Tioman Island, Malaysia: Two Days in Paradise!

Hi, everyone!

This past weekend, Chris, Melanie, and I had a two-day minibreak on Pulau Tioman, a small island off the eastern coast of Malaysia.  All three of us had a really great time, and it was definitely the most relaxing of our vacations so far!

Saturday morning, the three of us got up VERY early (especially considering we had been to see the Singapore Symphony Orchestra perform Dvorak's New World Symphony the night before) to catch a 6:30 AM bus to a ferry terminal in eastern Malaysia.  The most interesting part of this journey was definitely the process of exiting Singapore and entering Malaysia - the countries are separated by a small waterway, and it only took about ten minutes total (including two stops exiting our tour bus and proceeding through immigration) to cross the bridge between the two countries.  One of the more interesting parts of this passage is actually a giant tube that runs along the length of the bridge; Singapore imports about 1/3 of its drinking water from Malaysia through this pipe, as there is very little freshwater available on the island to be used for drinking.  (Fun fact courtesy of Melanie, whose research is on Singaporean water policy.)

After about 2.5 hours on a bus and 90 minutes on a ferry, we finally arrived at Tioman Island, which was absolutely stunning.  The water was crystal clear, and the island itself is a serious of jungle-covered mountains so large that it's actually impossible to cross the island by land - travel takes place by boats, which connect several ferry stops near the resorts across the island.  It's actually a fairly small place, and most of the industry comes from tourism...the total permanent population of the island is less than 500 total!  From Wikipedia, the legend of the island is as follows: "According to legend, Tioman Island is the resting place of a beautiful dragon princess. Whilst flying from China to visit her prince in Singapore, this beautiful maiden stopped to seek solace in the crystal-clear waters of the South China Sea. Enraptured by the charms of the place, she decided to discontinue her journey. By taking the form of an island, she pledged to offer shelter and comfort to passing travelers."

One of our first views of Tioman Island

From the ferry stop, we took an open air bus to our resort (the largest on the island), called Berjaya Tioman Resort.  It was absolutely beautiful, and we got really lucky - our room had a view of the beach and was right next to the pool and the main food area where all meals were served.  The rest of the day Saturday, the three of us went for swims, napped on the beach, and I continued the fresh fruit juice kick I began in Bali.  It's gotten pretty bad, folks...in fact, I may or may not be planning to invest in a fruit juicer when I get back to the States in August.

The view from my Saturday afternoon lounge chair.

After catching up on sleep Saturday night (12+ hours for me!) we woke up on Sunday in the late morning and headed straight to the beach after breakfast, which was delicious (for some reason I really love beans on toast, as it takes me back to my time at Oxford).  After a few more hours of reading, swimming, and napping, we decided to cash in our half hour of snorkeling included in our hotel package.  We picked up our gear and were dropped off at a tiny island off the coast called Renggis Island, which can be seen on the left side of the photo below.

The island where we snorkeled, Renggis, is off to the left.

After jumping in the water from the dock, we proceeded to swim all the way around the island for the next hour or so, looking at the most beautiful coral and fish through the crystal clear water of the South China sea.  It was spectacularly beautiful - fish of every color imaginable, plus massive coral reefs and even some sea urchins (about 2 feet in width) and sea cucumbers.  The fish were also super friendly; every once in a while I'd turn and realize I was in the middle of a school of at least a hundred!  It was hands-down the best part of the trip, although unfortunately we weren't able to take any pictures due to the water issues inherent to, er...being underwater.

For the rest of the afternoon we relaxed some more, nursing our increasingly intense sunburns and dashing inside when it started to downpour just after sundown.  Although we didn't get to wander around much in the evening due to the rain, we did get some sweet pictures of the storm as it rolled in to the island (see below).

This morning, after eating breakfast (more beans on toast!) and checking out of our room, we took the hotel's shuttle to the Tioman Airport, perhaps the smallest airport I've ever seen in my life (including the Brookline, NH Air Force).  This airport is only served by one airline - Berjaya Air, same name as our resort - which only flies to two locations, one flight a day each to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.  The planes are absolutely tiny, each seating about 42 people, and the cruising altitude is only about 10,000 feet since the flights are so short (ours was about 35 minutes).  Not going to lie, I was absolutely petrified getting on, as (a) I had never been on a plane that small before and (b) the runway was a little short (with mountains at either end), making takeoff a bit of a stressful experience.  We made it through okay, though, and landed in Singapore with no events more serious than some turbulence on ascent.

Departure gate #1 (of 1), looking out onto the runway.

Getting ready to get on the plane!

So that's all for our weekend - another short week in Singapore, then we're off to Phuket, Thailand for our final weekend trip before leaving southeast Asia.  It's hard to believe, but I leave Singapore in less than three weeks, and I'll be home in Cambridge in officially less than a month (now that it's after midnight here).  Stay tuned for more updates!