South To Tioman Island
I really hadn’t planned or done any research on how to get south but word of mouth and the little Bhasa Malay I speak pulled through. I arrived on the dock at around 9 am and was told there wasn’t a bus until 10 pm. Then they changed their tune and said to check the other companies. I heard from the taxi drivers I needed to take a taxi to another town and go to the bus station where there are many different bus companies going in different directions. Check local buses if you have time. International was heading out at 1015 am so I felt lucky and got the last seat. But that really wasn’t the case until we got down to Kuantan where the bus filled up. I arrived in Mersing and walked to the main street with lots of guesthouses and hotels on it and chose a hotel with WiFi and a private bath for 60 Ringgit/night hoping to catch the morning boat tomorrow but being Saturday, there was only one boat from this port at 230 pm. Check out wasn’t until noon so everything worked out well and I landed at ABC beach pier by 430 pm. I walked with purpose because there were so many people on the ferry boat I was expecting everything to be packed but Mokhtair’s Place was virtually empty except for a couple from England, Ian and Sheila, whom I had met here 4 months prior when it was the end of the tourist season and the beginning of the monsoon season where everything shuts down. Anyway, I am just burning time before I fly to Raja Ampat and join up with www.wickeddiving.com on an 18 day live aboard expedition from Papua New Guinea around a group of islands and south to Komodo Island/Lubuan Bajo, Flores Island in the Indonesian Island chain. Sumbawa Island is where there was a massive ‘accidental’ burn of a major portion of the island’s indigenous jungle and animal habitat and no sooner had the smoldering embers died down they began planting Palm Oil trees. I’m going to go check it out on my way back to Bali and Lembongan for more diving. But in the time between adventures I’m diving Tioman Island and it has been surprisingly good. The wind is considerably less than the Perhentian Islands at the moment and the visibility has been good enough to schedule more dives. I have been coming to this island since 1989 and know many of the bungalow owners such as Nazri, of Nazri’s Place. www.nazrisplace.com. There is a really good pizza place here called Sunset Corner where I can watch the sunset, listen to chill music, watch premier league football, get WIFI, a beer, a good veggie pizza and meet some dive guides, returnees, and a lot of new comers. I joined up with Ray’s Dive Shop and spoke with ‘Flo’ a diver with global traveling and diving experience from Switzerland. We shared a few laughs and fears over the U.S. presidential election and the outcome options. I’ll be using an absentee ballot voting for Bernie Sanders, the only candidate I can respect at the moment. The rhetoric I’m hearing from the other candidates are chilling. The Bern will do right if the money grubbing elitists become reasonable.
Bhahahahahaha.
Right and still he’s my only option for continuing to right the wrongs committed by previous Presidents and look to the future without too much outside persuasion. No President is a saint and I don’t expect it to be so and I certainly don’t want the job.
Some of the people I met on the Perhentian Islands had taken the same journey south to Tioman and it was a pleasure to sit with them and give them a bit of the low down of this island. Lots has changed over the years but the heart of the people remains as genuine as ever and it’s a great place to snorkel right off the beach in front of your bungalow and see baby sharks, sharks, turtles, banded sea snakes, and lots of wrecks.
I just now went for a snorkel and it looks like there is a lot of coral making a comeback after years of anchor dragging storms. Now most boats are on mooring lines with large anchor blocks holding them to the gently sloping seabed. Divers will be surprised by the macro life. The sun sets straight out off of ABC Beach and I fall asleep listening to small waves break on the sand and coral shore. At low tide, rocks show close to shore, then a band of sand, and then a reef. I signed up for 7 nights knowing I had some writing to do and this is a great spot for it only interrupted by diving and chilling at A Peace Place, another beach front balcony bar with a lovely set of ‘Hippie Hours’. Do be careful of the monkey troops that come down out of the jungle periodically. The monkeys usually bound out of the trees, scamper across the bungalow roofs and raid the garbage cans looking for leftovers and leave a mess. There are lots of fruit trees around and they are in them mostly but every now and again they wander through the bungalows looking for a half–full warm beer or food scraps. Don’t leave anything out on the balcony besides drying clothes; they have no need for those.
The first dive of the second day of diving was a group of three shipwrecks. The beauty of Tioman Island is that if the Malaysian government catch someone illegally fishing here in the park, they arrest the captain, fine him heavily and sink the boat. There are numerous wrecks both on purpose and from illegal fishing along the west side of the island. The fish love them, lots of Stonefish, Lion fish, and Scorpion fish among others that won’t kill you or leave you with a nasty burn. The visibility wasn’t so good on our wreck dive but we were down 28 meters and the tide had kicked up some of the fine silt on the sea floor.
Between the first dive and the second we grabbed a mooring line in Monkey Bay waiting out our decompression time between dives. On the shore I saw a pristine beach with an abandon shop at the edge of the encroaching jungle. It sent my imagination on a wild ride through the past.
