Our beach hut in Salang...
Fast forward a few short days and it's Malaysia. We're Sitting on a very little island in the South China Sea called Tioman, which is about a 2 1/2 hour bus ride from Singapore to a place called Mersing, and another 2 1/2 hour ferry ride from there. The bus ride was perhaps our first truly non-western experience of the trip, by which I mean that you felt the necessity of putting your life in the hands of a higher force, because the one that was a the steering wheel of the bus was probably not worthy of such responsibility. The highways are full of pot-holes and as the bus driver squeeled along the zig-zagging roads at a rather breakneck speed (passing various slower vehicles all the while) the tires made discomforting squeeling sounds, as if the rubber was rubbing into the wheel-wells of the bus as it swerved. I suspect this is exactly what was happening. Quite something.
But we got there, booked a ferry and a place to stay on the island (20 metres from the water, just under $7 Euro per night), jumped on the boat and were off.
The ferry to Tioman Island
A little side-note: If you decide to travel around Malaysia yourself, bring a backpack and skip the suitcases or you'll just look plain silly - and leave out the socks as well, whatever you decide to bring.
There is an authentic part of the island, which is Tekek, the only 'major' city, which consists of one road that is really more like a glorified cement path, a handful of trucks and a lot of scooters.
Tekek, Tioman Island
This is where the locals live. The rest is basically just travellors. There is a couple of large tourist resorts on the island, whose inhabitants are shipped in via the one-landing-strip airport in some cases.
The Tekek 'International' Airport...
The rest is for travellors like ourselves - and I am making a conscious distinction between travellor and tourist here. But it is worthwhile all the same since the jungle - which we have not ventured into - couldn't be more authentic.
The only way to get between the villages are jungle paths which take several hours to navigate because the island is rather mountainous - or by boat taxi, which we opted for when we moved from Air Batang where we stayed the first night, an which is connected to Tekek by cement path, to Salang which is a 3 hour jungle hike otherwise, and which is consequently much more remote since it is not otherwise connected to anything.
A Tioman Island boat taxi...
We hired a boat to take us to a nearby island for a day of snorkelling, and on the return where escorted part of the way back by a school of dolphins!!
What can I say about this?
Some things you just can't predict. That possibility was not mentionned on the hand-made promotional posters for the trip either. There is quite a tide, and the underwater corels are simply fantastic to witness when snorkelling around just about anywhere.
And with regards to crime and theivery on the island, I will let the following pictures provide all the necessary explanation...
More to come soon!
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