I’m interrupting my slew of Bali posts to squeeze in a lil weekend trip we just took….

We headed to the east coast of Malaysia for a long weekend…There are a cluster of islands off the coast that have beautiful water and scenery. They are only really accessible about half the year. During monsoon season, mid October through February, the water is too rough to visit and definitely impossible to snorkel or scuba. Many of the resorts on the islands close up completely.

As you can see Pulau Tioman is on the far right of the map three quarters of the way down. Pulau means island in Bahasa (i.e. Malay). We opted for Tioman because Redang and Perhentian were booked. Note to travelers….make your reservations in advance for these islands…Redang and Perhentian are on our list to visit before we move back to the states.

There are several ways to get to the islands. Many people just drive and then take a ferry over. For this trip since we were limited on time (the drive is anywhere from 3-5 hours depending on what ferry you need to take) we decided to fly. The good thing about Tioman is there is an airport on the island. Flights leave from Subang, a somewhat closer airport than KLIA/LCCT.

We left at 7:30 am on a Friday. The traffic was AWFUL and I am sure the teksi (taxi) driver got lost twice. It is always disconcerting to see the person navigating your journey flipping around backtracking, saying something about missing the turn, checking his GPS and driving through small side streets and alleys in residential areas. REGARDLESS, it took us about an hour and we made it with more than enough time to spare! Here’s how the texts between my husband and I went (who is sitting in the front seat of the taxi).

“Is he lost!?”

“I hope not”….

The best part was when the teksi driver asked what time our flight was. Vote of confidence that we would get there on time. awwwww the joys of expat travel!

We flew Berjaya airlines. Berjaya means success in Malay in case you were curious. They are the only airline that flies to Tioman.

What I was unaware of until we got there:

Propellers?!? WTH? This isn’t circa 1959 or something. D found it amusing since he has actually flown in a plane smaller than this one for work….Thank goodness I knew about that AFTER the fact as I would have been a worrying nervous wreck.

we board:

At least someone was excited….

This was the view from my window…..

And D’s:

There were a total of 12 rows, four people per row totaling 48 people on board.

We swoop down and BOOM, land in this tiny runway surrounded by jungle.

It was so fantasy island….the only difference: we didn’t land on water. Oh and I couldn’t find Mr. Roarke anywhere….

We had to get our luggage:

If that isn’t the classiest baggage claim I’ve ever seen…

The representative from Tunamaya resort was there to greet us and walk us to the boat. The resort/hotel was about a 30 minute boat ride from the airport.

The water was a little rough. It didn’t stop S from leaning over and getting wet. She was loving it…

We made a stop to pick up guests that had taken the ferry from Mersing and then on to the hotel. The rock formations were really beautiful.

We were able to check in to our room right away which was great. Bathingsuits on, lunch and libations…

Later in the day D and A took a little jungle trek. There was a jungle path right behind the hotel…Warning: they forgot to apply mosquito repellant. The trek was the shortest in history.

I must remember to take a picture of the interior of the room BEFORE we get settled. It was a nice set up. A queen size bed and a twin. The girls were able to share. This is a new resort so everything was clean and in good shape. The couch on the porch was a nice touch. We decided to get a beach front cabin. It was wonderful to be able to hear the waves from our room.

Many of the small resorts on these islands do not offer a pool. We made sure to book a place that had one. I am so glad we did! It turned out that the beach was more rough than we anticipated and the option to snorkel right in front of our room wasn’t possible. The sea wall was too close to the shore. The red flag was up most mornings so swimming was off limits. Luckily we had the pool. The weather cooperated on our second day, calming the water and clearing the clouds.

‘A’ testing out her snorkel gear.

‘S’ giving it a try too. She really didn’t get the concept but wanted to try anyway. In a few years she’ll understand and we can try again.

Since the water calmed down, we spent some time on the beach building sandcastles and just floating. Then after lunch we headed out for a snorkel trip offered through the dive shop at the resort (it was an extra charge).

The ‘dive’ master Eddie was an American. I know that accent anywhere. He was actually from Jersey. Three years ago he quit his job as a business analyst and has been traveling the world since. He plans to stay in Malaysia until August and then head out for a trip to Europe, a visit back home to the states for Thanksgiving and then South America. I’m telling you….the travel bug is addicting and you get greedy with all the places you can visit. Kudos to him….he’s having the time of his life.

