So I went to Tioman for the second time in my life after 15 long years. 4D3N. Many thanks to Kannan for organising everything. It's never easy to organise group trips, but he did it well, he got everything coordinated and ensured everyone had a whole lot of fun :)
Our stay at Sun Beach Resort never felt lonely, at least for the first two days. We had two corporate groups for company. One from Prabhu Bank, the other from Premium Group. The orange T-shirt guys from Prabhu Bank had their do on Friday night while the white-capped Premium groupies had a major blast on Saturday night.
Since the 100+ Premium groupies were mostly Indians, they had games where they made their managers dance in pairs to Tamil songs from the 1960s and 1970s on stage! I felt lucky to see something like a Tamil cultural festival with plenty of song and dance.
Nevertheless, our group of 19 souls (18 from Sunday onwards) still managed to party every night with a healthy mix of dance music and drinks thrown in. Bartenders Kannan and Michael Yap kept us happy with exotic concoctions of alcoholic beverages, duty-free to boot. DJ Xavier kept the music going, spinning salsa, bachata, club music and great stuff to keep us dancing on the sand. Literally.
No idea if other people have salsa-ed on Tioman before, if not, then we're the first. Our salsa and bachata sure caught some attention from some of the other guests - a few Malay guys on a fishing expedition, some Indian guys from the corporate group, and a Mat Salleh couple who looked somewhat Spanish to me.
We had outings for snorkeling and beaching at one island I forgot the name off the northwest point of Tioman, duty-free shopping at Kampung Tekek, and waterfall splashing at Asah on the remote southern point of Tioman. Snorkeling was nothing to shout about, beaching was great fun, and the waterfall was well worth the effort taken to get there.
Elaborating on the waterfall, please note that there are ZERO facilities there. No electricity and no piped water to the public toilets along the trail (quite an irony since there's so much water in the nearby river). Bring your own candles, torchlights (flashlights in American English), toilet roll or tissue paper, and be prepared to carry water from the nearby river. There should be an empty pail or two inside the toilet building.
The plunge pool is six feet deep, but the boulders have ledges where you can stand. There's a "children's section" with two to three feet deep water next to some long boulders. If you're adventurous, you can climb up the hillside trail to access more shallow pools uphill. At your own risk. No safety features whatsoever.
Getting to the sand beach on the island I forgot the name requires a boat ride. There are also no facilities there. Perhaps you could camp overnight if you have your own transport and enough water, I didn't see any obvious freshwater source on the island. If you wanna shit or pee there's the bushes. Sunbathe naked if you dare, which isn't a good idea since chances are you're not the only one around. But the sand and water there are so clear, it reminds me of one island off Phi Phi I visited in 2006.
Tekek has changed so much since 1994. I couldn't recognise the place. There's a giant waterfront construction thing like a promenade leading towards the Marine Park, which has an enclosed area with fish that come to you if you give them their daily bread. The fish will even eat your puke if you throw up due to seasickness.
An airstrip behind the main village has flights by Berjaya Air turboprops, and the one main street still has houses, shops, a clinic, two schools and whatnot. The moment you cross the bridge from the jetty to the main street you'll see plenty of black fruits hanging from trees. Wait a moment. They ain't fruits, they're fruit bats. Vauvaal in Tamil, pin fuk in Cantonese.
One thing Tioman has in common with Langkawi is duty-free shopping. In simple English that means alcoholic drinks come cheap. Three dollars (ringgits in local English parlance) for a can of beer. Tax-free mar, that's why lor. The duty-free shop in Tekek accepts credit cards for purchases above RM50/=. The Chinese uncle's shop in Kampung Genting also sells duty-free liquor but Tekek offers more variety.
I don't remember seeing any cars on Tioman way back then but there are a few MPV vans and a Kembara or two now. The old Mercedes minibus belonging to Berjaya Tioman Beach Resort still runs strong, covering the two-kilometre journey from the resort to the jetty as it did years ago.
There weren't any Chinese restaurants on Tioman during my first trip, but now there's a Chinese restaurant behind three Malay eateries near the Tekek jetty. It so happened that the lady from the Chinese restaurant was feeding the fish at the Marine Park enclosure, she saw me doing the same and chatted me up in Mandarin and English. That's how I found out about the place's existence.
I must say that the composition of our group made a lot of difference in the trip. Our diversity's our strength. Great companionship and great rapport made for a whole lot of enjoyment. I look forward to the next vacation trip, sometime, somewhere.
Word of warning: The ferry journey from Mersing and the intra-island boat trips can make you seasick. For the first time in my life I got seasick and felt like throwing up with numbness in my hands mixed with nausea. Didn't vomit 'cos I didn't eat, but it ain't pretty. Must take seasickness pills, and many thanks to Michael Soon for helping us out on this aspect.
Traveller's notes: Bring your own personal use items and electrical extension plug as the chalets may not have an extra electrical outlet available. Get an air-conditioned room if possible. You'll be thankful for the comfort it gives after a long tiring day. Bring enough cash as I didn't see any ATMs around.
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