i guess this post is grossly overdue..but here goes. took forever to do this post cuz blogger kept screwing up the alignment of the pics.

summer of sin at tioman

after all the talk about overseas trips like going to perhentian with the jc guys, this is the only one that materialised. anyway may i just say it was one of my best malaysian holidays in a long time! it was totally relaxing hanging out with the oeti people. but even up till the day before the trip i wasn't sure if it'd happen since my overseas leave was only approved at the last minute.

anyway so it did happen and we met up at dfs galleria at 630am on saturday morning and took the 2-3 hour plus coach ride to the tanjong gemok jetty where we paid up a small marine conservation fee before boarding the ferry.
majority of the travelling time everyone was getting shuteye. except me, even though i tried to, cuz i'm such a light sleeper. anyway so we reached paya beach on tioman after close to an hour on the ferry.

tioman! i couldn't have expected this. it looks way better than i had thought. but wait..

..have we ended up on an episode of lost? the hilly island really did look the part. well maybe the pics don't do the island justice but there was no way to capture the entire island into a single pic. a couple more:


anyway we went to check in after that. dumped our bags and stuff in our standard-sized chalet. our room was only one half of this chalet below. what to do, budget what.

erm. then i'm not sure if we ate lunch straight after that. but anyway we heard from the reception there was a small waterfall some 15 minutes into the forested area. so that was one of the first things we did. but we found out that it was no waterfall:
actually we should have known. there was already a signboard on the way that said 'rockfall', not 'waterfall'. still, we climbed around the rocks to take pics, which was quite fun after all lah.
and after a while we decided to take a soak in the clear water. the water was damn icy.

the rest of the day was basically spent slacking and relaxing around, like suntanning and just taking a dip in the resort's swimming pool and just being trigger-happy with our cameras around the beach until it was almost time for dinner. took shots of the sunset..
almost picture-perfect huh. the tide was at its lowest in the evening. and after dinner we went back to our room for some hot kinky games to sleep.

anyway, the highlight of the trip was on the second day..snorkelling! too bad i don't have any photos from the second day cuz the battery died on me. after renting our equipment in the morning, we took a bumboat out to the marine conseravation area, where the water was clearer and there were more corals and more colourful fish. it took a while for me to get used to coordinating and breathing through my mouth with the snorkelling equipment. the waters were shallow too and i ended up kicking and cutting myself with the corals. alvin chia even saw a sea snake (which are supposedly usually highly venemous). but it was really an experience. it's just too bad i'm too myopic to see that clearly in the water without my glasses. the bumboat then took us to another snorkelling spot near another jetty. the water was much too deep to see any corals but the fish were much bigger. and i forgot to mention the weather was fanatastic as well. i think the twenty mintues or so on the bumboat ride back to paya beach for lunch was the best suntanning experience of my life.

anyhow, this is a pic (from the first day) of the water at paya beach jetty. clear enough to see schools of fish. but there aren't as many colourful fish and corals here as where we snorkelled.
after we went back for lunch, the rest of the day was just lazing around in the sun and sleeping. we spent the second night talking at the jetty. it was really cool. too bad it was a starless night cuz it got too cloudy. and if you looked across towards the horizon, there was no obstruction in sight..just the dark waters and the night sky. and even in the night you can see through the waters you could see some fish with some light. we spoke of more overseas vacations in december. i hope at least something comes out of all the talk again. we walked back to the resort for a bit of drinks before sleeping.

basically the third day we didn't do much. just packed our stuff, fed the fish at the jetty with bread and waited for the ferry to bring us back to tanjong gemok. we got the coach to drop us off at johor bahru near the causeway where we ate an early dinner, did some shopping, got a couple of dvds and got a cab to bring us back to singapore. was damn tired and glad to return home..

but i'd have to say..tioman was a blast!