TIOMAN!

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No sooner had I said good by to Dom, i started talking with an American girl, Deborah. Turned out that she had studied pretty much exactly the same sort of Engineering course as me. We got along pretty well, so on a whim and a prayer I decided to head up to Malaysia with her the next day.
We decided to head to this island off the east coast called Tioman. We arrived in Mersing en route to the island, where we met up with Nick (British), Daniel (Swedish) and Kelly (Canadian), and then headed to Tioman the next day.
Tioman had just the right level of development (seated toilets and cold beer) and was a really nice chilled out little island.
We all spent the afternoon at the beach. Despite being a competition swimmer, it was Kelly's first time in the sea (Canadians!) and he seemed to have a fantastic time swimming, then proceeding to open coconuts.

Unfortunately both Deborah and I managed to gash ourselves up on the rocks. On closer inspection mine was rather deep, and after Daniel applied his Swedish Military Training and bandaged my foot up, I hobbled off in search of a hospital.
Now a word of advice if you are ever looking for medical help in an Islamic country. Don't go looking for a red cross, when I saw the red crescent moon, I suddenly realised how silly I was being!
15 Ringgits (NZ$6) and 3 switches later, the doctor who was from Myanmar had skillfully replaced my foot with a coconut. It was as good as new, except I kinda make this clip-clop sound when I walk now.

That night we sat on the beach, chatted with an Australian couple and a New Zealand guy who was doing business on the island. Someone had a guitar, and we sang some very bad song renditions. It was a great time, this was exactly the sort of thing that I wanted to do while travelling: meeting and hanging out with interesting people.

The next day Deborah, Kelly and I walked 7kms across the island (clip-clop clip-clop) to a beach on the other side. On our way over the island we actually ran into a bunch of NZ navy personal who were there on military exercises! It was rather grueling in the tropical heat, but the beach, and the fresh mixed fruit drinks on the other side were worth it. I of course couldn't swim, because of my stitches, but the others seem to be having fun.

All and all my time on Tioman was fantastic, and hopefully I'll have a nice little scar to remind me of it!

NOTE: It's now almost a week later, the cut is healing nicely, I'll probably get the stitches out tommorow.

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Photos

To Tioman!
Leaving Mersing

Debbie and I
The meal on the other side of the island (Juara Beach)

Daniel and the Hookah Pipe
Never underestimate the value of sharing a hookah pipe amongst friends. (Don't worry it was only strawberry flavoured tabacco)

The Injury
And no, I still don't like needles. I didn't look at the time, but Daniel was more than happy to take heaps of photos and video footage!

Comments

[Simon]

Scar Tissue
Pity you didn't get the cut in 'nam. Sounds like you are having a fantastic time. Keep us posted.