Pulau Tioman!

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Leaving Sing, I found a 4 hour bus to Tioman Island, which I heard has quiet beaches. The bus ride was nerve racking because all drivers in Malaysia seem to enjoy passing others while there's oncoming traffic. This happens to the point where the oncoming traffic has to quick pull over onto the shoulder to avoid getting hit by our massive bus! Eventually we made it safely.

If you enjoy beautiful beaches, coral reefs, rugged peaks, and rainforests, then you'd like Tioman Island. After an initial scare in Mersing (the mainland port) regarding no working ATM machines, I was off on a boat towards Tioman. Tioman has no credit card facilities and so all money has to be carried onto the island. I decided on Salang because it has a reef just off from the beach and it has beer on the beach (as opposed to other areas on Tioman). My bungalow was on stilts over the beach about 20 feet from the water.

On the island, I hung out with quite a few people. During the bus ride to Mersing, I met Desiree, who is German. Later, we met Rob (from the UK). We went on many different excursions when we weren't too hungover (the locals are a hilarious group of partiers). Just out from Salang, there's a small island. Of course, we thought, "Ohh, we have to go there!" The problem is that the crossing involves swimming over deep water through an area where boats travel. So near the boulder-strewn shore, we waited until we couldn't see any boats and then just went for it. After about 5 minutes of swimming we could see a boat in the distance, and it was heading our way. We swam faster, and the boat kept getting closer and closer. It got so close that I could see the people in the boat, so we waved our snorkeling gear in the air frantically. At the last moment it swerved and we were shaken but OK. Then getting onto the island, I scraped my foot on some of the rocks and barnacles. And I was bleeding. Usually I would have no problems with a little blood, but swimming in the shark-infested South China Sea while bleeding sure got my heart pumping! Another adventure had nothing to do with the ocean. Salang has a massive, high-class resort on a mountainside that overlooks the beaches (and is it beautiful!). The only problem is that it went bankrupt about six years ago, so it is vacant. So, we decided to do a little investigating late one night. It was fun just wandering around through the jungle and high ceilings of the resort. The architecture looked Chinese and it must have been very exclusive at one point. Again, a little nerve racking though because it was very dark and we could hear things (people or monkeys) running around us while we couldn't see them.

Unfortunately, I ran out of cash on the island and had to leave earlier than expected. But it is OK because there are plenty of islands in Thailand to visit later...

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