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Published: January 22nd 2009
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After that brief city break, we thought it'd be cool to hop on some proper island (Sentosa doesn't count) and so we decided to go to Tioman - an island on the east coast of Malaysia sitting in the South China Sea and looking like a sleeping dragon. There is actually a legend attached to that island saying that once, a Chinese dragon princess was flying to her prince in Singapore. She stopped to have a rest in those warm waters and ended up loving the area to the point she decided to cut the journey short and take a form of an island. Not sure what the Singaporean price had to say about the fact the princess preferred to turn into an island rather than see him but that didn't seem to be included in the legend.
Apart from the dragon origins, Tioman is quite famous for having been a set to the South Pacific movie. It was also classified by the Times as one of the top 10 most beautiful islands in the world, so there was quite a bit to look forward to. Getting there was less straightforward and that was mainly due to the fact it
was a monsoon season. We knew we had to get to Mersing - a small jetty town where everyone knows you after you've stayed there for two days. The only problem was finding out whether the actual ferry ran or not. The only way seemed simply getting there and finding out by ourselves.
And so we did just that. The morning we were to take the elusive ferry, it started p*ssing down quite considerably to the point we required some form of rain proof attire. I set out in the search of some raincoats and came back with a couple of brightly yellow plastic ponchos that turned out to be the purchase of the trip and totally worth the 7 Ringgit that they cost. The locals were loving the sight of three white tourists looking like camels in those ponchos covering our rucksacks on our backs.
The ferry ride to Tioman was hellish - majority of people on the boat were sick and you know it only takes one to start the whole throwing up malarky… We were only looking at the disappearing plastic bags hanging off the walls and praying we keep it to ourselves. And we
did but it wasn't fun overall. Our jetty was the last one on route (ugh) but it turned out to be well worth sticking out on the boat for it.
It was called ABC and it's one of the northern bits of the island. After a closer inspection later on, we realised that the main spot called Tekek was actually in the middle of some controversial RM 40 million modernisation project. No works were being carried out when we were there and the whole place looked rather deserted. I personally didn't like the fact it was being modernised as the whole beautity of that island is its unspoiled wilderness. Who needs paved boardwalks and stuff like that if you can walk on the sand and enjoy the nature at its peak? Seeing all this was truly disappointing and I was glad we were staying in ABC as it was far from modern, although the place we rented out was really lovely and much better than we expected. It was called Nazri's place and was run by his whole family including two twin boys running around like cats on speed, although I don't think I ever saw cats on speed
so not sure where that came from…
You are probably wondering by now what we actually did on Tioman. Well, not much, mainly because it was chucking it down practically non stop for the two days and nights that we were there. They basically had sunny weather up to the point we arrived… You can imagine how disappointed we were, I mean we flew all the way from London (and Warsaw), spent some time in a city and really craved some proper beach time. Unfortunately, we were forced to remain white and wet and I can assure you, we got pretty soaked as I'd never seen monsoon like that before.
As for the acclaimed beauty of the island, we couldn't really tell as all the colours change when rains come and everything suddenly looks grey - just like back at home. Looking back at pictures though, I can see this place can be absolutely stunning once the sun comes out. The whole island is covered in thick jungle, which adds to the dramatic beauty of the place, plus makes jungle trekking a great option when dry. Unfortunately, we were not given to admire any of that and remained
wet throughout our stay there but I guess you got that by now, even just from looking at pictures :o)
Thank God the rain ceased as we were walking up to the jetty. We didn't really care anymore when a black thundery cloud came around once we were sitting on the boat. I mean it's better that it rains when you are leaving than not, right? ;o)
We were now heading towards Kuala Lumpur and scratching our heads as to where it wouldn'r rain…
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