Blogs from Pulau Tioman, Pahang, Malaysia, Asia - page 11

Singapore.... The border has changed so much since the last time I am here. Last time I was in S'pore, the Woodlands MRT station opened on the day I flew back to NZ. Made my way to Chhay's place at Bukit Panjang. Noting down great directions as usual. After this petrol station and that petrol station. I overshot by 2 or 3 bus-stops. Still walkable to his place. We then met up with Chhay's gf, YunnChyi (hey let me know if I spelt your name wrong), for lunch. She was not joining us for the easter weekend diving trip. In the evening, we all met up at Apache Dive HQ, board the van when everyone (32 people) arrived. Looks like most people are doing dive courses (Open water and Advance), there's only a few of us ... read more

I’ve discovered that, while traveling, you have a tendency to miss the silliest things. For instance, while in Georgetown I felt like I missed the cold and the rain (maybe it’s my Vancouver heritage shining through), so was quite excited when we left the heat for the misty Cameron Highlands. The highlands are (duh) high in the jungle and have an average daily temperature of (only!) 22 degrees, when we arrived, however, it felt infinitely cooler, plus it was raining. The novelty wore off after about 5 seconds. It was still a great place to visit, but harder to enjoy the jungley surroundings when the constant mist soaked you whenever you elected to leave the comfort of hostel, restaurant, or car, so instead of undertaking the jungle hikes we’d planned (whew, thought I’d have to get ... read more

Palau Tioman, Malaysia – Oct 8 - 12 After 2 days of travelling, we have arrived at the beautiful island of Tioman off the Eastern coast of Malaysia. We are staying at a small beach with wooden bungalows on the beach, a couple dive shops and a few restaurants. That’s about it – we were told it is very congested here??? The beach is set in front of never-ending palm trees that rise up and up, the small turquoise bay encircled by huge rocks teeming with marine life all around. I am saving my chance to go diving for Thailand but was told anyway that the water is getting a bit murky at this time of year due to the oncoming monsoon season. For us the weather is perfect, it is sunny a good deal ... read more

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 ... read more

It was a long trip over, couldn't get any sleep on the plane! Arrived in Kuala Lumpur, crazy city (but a bit smelly!). Tried the food in the hawker stalls. Spent 2 more days sightseeing in KL, went to the nightmarket in Chinatown and haggled for a few t-shirts. Landed on Tioman Island on Thursday, dubbed a "tropical paradise" in the Lonely Planet book but it was raining when we first got here! Weather is lovely now though and we're having a great time relaxing on the beach, even went canooing and found a beautiful small beach we had all to ourselves! The island is really beautiful, crystal blue water, multi coloured fish everywhere, white sand, VERY cheap drink...what more could you ask for!!! Cant wait for week 2!... read more