Our last night on the island, I wanted to take advantage of being far away from city lights and capture a shot of the Malaysian night sky for my dad the astronomer. After that was taken care of, Catie and I had a little fun with long exposures, including our engagement fake engagement photo under the moon. Personally I think the kung-fu shot is more representative of our relationship.
Photos taken on Tioman Island, Malaysia on September 24, 2009.
I was going to write a long post giving detailed information about the ins and outs of our trip, but I think instead I’m just going to leave it at several bullet point pieces of Tioman-vacation-related advice, along with a group of assorted remaining photos that I liked from our five days on the island.
First, my advice. Don’t take the well-publicized Transnasional 6 hour bus route from Kuala Lumpur to Mersing. Instead, take S&S International from Kuala Lumpur to Kluang and then to Mersing. It takes much less time, is less crowded, has much nicer buses (that play movies), and you get a chance to stretch out in Kluang and have something decent to eat. If you get into Mersing late and a man approaches you offering a stay at his chalet for the night, take him up on it, and whatever you do never stay at Omar’s (which is listed in Lonely Planet) because it is infested with bed bugs. Book your ferry tickets from Mersing to Tioman in advance. (Also if you want to fly between Kuala Lumpur and Tioman, book those tickets in advance as well.) On Tioman if you want to stay at Bamboo Hill on Ayer Batang, definitely book well in advance. If you want a good alternative, stay at Nazri II (but avoid their over-priced air conditioned rooms and go for the cheaper cleaner fan room). Eat dinner at sunset at the ABC restaurant – the beach view is gorgeous, the food is simple but good, and the service is very friendly. Go snorkeling on Tioman as much as you can! The north end of Ayer Batang headed towards Panuba provides great opportunities for easy snorkeling right off the beach. Finally, absolutely definitely leave a day for a jungle trek from Tekek towards Juara (even if you don’t make it all the way). Leave early if you can so you can avoid the midday heat in Tekek.
That’ll do. I loved Tioman Island and I would definitely go back. If you’re looking for a relaxing and beautiful beach in Malaysia, and especially if you’d like to do a little more than just lay around in the sand every day, I highly recommend Tioman.
Photos taken on Tioman Island, Malaysia between September 20-25, 2009.
I’ll admit I’m a bit of a workaholic at times, but give me a quiet beautiful island, a hammock, and a bit of shade, and I will happily lay around and do nothing for a good long while… A hammock-shaped palm tree seems to do the trick for Catie as well.
Photos taken on Tioman Island, Malaysia between September 20-22, 2009.
There were two consistent sources of amusement for me on Tioman Island, and I felt the need to document both. The first was the phones which were peppered around the beaches and which I am quite sure were not in any way functional. They were all colored orange and/or blue (which added to my attraction), some lived in phone booths, one had no receiver at all… My favorite though was situated snugly between two tree trunks and had no phone lines running in or out of the box (that was incidentally cracked open, exposing all of its dilapidated innards).
My other source of amusement was, quite naturally, the “BURGER SLRRP” stand that we would pass as we walked down our beach every day. I am very sad to say that BURGER SLRRP was never open during our stay, but I must admit it sounds delicious, and if we ever make it back to Tioman that is the first place I’ll go.
On a telecommunications side note, I must give my respect to the chalet business offering INTER…NE.T. for they have truly brought the period and ellipse to new and beautiful places.
Photos taken on Tioman Island, Malaysia between September 20-25, 2009.
In addition to the monkeys and cats on Tioman Island there were also a number of birds, lizards, and insects, not to mention bats and crabs. Most of these animals were all over the place and it became rather commonplace to see them or avoid walking on top of them, but the bat population still took us by surprise when we were nearing one of the jetties in Tekek and suddenly found ourselves walking underneath trees which were home to what looked like thousands of fruit bats. I don’t know why they chose those trees that were in such a central location, but it was quite impressive.
Photos taken on Tioman Island, Malaysia between September 20-24, 2009.
