Tioman: an unforgettable evening

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Tioman off the east coast of Malaysia was voted as the most beautiful island in 1970. It was in my readings for many months from the day I landed in Singapore but wasn't that lucky enough to get some consecutive holidays to explore it. Then it was in April 2009 when Mayur, Prasil, Gopi, Siva and Karuna decided to hit the world's 10th most beautiful island.

One fine saturday morning we traveled across the Singapore border to Johor Bahru (JB), Malaysia. After spending the last friday night in Clark Quay and with absolutely no sleep we were out of our schedule to reach Johor Bahru Larkin station to take the first bus to Mersing. As soon as the bus doors opened at Larkin, we heard several voices yelling "Get off! Get off! Get Off!" thought it was some kind of kidnapping or bomb threat in Malaysia but lately realized they were just aggresive cab drivers who were trying to intensly pull you in their cabs to mersing! Making an eye contact was a real deal with them. Before finalising the price for five people in one cab at 200 RM(Somethings are only possible in malaysia) we made up towards McDonald with its shocking low prices. Got a big mac with fries for 6 malaysian ringgit (1 S$=2.4 Ringgit, do the math) it was wonderful.
Taxi ride to Mersing was quick and the car was also nicely air-conditioned but our gentle Cab driver tried hard to take lives away from our body with all the possible rash curves he could have ever taken. Luckly he offered to drop us at an agency where we were planning to buy our ferry tickets.There are range of companies selling ferry tickets to Tioman. We used a company called Bluewater.
Now as all was taken care by the devil, ferries were fully booked till the last 6:30 PM. After long wait for 4 hours we took a 70 RM round trip ferry out to the beautiful island of Tioman. The ferry ride took about 3 hours as it stopped at each jetty in the Tioman Island.

Once we got off the ferry, the first task was to find someplace to stay. We went in the second week of April and most of the places were fully booked. Tioman is split up into several villages (kampungs), even the most touristy of these, Salang, is still totally relaxing. We got off the ferry onto a 100 ft. wooden pier at Salang. I had seen great reviews in my research so we tried it out, and it was very nice minus the slight isolation from most from the rest of the island. We got our stay booking done at salang Beach Resort through internet. Dont go with the name as it was just a nice chalet accomodation on hill with sea facing. It had a nice beach and a comfortable rooms, but it was a 10 mins hike through the jungle to the rest of the chalets. We took that hike with high speed photography and met some fellow travellers.

As we were five people, took 3 chalets with twin capacity. I grabbed the private one😊 After settling down with our luggages, it was already dark and there was nothing much to do other than satiating our hunger and thirst.
On Salang there were about 4 restaurants, and two of these that we tried served very decent food. You can get seafood barbequed daily, and one of them does a great BBQ'd half chicken. While we didn't drink the tap water, drinks with ice in them and made with water seemed fine and didn't cause us any problems....yet!!! The most popular bar, Four-S Cafe, has a good atmosphere and is a good place to meet up with other visitors on the island, and you also get a few locals drinking here. Tiger is RM6, Heineken and Carlsberg are RM5. The bar owner loves his music, and does requests. Suddenly got a glimpse of a chinese beauty which kept me and siva busy in Four S for a long time. When Four-S Cafe closes at 1 a.m., another bar opens up on the far end of the beach (look for the flashing light), and this bar stays open until everyone goes to bed or when the sun begins to rise. Then we made our way back to the resort to get some sleep and geered up for the next day real adventure. Dont know about others but I slept like a baby with some oppressing noises of unfamiliar animals way too close for comfort.

Woke up the next morning, got fresh and made it down for our complimentary breakfast which was surprisingly not included so went for a quick bite at the local restaurant and grabbed some toast,cheese omelets and Malaysian style noodles, SPICY it was. Gopi had a bowl of chicken Tom Yam(Dont know what was keeping him busy in that tiny bowl). The whole setup of salang was very nicer and photogenic and literally right on the water. Though some of us were still tired, sore and aching enough to barely move, we decided no matter how much pain we were experiencing we didn't want to miss out; so we changed into our swimming attire and hit the beach.
We started in an immature fashion with sea side snorkeling. It was 10:15 AM, and the water was at low tide and calm; so it seemed ideal. There were lot of corals and sea shells that we kept stepping on. We (four of us) also paid 10 ringgit for a mask, snorkel, and fins and siva was keeping himself busy in imbibing all the possible fresh air. It was wonderful and the most beautiful beach I had seen on the island so far and also the most beautiful I had ever seen in my life. Tioman is a location for the best diving and snorkeling in the world. Typically you pay a boat to take you out to an island, but we didn’t want to spend that much money, so we decided to get around the far end of the island. It was amazing, probably a mile worth of beach, with white sand and beautiful water, simply breathtaking.

