Tioman Island, 2009 – w w w . x e .s . c x

Tioman Island: Misc Photos

Just like my Krabi Trip, I will end my entry on Tioman Island with some miscellaneous photos.

While we were having breakfast in Kuchai Lama, an elderly lady came up to us asking us for donation for a ‘charity home’. Most of us ignored her thinking that she’s a fraud. But Umeng, in his usual kind hearted way, gave the elderly lady 10 Ringgit as donation. She issued a receipt to him with his name written as “Hou Sam Yan”…that means Kind Hearted Person..

While driving around Melaka, we saw this van belonging to UMNO Bahagian Tanjong Karang. On the right, you will see a person’s face, probably the Division chief’s face, with a mobile phone on his hand. Can’t they find a better picture?

Picture of an ‘open air’ toilet taken in a petrol station @ Mersing. As you can see, there’s no roof. It was hot so hot that everything in the toilet was dry. I could literally see salt in the drain. Also, it was probably the driest smelling toilet I’ve even been.. Another photo for my throne series!

Kid on the bike..
few minutes later..

Vrooomm.. Underage and no helmet.. perfect recipe for fatal accident!

Picture of an unique postbox taken @ Kluang. It looks like a postbox converted from one of the Chinese altars!

Kluang Rail Coffee @ Kluang, Johor

On our way back to Kuala Lumpur, we stopped by the famous Kluang Rail Coffee at Kluang Station.

Those living in the Klang Valley would have definitely heard of Kluang Station Coffee. However, Kluang Station Coffee is not a branch of Kluang Rail Coffee but its history can be traced back to Kluang Rail Coffee.

Kluang Rail Coffee operates at Kluang train station and has been in business since 1938. The first thing that came into my mind when arriving at Kluang Rail Coffee is their coffee. It was commendable. I even bought 3 packets of their coffee home 😀

Immediately after sitting down, we grabbed packets of nasi lemak and mee siam which were placed on the table. I was told that their nasi lemak is excellent. It was indeed excellent but its so small until I could finish it in 3 spoons! The sambal was wrapped with a piece of banana leaf and it wasn’t too spicy. I whacked 3 packets of it!

Feeling dissatisfied, I ordered their toasted Polo Bun and toasted bread. They came with a thick slice of frozen butter together with loads of kaya. My personal favourite is the toasted bread. It was much softer and taste so much nicer!

Perhaps the only drawback about this coffeeshop is the level of service. The waiters were not that friendly and one of the waiters, a Chinese chap, looked as if he wanted to beat us up for ordering too much. -_-

Kluang Rail Coffee
Kluang KTM Station,
Jalan Station,
Kluang, Johor.

Open 7am -12pm, 2:30 – 6pm. Closed Thursdays.

Tioman Island: Tioman Island: Part II

We had lunch at Tioman town. We hired a van from one Indian chap to ferry us to Tioman town. The Indian chap offered to take us to town at a very low rate so we took up his offer.

Indian Chap on the left

But unknown to us, his van was an old, old van.. Just enough to fit 14 of us – with one fellow sitting on the floor.

Me on the floor

Deflated tyre – the van was too heavy..

Tioman Town also has numerous duty free shops. We bought two cartons of beer for the night and loads of snacks. I also bought a bottle of Greygoose for Melvin at RM110.

After filling our beer into our hotel fridge, we hung out at our hotel’s challenger’s park.

We got Ping to do some stunts. Ong Bak!!!

After that we played futsal but it ended abruptly after Umeng twisted his toe (we were all playing barefoot). It was Sunday and the inhouse doctor has left. All Umeng had was a bag of ice to minimize the swelling. We continued playing futsal again after that – with Umeng on the bench.

Futsal infront of our rooms

At night, we tried to finish up our beer but failed. We had to tahpao some back home.

On the next day, everyone got up extremely early to pack up. We didn’t want to miss our boat ride again!

The trip back to Mersing was a breeze. We had comfortable seats – with air con on full blast. It took only 1 1/2 hours, just nice for a short nap…

Zzzzzzz

Tioman Island: Tioman Island: Part I

Tioman Island is well known for its beauty. Many divers flock to Tioman Island to dive. In 1970s, it was selected by TIME’s magazines as one of the most beautiful islands.

Over the years, tourists flocked to Tioman Island which eventually brought development to the island. It now has a five star hotel, a duty free town and also an airport. The Berjaya Group operates an airline namely Berjaya Air to connect Subang Airport in Kuala Lumpur with Tioman Island.
We stayed at Berjaya Tioman Resort, which is a fairly decent and nice resort. The chalets are double storeys and its interior and facilities are nice. We paid around RM190++ per room per night. It didn’t come with breakfast though.

Snorkeling and diving are the main attractions of Tioman Island. Since our hotel stay doesn’t provide meals, we ventured out from the hotel for food. There are two restaurants outside the hotel namely Restoran Citra Anugerah and Delima Tomyam and Diana Seafood. Delima Tomyam and Diana Seafood is not bad. I quite like their roti kosong.

