Tioman Island

Hi Everyone!

Everything here is still doing just fine, and now to my last entry before I can finally start talking about the trip(s) I took during the June holidays.

Over a three-day weekend in the middle of May (Labour day weekend), I went to Tioman Island, Malaysia with some other teachers in Singapore to have a short break from school before the last of semester.

Tioman Island is a tropical island off the east coast of Malaysia about a 3-4 hour drive from Singapore (depending on traffic) plus another hour long ferry ride. It is indeed mostly a touristy island, but is not overly touristy compared to tropical islands in SE Asia, such as Crabbe Island in Thailand (or at least this is what I have been told.) The island itself is quite impressive. It almost seems to rise out of the middle of nowhere. Since it is such a far distance from the coast, I didn't see it for quite some time on the ferry, and all the sudden it emerged with its massive mountain in the middle, as you can see in the following picture.

At first we had a lot of trouble finding a place to stay since we didn't know we would be free to travel until quite late. Fortunately though, we were able to book a place through a tour company, and they provided us with a wonderful beachfront cabin. In particular, the cabin had a wonderful outdoor shower which I really came to love. But here is the view from about 10 steps in front of our cabin:

The main activity to do on Tioman Island is snorkeling, and it really is amazing. In fact, we were able to just swim out just a bit in the water above and saw some awesome fish and some very nice corals as well. however, the best snorkeling was when we took a boat out into the water and swim around some of the smaller islands offshore. The following is a picture from the boat of Tioman Island (right around the area we were snorkeling.)

Right next to the resort we stayed at, there was quite a pleasant little tourist area as picture below. Although definitely meant for tourists, it had a nice character to it, and plenty of locals living there as well. And, of course, as with all places in Malaysia, there was really delicious food at incredible bargains (from the Singaporean perspective.)

That's it for now. Next I will finally get to talk about some of the other countries I visited during June, starting with a school trip to Batam, Indonesia.

Later!
-Andrew