Pulau Tioman - Week 49 and 50 (May 2 - May 3)

One final view of Mersing before we get on the boat to Tioman.

We're on a boat!

Tioman rises out of the clouds.

A view of part of Tioman's shore. The entire island is covered in tropical rain forest.

My friend the Monitor lizard.

Crabs on the beach near our lunch spot.

The fruit bats.

The closest beach to our huts.

That's me out on those rocks.

Our dinner, the two crabs and the fish, being prepared.

A wonderful presentation!

The Hong Kong divers.

Morning day 2. My lens fogged from the temperature difference between my hotel room and outside. The water is at low tide here.

Near the beginning of my hike to Juara.

That's a tiger leach in the middle there. Fortunately I avoided getting any of thse on me.

Big ant, no?

If I wasn't spooking monitor lizards I was spooking these guys.

Huge worm...

Tiny spider.

A tropical squirrel. I saw one of these guys in a zoo a few months back. Felt great to see the real mccoy.

Close to Juara beach now.

Juara beach.

On the way back.
On the road back to Tekek.

The road crew.

Winny at sunset. One of the best shots I took on this vacation.

Best shot I could get of a bat.

We ate here both nights.

Pulau Tioman

Week 49 and 50

An early-ish wake up saw us moving out of the hotel nice and fast to the docks for our 12 PM trip out to Tioman. After a banana-roti breakfast in the waiting area of the ferry dock, we were soon aboard the ship and headed across the deep blue sea. I just have to say that when Simon linked this on Facebook, I feel he accurately captured our emotions at the time.

We sat on top of the ferry, looking out at the grey, cloudy skies and the odd island that slowly drifted past. Some of them looked like they’d be a lot of fun to explore actually. The highlight of the ferry ride was a fish, I think Stephanie said it was a barracuda, that skimmed the water alongside the boat like a flying fish for nearly 20 seconds before diving back in.

It wasn’t long before the island of Tioman reared its mist-bedecked peaks over the horizon. Our beach, Salang, was located at the north end of the island, and was therefore the last stop of the boat. We landed at about 2 PM and quickly wheeled/carried our luggage to the little cottage that would be our home for the few days. It was pretty well appointed too, 2 double beds, an extra mattress on the floor, shower with warm-ish water and that most blessed of contraptions, conditioning of the air.

Nice.

So we went out and explored.

The group had lunch at a small Indian restaurant. I decided to order a couple of the curries that were on offer. This was a major mistake. Those were two of the least, spicy most watered down curries I’ve ever eaten, less spicy in fact than the average curry rice in Japan.

The best part of the lunch was actually looking over the side of the railing and realizing that there were crabs stalking each other through the surf. I am of course a wildlife geek, so the opportunity to poke around with crabs is one I will never pass by. We don't see em' too often back in Ontario. So I hopped down onto the beach and did my best National Geographic photographer’s impersonation trying to get a proper shot of the little guys. It took some stealth to get close enough even with the telephoto. Those are skittish little guys.

After that it was off to see if the various little shops had anything good on offer. The general opinion was no, but we looked anyways. As we wandered by a little lagoon, Winny pointed out our first monitor lizard. Those were incredible to see for the first time in the “wild”. General scared of humans though. Of course, also not in a huge rush to get away when surprised either.

Winny actually did an amazing job of picking out wildlife while we were wandering around. Besides a good sized spider and an emerald-green tree snake, she also spotted the MASSIVE flock of fruit bats living in one of the trees that grew over one of the hotels on the island. It’s actually surprising that it took so long for us to notice them there, what with all the keening, but unless you look closely they just seem like little pieces of fruit hanging from the top of the palms.

After snapping a bunch of pictures it was already starting to get late in the day, so we went back to the hut and got serious about relaxing. Swimwear in hand for Winny, Stephanie and I, we went on down to the beach and rented some snorkeling equipment. The beach wasn’t all that amazing underwater, mostly crushed and dead coral, but it was still a beautiful place to go snorkeling. We did see some very interesting fish though. Colourful parrot fish, that eat dead coral, were all over the place. You could hear the sound of their teeth on the coral underwater. It sounds like someone walking on really crunchy gravel. We also saw these really interesting skinny, long fish that were almost translucent and only swam right at the surface of the water. Stephanie is a certified diver, so she knew quite a bit about the fish we saw and gave us a great running commentary. This was also the first time that Winny had ever used a snorkel, so she was pretty ecstatic. I swam out to some rocks a bit further out in the bay and proceeded to play hide and seek with the residents there…a large number of fish and some more skittish little crabs.

