Trek
Still eager to see a monkey or two, we signed up for the jungle trek.
It was very very very humid, and we climbed and clambered up and down hills and over tree roots and streams for more than an hour and a half.
We saw a lot of interesting flora, and our guide - who had grown up in a kampung (village) which bordered on the jungle - explained how various plants were used.
Suddenly, he made us all stop, and he listened momentarily. Then he ran off the trail in mad little circles until he found a couple of sturdy sticks. "I hear monkeys!" he explained, giving a stick to the person at the front and one for the persson at the rear. We were very excited, and grabbed a couple more sticks - as we weren't the end people in the group of seven and therefore felt rather vulnerable!
But a few minutes later he began to relax a little and explained that the monkeys were gone.
Feeling very hot and sweaty, we finally reached the fishing village, and were very grateful that the deal included a boat ride back to our resort and we did not have to return through the jungle.
It was lovely, but it's nice to be back in our apartment in Kuala Terengganu. We have a few days here with Bea, and then we are all flying to Kuala Lumpur where we have to present papers at another conference.
