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Our first stop in Malaysia was on an Island off the South East Coast. We got there by first crossing the border by bus from Singapore to a town called Mersing. Our first border crossing didn't go well as I'd misplaced my departure card into my file that was stored away in the coach hold. Without this I had to get taken into the Customs office where I was asked who I was and had to prove that I was the holder of the passport...This was quite difficult as the photo on it was a hideous one taken in 2004, I'd like to think that I look rather different now!! Meanwhile Steph was frantically pacing in the foyer hoping our bus hadn't left without us! We made it though and were soon on the boat to Tioman Island...or so we thought until we discovered our smallish speed boat simply transferred you to the real boat that couldn't make it into the harbour due to the low tide. This meant we had to unload bags and reload them in the middle of the sea...not so good when you're not a fan of the fumes of petrol or the slow tossing of a boat like me!! After a smashed window and a long and rocky half hour we were on our way to the Island. This time we made it and disembarked at a bay called Air Batang (ABC for short). We'd planned this stop months before so had a lovely chalet with a beach view waiting for us and we wasted no time in jumping into the clear warm waters. Our days on Tioman were a nice and needed relax for us after the stress of India and the business of Singapore. Most were spent swimming, reading and going to casual walks along the beach to the next cafe! The food here was yummy and we tried our first obscure meal of BBQ Stingray. On our final day we went on a Round the Island trip that included a speed boat ride to the best beach on the island (a long white sand beach with a small pool alcove to one end), a visit to the Island's waterfall (complete with small cool pool to swim in), a view of the twin peaks that make the Island famous (and are also the famous back drop of the film the South Pacific, which unfortunately made Steph burst into song at regular intervals!) and finally a couple of snorkeling stops where we saw all kinds of fish and corals including little clown fish, stingrays (we thought to ourselves how tasty they were!!) and all kinds of beautifully coloured fish in varying sizes.
From Tioman we went up the coast to a small town called Pekan. After trawling across the town (which was very hard and hot) we made it to our chosen guest house only to find it was apparently full. I still don't believe this because the place was deserted!! After a short call round of the local hotels we found that only one had vacancies and was in our extremely low price range! It turned out to be the Guesthouse at the Polo Club...Tally Ho old boys! We were greeted kindly and showed around the club house where there were photos from when Prince Charles visited and played there! We soon tried to find our way into town which was a fair distance as we were quite a way out. Once again we were pleasantly surprised by the Malay hospitality when an old man saw we were lost and guided us all the way into town on his little bike stopping to wait for us whenever we fell behind. The walk into town was through houses all of which were on stilts and made of wood. The town was small and friendly with lots of helpful people. It also had a pretty riverside where the following day we saw a Bride and Groom posing for wedding photos! It was really interesting to visit here as there were no other tourists and we felt we'd seen a glimpse of real Malay life.
From here we journeyed on to a seaside town called Cherating. Again this was a very sleepy town with a lovely beach and friendly people. We had a nice couple of days here with a boat trip through the Mangrove swamps which was really cool. The trees grew outwards from the high branches as the fruit grew downwards to fall into the water and create roots from which the new trees would grow. (That's really hard to explain!) We also took a boat trip one evening to see the fireflies. These were amazing and lit up the trees like fairy lights on a Christmas tree. It was slightly annoying though as the people on the boat with us seemed to want to take photos of them with their flash on, the pictures wouldn't have come out and it meant we kept getting blinded by the flashes of the morons around us! On a happier note, we also did some Batik painting in the shade of a small cafe which was really fun. Steph's was of a frog and mine was of nice little fishes!!
From Cherating we went to Jerantut for the night where we stayed in a hotel that looked like a prison from the outside but was actually rather nice inside!! The following day we made our way into the National Park!
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Debra Sprague
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keep up the good work!
You are keeping us informed and entertained beautifully - thank you! So glad you are having a bit of a rest - i felt exhausted on your behalf in India! Take care! Love auntie D x