Blogs from Pulau Tioman, Pahang, Malaysia, Asia - page 9

Two weekends ago, we went to Pulau Bintan, Indonesia. It was a 2 hour ferry ride from Singapore but cause of the monsoon season, the waves were really big and my stomach was upset most of the way. Luckily I made it withou having to use the plastic bag. It rained most of the time, but we managed to have a good time by hiring a car and driver who showed us around the island, trying different curries and spicy foods. We also met another group of exchange students mainly from Holland and Germany, so had a bit of fun mingling with them at the bonfire each of the 2 nights. This past weekend was the full moon, which means that all the backpackers and travellers head to Ko Pha-Ngan, an island off the east coast ... read more

Well, we, the intrepid travellers, have returned to the mainland! We have had the HARDEST week! Its just so difficult...enjoying yourself, surviving on approx 4GBP (including accommodation) waking up to turquoise waters lapping sandy shores with the jungle as a back drop....I really don't know how we are surviving!!!! I say that...but it is worth mentioning that the travelling to and from these places is trying.... to say the very least! After a pretty stressful morning picking up our Chinese Visas at one end of Singapore, then catching the Bus at the other, we arrived in Mersing a smelly little village on the East Coast of Malaysia (described as a quaint fishing villlage - rose tinted galsses I ask you?!) to be pounced upon and sheperded into a little shed where we given our accommodation and ... read more

Place holder for my 2nd trip to Tioman... read more

3rd Sept: I repacked all my winter gear into my other bags and left them in storage and repacked all my summer stuff and food into my backpack and found out how I was to get to Malaysia. I took the local bus into Malaysia ($2.50) and through the border and customs then changed my Singapore dollars into ringets about 1S$-2RR and got back on the bus to JB and the main bus centre for lower Malaysia arrived there at about 10.30, and found out the next bus to Mercing(where I had to catch the ferry) was only at 2.30!! I had read it was going to be at 11 but I had forgotten it was a Sunday to that bus didn’t run! So I bought a ticket and waited around in the food court and ... read more

Hey, how is everyone... good I hope. I just finished a week on Tioman Island which, is just of the east coast of Malaysia. It's a really cool place... pretty quiet but beautiful beaches and lots of diving. Did my PADI open water dive course... it was about $850 ringgits... pretty cheap plus I was the only person in the group. I arrived last Saturday... I didn't know that it was a holiday weekend... of course I hadn't prebooked anything... myself and about ten others were all look for rooms. There were no rooms availible... five of us were able to convince a resort to let us sleep in their meeting room... they through mats on the ground turn the aircon on and changed us 15 ringgits each... it's only $5CDN but I still felt ripped ... read more