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I had a troubled nights sleep and woke on two occasions, rather disturbed, evidently reciting Edgar Allen Poe, a side effect of reading Ian's book! It was most bizarre. I can't be positive that it wasn't a dream but if it wasn't I can't have switched my brain off before laying my head down to rest last night. Words were being spoken somewhere.

We had breakfast by the sea, remarking on the calmness of the water.

I went off in the direction of our chosen dive operator and spoke to a woman regarding the current conditions. She said that yesterday they had visibility of 4 to 6 metres, better than the previous day but still not much good. A group did go out to the other side of the big island 'though this morning and she was awaiting their return to hear of the visibility out there today. I said that if we can't dive tomorrow then we will leave Pulau Perhentian Besar and head off into Thailand where we hope to do some diving. She warned me that it might not be any better as it is Thailands monsoon at the moment and it is, after all, still the same piece of water on the East coast, albeit named the Gulf of Thailand. We can but hope and reflect on the excellent diving we have been fortunate enough to encounter so far.

Having relayed this information to Ian he went off with his camera again, snorkelling, and I returned to his book.

I had evidently been bitten a lot more than I had believed, identifying eight bites on my feet and six on my legs. It is with some relish that I recall and incident of beating a mosquito in the bathroom yesterday, which resulted in death to the pest.

We spent the afternoon, and indeed most of the day, on the beach, I reading, Ian snorkelling and improving his underwater photography skills. I managed to make a decision on the diving and arranged for us to dive tomorrow in the hope of improved visibility.

When we sat down to lunch I noticed the presence of a middle aged couple who I saw at Bala's Holiday Chalets in the Cameron Highland and then again in Chinatown in Kuala Lumpur. What are the chances of two foreign couples simultaneously appearing at the same resorts for the same period of time? Incredible.

We had another dinner by the sea, which I polished off with my second ice-cream of the day.