TIOMAN ISLAND

Set off for a short holiday to Tioman. As like most of the times, this was also an unplanned trip. All we thought of was that we should go to Tioman. Do not know how we can reach there but we booked our accommodation in the resort for the next day. Harish and myself made many unsuccessful attempts that night to rent a car or grab a taxi to catch the next day's early morning ferry at Mersing. Finally we gave up and set off from Singapore next day morning by taking the causeway link via 2nd link. Three of us had to take visa on arrival. Our Singapore dollars were not accepted by the checkpoint for visa fees. Exchanged Singapore dollars for Malyasian ringgits with the help of checkpoint officers though they pocketed some profit out of the transaction. We are very tired and hungry of waiting. Good luck to us that the visa on arrival officer chopped an entry stamp on our passport and we were spared of the long queue. We took a cab from the taxi stand to Mersing and asked him to drive to some good Indian restaurant where we can statiate our hunger. Karim (cab driver) took us to restaurant at Tampoi where we had good meal after which we set off for Mersing. We purchased few Hotlink SIMs which we threw off later out of frustation as they could not be activated.
The way to Mersing was picturesque with Palm plantations on low slopes either side of the road. The weather was lovely with drizzles all along the way. We arrived at Mersing about 5:00 pm. Checked into the hotel and went for a bit of shopping and stroll in the city. Mersing is a small city and may be we can walk the entire city in a hour. Visited Subramaniar temple and then headed for dinner in Syed Ali's (Mama) Restaurant. Dashed the bed to wake up early as the ferry to Tioman will depart at 07:00 am.
Wawasani, the ferry to Tioman set off the coast and we were let to the open deck to enjoy the early sun and take some snaps. Such a pleasant sight it was to see the silent golden waves rippling on South China Sea. Teja and me had one beautiful selfie on the deck and then we had a group click. Reached Kampong Tekek jetty in about two hours where our resort escort Ady is waiting for us. We had to travel twenty minutes on this four wheel open top pick up throught the steep jungle track to arrive at Kampong Juara where we plan to stay for the coming two days. The tropical jungle is dense and we felt the lovely fresh air enroute to Juara on the open top Jeep.
Juara looked like the other part of the world. The village stretches at the max one kilometer from one end to another. We arrive d at Tamara Resort and Dhruv was excited seeing the beach next to resort. He just want to run to the waves even without us dropping the luggage in the rooms. With no people around, the beach looked

desolate except for few rocks strewn on the shore. Dhruv was busy playing with waters and photos freak Harish kept clicking pics for Veera, Sandy and Teja making use of rocks. In the meantime, I had a brief discussion with Ady at the resort regarding our lunch and plan for the day. It was a bit of broken English and symbolic communication to get the desired information from Ady. After a brief play at the beach we had our lunch at the local hotel. Fried rice tasted good and we were then assured that we need not suffer for food for the next two days.
After food the driver fetched us to Juara Waterfalls. Dhruv who was the lone kid until now had other kids (Teja, Sandy, Veera Harish and Myself) to play with him at the waterfalls. YES, the falls brought the children out of us. We were left there for two hours and we soaked out bodies in the chill waters to our heart's content. Ancestral (monkey) instincts rose in all three of us (harish, veera and myself). We jumped into the puddle, climbed up the falls, slid on the rapids

and made attempts to preserve our monkey traits in all the pics we took. The forest and falls are very peaceful. The stress from the humdrum of life got washed away by the force of waters from the rapids. The sounds of the streams had a healing effect. After two hours of play we headed back to resort. Went to a local store and brought all the materials required for barbecue. Veera took the lead and prepared a lovely meal for us. Dashed the bed after the dinner as we were weary of the day.
Our plans to watch the sunrise at the beach were spoiled by the heavy rain which kept pouring through out the night. We planned to walk up to a waterfall in the jungle. However, we were discouraged considering the risk due to rainy weather. We then planned to go for snorkelling near Tekek. Took a speed boat to three locations where we splashed the waters to relish the sight of exotic species of corals and fish. Not listening to the laments of Sandy we managed to pulled

her into the waters. Teja was scared initially but later got the knack of getting along. I was very happy to guide Teja and show her various aquatic life. The see urchins were real big and so were the sea cucumbers. Most of the corals we saw at the first location were of the staghorn type though sporadically we could spot the table corals. The second snorkelling location had a variety of coral types and mammoth ones. Here we spotted brain corals, staghorn corals, table corals and star corals. The battalion of sea urchins made me a bit scared to snorkel around them. Apart from the fish of various sizes and types were a treat to the eyes. The last snorkelling spot was an eyewash however we were satisfied by the few dives of Veera and Harish. Dhruv clung to me with his arms around my neck and started beating his feet against waters in an attempt to swim. Had a bit of fun time swimming with Dhruv and loved to see him excited in the greenish waters. We rushed back to resort and then come back to Tekek once again this time to board our ferry to Mersing.

Ha.....we now are able to browse our FB and look at watsapp message after 36 hours. Shared pics taken by all of us via airdrop. Reached Mersing 7:30 pm and finally to home at 11:30 pm. Once in Singapore I felt the change of air.