My Trip to Tioman Island

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Day 1

We went to Palau Tioman by taking a long taxi ride from the causeway at Johor Bahru. From Johor Bahru we took the 3 to Mersing. Since it was early in the morning there was lots of fog patches in the palm tree plantations and rainforest outside of Johor Bahru. After a while all we saw were miles of palm trees going towards the horizon, After two hours we reached the ferry terminal in Mersing. Once we got to Mersing we had to wait an hour.

From Mersing we took a one hour and fifteen minute ferry ride to Kampong Genting, the first stop on the ferry ride, then Paya and then to the main ferry terminal at Tekek. We got off at Tekek and took a little bridge over a river that looked like it got turned into a marina. At the other end was a road, a new looking playground,and a very small airport. There were some makeshift looking restaurants and shacks. It was hot. My brother whined, "Where is the resort?" We took our luggage to an old bus that said it would take us to the Berjaya Tioman Resort (It was the nicest resort on the island but it was old). The bus had a bit of trouble going up the hill.

After we got unpacked, I went and built a sand city, I also built a Causeway/Dam across this river I found to connect the two parts of my sand city. After I built my city, I went snorkeling off the peninsula and saw lots of bleached coral and lots of colorful fish such as Bullethead Parrot Fish and a Star Eye Parrotfish eating a type of moss(To see guide on tropical reef fish, Click Here ). Once I saw this a small fish eating something off a Bullethead parrot fish and the Parrot Fish looked like he was enjoying it! Must be a fish massage!

After that we went to dinner, I shared a Nasi Goreng (fried rice with a egg and satay) with my dad and my brother wouldn't eat it because he thought it ws 'Nasty Goreng'. Then went out to the beach and I built a sand mountain.



Day 2

The next day after breakfast, we went hiking in the jungle. The trail was hard to find but we found it, they obviously made it so you would hire a guide instead of doing it yourself but my dad insisted that he was a good guide even though he is not exactly experienced in tropical jungle hikes. (He told us he was better than the local guides. Hmmmm.) The hike was basically a jungle, there was no obvious trail, but my dad noticed a few trees that were marked with plastic bands. This guy told us to follow some blue plastic bands, we did, but then ended up at the island's garbage dump! My dad took us another way that he thought was the trail because he saw sandbags, but I wasn't so sure. In any case, we ended up climbing this steep part, by holding onto these two slick boulders (later on the way back, we realized this was not the trail.) As we were hiking, we heard lots of howling from monkeys or other animals above us, but we couldn't see them, the jungle was so dense. My dad tried to look up, but something fell on him, it made his hair look wet, I think it was monkey poop. My dad said it was just some watery dirt, but I don't know. We couldn't really stop to see the animals because the jungle was thick with mosquitoes and ants, so we just kept on going. My dad wanted to take a photo of us, we had to dance around like there was ants in our pants to avoid the mosquitoes until he said stop so he could take the picture.

Eventually, after many wrong turns, we found the way to the waterfall. At the waterfall, we found a red and black snake lying in the trail but it moved quickly out of the way. The waterfall was only 2 meters high, it wasn't worth going through all that trouble to see it. After seeing the snake we panicked and ran down the trail. When we got back, we discovered it was one of the most poisonous kinds of snakes around. Yikes! Later we also discovered, there were many unique species on Tioman, like the walking catfish and the flying fox. Maybe if we had hired a guide we would have seen some of these animals instead of just a poisonous snake and some monkey poop!



That afternoon we went to Renggis island. The coral at Renngis island was really dense, like this one area was a dense forest of fire coral (If you touched it you will feel a burning sensation). There were little groves of giant tree corals and Brain corals, in one grove I saw a titanic sea anemone. Then it turned into a meadow of Acropora Subulta, a brownish coral that is not that tall,so it looks like its a meadow. There were tons of different kinds of fish. Then there were these sea urchins with spooky red and blue eyes. Then we got out and fed these fish that swarmed around our toes and it felt like we were getting a massage. Our dad came up and my brother says its fine to stick your toes in. So my dad stuck his feet in but a big Bullethead Parrotfish came and bit his toes and he said "Ow!"

