Tioman Island
Earlier this month we had a public holiday here called Gawai. That is a harvest festival celebrated by the local tribes here in Borneo. My plan this year was to spend the holiday on Tioman Island, off the east coast of peninsular Malaysia, together with Didin to celebrate his birthday.
First we stayed two nights close to the "capital" of the island Tekek. We stayed at Swiss Cottage Tioman in a sea view chalet located on the beach. It was about ten metres to walk down to the sea for a refreshing swim and we had a nice terrace whith a sleeping mat and some chairs where we spent some time reading and watching the sea.
When we got bored of just relaxing on the terrace we rented a stand up paddle board and tried our balance skills. It was very fun and a little bit challenging when the boats drove by and created "huge" waves that we had to master.
In the evening we went out for a walk to the tax free shop. Tioman Island is a tax free zone where you can buy alcoholic drinks for reasonable prices! During our walk we heard a strange sound above our heads and looked up to discover that the trees were full of bats!
On our second day on Tioman we were hiking from one side of the island to Juara Beach on the other side. It took us about three hours to get there. We had a well deserved lunch at Juara Beach before we visited a turtle conservation centre. We had a guide that showed us around and explained about the work they are doing to protect the turtles. We donated some money to the project to support their good work! The centre is popular for tourists who want to do some vounteer work during their holiday.
The last night on Tioman we spent at Japamala Resort which is a boutique resort on a private beach on the south west side of the island. We took a taxi boat and landed at their private jetty and were greeted with a refreshing drink. The room we had booked was a sea view chalet and it was located a little bit up on a hill. The view from the chalet was amazing. We had our own private balcony hanging over the sea! That was a perfect ending of our Tioman holiday.
The only thing that I can complain about is the ferry company that serves the island. On our departure day we had a four hours delay of our ferry without any explanation or what so ever. Due to the delay we missed our bus back to Johor Bahru from where we were flying back to Kuching. We had planned to spend the day at Johor Premium Outlet before flying back to Kuching. We had to cancel that plan and take a taxi from Mersing (the access point to Tioman Island on Malaysia's east coast) and drive straight to the airport. Luckily we were in time for our flight! My advice for all of you planning to making this journey is to allow for extra time in your schedule! I talked to other people at the jetty and heard that delays are quite common!
Comments
Trackback
