My sunny paradise.

Hellos! Shall make use of the windows laptop at home to do some picture blogging on my last trip abroad. This time it's to sunny island - Tioman. I had an amazing time. The more I think about it, the more grateful I am that I was able to go there. Many thanks to Hannah and Daisy for purchasing the deal on behalf of me!!!

My 3 different trips abroad are as different as they can be. To Bangkok it was shopping all ze way. Shop and shop and SHOP. Perspired a hell lot too. Genting was just pure relaxing, enjoying the weather that one will never find in Singapore, and just taking a look around a place that I haven't been to since half my life ago. And this latest one was all about taking in all the sun that I can get there, regardless of getting sunburns or not. I wanted all the sun, all the fun and all the water games! Too bad there were no water activities like Flying Fish, Jetski or Banana Boat, but kayaking and snorkeling were more than enough for me. Couldn't get enough of it. Even till now.

So off we headed to Tioman early last wed morning, catching the coach at 0640. Was a bit of a rush for me b/c I hadn't even packed for the trip at 0300 due to work. Was in a pretty frantic state when Suri and I couldn't find any unoccupied cabs at 0615, but we got lucky and managed to reach just in time to board the coach. Phew.

On board!!!

Took pictures of all of us at Singapore custom before realising we weren't allowed to!

Had a mini break at some random place before continuing on our journey.

Long, drowsy and boring ferry ride.

First glimpse of the island after getting off the ferry was just awesome. I loveeeeeeeeeed it. Bright and sunny island w/ clean sandy beach and clear turquoise sea. Like I've written in the FB caption, I was really touched when I saw the island b/c I've never been to anywhere prettier than this. But I haven't been to a lot of places too.. Heh. So probably that was why I was so awestruck by the island. Having gone to Tioman made me realise that I really, really enjoy going to places like this. Places where nature made it beautiful and wonderful. Which is also why Survivor was such a good reality tv show to me. I mean, imagine going Palau and swimming in a lake along w/ billions and billions of sting-less jellyfish? I'll die w/ regrets if I don't visit that place in this life!

Pretty group shot!!!

Girlies.

Evening view of our resort. Resort was a big disappointment! Suri and I got the worst room among all I think. Stuffy room that felt like it hadn't been inhabited by anyone for a long, long time, toilet bowl w/ a lousy flush, tv w/o a remote controller, air-con that stops working in the night (will be further elaborated later on hahaha), and etc.. Anyways, backtracking a little, that first afternoon was really well-spent! After settling down in our own resort, we grabbed a quick lunch of ramli burger and changed into our water sport attires, then we went for kayaking, bringing along our snorkeling equipment b/c we (or was it just me?) wanted to get the hang of it before the snorkeling session the next morning.

Kayaking was just plain epic b/c somehow we dropped 4 of our snorkeling equipment into the sea when Daisy and Boey's kayak capsized. None of us could reach it b/c it was pretty deep and we didn't have the skills to do that! So eventually we just accepted that we had to pay for the 4 equipment, which would've cost us approximately $100++?? until we got lucky when a kind soul offered to help us by calling her diver husband to search the area for us. Got all 4 of the equipment back, which was a huge relieve! Wouldn't want to spend a 100 dollars on something that others only have to spend approximately $7 for!

Anyways, I love kayaking. Don't fancy it when the kayak tilts to one side though. The first day of kayaking was pretty scary b/c I couldn't make myself trust that I'll survive in the sea even w/ a life vest. Was so afraid of getting pushed away by the current or getting bitten by some sea creature. Paranoid, I know. Same was for my first time trying to snorkel. I'd say snorkeling is easy, but it took me quite some time to get used to it on the first day.

Dinner time! Plan was to stuff ourselves w/ seafood everyday since we heard that the seafood in Tioman is good. And indeed, it was good. Awesomely good.

<3

Really miss how easy it is to get cheap and good seafood feasts in Malaysia. Everything's pricey in SG.  :(

So that's about all on the first day, until we got a visitor in our room...

