Kuala Lumpur
We arrived at KL Sentral Station and then got totally confused by their transport systems. They have subway, monorial, komuter trains and others – of course the sign posting was pretty useless – so it took us a while to locate the line we needed. We found our hostel straight away and checked in. It was quite a nice place with unlimited supply of coffee and toast which is a nice touch when you’re skint like us!
I am ashamed to say that I dragged Ahmad to McDonalds AND KFC for dinner. I have turned into a fast food junky, it’s so bad. Both places were packed solid and I noticed that everyone was sat staring at their food, not eating it. Ahmad had to point out to me that it was Ramadan and they were waiting for the sun to go down : )
The following day we went to see Harry Potter at a fancy mall, did some shopping and went to an awesome Indian eatery at night. It was £1 for a meat curry with unlimited veg! Alcohol is expensive as hell in Malaysia (£3 for a bottle of Tiger) but the staff at the hostel told us about a little Indian store that sells alcohol without tax. We scuttled off to find it after dinner and picked up some random beer called Amigos (the staff told us to avoid Godfather Beer which pained me slightly – so cool!) The rest of the night was spent drinking on the roof, chatting to a guy from France who had about as much personality as a tack and sorting ourselves out for Tioman Island.
When we woke up the following day we couldn’t be arsed to do anything sight wise – there really isn’t that much to do in KL. Instead we wandered about town for a while and just chilled out at the hostel. We caught a bus at 11pm to Mersing – arriving at 5am – where we would get the ferry to Tioman Island.
KL seems like a nice city to visit for a few days but we weren’t that bowled over by it, preferring Singapore. We were both over Asia at this point and just wanted to relax on a beach before heading to South America. I really wanted to come to SEA when I was England but now I really regret the decision. I suppose you never know how you will feel until you visit somewhere for yourself but it has just felt like a waste of 6 weeks. Maybe I’m missing something?? Maybe it’s us??
Tioman Island
The trip from KL to Tioman was pretty rough, even by our standards! The bus left KL at 11pm on the dot and arrived at Mersing at 4am. The first scheduled ferry was due to leave at 7.30am so we had over three hours of waiting at the port in the dark! We both dozed on the way to Tioman and woke up as the boat was approaching Genting, a section of beach on the south of the island.
I had been planning the trip to Tioman since China, trying to make reservations at ABC beach and Salang with not much luck as August is peak season. At this point I started looking at Juara beach, the only strip on the east coast of the island, the most difficult to get to but apparently, the most rewarding. After stressing about it for weeks we decided to just get to Juara and find somewhere to stay on arrival. I was especially anxious because I wanted it to be as beautiful as I hoped and as it was costing us a lot more to get to Juara, I wanted it to be worth it.
The first glimpse of Tioman blew me away. It was utterly beautiful, wild and deserted. We hated the idea of being somewhere ‘Thailand style’ full of pissed up brits who claim to be ‘travelling’ and were very relieved! About 20 minutes later we arrived at Tekek and out of 120 people, were the only people going to Juara! We found a 4X4 driver who took us through the jungle paths to Paradise Point, our first choice accommodation. IT WAS A HOLE. We met a girl from Bombay who took us to Rainbow Chalets which weren’t that much better but then we spotted Bushmans. I had emailed him a few times about snorkelling equipment and what do you know? He had reserved a chalet for me!! The chalet itself was about 100% better than what we both expected (the standard of accommodation on islands is pricey and utterly dire). It was modern with a huge mosquito net, hot water (unheard of everywhere else) and a nice porch to sit out on at night. It was right on the beach surrounded by coconut trees : )
Juara is beautiful and full of interesting wildlife. It’s very quiet here and the only alcohol you can get is Tiger beer – exactly what we wanted. The water was turquoise and clear, it was paradise!
I don’t know if people are aware of this but I am quite scared of the sea. It’s been getting worse as I get older. To me, the sea is intimidating because you can’t see what’s in it and when it’s coming to eat you! The second day on Juara I was attacked by a cleaning fish (this is what it felt like to me anyway!) He was a strange looking thing with a long thin tail and I thought it was a baby shark to begin with. I FREAKED!!! I started swimming for my life because he sucked on my stomach and my thigh! Everyone came running out to see what the danger was and I felt like a total girl, Ahmad thought it was hilarious of course.
We saw some pretty cool things on the island. Flying fish, crabs, huge scary lizards, wild squirrels and of course, lots of colourful fish on our snorkelling trips. We heard there are loads of monkeys but we never saw any (Ahmad breathed a sigh of relief). Juara was so quiet and peaceful, we shared the entire beach with a handful of people and the strange animals!
As mentioned in the KL section, it’s Ramadan here at the moment. We both found it quite funny that the muslim locals on Tioman are all participating but don’t exactly play by the rules. Every day between 2pm and 6pm these ladies set up food stalls in the centre of Juara and sell snacks to the community! I suppose island life is more relaxed than the mainland.
A few days before we left, I smashed my head into a piece of wood on the way to the above mentioned snack stalls, it fucking killed! I have smashed my head into various dangerous objects during this trip (including an iron bar on an Indian train) and I will be amazed if I have any brain/skull left in December. This time hurt the most and kept throbbing all the way to and back from the food place. When we got back I noticed that my hand was soaked in blood (I have no idea why it took 20 minutes for me to notice this!) and it turns out I had an inch long gash in my head. The guys in the next door chalet had some medical equipment and we got it cleaned up pretty easily. Travelling really does put strain on your body. Along with all the head bumps, knee knocks, back strain and damaged hair, I also have a few more scars on my feet and legs. It’s all worth it though!
After 8 nights we headed back to Mersing and caught a bus to Singapore. We were both pretty excited about this due to Ahmad booking us into a great hotel for my birthday.