Day 3

In the morning, I built a sand city on the peninsula but the peninsula was a sandbar that washed away during high tide. After breakfast, it started raining so we went to the Amusement Center and played a game of pool. After about an hour the game was done and I beat my brother. In the afternoon, I built a huge sand city and I think it was the 3rd biggest sand city I have ever built, it probably had 1.2 millon people in it (including commercal and business it towers.) At around 6:45 my Dad said that it was time to get ready for dinner.



Day 4



Today we went kayaking in the morning. In the afternoon, we went and snorkeled at Ringgus and I went to the other side of the island. On the other side, the current was very strong and it was very deep. Once we had to swim fast because in the gloom I saw a huge reef shark that was 10 feet long and I saw its eyes and big teeth. Some divers were chasing him, which didn't seem like a good idea.



Day 5

For my dad's birthday, we hired a small private boat and went boating around. Once we got out past Rinngus island it started getting really bumpy and wavy and Mom was really worried that we were going to capsize. But I knew it was probably a 0.001%!(NOVERB)chance that we would capsize. The boatman wanted us to sit upfront on bow to add extra weight to the front, but my Mom was really worried we were going to get thrown from the boat. But anyway Mom wanted to change a boat once we got to Tulai island (Once we got there though all the boats were the same size as ours so we kept our boat.)

When we arrived a Pasir Panging Beach and it had the best sand for building that have seen in my life. It was pure white sand. So I built a city but roughly 20 minutes later a bunch of tourist came and Dad said to go because he thought the beach was going to be to full.

So we went to the other side of the island in this little bay where the boat driver said there was good snorkeling. The snorkeling was okay but there were a lot of bleached coral and some alive coral.

Coral gets bleached when a relatively quick shift in water temperature happens. In reefs, the warming temperature (caused by global warming) and stronger ulatraviolet rays lead to a stress response scientists call bleaching. The symptoms are that the colorful algae in coral cells that covers corals become toxic and are expelled from the from coral and turning it deathly white. Since coral cells are what make Corals 'Alive' the Corals are now dead. Fleshy seaweeds then eat what remains of the coral.

Tioman used to be full of great coral according to my parents who honeymooned here, but sadly because of global warming and pollution from coastal development and fishing, much of it is dead now. Also the aquarium industry has robbed the ocean of all the Nemo clown fish since every preschool has to have a Nemo. After the Nemo movie everyone had to have a Nemo fish which is really sad, ironically, this was the main plot of Nemo (he's caught in a tank and wants to return to the wild). I think people should enjoy the fish in the wild instead of having one at home!

Luckily, the Malaysian government organized a rehabilitation project of the coral round Ringgis Island, so we were fortunate enough to see great coral and fish. The first step of the rehab was that they took coral seeds and built an underwater nursery at Ringgis and let the coral regrow. Ringgis Island is also in the middle of the ocean off shore, so I think the water temperature was cooler than near shore.

After snorkelling we took the boat ride back. Since the last trip was so bumpy, Mom wanted to skip Monkey Bay (even though I said it was closer than Ayer Batang.) and go straight to Ayer Batang, our lunch stop. The ride there was very bumpy and it felt longer than the ride to Tulai island. After we ate lunch we went back and had a rest till dinner, that night we had the buffet because we were all very hungry.

Day 6

Today we decided to to rest after the long boat ride. In the morning I went kayaking and paddleboarding. My mom just stayed inside the cabin reading on her kindle. I think she was worn out after the big boat ride.

In the afternoon I went and built a huge city on the peninsula and my brother helped me build it. The city had a stadium at one end and a business park with the walled in 'Capital' of the city with the Mayor's, and Executives' houses in a line, a golf course and a club and some secret service agencies. In the mudflats on the other side of the causeway was the International Airport and a big city area. I think that this city had 2.2 millon people and beat the other record I made on this beach. I think that the scale is 1:400. With that scale applied I think that my city's urban area was 5 sq.km and every building was a skyscraper ( But the entire urban area only covers roughly 5%!o(MISSING)f the entire peninsula which was huge.)

All in all, it was a great trip. I realize that I was fortunate to see great coral and fish and that it might all be dead in the future because of global warming and pollution. I want to build a big giant dome with a rainforest that has all different plants and animals and also an ocean that preserves all the coral and fish. So then when everything is dead, I can give out the seeds and fish to regrow everything. I realize this will take a lot of money, maybe I can raise the money and people will invest in this project.

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