Tioman Island, Malaysia

The journey from Singapore to Tioman Island, Malaysia was really painless. We had to get up at 4.45am - that was the hardest part!   Picked up our 0630 bus, at the Singapore Flyer. The night club at the Flyer was still pumping, made me feel ancient - I've just woken up and they're still partying!!

That used to be me in the background, after a hard night out! Now fresh as a daisy, at 5.30am!

Singapore Flyer, 5.30am

The journey to Tanjung Gemok, to catch our ferry was meant to take two and a half hours, but because it was eid ul fitri, it only took one and a half hours - all of which we slept through. The ferry took another one and a half hours, more sleeping from the Ajayi's, and we arrived at Tioman Island - painless.

Ferry to Tioman Island, zzzzzz

It was ferociously hot when we got off the ferry. For some reason there were about 3 million people crowded onto the very narrow pier. 


We fought our way down the pier and onto the beach and our hotel, the Ayer Raja Resort, was about 3 minutes walk away. Actually Genting is so small - everything is 3 minutes walk away! 

Genting Pier

Ayer Raja Resort

Genting, is really just a small strip of cafés, shops and resorts (I use that word loosely) along the beach. The staff at our hotel are very pleasant - although the manager is called Sam!!! (hopefully no repeats of Sri Lanka, Son of Sam, experience). 

Our resort (again, word used with poetic license) is pretty basic, actually quite a bit like Sams in Sri Lanka. However, the air conditioning is brilliant, the area is really pretty, and the shower is hot. It's pretty hard to get any service and the wifi - let's not talk about the wifi. Wifi is apparently a basic human right now - just not at Ayer Raja!

I want my human rights! (first world problem).

The first two days of our stay were eid ul fitri public holidays so quite a few of the shops and restaurants were closed. Although the trusty Chinese supermarket seemed to be open 24/7. The staff were so grumpy, I think they must have been working non stop.

We had to take our shoes off before entering any of the shops, so Richie had to give-in and buy some thongs - Aussie Rich! He's come a long way from the London lad who insisted on bringing 10 pairs of socks to Asia, 26 year ago (he'll be wearing stubbies, before I know it.)

Aussie Rich.

The restaurants were a bit weird - it was like wandering into someone's lounge room and demanding food with menaces! Last night we had a great meal next door, but you get the sense they might run out of food at any minute. We had a buffet breakfast at the Damai Resort (coffee, juice, toast) for 5 MR ($1.50) for two plus wifi!

The beach is really lovely - really clear water - you can watch the fish without a snorkel! - although snorkelling is also very popular. 

Look ma no hands!

We spent all our days in Tioman pretty much the same way  - getting up fairly early, walking a kilometre or so to the nicest beach area, swimming for a while then having coffee and toast at Damai Resort and using their wifi, 'cos the wifi at our place was crap!; siesta in the afternoon, late evening swim, drinks on the balcony, dinner more walks on the beach and an early night - very relaxing!

Hmm crusty!

Beach all to himself!

We didn't find any better restaurants than the one next door to our place - so we ate there on three nights. It's  a beautiful location but I don't think Tioman is a place to visit for culinary delights!

Images of Tioman.....

We had a lovely restful, five days at Tioman - we spent quite a bit of time watching the boats come and go (really not much else to look at). Every day the boats came in like clockwork - on the hour and on the half hour. That is until we were due to leave - then suddenly they stopped running. 

5 days doing nothing - this is what happens!

We duly turned up at the pier, at the requested time of 1.30 - thirty minutes prior to departure, to discover no boats had arrived since 11am! We waited until 3pm for a boat - when it finally turned up, it wasn't our boat to Tanjung Gemok - but a boat to Mersing. 

We thought - sod it!  We're catching this boat one way or another. So we shoved our way onto the boat and grabbed a couple of seats. Fortunately they didn't check our tickets until after we set sail - not that they cared either way. 

Gee I wonder whats happening with Western Security - not!

We were due to connect with our bus to Singapore (we'd planned to get off in Johor Bahru) in Tanjung Gemok. 

Because the boat was so late - there was no bus to Singapore. It was also persisting with rain when we arrived. Fortunately Rich grabbed a taxi and we dashed to the local bus station. We had to catch a local bus to Kota Tinggi, then change to another bus to Johor Bahru. 

Riding with the locals.

Actually it was relatively painless and only cost about $7 all up. The bus driver was a little insane - first overtaking on the inside lane then overtaking about 10 or more vehicles on the other side of the road. He was pretty awesome really - he just bullied his way through the traffic - after all you can't really argue with a big bloody bus! Finally arrived at Johor at 9 pm.  
We are now ensconced at the Citrus Hotel, we have a lovely hot shower, massive TV and most importantly fast wifi - human rights restored!