Advertisement
The journey from KL to Mersing, started off fairly smoothly (much like our journey to Malaysia from the UK…..) we managed to get up on time and check out and even make our way to the right bus terminal and the correct counter!!!
According to the timetables and the Lonely Planet the bus journey is meant to take a reasonable 5hours, this seemed like a fairly good duration especially considering we were aiming for the 2.30pm ferry from Mersing to Tioman. With the bus leaving KL at 9am we thought that this could be a little tight for getting that particular connection but it was the first bus of the day leaving KL and so thought we might as well give it ago! So off we went, everything still seemingly going to plan, I mean the bus even left on time! (which for Asian standards is impressive in it’s own right!) After the first few hours we were quite happily just watching the scenery fly by us and reading the odd thing or two about Tioman in the lonely planet, when the bus started to randomly slow down, again not thinking anything of this as we were a few hours
in, and assuming it was just a toilet break, as we stopped, the doors on the coach opened and much to our surprise some locals just walked onto the bus and grabbed themselves a seat near the back as if it was perfectly normal to flag down a long distance coach as if it was the number 52 bus route running from Camberley to Heatherside! Only in Asia! After another 6 unscheduled stops to pick up and drop off the locals en route to our destination the journey had been stretched from 5 hours to 6 and a half! Hence we missed the connection. After we reached Mersing we were herded off to the ferry office to book our tickets, as it was a Friday we knew that the accommodation on the island would be fairly full as Tioman is used for a weekend vacation spot by many Malays and Singaporeans. The man in the booking office asked if we had any accommodation arranged on the Island and if we didn’t then he could arrange some for us, reluctantly we both agreed it would be much easier to arrange 1 nights stay through the booking office as we would be
arriving after dark and after a full day of travelling just wanted some dinner, a shower and a decent nights sleep! (This was the first and last mistake we will make with booking offices!)
After the 2 and a quarter hour ferry journey we finally reached the jetty in which we were getting off at, (around 3 ½ hours later than expected!(now that’s more like Asia!) We were greeted off the ferry by Chris who we had met in KL, he had changed his flight to Oz as he wanted to relax and wind down a bit more in Asia. Following the directions given to us at the booking office in Mersing we Finally arrived at our bed for the night (Mokhtar‘s Place). After a millisecond glance into the room Lucy and I had both decided that we wanted to spend as little time as possible in what can only be described as a cross between the film arachnophobia and stig of the dump’s holiday home!!! The owner noticed Lucy’s apprehension about entering the room when a huge cockroach scuttled across the floor and up the wall, he swiftly took off his Flip Flop strolled over to the wall
where it was and proceeded to splatter it against the wall before carrying it out in his hand with a triumphant grin spread across his face, leaving us to attempt to freshen up before meeting Chris for dinner. After a decent chicken curry and a few beers (totalling about 10RM (£2) for both our food and 5RM(£1) for a beer) we decided we had to go and brave the room of hell for the evening before getting up early to find a new place to stay in the morning.
The next morning we got up early and went for a walk up and down the beach to try and find some better accommodation, it wasn’t long until we had found ourselves a lovely little hut that was clean, sturdy, a lovely sea view from our bed and best of all…. Insect free!! And it only cost £2 a night more than the room from hell! BARGAIN!!!
So far our days on Tioman have been spent relaxing in the sun, snorkelling just off the beach which is good, and generally winding down and living the good life. The sunsets are spent in the smallest (and best) bar we have found
so far and the setting is fantastic for watching the sun creep down below the horizon. I think we are going to be staying here for a week and a bit, maybe even 2 weeks and tomorrow we are going to see if Lucy likes diving or not and I am going to do my first dive in 8 months!! I cannot wait!!
Hope all is well at home, so for now this is us signing out from Paradise!
Andy and Lucy
Xxxxxx
P.s. I hope you all enjoy the pics!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.099s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0435s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb