Kuantan

Sometimes it is nice to be in a place where tourists rarely go. Kuantan is a town half way in between Tioman and Perentian and is the biggest town in the area (I think). We are here to buy a camera and a 3g mobile broadband stick, then leave in the morning. As far as we can tell there is not really too much to hold us here any longer. Still, as I said - its nice to come to places where tourists rarely go. 

The reason I say this is because of the reaction you get from the locals. The younger guys tend to say “hello” while smirking hoping to get any kind of reaction from you. When you say it back they seem pleased with the interaction like that was exactly what they hoped to succeed with their day. Often the girls that work in shops spend more time apologising about their english than trying to answer your questions. But my favourite reaction is from some restaurant owners. Several times we have eaten at places that have completely confused me, more than you think could be possible for a meal. If its something they know is new to you, often they enjoy the chance to enlighten you. For example today we ate in an Indian restaurant. They covered the table in banana leaves then just threw an assortment of dishes and a huge pile of rice on the table. It was brilliant. After the meal the owner asks how it was and seemed genuinely pleased when we said we enjoyed it.

The other reason coming to non-tourist areas sometimes is nice has to be the prices though. 1RM for a coke when you are used to paying 3RM? Bargain.

Anyway, now the novelty has worn off and there is nothing to do in the town its time to move on. We have two choices, inland or island. Its 9:30pm so we should probably decide soon…

Oh! Nearly forgot!

We have bought a new camera! Hopefully our photos will be shinier and more colourful now. We also have a 3g stick so hopefully we can update the blog more regularly as well! 

On a Boat

We are now on a boat heading back to the real world, well… Malaysian real world. Normally by the time it comes to leave a place, we are both getting itchy feet, but Pulao Tioman seems to be one of those places where you could easily stay for a while. Still, the excitement of buying a new camera is encouraging us to head back to the mainland.

Our current camera doesn’t fit any underwater cases, and seeing as we spend so much time near water that doesn’t really work too well. For this, we are going to have to stop in the only large(ish) city inbetween here and the Perentian Islands - Kuantan. As far as I can tell, theres not much to actually do there but nevermind.

Pulao Tioman

Considering we spent a lot of time not doing much, its gone quickly. We feel like we got the most out of the island though. First off, Salang was definitely the best beach. We did the snorkelling trip around the island and saw a snapshot of the whole island. We also got dropped off on the south of the island and walked inland to a waterfall. There are photos… once we have fast enough internet to upload them all. We got to swim there for a while in the cool water, then headed back to the boat.

Then eventually we got to do some diving! My cold shifted in time for us to do two dives before we left during which we saw two reef sharks and six sea turtles… so they were good dives. We went with Dive Asia who were cheap and friendly, and fairly efficient.

Hopefully our next update will be either in Kuantan or the Perentian Islands!

Pulao Tioman Highlights

- The diving is good and cheap.
- Get a 3g dongle/modem/stick if you want reliable internet, or want it in your hut.
- Get a discount if you stay for multiple nights, during the week the island is quiet so they want business.  The furthest place from the beach charges 70RM a night for air con, use that to haggle.
- Do the round island trip. Many places are not worth the effort of individual travel, and if you go with Rose from the jetty then its all day and you see the whole island. Some groups left at 10am and were back by 1pm, we left and 9am and were still out at 4pm. Lunch is not included though.
- The snorkelling off the left side of the beach is great. Just keep swimming around till it gets deeper and you may see the resident turtle.

Moving House (well, beach)

Pulao Tioman has some odd expenses. Its something we have noticed in many of the places we have been so far. Often when we arrive somewhere new then it takes a little while for us to notice. The common one is for accomodation to be cheap, but food to be expensive (or vice-versa). In Pulao Tioman accomodation AND food is cheap (yey), but water and transport around the island is not. Bottled water is one of those costs that creeps up on you as its an expense you make several times a day. Mind you, compared to Cambodia and Vietnam its still cheap so can’t complain too much.

So, on the whole the island is pretty cheap.

We have moved beach and are now further north in Salang. Its bigger, much more active, and has a big stretch of nice beach. We are both still ill with colds so have decided to pay extra for a room with air con. The little huts they call chalets are nearly always covered with tin roofs so its like being in a greenhouse. The little fans they put in there feebely blowing warm air at you do very little. All thats fine when you are not feeling a bit rough but three nights of little sleep is getting to us.

I can’t actually remember if we ever mentioned this previously in the blogs, but a while ago my feet were having bad luck. Whilst on our trek in the Cambodian jungle my shoes rubbed some bug bites on my feet open, and I scratched open two on my legs. A week later and they were still open and we were diving in Pattaya so they were getting wet everyday. I then also got knocked into the wreck and cut the back of my heel open. Eventually I started taking antibiotics and had nurse Pippa wrap them up and now they are fine but now it seems to be Pippas turn. During our last dive her heel got rubbed open by the fin, then a few days later the arch of the same foot got rubbed as well. Now today whilst snorkelling she kicked some barnacles and cut her toe open. Basically what I’m getting at is ‘hurray my curse is lifted and now its her turn’.