While we were swimming Mel and Seth had made an attempt to make it out to an area called Monkey Beach, but shortly after starting their walk it got too dark to continue. They joined us on the beach and we all sat and watched the sunset.

While the others went off to shower and get ready for dinner, Winny and I stayed on the beach and discussed the trip thus far. We were both just sort of overawed with the amount of effort we’d expended getting to Tioman, but man was it worth it. Strangely enough, while we were sitting there, we both suddenly felt like it was raining, only that wasn't the case. What I think were sand fleas had all woke up at the same time and started jumping around. We couldn't see them, but they were hoping all over the place. It was a weird feeling, almost like the beach came alive.

We ate dinner on the beach, sitting at a little table, watching a thunderstorm race across the horizon. This ranks as probably the best surroundings I’ve ever had for a meal. It was so amazing, eating another steak and watching lightning lance across the Malaysian mainland. We also had a fun time dodging, and in my case playing, with the feral cats that make Tioman their home. We discussed the possibility that countries tend to have either feral cats or feral dogs, but usually not both. In Malaysia’s case, cats won out for some reason. Hence the feral cats. Cute, I say.

Actually, all in all the meals were quite interesting that night. Although my steak was a bit pedestrian by itself, I supplemented it with a crab that I’d picked from a tank that Melissa and I ate together. Winny had also selected a crab and a fish for her dinner. It was really great stuff, although the grab was a bit spikey and we didn't have a cracker.

After dinner we walked home and found a little bar that was kicking pretty solidly and sat down for gin and tonics. We played a few little drinking games and then watched in surprise as a bunch of divers from Hong Kong totally out did us with their drinking game. It involved standing a diver on a chair and stripping off his shirt and pants. He was then forced to don a pair of scuba goggles with cartoon eyes glued over the lenses. La piece du resistance was the beer-bong/snorkel that completed the arrangement. At first they were only drinking beer but it was soon changed to a combination of beer and wine, which certainly sounds foul to me.

We enjoyed the show for about 20 minutes before tiring of the divers antics. I actually left the bar a little bit early and went down to the ocean and lay down in one of the hammocks provided by the hotel. I drifted off for a little bit in the warm tropical night, watching fruit bats flit back and forth through the palms. Soon though I had to leave that peaceful environment and head back to the cottage to sleep properly on my own bed. I also lost a button off my pants when I stood up to get off the hammock. Damn it.

Day two on Tioman started later for me than everyone else. Seth had signed up to become a certified diver so he was out at class nice and early learning the basics. Stephanie, Winny and Melissa had signed up for a tour around the island including some snorkelling, a little tiny walk into the rainforest to check out a rainfall, and a few other things.

Me, well, I struck out on my own and went hiking.

First though I had to do something not so fun. The day before I had climbed those rocks out in the bay in order to get Winny and Melissa to take a picture of me. I cut my hand a little bit on those rocks, a very small cut, nothing serious. However, I noticed the next day that the area on my hand was very red and was swelling slightly. Also looked like it was filled with, well, pus. So I popped open the little first aid kit I’d brought (I knew I was going hiking), lit a match, heated the end of a needle, and lanced the cut. With a little bit of anti-septic on it, it was feeling fine soon enough and I was on the way to Juara beach, halfway down and on the other side of the island.

This involved first chartering a water taxi to take me to the main city on the island, Tekek. I had to buy two tickets in order to leave without waiting for more customers to charter the boat. I guess not that many people go around by themselves. Normally I would have waited, but I didn't want to get stuck in the forest when the sun went down.

Anyways, it was a pretty crazy ride over. The ocean was a bit choppy that day, maybe a 2-3 foot swell and the water taxi was not exactly big. That made for a pretty wildly bumpy ride around the side of the island to tekek. Melissa, Winny and Stephanie had had a similar experience while they were shuttling around to the various activities they partook in that day.

Upon arriving at Tekek I started out on my hike. It was pretty tough going, due to the insane heat and the poorly maintained trail before hitting the rainforest proper. I found out that the path was well developed once under the canopy. It seemed as though the trail had been put in to facilitate the construction of the power lines that ran alongside the path. This actually ended up being a serious problem for me at one point, for my Lonely Planet book failed to mention that at one point the power line actually crosses the path about a foot off the ground. I had to climb a rock and then jump over it. It didn’t make me too happy.

But otherwise it was really cool. I kept on spooking monitor lizards as I went through the underbrush. I saw plenty of birds and even more insects. I even saw a monkey jumping through the trees above me. The path also led me past a couple of waterfalls and a delightful little stream. The path itself was fairly vertical in places but man, was it beautiful to be in there.