There were many operators and resorts offering the opportunity to see the highlights of Tioman in a one-day round-island tour. At around 11:30 AM we took one such good deal for round island trip on a speed boat whose velocity engaged us in an unforgettable experience. Karuna took an oath of never sitting in such kind of boat again in his life. This tour costed us about RM70 per person with snorkeling gadgets. After going through enormous high speed bumps with scenic view, first stop was Tekek village which was famous for Berjaya resort, cycling and few duty free shops. This was island’s main village where most of the duty-free shops are selling alcohol, cigarettes and souvenirs at low prices.
After exploring some off beaten paths while cycling in Terek village we moved towards the next stop for Snorkelling at the Marine Park headquarters
There were Clouds of brightly coloured fish in water around the jetty here. Kids were amused in fish feeding offering bread crumbs to attract them. I took a daring jump from 20 feet height jetty to be a part of fish world.
Then was Pulau Tulai (aka Coral Island) which lived up to its name. This was a band of faint yellowish pristine beaches inviting snorkling boats despite the crowded waters. We were greeted by turquoise colored sea water, So clear that you can see little tiny fishes swimming around the coral. There and then we already felt like we’re in heaven and we just couldn’t wait to jump into the water. The ocean was fascinating, I only wish I had an underwater camera so I could have taken pictures and you could see exactly what I saw. It was another world down there in the water. The fishes were so calm they don’t really care about you. They simply go about their businesses and once a while swim pass you. Good luck trying to touch them though because they have this subtle tactic to keep themselves out of reach. While Prasil, Karun and Siva were lingering around the snorkeling boat, Gopi and myself showed courage to explore the ocean and swam a little far from the boat. We saw dead coral, live coral, sea urchins (they were everywhere), a stingray (a gray with blue dots), a titan trigger fish, a clownfish (Nemo!!!), butterfly fish, a bicolor parrot fish (really pretty), and loads of others. I still really can’t get over it and am waiting for my next experience like that. The coolest part was being able to swim in 50 feet deep ocean and able to see clearly under the coral and check out what was hiding under there. It was lovely.
Then was Monkey Bay another beautiful beach in Tioman for our last snorkeling session. It has a long stretch of white sandy beach with superb crystal clear water. There was no accomodation at Monkey Bay...therefore, if one is looking for privacy especially for an undisturbed sunbathing session...should go.As per my readings there was a way to climb hill and access Monkey bay but that would have asked for some real stamina to loose some fat and get sweaty a bit, so we avoided.

Tour ended around 5 PM and we were back to Salang Bay. We were just lying down at the beach side when prasil suddenly got the idea of kayaking into the blue. Me and Prasil being the most tough guys and still having stamina stood up and shared the most daring moments of our life. Scary, dark and bleaky waves crashing right onto our kayak, trying to capsize us taught the real meaning of our life and was the reason to strengthen the bond of our frienship at the same time. And as they say, a truly meaningful bond will emanate out of a strong purpose, we rowed back to the shore safely.

After our amazing underwater adventure we cleaned up and headed to a grill for dinner. There were numerous fish available on the grill, that day’s catch. We decided to try a few things like griller corn, bamboo rice, grilled white snappper and most required the heavenly Chardonnay .All of the above were enjoyable. The corn was in its tastier version I have ever tried and the snapper was basically like spongy chicken with BBQ sauce, seemed to combine all the best parts of every fish I have ever had and deliver them all in every bite. We all got our own serving of Malay-style bamboo rice, once again Malay-style means SPICY, but it wasn't unbearable and was therefore very good. Any meal would taste a thousand times better than it actually is if you’re eating it facing such a lovely scenery but still the best part was its price. 3 bottles from Singapore fell short and we ended up with 5 wine bottles in total.
For the remainder of the night we were sitting at this sea shore restobar (no indoors, completely open to the outside and the beach) 15 min. away from our chalet and we drank and partied on the beach under the full moon. There happened to be finest night ever spend with friends with Karuna (seemingly a shy and innocent guy) being the centre of attraction sharing his life experiences(good, bad and some mushy mushy ones) which made us absolutely spellbound. Listening to his life story, which he offered along with some great anecdotes was fascinating and enlightening.

Then off to chalet to catch 7 AM ferry next morning.

All and all our stay at Salang Beach was heavenly. Tioman Island was magnificent. The water was crystal like and the underwater world was enchanting. It was just a wonderful period.
We all were so sad that we have to leave on the third day, we wish we could’ve stayed longer. But life must go on and we can’t possibly just drop everything and live there. Maybe one day. But by then we promised each other to come back again, real soon. And up until today, months since we got back, we still have Tioman Island so dearly in our heart.

Sorry for the length, but there was lot that happened and I want to use this article to give you people an oppurtunity to be at this pristine place and also benefit myself so that I can remember as much as possible.

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