Restoran Citra Anugerah on the other hand sucked big time. Although the atmosphere was pretty nice (we dined at the beach), the food sucked big time. The cheese baked crab that we ordered tasty funny. It was bland and the had been fried and thus soft! It was quite expensive too!

On our first day, we went on a snorkeling excursion around Pulau Tioman. Before we left our hotel, we bought few bags of fish food which are mostly leftover toasts and buns.

There was even a blueberry tart insidel!

Our boat this time round has cushioned seats and sufficient lifejackets. It was a luxury!

Looks like turttlleeeee!

Although the water was fairly clean and clear, most of the corals were dead and the fishes were nothing interesting. But we managed to swim a little and fed loads of fishes. The fishes were crazy over the toasts and buns.

WK, Umeng, sLoonG and KF merged to form…

into a boat for AaHim. Unfortunately, the boat wasn’t tough enough..

Our snorkeling trip only lasted half a day. We were supposed to snorkel at 3 locations but it was cut short to two locations. The guide told us that there isn’t much stuff to see at the Marine Park and asked us whether we want to cut it short so that we can spend more time at the two locations. I wonder if this was one of their tricks to limit their working time.

The snorkeling trip left me a very poor impression on the marine environment of Pulau Tioman. So much for one of the most beautiful islands.

To be continued..

Tioman Island: Mersing to Tioman Island – Part II

One of the villagers offered to bring us to the correct jetty at RM50 per person. It was too expensive.

We called our hotel, Berjaya Tioman Island Resort, to enquire whether they could come and get us. Unfortunately, they don’t have a boat to get us.

Fortunately, Him managed to convince a local fisherman to bring to to the correct jetty at RM200. Within no time, we threw our bags on to the fisherman’s boat and headed straight to Berjaya Tioman Island Resorts’s jetty.

When we reached Berjaya Tioman Island Resorts’s jetty, it was around 12am. We took 8 hours from Mersing to get to Tioman Island! I could have reached Melbourne, Australia with 8 hours.

At the jetty..

The receptionists at Berjaya Resorts were very surprised to hear our story. We looked exhausted and dirty.

sLoonG looked as if someone rolled him down the hill.

Syen’s pants was awfully dirty

KF had eye bags of a panda

We checked into our hotel rooms, took a shower and rushed to the mamak outside the hotel. Food never tasted that good.

We were very fortunate to be well and alive. We would have turned into fish food and nobody knew about it. I wouldn’t do it again even someone pays me to do so. I highly admire the Vietnamese boat people who once went through this kind of ordeal for few weeks in a row. 5 hours was like hell to me.

I wouldn’t do it again!

If you guys have the time, please call Shukor at 013 788 0075 middle of the night and tell him we’re still at the jetty waiting for him or drifting in the sea waiting for help. wahahahhaha.

Tioman Island: Mersing to Tioman Island – Part I

We left Melaka in the morning and reached Mersing around 3PM. Mersing is the gateway to Pulau Tioman. One has to take a ferry from Mersing Jetty in order to reach Pulau Tioman. Tickets can be purchased at the jetty at around RM35. The journey from Mersing Jetty to Pulau Tioman takes around 1 hour and 30 minutes by jetty.

Unfortunately, by the time we reached Mersing Jetty, the ferry services to Tioman had ended! The next ferry to Pulau Tioman is 11am the next day!

Since we have already paid for our accommodation in Pulau Tioman, we were quite desperate to head to Pulau Tioman. Further, we didn’t want to waste our time in Mersing and spend a night in Mersing.
While at the jetty, someone offered to bring us over to Pulau Tioman for RM800. There were 14 of us and hence that comes less than RM60 per person. None of us have been to Pulau Tioman and none of us knew of other alternatives to get there. We snapped up the offer and within minutes, we were driven to a smaller jetty.

Then our boat came. It was a small wooden boat. /(*O*)\

We unloaded our luggage into the boat and took our seats. There were no chairs or anything nice to sit on. It was all wooden planks.

It was indeed a Malaysia Boleh moment..no ferry? no problem, just take a fisherman’s boat.

We were initially told that the journey would take around 3 1/2 hours. It didn’t take 3 1/2 hours to reach Tioman. It took 5 hours O_O

We were sailing against the wind and waves. The boat went up and down like a roller coaster ride. And there was only three lifejackets on board.

The 3 lifejackets

Not to long ago, one of the ferries to Tioman caught fire and a few people drowned. One blogger spoke about the tragedy on his blog and how poorly the search and rescue was conducted. If the boat sank, I guess the same thing would happen to us.

The first few hours were pretty bearable and frankly we were pretty excited too. However, the last few hours were hell. I sat on the front portion of the boat with Umeng, WK, Hyong and Kiang. I begin to feel seasick and tried to sleep. Whenever I close my eyes, I had sea water splashing on my face. I manage to fall asleep for few minutes only to be awaken by the rocking boat. My head was spinning and it was almost unbearable. It felt better when I vomited.