Tadah. A dead lizard stuck in our air condition, which caused the air con to stop working! We tried all sorts of ways to pull the lizard out - using sticks, clothes peg, hanger - but it was pointless b/c it was really stuck pretty deep inside. It was impossible to sleep w/o air con over there in that humid weather so we had to intrude on Daisy and Boey for the night. Oopsie.

Got up bright and early the next morning at 0630 to prepare for snorkeling which started at 0900! But before that we had breakfast at the resort dining area. Didn't manage to take pictures for our snorkeling trip b/c we didn't know we were allowed to bring along valuables. Again, we got lucky b/c the photographer for the trip tagged along in our boat so we managed to have a few pictures of us taken while in the sea!

At the Marine Park. Like the other parts of Tioman Island, the water was very clear. But unlike our beach, the water here is blue. Light blue, turquoise blue and indigo blue. How wonderful is that. I've never seen such beautiful sea in my life until then. Over there we fed pieces of bread to the fish, saw nemo swimming in and out of corals, peed in the sea (not me), and had a really nice time snorkeling and floating about. Hee.

In the afternoon after having lunch I dragged Suri to the super sunny beach w/ me despite already having sunburns. How glad I am that we did go! It was low tide in the afternoon and we could see right through the water to the bottom of sea b/c the water was so clear! Pardon me for all these exclamations, it was really, really beautiful. The water was glistening, and we could walk so far out into the ocean w/ the water only at knee level, it was amazing! Should've dragged the other two couples out there w/ us, but I guess they'd rather rest in the resort for a bit after getting burnt by the sun during snorkeling. Haha

:')

We are only young once and won't stay slim forever, so pictures while we are still skinny! Hehe.

This is the part where we went to this place called the Rock Fall on our island, which turned out to be really disappointing. Was expecting some sort of a waterfall, but it was only a bunch of rocks w/ a little river water. Disappointing as it is, I wouldn't have left the island in peace w/o taking a look at what's there!
Sunset.Went for our dinner after that. Dinner was pretty much the same as the night before, so no picture was taken! Really don't have any complaint about having the same dishes for 2 nights consecutively b/c there wouldn't be any more next time even if we come back to Tioman Island in future since we won't be coming back to this beach again!

Last morning in Tioman. It was a bitter sweet thing leaving the place. On one hand I didn't wanna leave that beautiful beach, on the other, there aren't many things left to do there too.. 3D2N was just right for the trip. Really miss how beautiful the sea is, how carefree and relaxing it feels to float on it, and peeking into it whenever I feel like it..

I've yet to mention, but we actually saw a spit on the beach! An actual spit, can you imagine? I never have thought that there'll be a day when I get to see in person something that I learnt in Geography, much less to walk on it. Was secretly touched about this too. Heh. When it is low tide you'd see a stretch of sand leading from our beach to the small island just a short distance away. And when it's high tide, you wouldn't be able to see much of the sand, but you could walk on it as if you're walking on water! Sorry I know this is getting annoying, but it was amazing. And there in the first picture is when the sea is at low tide. Was trying to take a picture of the spit but I was too far away and I didn't wna go too far from the jetty lest I miss the ferry!

Last few pictures on the island before leaving. :(

We decided to have a last seafood feast in Malaysia before heading back to SG, which is why we ended at Taman Sri Tebrau (I can even rmb the name of the place now!!!) for some cheap and good seafood! Stingray wasn't good though. All of them had been looking forward for some stingray since the first day of Tioman trip but could only make do w/ this on the last day. Haha Shall go back there again before Suri enlists!!!

I really love the sunny island. I'm really glad we made use of every minute of daytime over there to fully enjoy the island. Coming to think of it, having little things to do over there actually gave us more time to explore the island. Wouldn't have been able to walk on the spit, float around the mini island if there were other water activities over there! After enjoying myself so much, I really can't wait to be back there again. Next time it'll be to a better beach that has good resorts, more activities and some pubs to visit to spend the nights!