Tioman. Chillman.

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This is not the Perhenthians, no way. There is no perfect swimming beach and no lively young persons vibe but it's worth a visit all the same. The 'resort' of ABC is long and thin meaning there is no real centre and also means that you have to do a fair amount of walking.

I stayed for 4 days and it was very quiet and chilled out. There are very very few people staying there. You are guaranteed to become personal friends with the bar and restaurant owners and if you see anyone else on the beach them you say hello because it is such an unusual event!

Swimming out to see and looking back is propbably the best view of Tioman. The water is in parts spectacular blue, the beach unspolit light and the jungle rises immediately and steeply upwards just beyond the strip of chalets and restaurants. Again this is monitor lizard territory... and monkeys. Every day I would walk past the wooden enclosure where all the rubbish is put and find a monkey or 10 vandalising and attempting to break in. Rubbish strewn about indicated that they were usually successful but hearteningly I often saw a local picking up the rubbish or repairing the enclosure. All too often on my trip I have seen locals contributing to the rubbish problem so it was nice to see some people having some pride in where they lived.

On the accommodation front, Tioman outscores the Perenthians. The chalets are a notch above - mine even had its own bathroom. On the entertainment side it lagged far behind but this isn't necessarily a negative thing.

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