Kiang on the other hand was so sea sick until he did not move a single inch for five hours. I thought he fainted.

The boat was manned by two Malay brothers, one of them by the name Shukor. Shukor was telling me that to overcome seasickness, one should drink a mouthful of sea water. Hence, when I had sea water splashing on me, I licked myself like a cat cleaning itself.

Our sea sickness reached climax when the boat had to stop to pick up something from the sea. You see, one of the boat’s doors broke and fell on to the sea. The boat had to turn back and it started to rock left, right, centre and back. Arrggghhhhh

The passage way that connects the front and back of the boat is a small path that is around one feet. Any mistaken steps would lead one flying off the boat.

But the path is also one of the most important places in the boat. Since there is no toilet, we had to stand on the path, with one hand holding to the boat and the other hand holding our ‘brother’, to wee.

After feeling extremely sick while sitting down, I decided to stand up and endure the bumpy ride. Within no time, I felt a little bit better. I decided to stand until the end of the trip. I stood for 2 hours O_O

We sailed until night time. If its not for the moon light, everything would be pitch dark.

By 9pm, we landed at Pulau Tioman. We were so relieved when we reached there.

Haaalleeluuyaaaah! Ahamdulilahhh!! Amitabaa!!

Just as we thought our night mare was over, KF found out that we were on the wrong jetty! The boatman dropped us at the wrong jetty! But by the time KF found out about it, the boat was already sailing off. When we asked the boatman to come back to bring us to the right jetty, the boatman refused and told us to stay over there and take the boat to the correct jetty the next morning!

We then asked around whether there are any boats that goes to the correct jetty. Unfortunately, it was too late and there are no boats around. It would be great if we could just take a taxi to our hotel but Tioman doesn’t have taxi services. The only way is to walk and it takes around four hours to walk from the current jetty to the correct jetty.

We were shocked. We were conned big time! Argghh Fuk you Shukor!!

To be continued..

Tioman Island: Melaka: Abandoned Baba Nyonya House

We spent the entire day walking around shopping and eating around Jonker Street.

While walking back to our hotel, we found an abandoned house with its door wide open. The house is one of the old Baba Nyonya Houses, which is probably around 100 years old.

The Baba Nyonya House was dilapidated – with its roof missing. Almost all its fixtures were missing and the paint on the walls was peeling. The well was cover with a plant.

Other than the roof, the second floor is gone except for the front portion of the house where a room is still intact. The room is locked with a padlock. I wonder what’s inside!

See the padlock?

One of the things that interests me was the stairs. Here we found a dilapidated concrete stair which ends abruptly.

I walked up the stairs..

Looked up..

Viola! Lovely picture by WK!

I walked toward to the end of the house which was probably 100 meters deep. The end of the house was a small garden with overgrown weed. I could see its neighbour’s house from there.

Suddenly, I heard someone slamming the door at the neighbour’s house. I quickly made my move to avoid being caught by the neighbour for being a nosy bastard.

After taking some pictures, we left the place. I told Umeng about the neighbour slamming the door. Umeng and I then peeped at the neighbour’s house and find that…the neighbour’s house is empty and vacant.

\(*O*)/ chong kuai ar!!

Tioman Island: Melaka: Hotel Puri

Due to the return of Aussie boys Umeng and sLoonG, my high school friends and I made a road trip down to Pulau Tioman. It was supposed to be a farewell trip for Jin Han but he was tied up with something else. Jin Han and his family will be migrating to Australia.

We stopped by Melaka for a night before heading to Pulau Tioman. We stayed at Hotel Puri at Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock (behind Jonker’s Street).

Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock was formerly known as Heeren Street which was also known as the Millionaire’s Row. Many many years ago, Peranakan millionaires used to live along this street. Many of the millionaires’ houses are still around, some turned into shops and some vacant and abandoned. Our hotel is one of the many houses that have converted into a commercial lot. But just right opposite Hotel Puri lays the Chee Family Ancestral Home which I believe is still privately owned. It is so grand that it stands out from the others.

Chee Ancestral Home

Hotel Puri used to a mansion of a local Chinese tycoon. It was built in 1822 and it was said to house a zoo with a tiger and few deer!

Another interesting bit of this house is a hall which houses a number of swiftlet bird nests. I wonder if the bird nests are edible.

Bird Nests and CCTV

Just next to the ‘bird nest’ room lays a small museum with some history of house and even about Malaysia.

Our room was reasonably tidy and spacious. sLoonG, WK and I had to share the bed. Poor WK was assaulted by sLoonG and I whole night long.
Parking is provided by Hotel Puri. It’s located few blocks away from the hotel.

The drawback about this hotel is their breakfast. It comes in buffet style with a mixture of local and western cuisine. Their hash browns and sausages were almost tasteless. But with Jonker Street just behind, food shouldn’t be a problem.