Getting up at 5:00 am we caught the bus at the Singapore Flyer at 6:30 and headed towards Malaysias Mersing in 2,5 hrs to get to the island of Pulau Tioman.
I have not felt very well the past two days as the air conditioning is really killing me and tried to get some sleep wherever I could. Bus, waiting for the ferry, ferry itself, I power-napped every free minute.
I had booked the tickets online and the service inside the bus was incredible. They made sure that every single passenger had no open questions left, knew where to go and they even made sure we go to the bathroom. ;-)
We had booked 4 nights at one of the chalets at Bamboo Hill Chalets and to get there on ABC beach (Air Batang) you have to go all the way to the end while you walk on a tiny concrete pavement passing other rooms, a few little bars and many diving agencies. This place seems to be living but was not too crowded and according to a swedish who had been there 25 years ago: not changed at all.
I can highly recommend Bamboo Hill Chalets as the owners and staff are very welcoming, friendly, open and helpful. In fact everybody on this island is. You get "Hi"s everywhere, always a smile and the food at ABC restaurant where we ate most of the time was excellent. I loved the Fish and Chicken BBQ they offered at night.
We arrived during noon but were able to move into #5 straight away just to find ourselves on the bech a few minutes later.
Pretty enough this and most of the other beaches here, have a nasty negative part to its beauty: Sandflies!!
If you get bitten by them your body has two choices: Either get a minor red spot and ignore the bite or totally overreact to it. This is what I decided to do. I woke up the next morning with 105 (yes, we counted them) huge, itching spots all over my body. Under my arms, on my butt,... I spare showing you any pictures. Especially when wearing clothes and sweating the itching would become almost inbearable.
I decided to wait on how this would develop and do went to Tekek to get spme cash at the only ATM existi g on the Island. The walk was long but pretty during the heat. We had to climb a small hill to get to the other beach of Tekek. Fortunately some friendly guy from the Marine Center took us the ATM in his car.
Back at our beach we decided to rent some snorkeling gear and went out for some beautiful fishes directly a few meters off the shore. 90% of the Corals here are already dead. Too bad if one thinks about the natural beauty of it.
The next morning we had booked a snorkeling trip to several bays. My whole body looked even worse, blusters everywhere and some filled with liquid. The boat driver recommended to take me to the local hospital in Tekek after this trip.
The snorkeling was a great idea. Kjell was totally oit of his mind when hubdreds of colorfull fishes popped up out of nothing. I don't know the English words of most of them but many Nemos, rainbow fishes and a black tip shark were amongst them. Whenever we changed diving location Kjell was the first one in and the last one out.
The best thing to driving to the Hospital afterwards? The fact that we had a water taxi on our own and that on our way back the guy let Kjell drive the speed boat on his own. Happiest kid ever...
Our last day on the Island we spent very relaxed by chilling, playing with the baby cats, chasing monitor lizzards and just feeling happy.
Tomorrow it will be 5 am again.. Up and off by the ferry to Mersing to catch our bus to Malacca....
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