I woke up early but didn't feel like getting up until 7 and headed out close to 8am. I walked along towards the waterfront but stayed on the road as it was faster. I had some bananas for breakfast along with some biscuits and dates which were all the food I had. The walk took a while and I decided to risk a shortcut which I estimated could save me 10 minutes or it could cost me 5 minutes. The road went north and wasn't in the map but carried on and joined up with the road I wanted and I went east on it through a gate to the crystal mosque. The mosque was nice and I put my sari on around my legs, took my shoes off and went inside. It had a very small hall and that was it, so I went back out and circled around taking photos. I moved on to see the other places in the area and there was a big building which was shut and I later found out is hired out for conferences and such. There was a jetty for boat trips which were not very popular today and then there was mini Islam which is where they have miniature copies of famous Islamic buildings. It was shut for a reason that I couldn't work out but it was 22 ringitts normally so I wasn't going to see it regardless. I did see the list of buildings they had and pictures of them and I was disappointed that they hadn't included the Hassan II mosque in Casablanca or the Blue mosque in Istanbul and they had for some reason included the Taj Mahal though. I walked back out through the gate and went to the museum which was 10 minutes away. The museum didn't look very open and had an unusual building design and when I got around to the front it turned out to be really big, the biggest museum in Asia. Entry was 5 RM for locals and 15 for foreigners like me. I didn't like that but still it was the biggest museum so I was interested and had a look at the brochure and it had buildings inside to see which didn't interest me so much. It was gone 9.4t and would take me over an hour to get back which meant I would only have 30 minutes for the museum anyway as I hadn't seen any busses. I decided to head back and missed out some mosques nearby as well. The walk back was a little quicker than I expected and I went past the place where I had bought the rice, chicken and vegetable dish the day before but it was shut. I went to the bus station where they told me the bus would either come at 11 or 11.30 and it was 10 to 11 now. I rushed back and got my luggage and filled up my water bottles which I'd forgotten to do earlier before I left. I went back to the bus station and there was no bus there yet so I sat and waited. A few busses turned up and I asked them all if they were going to Kuala Besut but none were. At 11.40 I got worried and went to see if maybe there was another section to the bus station but there wasn't so I went back to the ticket office to ask when the bus is coming and they told me it had broken down so I should take the 12pm bus which went nearby and I can take another bus from there to the jetty. I bought a ticket and they charged me 15.80 for the journey to Kota Bharu, further than I was going. I went to the bus and a couple asked me if this was the bus to Kuala Besut so I explained and they got tickets as well and we all got on. The girl was from the states and the guy from Argentina and when we got off we went and got a taxi to Kuala Besut for 20 ringitts. We got let off not too far from the pier and they went to find their company as they had a boat included in their package. I looked around for panorama divers but they weren't there so I went to the pier and there was a boat ready. I paid 70 ringitts and got a return ticket, not what I wanted but ok. I had to pay the environmental fee of 30 RM as well and then I got on the boat and they lay all the luggage down and we were off. The boat was fast and very bumpy, it was not a pleasant journey and long beach was the last stop. I got off onto the pier with my luggage, walked to the end and then had to walk halfway along the long beach to get to Panorama divers. I went into the wrong place as there was a different dive shop in front but then found Panorama which was a bit empty as people were out doing a dive. I signed up with the guy there for the advanced open water and booked an extra night in the dorm and paid by card which cost an extra 3%, so 930 became 957 ringitts. I went into the dorm room which was big with lots of bunks and I had a top bunk and a towel to use. I left my things and decided to go for a swim so I got changed in the dark toilet and went back out to the beach. I swam for a while trying to get past the headland but it carried on a bit further than I could see so I decided to swim back. I had a shower and then went to sit in the office area and study from the book I'd been given. I had 5 chapters to read, one for each dive starting with peak performance buoyancy. My friend Mark came back with lots of people from the dive and we said our hellos and I studied a bit more and let him do his thing with the after dive work and then we went to get dinner together. I had a noodle dish and some plain rice and Mark had a chicken dish with a strawberry lassi. They brought out my noodle dish quickly but my rice didn't come until Marks dish was ready 5 minutes later. It was good catching up and Mark was here for the season until September doing fun dives as a divemaster. We got some vodka bottles from a nearby bar for 30 ringitt each bottle and then went to a bar near the dive centre where there were others from Panorama. We sat around drinking and talking until close to 12 but the vodka didn't last too long and I hadn't drunk enough. Drinks were quite expensive and I'd had a cocktail earlier for 15 rigitts and when they moved on to the bar in the middle of the beach I went to bed. The dorm lights were off and there was a girl sleeping on the bottom bunk so I climbed up and went to sleep.
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