The first snorkel location we stopped at was really rough. I wimped out and stayed with S on the boat. We had planned to just put her in a life jacket and throw her in the water….but with how rough the water was I didn’t know if I would feel comfortable holding on to her and tending to my gear. ‘A’ was fearless! The only sad part was because the water was so rough, visibility wasn’t great.

Our second stop was to Rengiss Island. A small little island surrounded by coral reefs. It was definitely more touristy but the water was calm. We threw ‘S’ in a life jacket, got her in the water and then put her in a life ring. It was perfect! Eddie had a rope attached to the life ring and another floaty that he pulled together to make sure she stayed with the group (and anyone who needed a break could grab on and float).

‘S’ wore her goggles….and just floated with us. ‘A’ and I held hands and swam together. She was so excited to see parrot fish, coral, and angel fish. She kept trying to swim away from me and explore….I had to keep going after her so she’d stay with us. ‘S’ was happy as a clam….saying how much she loved me and how she was ‘diving’. She just wanted to be with all of us; snorkeling or not. By the third snorkel spot she was exhausted and passed out asleep:

The third spot had an old car and a treadmill submerged on the floor of the ocean! Nice huh? ‘We were about to jump in when the rest of the group got out. I guess there were tiny jellyfish everywhere and everyone was getting stung. I am so glad we waited to go in last! Plus the water was pretty choppy. When the water is that rough it kicks up a lot of sand which makes everything cloudy and hard to see. I asked the skipper if this is common for July. He said that July and August are typically pretty rough. The best time to visit the east coast is from March to April/May. Noted.

Views from our resort…

The nice thing about Tioman, it’s a duty free island. Meaning: alcohol and chocolate are tax free and a lot cheaper than on the peninsula! We weren’t sure what the options would be at the airport so we took a trip in to town for duty free shopping…

The boat left at 9 am and the clouds were touching the tops of the rock formations…it was really a sight.

Above is a shot of Rengiss Island where we were snorkeling the day before.

We docked at the town of Tekek and headed to the duty free shop. There wasn’t much to it…We bought some booze and a few postcards…I had hoped to find some Limoncello, but there wasn’t any around.

On our walk back we saw a tree full of BATS! look closely there are so many of them!

Click on the picture below and watch the video. I couldn’t believe these bats were that loud.

We got conned in to buying these extremely functional sunglasses…..

And then got back on the boat to pack, eat lunch and gear up for our trip home….

The food at the resort was pretty good. The breakfast buffet was included and it was pretty standard. You could order a la carte for lunch and dinner (some of the options were more limited at dinnertime though).

The dinner buffet was extremely expensive for what you got but I think this was the way they made their money. I was impressed with the kids meals. The kids liked the options and they were about RM15 or $5 each, not too expensive for a resort. We had no other option of places to eat so considering that I think the food situation was pretty fair. Alcohol wasn’t too expensive. I don’t know if that was because it was duty free or what. A Tiger beer was about $3 USD. The wine was about $6-7. I don’t think the wine was that great….but I am starting to realize that wine in general isn’t that great over here. I just think the heat makes it really hard to keep the wine from going bad. *sigh*

The great option: check out was at 3 pm! Since our flight didn’t leave until 4:30 we had time to relax, shower, pack and not feel rushed.

We jumped on the boat back to Tekek and waited for the plane to arrive. Turns out the duty free at the airport had Limoncello! ugh. I had already bought 1L of spirits so I couldn’t get it. You are only allowed 1L per ADULT (yes, I did entertain the idea that maybe my children could bring a liter in too, nope) and we’d exceeded it. oh well, there are a lot worse things in life than missing an opportunity to buy a bottle of limoncello tax free.

heading home…

The waiting area for the plane was open air….it was getting a bit toasty and the plane was running late. It was so odd to have no warning before this plane just lands right in front of you. It came out of nowhere!

They let the arriving passengers off, got their luggage, put our luggage on, started up 2 of the propellers, boarded us and off we went! I had to laugh because the aircon by my seat (and ‘A’ asked I sit by the window) was LEAKING on to me and obviously not working….since I was sweating like a stuffed pig. It doesn’t sit well to see the condensation from the air con above you dripping and then the wheels of the landing gear pull up from your window. I tried not to think about it and figured I’d just accept my fate. It was all fine in the end.’D’ was kind enough to tell me that if we lost one of the 4 engines we’d still not crash. thanks! We landed (flight is barely even an hour), grabbed our luggage and headed home. It was an easy stress free weekend. I think island living suits this family…..

Until our next adventure….