Finally after a couple of hours the path crossed over the hump of the ridge in the middle of the island and back down towards Juara beach on the other side. I passed a road crew and waved then continued to wave at the driver of a big four-wheel-drive dump truck that was ferrying gravel up and down the road.

This path provided amazing views over the island, and I had more than one “whoa” moment where it struck me where I was and what I was doing. Hiking in the rain forest on a tropical island? Never thought I’d do that before…

I made it to the beach a little past one, stumbled into a restaurant and sat down for a delicious…piece of buttered toast. The resources on the island were super low due to the large number of vacationers that weekend. But it felt good to get something in my stomach.

After lunch I tried to book a water taxi back to my beach, but the guy was trying to charge me nearly $70 for a 15 minute boat ride. Unacceptable. So I turned around and started walking the other direction, somewhat unenthusiastically. I had bought more water at Juara beach, but on the way there I had run out, and I expected to do so again on the way back. It was just far too hot to hike comfortably.

Fortunately, just as I was about to start the long climb back up, the dump truck driver from earlier came by and offered me a lift up to the building site. I happily accepted and climbed into the cab alongside the him, pushing a big collection of crushed beer cans that littered the passenger seat floor aside.

We had a good conversation on the way up. I joked about how it’s far too hot for Canadians in Malaysia and he thought that was pretty funny. I asked a little bit about his job and what they were doing up on the mountain. His English was alright, but not amazing, so it was a bit difficult to communicate.

He let me off about three quarters of the way up the mountain. I hiked the rest of the way back to Tekek village, avoiding the jungle path I’d gone through earlier because I did not want to risk another hop over a live electrical cable.

About mid-way through the hike I stopped and added some more SPF 50 sun block to my skin which, after having already re-applied twice, turned my skin into a morass of sweat and oily-white sun block. It felt fucking disgusting. So, with my arms held awkwardly out from my sides, I continued on.

I saw what may have been a bird of paradise at one point, it had long tail feathers, trailing about a foot back from the body. I didn’t really get a good look at it though as it was just flying through the trees. I got a quick glimpse, nothing more.

The guys from the construction site passed me twice on my way down, shuttling to and from a lunch break I should guess. I was again offered a ride by the driver, but I passed this time. It would have been interesting riding the back of the dump truck, but on these roads it looked like it might require some extra skill.

By the time I made it back to Tekek I’m pretty sure I was on the verge of sunstroke. I went into the first general store I could find, bought some more water, then continued on to the docks where I bought another 2 tickets to get me back to our home beach. Again, I could have waited, but the huge clouds on the horizon made me hesitant. The water was a lot calmer this time, so it was no concern to me, although I did have to climb across three boats to get back onto land when I arrived at the pier.

I booked it back to the cottage, switched into my swimsuit, had a short conversation with Seth who was on break from diving lessons, and before the sun could go down, I was back in the water. I just floated there, letting my legs and arms recover from the abuse they took all day hiking. A few minutes after I dipped in the sun went behind the clouds and it started to rain.

I've talked about zen moments before in this blog, back when I was out jogging in sakura season in early April. I had another one of those moments that evening, floating on my back feeling the drops of rain fall lightly on my face. I just lay there in the water, not thinking about anything really, just enjoying the moment of tranquility.

After the rain passed and I had tired of swimming, I changed, grabbed my book and kicked back in one of the hammocks to read a bit while I waited for everyone to get home. Before long, Seth showed up, having finished diving lessons for the day. We chatted for a bit before he went back to the hotel to wash up. Not too much longer after that the girls arrived and we all got dressed for dinner again.

We went back to the same restaurant that night, only this time we had reserved 2 chickens for dinner. Apparently the supply of poultry is fairly limited for that restaurant, so if you want any you had to reserve the food long in advance. Turns out it was a great idea because the half chicken was excellent. Much like the steak in Mersing and the past in Penang, I hadn't had anything that good in almost a year, so again it was just culinary bliss. We also drank a bottle of wine with the meal but it wasn’t very good.

Finally, we returned to the bar for another quick round of drinks before Melissa, Winny and I said our farewells to Seth and Stephanie. Seth was staying another couple of days to finish off the diving course while Stephanie would in fact leave Malaysia and Asia all together, returning home to America and ending her year abroad. I was sorry to see her go, even though I didn’t see too much of her while we were in Japan.

So, bags packed up and ready to go, we all went to bed and got ready for the last leg of the journey, Singapore and the journey home.

Heading across the border…

Ian “Mello Yello” Cantello