Blogs from Pulau Tioman, Pahang, Malaysia, Asia
March 29th 2012
After a very pleasant 2 and a half weeks back in Australia visiting family and friends I caught a flight yet again to Malaysia. I arrived early in the morning, caught the bus into KL and then made my way to Bukit Bintang and found some accommodation. I had a quick shower and then caught a taxi to the Chinese visa centre to apply for a tourist visa. After a bit of confusion I eventually lodged my application and was told to return the following morning for an interview. The next morning I arrived early and after a 1 minute, 2 question interview I was told to come back a few days later to pick up my passport hopefullly with a 90 day visa in it. Seeing it was still early in the morning I decided ... read more
October 22nd 2011
I just completed my Open Water Dive course last week at Tioman. This is my 2nd trip to Tioman Island. Basically, there's not much things to see on the island itself. You must explore the underwater world to make Tioman worth the visit. We departed from Singapore at around 7pm on Friday and reached at Mersing around 12 midnight. The ferry to Tioman departed at 8am in the morning, so we stayed at a local hotel (Timotel Hotel) for the night. The room was very spacious. It can accommodate up to 4 people. The next morning after breakfast, we took the ferry to Tioman and headed to our hotel, Berjaya Tioman, once we arrived at Tioman (which took about 3 hours). Before we began with our first dive, we had our lunch in the hotel. The ... read more
Tioma Island: a little paradise
Published: September 29th 2011Asia » Malaysia » Pahang » Pulau Tioman
September 28th 2011
Hello everyone, I just spent 5 days in paradise! Let me tell you how the paradise is. So last time I was leaving Melaka. I took a bus to Mersing (roughly 5 hours). Mersing is a really little town with nothing to visit. There are 2 main streets and…. That’s it. This is just the stop over to go to Pulau Tioman (Tioman island). So obviously to go there, you have to take a boat (that’s an island after all!) and that’s already really great. On the way, you can see some beautiful landscapes, feel the wind in your hair… You know what I’m talking about. Then the island: this is a 39 km long and 12 km wide and is a paradise for scuba diving and snorkelling. The particularity of this island is there are ... read more
May 15th 2011
I almost missed my 12.45pm bus to Mersing thanks to some bad information from my hotel, but I got there just as it was about to leave. The trip was supposed to take four and a half hours, but we got caught in a traffic jam due to a head on collision between three trucks. Once in Mersing it took my a while to find accommodation, but eventually settled on an aircon room with bathroom for $13. Had a quick look around town before getting dinner next door at a chinese restaurant, then surfed the net and watched a movie. Tuesday I caught the ferry for Palau Tioman at the very reasonable hour of 11.30am. The two hour crossing went very quick, mainly due to the fact that I spent most of the time talking to ... read more
Paratiisissaki asuu käärmeitä, ripuli!
Published: September 3rd 2010Asia » Malaysia » Pahang » Pulau Tioman
August 23rd 2010
Singapore-Mersing lähtö klo 06.00 aamulla. Onneksi ihana ystävämme Frank lupautui varmistamaan toivottomien unikekojen herättämisen, ja koputteli huoneen oveen virkeänä viideltä aamulla. Matkaan siis hurjan bussikuskin kyydillä kohti rentoutumista, turkoosia merta ja hiekkarantoja. Perille päästiin pomppuisen kyydin jälkeen ja lauttamatka saattoi alkaa. Lauttamatka kului huokaillessa ihastuksesta, oltiin saapumassa todelliseen paratiisiin Tiomanin saarelle! Lautalla tutustuttiin kahteen espanjalaismieheen ja Eve pääsi käyttämään kielitaitoaan. Toinen miehistä oli vanhempaa ikäluokkaa ja toinen oli saavuttamassa kolmeakymmentä. Lauttamatkan aikana päätettiin vaihtaa alkuperäistä suunnitelmaa ja liittyä espanjalaisten seuraan Salangille. Muutama päivä Tiomaneilla kuluikin espanjalaisten seurassa puhuen välillä espanjaa ja välillä englantia Hannan yrittÃ... read more
August 7th 2010
Finally we are on a tropical Island... my first time but not Jenna's. Pulau Tioman is mountains with lots of jungle and is fringed on all sides with small beaches. We are at the one with the best cheap accomadation, called Air Bantang. There aren't really resorts here just lots of clusters of 10 guest houses that line the beach so everyone gets a good view. There are 6 restaurants here but they close many times daily and sometimes just close all day. Its quite relaxed to live here i suppose and as well Ramadan is beginning soon so the locals just take days off work to be more religious or something. The mosque (masjid here ) really cranks it for prayer time too with these huge loudspeakers on the minarets so we get to hear ... read more
July 3rd 2010
Tioman er en lille trope-ø ud for den Malaysiske østkyst 20 km lang og 11 km bred, og det høeste punkt er omkring 1000 meter. Det betyder, at alt (menneske-) liv foregår ved kysten, som er forbundet med bådtrafik. At lande på Tioman er specielt. Når man ser ud af venstre vindue tror man vingen skal ramme et træ i junglen, der rejser sig stejlt, samtidig med, at man ud af højre vindue kan se vingen næsten rører stranden, da flyet skal lave et skarpt højre-sving i selve landingen. Vi bor på et udmærket ressort som langt fra er fuldt booket på trods af højsæson - finanskrisen har også sine positive sider. En del af familien ville hellere have været lidt mere øde og down-to-basic, men Marie synes det er det mest fantastiske med swimmingpools, vandrutsjebaner ... read more
June 11th 2010
It was much brighter when we got up this morning, in fact it was pretty scorchio. At brekkie we had a little embarassment when they brought out the toast for Robbys beans on toast with no beans, only for us to discover 10mins later the beans were sandwiched inside the 3 slices. We went to hire masks and flippers and it was a little difficult for me to find some as I have childs feet and the ones I found nealry cut off the blood supply to my feet. We went down to the beach about 2 mins from our chalet and snorkelled for about an hour and a half. We saw tons of fishies both little and big, stripy spotty and multi-coloured. The coral at times was really pretty in colours of pink and purple, ... read more
June 10th 2010
Had a big shock last night when my Mam informed me she's just bought me a brand new car! I literally sat with my mouth gaping open for about 5mins. (ROB: She did). So we were up pretty late, excited and chatty so didnt get our arses out of bed til about 11am. Woke up to a lovely hand made card from Robby. On our way to brekkie we saw some more monitor lizards, we were supposed to go snorkelling but as the weather was quite overcast and a little chilly we decided to go on a walk instead and save snorkelling for tomorrow. We went towards Salang beach (via monkey bay) with no real idea of how far it was. We realised pretty quickly that flipflops + muddy jungle = lethal concoction. There were some ... read more
June 9th 2010
Left guesthouse before 8, got a shuttle to the bus station and boarded the bus just before 9. Time went quite quickly on the bus reading the paper and listening to music. As usual for malaysian busses it was comfy and on time and much less lethal and erratic than most in SE asia. We stopped for lunch but Rob only had pringles and I raisin biscuits. The journey only took about 5 1/2 hours. The bus stop in Mersing there was a tour office selling the boat tickets for 70RM return so we grabbed these and got a spurt on across town to get the 3pm boat which actually left at about 3.30. Ferry took just over 2hrs and when we arrived there was a signpost at the end of the jetty which had all ... read more