Considering we are both ill, and most of our attempts at exploring have led to long walks to nothing in perticular, I still like the island. During our first explore we came across a group of Macaques causing mischief in someones garden. By the looks of it they had once found food there and refused to leave. Since then we have seen Monitor Lizards of various sizes everywhere. No matter how many times you see them, its still a bit suprising when one of the bigger ones cross your path. They completely ignore you though even though they look like something Steve Irwin would jump on and wrestle for a bit.

Everyone on the island is talking about the Singaporeans coming for the weekend. They make it sound like a zombie apocalypse. By the sounds of it though the island will be busier and a bit more alive which will be nice for a few days, then they will go home and it will be quiet again.

Hopefully soon we will be better and able to do some diving. I also hope that I manage to find some internet from somewhere and can actually upload this before its really out of date…

Tioman

The sun is going down behind the mandrove tree covered hill of the island, and the only sound I can hear is of a compressor filling air tanks. We are on Pulao Tioman, an island off the east coast of Malaysia. The island itself is the perfect tropical island, sitting in turquoise blue water with long sandy beaches. For some reason though much of the island is rundown, with abandoned businesses and derelict houses making up a suprisingly large portion of the villages. It seems like an island that has had its peak and is now in the decline. This doesn’t make sense for… urgh sorry a man in tiny speedos just walked past the door. Anyway, this doesn’t make sense for three reasons:

1. The island is beautiful, not too far from shore and has an airport on it.

2. The island is duty free so instead of paying nearly $3 for a small beer, like on the mainland,  you pay $1. Food and accomodation is also cheap so staying on the island is easy to do on a budget.

3. The island (apparently) has some of the best diving in Malaysia.

For now we are staying in one of the bungalows  on the beach nicknamed ABC. It’s supposed to be the main backpacker area, and it has three different dive companies to choose from.  One of which is the cause of the compressor I mentioned earlier. We are both feeling ill so we are not doing too much at the moment. We did take a walk to Tekek today though, a walk which turned out to be a lot longer than we realised. Tekek is meant to be the main hub of the island, but it turned out to be a suprisingly small village that was mostly shut down.

We intend to stay a few days on the island, mostly diving and snorkelling. We might also see about spending a few days at the big resort on the island which offers half price deals when the island is quiet. Tomorrow we intend to take a walk up the coast a little to a beach called Monkey Bay. There is meant to be some good snorkelling in that area. After that we would like to make it up to Salang to see what  that area is like but its quite a bit of a walk.

But, for now, the compressor has switched off and the temperature has dropped to a nice level so we are going to find some food and see if anything is going on!

Hopefully we will be able to upload photos soon but that depends on how good the internet is at the old hut with ‘internet cafe’ painted on the side.

Mersing

This post is three days old now as we have not had internet since then!

I sometimes wonder if the locals know how travellers feel about their towns, and if they feel the same. I’m wondering that because we are in a town called Mersing - a town that is really only on the map because it is where a ferry out to some of the islands runs from. To an outsider it has very little going for it other than a few cake shops and some nice coloured fishing boats. I mean, you still wouldn’t get me on one of those rotten old junkers for a million pounds but at least they have painted some of the rotten wood.

The town itself is not that old so most of the buildings are the rundown concrete blocks that were built back when people thought concrete was really nice and would be a timeless classic. There are also the usual shops selling all of the beach toys, flip flops and shops that you see in every pre-island town. We are staying in a place called Omar’s Backpacker Hostel. The first thing that greets you is an old welcome sign, hung on a folding rusty metal gate. Up the stairs are two (very well done) drawings with “thank  you” written in french and at the top is in open lobby. The sign that greets you is “If I’m not here just grab a room or a dorm bed, I’ll be back eventually - Omar”. 

Omar was here though, and appeared asking if we wanted a room. It was the second room we looked at in Mersing and was very similar to the first one, only difference being the extra 5RM a night. But… the ferry is just across the road and the other place was quite a walk away so we took it. The owner was also friendlier than the stern Chinese lady from the first hostel.

Singapore to Mersing

It wasn’t quite as smooth this time. We booked a ticket on the bus to Johor Baru just over the border in Malaysia. This is because the bus companies don’t change the price for journeys starting in Singapore, they just change it to S$ instead of RM. This is cheeky because S$ are over twice the value of RM. We got through customs quickly and try to find our bus so we can carry on to Johor Baru bus station. In front of us are three signs; Border Sentral, Platform A and Platform B. We have no idea which one our bus would go to, and there is nothing else written anywhere except that. We carry on walking to Platform A to find a different bus company waiting and a bus from the same company as ours with a driver fast asleep in the front. We try to head back to Sentral but theres a no entry sign back into the building. Eventually 45 minutes later a bus pulls up and takes the small group who had obviously done the same as us to the bus station. 

The bus journey wasn’t too long, but it is raining today and the air con was on full blast so everyone on board was freezing. It was a relief to come outside into the warm, a concept I still struggle with a little.

The Islands

These are going to be our first Malaysian islands (well, if you don’t count Borneo) and we are pretty excited. The photos make them look amazing and accomodation is pretty cheap. I suspect food will not be though. The first island we are going to stop at is Pulao Tioman for some diving, snorkelling, and general lazing around on a tropical island.