Ok. this post is about my recent trip to Tioman, Malaysia with family and Pastor Kitham, the Myanmar pastor from Charis Full Gospel Centre who pastors our Burmese/Myanmar congregation..before i begin, i really envy you Malaysian friends of mine when it comes to possible holiday destinations. You guys have such cool places as Tioman, Redang, Johore Bahru (even though security is sometimes an issue), Rawa, Aur, Pangkor, Penang, Langkawi, Maldives(eh, salah, that one not counted) and you can go there anytime without needing to bring passport or fill in forms about how much money you're bringing into Malaysia(must be under RM 2000, don't play play, ok?)
we took 2.5 hours to drive up from Singapore to Mersing and let me tell you, navigating to and from the new customs checkpoint in JB is no joke ok..follow road sign happy happy then eh! "TA BOLEh JALAn! OR*** ****!Machiam Mana PErGi?!" thats quoting some of the inhabitants of the car who jiakup Melayu fluently..then from Mersing we took the ferry to Tioman after a wait of about an hour..ferry took 2.5 hours..and then, of course, father cleverly never book transport from Tekek Village(our stop) to Juara Beach so have to find local transport..thankfully, this guy offered to give us a lift there for RM 140..which was daylight robbery, so we said no, then he said he'll find one more person to share with us and that was how we met Alicia, a back-packer from New Zealand who had come to Singapore as the Physio for the NZ Under-21 National Hockey Team but was staying on for a week to do travelling after the competition ended..she's a christian going to Green Lane Church in Auckland and it was really good for us to get to know her over the next few days..back to my story..the guy said 4 Wheel Drive by which i think he meant a car with 4 wheels because he brought a Perodua Kancil to bring us up and down many hills and valleys to Mutiara Resort at Juara Beach..the suspension was creaking like nobody's business and at several points i really thought that must get out and push the bullock cart, sorry, Kancil already..good thing arrive there in one piece and not in body bags..
Father of course forget to confirm our booking on the day before coming so there was a bit of a fiasco..good thing we were placed in a pretty nice chalet for RM 120 a night and when i saw the BEACH i went crazy man.. went straight to the room and changed into my trunks and literally ran to the beach and ran in for a darn good swim in warm, crystal clear waters with visibility of at least 12 m i swear..forget Australian beaches man..this one is to die for ok!!too bad it was already 530pm when we arrived, so did not have much time with my beloved salty sea....
and then, dad being dad, said that we should go explore..and his ulterior motive was to find Gunung (Mount) Durian behind the resort, full of Durian trees and pick up some free kampung durian..which we did..4 wild, kampung durians, no fertilisers or human intervention..except in their digestion..Alicia met us while we were "exploring" so we invited her to join us for kampung durian at the beach cafe..and she actually tried and did not mind the taste of durian..i told her that she definitely put to shame many of my white Aussie friends man..
and that basically sums up the first day of my Great Tioman Adventure..tell ya more about Day 2, 3 and 4 over the next few posts..stay tuned ;->
Not my picture but this is the exact type of chalet we stayed in (photo of Mutiara Resort chalet, Juara Beach, taken from internet)
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