In February, my friends and I went to Tioman Island. It was my first time there after so many years, and I was pretty looking forward to it. I know Tioman has no other attractions other than for divers, but I wanted to check out the place myself.
We took the last bus from Pudu to Mersing, and arrived at 0530. At 6, the one of the gerai makanans at the bus stop building opened and we had one of the most delicious roti canai ever. Well, I didn’t know whether it was the wind, and early morning hunger that made it so but it was just awesome. Our ferry left at 1000 and the ride to Pulai Tioman took about 3 hrs or so. They made a stop to Rawa Island.
Tioman Island has several beaches and each beach has their collection of resorts and chalets or downright musty beach huts. The famous ones are Salang, ABC and Tekek, among many. Juara is also one of the famous ones, but it is one the other side of the island.
We stayed at Panuba Inn the first night, but we later went to ABC (actual name Ayer Batang) because Panuba Inn was just too quiet for us - it’s focused for divers and the beach is just a short strip, plus snorkeling could get pretty dangerous.
Ayer Batang was awesome. The choices of accommodation ranges from high end chalets to sparse and spartan beach huts for about RM 10 per night (My Friend’s Place). We stayed at this nice beachhut/chalet for RM 15 per night. They have a double bed, basic toilet and fan.
We went snorkeling. The marine park in Tekek was awesome. It was one of my happiest moments.
We ate. The food in ABC was normal and nice, nothing to write home about. But it’s cheap, and the wind made everything taste awesome.
Bus tickets can be bought form Petronas Taman Tun. It ges for RM 23 one way to Mersing. Transnasional Bus
This is the best Tioman information website - Tioman Island . I relied on this website for info.
I realize I’m horrible with the housekeeping of this blog. Well, without further ado, I’m just going to update on the places I’ve been throughout this year so far.
End of January, my girls and I took a road trip to Langkawi. We drove from KL at night, and arrived in Kedah when they sky is turning light. The drive took about 5 hours. The ferry costs us RM11, and it takes about an hour to get to Langkawi.We stayed at Chenang Beach, at this super cheap place overlooking the beach which costs us just RM25 for a room with a two double bed. I can’t remember the name exactly but it is just beside the large white supermarket and a Maybank outlet.
One thing you should try out if you’re in Langkawi is this famous Ikan Bakar restaurant that has amazing and cheap local ikan bakar and food. Hoards of people come in during lunchtime, you can see aspiring pilots (there is a flying school nearby in Langkawi) and families and tourists coming in for a bite. They have normal dishes spread out buffet style, but the crowd puller is the ikan bakar. Kembung goes for RM1 per piece, and so on. The gravy and sauce they put on the grill and fish are out of this world.
The journey back, we decided to take the train. From the jetty we took a cab to Alor Setar train station, and was fortunate enough to get a cabbie that was entertaining and fun. He’s a retiree old grandpa who was jovial and speaks English with pride. The half an hour journey felt like ten minutes.
We took the train at approximately 5pm. We arrived in KL 13 hours later, at 6am the next day. The train stopped for a while at Butterworth, and the rest of the journey it was slow and steady. We took the normal seats but it was comfy enough to sleep on.
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traveljunkies on April 17, 2008
This site is a mess. When you travel with an esteemed travelogue lover, you start to analyze your own ‘travel’website. Well, who the hell cares as I am the only one who reads this anyway.
I’m at siem reap. To those of you who has no idea where it is - Cambodia. Yeah. It’s awesome, and I’m having fun. I’m only guilty about leaving friends behind, especially those that I really care about and those that I have prior engagement for.
I wish I had more time in Phnom Penh. It’s an awesome city because it is nothing special - just the way I like it. Unlike Milan. Well, I have no idea why I don’t really like Milan.
On a whim, my friend and I decided to do the crazy - whitewater rafting and caving. After much browsing the web for a suitable package or place, we settled on 2:
a) To not book for a package as this is an impromptu trip - therefore we decided to just do a ‘walk-in’ on the day itself.
b) To throw in caving for some good fun. It is appropriate that 3 out of the 4 of us studied in the same Perak university (UTP) and thus Gua tempurung holds some sort of a sick attachment to us
When it comes to Malaysia’ s WWR, there are 3 operators you should go to and are highly recommended - Riverbug, Khersonnes, and Tracks Adventures. We chose Riverbug because they have a lot of glowing testimonials from other customers, and also because their website is the most frequently updated, and user friendly. They also, most importantly, allow walk-in sessions.
The caving in Gua Tempurung lasted for 2 hours. We took the third trail which is half guided stairs walk (all 600 steps of them) and half real sliding, crawling in the dark adventure. It was fun and chillingly cold!
The white water rafting was also awesome. I’ve tried wwr before in Bali, and with Riverbug there were slight differences. The cons is that Riverbug did not teach us how to paddle forward, backward, lean forward, boom-boom, and what the paddles do. The pros is that they have a Safety Kayak that served as our watchful hero. It certainly makes everybody feels relaxed.
The grade for Sungai Kampar is from Grade 1-3. During rainy days, it can skip one and move up to 2-3. The best, and most challenging rapid is the one called Easy Drop. Tell your guide to take you to Easy drop. On slow days you will only get to do up to 7km of rafting, but when we went on it was raining quite heavily, which allowed us to continue the journey for 4 more km as the river won’t be so shallow as when it is dry. We did got stuck between rocks many times though.
All in all, it was a good trip, especially when it was planned just the night before!
YOGYAKARTA
After swimming at CiAter with Molly until 430 am in the morning, we rose at 6am to catch our 10 hour train to Yogyakarta. I love train stations, train rides and everything trains! I didn’t really sleep the whole way because I was buzzed. The reason we took a day train that ate a large chunk of our day because they say the train from Bandung to Ygyakarta is one the most scenic rides ever.
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