Tigers and Turtles on Tioman

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I've just spent the last week or so with my parents on the island of Tioman in the south of peninsula Malaysia. At first, we were disappointed. The beach was very rocky, making it near imposible to get into the sea. However, with a day of exploration, we found a nice beach just a 10 minute walk through the jungle. The best thing about Tioman, however, was the snorkelling.

From everything I had read, I was expecting the coral to be dead and virtually non-existent. Years of dynamite fishing and uncontrolled anchoring of boats obviously plays havoc with the marine environment. However, with a little effort, you can swim over the dead coral and soon find live, beautiful coral, and a plethora of marine life - we saw stingrays, turtles, reef sharks, puffer fish, boxfish, and huge numbers of "Nemo" fish to name but a few. I had lots of fun with our new underwater camera, too!

Most days would consist of breakfast at a beachfront cafe, followed by a short trek through the jungle past giant lizards and monkeys to reach the beach, and from there it was simple - sunbathe, snorkel, sunbathe, snorkel, sunbathe...you get the idea. Most evenings we would head to Hallo Bar for happy hour and watch the sun set over the ocean over a Tiger beer or two before heading out to eat. Not a bad life, really!

We broke our routine a couple of times to do some boat trips. One went around the whole island, at which point we realized that we were staying on the very worst beach on the island (but also the best beach for backpackers rather than package-holidayers), and the other went to Coral Island, which had fantastic snorkelling (as the name suggests) and beautiful picture-postcard beaches.

At the end of our time on Tioman, my parents and I went our separate ways - they went off to Kuala Lumpur to catch their flight out, and I jumped on a bus headed north to do some travelling on my own for a few weeks...

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Photos

Cheers!
Our first Tiger beers together (at Hallo Bar) since leaving the US!

Happy Hour
Our sunset ritual!

Meeting the local wildlife
(A supposedly harmless leaf snake)

Taking a break!
Fun and games on the jungle trek to Monkey Beach.

Paradise!
Beautiful beach on the snorkel trip.

It's a tough life!
A quiet moment on Coral Island, on the snorkel trip.

King of the Castle!
This anemone and its resident clownfish (nemos)certainly have a prime location!

Table Coral
Tioman has lots of table corals, perfect for hiding bigger critters such as puffer fish and moray eels!

Comments

[Gary]

Nemo, Nemo!
Cool picture of Nemo, the starfish thing is pretty crazy too, never seen one of those!

[Born to travel]

Christine O'Gorman
Hi Sharon, My previous message didn't seem to go through, so I'll try again. It's so good to hear from you! Your travels look amazing! I think you made the right choice. While you've been on the sunbathing/snorkeling pattern, I've been doing the prepping classroom/meeting routine. As much as I enjoy this class and teaching, the snorkeling sounds unbeatable. Take care, Christine P.S. They made some class rearrangements this year so these are your cherubs that I have: Vladimir, Ryan, Yvette, and Marc. (small class...only 16 students)

[Christine O'Gorman]

Great Choice!
Hi Sharon, Thank you for the travel updates. It's so good to hear from you and to live vicariously through your travel writings. I've been meaning to write since the one last week, but, of course, have been swamped with getting back to school. Our routine is more prepping classroom/meeting/prepping classroom/meeting. As fun as the kids are, I think I'd prefer the sunbathe/snorkel pattern. Looks like you made a great choice for this year. Happy traveling! Christine P.S. There was some rearrangement of classes when we got back, so these are your little cherubs that I have this year: Yvette, Ryan, Vladimir, and Marc.