Tioman Island

Well we had an absolutely wonderful time on Tioman Island.  We took a ferry from Mersing which took about 2 hours and I didn't feel seasick at all which was a bonus because the ocean was nice and calm.  It was an easy walk to our hostel from the ferry dock.  Most of the accommodation on the island is in the form of small huts with private bathrooms, cold water showers only but that didn't really bother us because most of the time we were sticky and hot and happy for a cold shower.  We were very lucky to score one right on the beach so we could sit on our porch at night and gaze at the ocean and since we were facing west, watch the sun set too!  The inside was a little dingy and the bed was kind of musty but for 14 dollars per night we were not about to complain!  The ocean was also incredibly calm and great for swimming, and we could jump in the water right from our cabin.

We fell into a lovely routine of sleeping in, going for porridge and kopi susu (coffee with sweetened milk) in the morning, followed by hiking or snorkelling, malay fried noodles for lunch, more hiking or snorkelling, cheap beers on the beach (3 for 3 dollars!), sate ayam (chicken sate) cooked over this fantastic charcoal bbq for supper and a late night chat or game of jolike on our porch by the sea.  The snorkelling was great and we saw lots of neat fish and beautiful corals.  On our most active day we went for a hike to the other side of the island (7km one way through the jungle).  It was really really amazing (Dan said he felt like Indiana Jones...he he) but we were absolutely soaked in sweat by the time we reached the other side.  We could literally wring out our cloths...gross.  But we were too cheap to pay for a ride back to the other side so we hoofed it after a nice lunch.  We met this Malay man and his wife on our hike back.  He was a nature guide and wanted to show his wife this beautiful flower in the jungle and offered to take us too.  It was a short detour from the path and we came to this huge flower on the ground from one of the trees.  Apparently it is the largest flower in the world!  We also had several monkey sightings in the trees during the days that we were there, in fact one morning the guy at the restaurant beside our hut had to chase one off because it was getting into the garbage.  One of the days it rained ALL day which was a bit of a bummer (and when I say rain I  mean torrential downpour...the locals said it had to do with the tsunami in Japan but we're not sure) so I think we made a record of number of games of jolike played and number of cups of coffee drunk in one day.  The following day was much nicer, however although overcast so we took a water taxi to a nearby bay called Monkey Bay (we did see monkeys!) to do some snorkeling and then hiked back through the jungle.

The island was also packed with stray cats, all un-neutered males and most of the females were very pregnant.  They were all very very friendly and sweet so it made me kind of sad :>(  All of the cats that we have run across in Asia so far have short tails with kinks in them...it must be some kind of dominant gene in the population.  They were pretty hilarious as well and would run after each other and play on the beach.   My favorite was this little black and white guy who had a longer tail and a 90 degree kink about an inch from the tip of it.  He also had two adjacent toes that the colours formed a checker pattern....so I called him Kinky Checker :>)  He had flea allergy dermatitis really bad and was all scabby and itchy so loved being pet around his head and would immediately start purring.  His ears were also kind of lop sided.  He would always be running around on the beach though playing and making his own fun.

So both Dan and I felt that Tioman was really a vacation from our travels and were pretty sad to leave.  We headed out early in the morning Sunday to catch the first ferry off the island because we wanted to get a bus to Kuala Lumpur.  We were lucky that the boat was on time that day because apparantly the day before it was 2 hours late.

So big city is our next adventure...that update to come...

Love Hanna and Dan