On our second dive of the day, at Soiyak near Monkey Bay; the visibility was an easy 20 meters. The water was crystal clear with no particulates or silt from the tide. I felt like I had just plunged into a filtered aquarium. There were turtles swimming about, lot’s of blue spotted Rays, a small school of Barracuda off in the distance, soft and hard colorful corals, purple fans, and lots of macro stuff to look for including the Pigmy sea horse. I’ve been told the further out toward the many little islands surrounding Tioman the visibility just gets better. There isn’t much current but there can be when the celestial alignment if right or the further out you go. Drift diving occurs and there are lots of places to hide from it and watch for the bigger fish out in the blue.
Once I got back in the boat after the second dive, I looked up at a beautiful hotel with orange tile roofs and wood balconies emerging out of the jungle. Flo said it’s the ‘Ghost’ Hotel and it is 100% vacant and actually not even completed. This is movie material my friends. Steven King wrote a book back in the day called ‘Rose Red’. The movie industry made it too comical to be taken as fear, more like a ‘Scary Movie 4’ type satire and mockery. The fear factor could have blown ‘Jaws’ out of the water, but no, not to be. Sorry Stephen, good thing you are into pizza delivery. Apparently the guy built it almost to completion but never actually had any paperwork or permits so the government shut down the project and it remains empty.
Tioman Island historically was something of a pirate island where real pirates would hide or hold up for some times hiding from pursuers. Eventually some of them stayed, basically five families who generations later are still live here and very well respected. Nazri is third generation ‘pirate’ and owns Nazri’s Place, ‘a place to remember’. If you are camping with a tent Nazri only charges 5 Ringgit/night. I eat many of my meals at Nazri’s Place due to the quality of the food, and the view over looking the sea to the west. Nazri speaks about five languages very well and is getting on in his youth. Below his wise glittering eyes he sets a smile that brightens the sun. www.nazrisplace.com.my.
The one unfortunate thing I saw that disturbed me greatly was the tail fins and dorsal fins of two reef sharks drying in the sun. I’m not in a position to talk to anyone who lives here and makes money this way but I can help by making you the reader aware that it’s a bad idea considering they have high concentrations of Mercury that is toxic to humans. Just FYI.
There are three types of Cobra on the island and they mostly stay up in the jungle hillsides, mostly. I don’t know their proper names besides King Brown, King and a vibrantly color banded yellow and black one. The forth snake to mention is a blue/green tree viper that is only found on this island to my knowledge. How boring is all that when you are hiking through the jungle to the far side of the island to another empty beach and showering in a waterfall or bathing in a freshwater creek pool surrounded by lush undercover.
The night sky is void of city lights or distant reflections; Orion, The Bear, and the Big Dipper still watch over the island if not reside out here in all their imaginary splendor that has helped many a seafarer find his way home with a story of mystery in his craw to tell his friends and family.
I don’t know why but the island is low on foreign tourists at the moment and some of the restaurants are just opening this week. The weekends are another story when folks come from Kuala Lumpur or Singapore for a weekend of diving or just playing in the shallows. I’m coming back but it may be awhile. Plans as they are now stretch over continents with untold twists and turns. The diving has been exceptional and Ray’s Diving fit the mold for me. I ended up doing 7 dives and invited one gal I met in the Perhentian Islands, Danni, from England who had a no visibility dive there and I invited her to join us here on Tioman. She was financially guarded due to her strong desire to go to the Philippines and dive with the Thresher Sharks. For her to have a positive dive in Malaysia cost me $25.00 and for that price, I’d try and put a smile on anyone’s face. It worked.
www.raysdive.com. My dive’s cost 100 ringgit/dive and the more you dive, the price goes down so including Danni’s dive, a total of 8, I paid 640 Ringgit ($170.00 USD or $21.33/dive). This price includes all gear, boat, guide, and if you are out for three dives in a day there is usually a meal included. There are a few dives shops to choose from depending on your focus. There are some tech divers here, some tri-mixers, lots of fun divers and all the courses you could handle if you have time. Ray’s offers PADI and I think SSI courses, Snorkeling, Island hopping, Fishing trips, Jungle trekking, and custom dive trips to destinations of your choosing and their planning.
The beach and the walkway remind me of what Koh Tao used to be like 20 years ago before Saree Beach and all the buildings went in. Ray’s staff is a mix from Borneo to France and all good at what they do including play guitar and sing. It is conveniently located across the path from ‘A Peace Place’ that serves 3 cold beers for 12 Ringgit during ‘Hippie Hours’. One beer in the Perhentians costs 10 Ringgit. You do the math.
Tioman is one of the last backpacker islands left in South East Asia where it’s not all about the money. Yet. The feel here is slow, island time. Don’t expect things to happen in a hurry, they won’t, but they will happen and you’ll be happy you came here. There are numerous beach piers the ferry boat stops, you just tell them ABC Beach and get a place to stay and explore from here to anywhere on the island. There is one ATM on the island that works. It’s on the main beach, maybe 3 kilometers away walking on the beach boardwalk near the airport and post office.
FYI, Tioman ferry is completely booked April 28 through May 2 because of Labor Day long weekend holiday.
www.davidcdagley.com
