Tioman, Tioman, Tioman

Car 1 - Tom (driver), Shani, Jayme, DKBU
Car 2 - Chi Loon (driver), Ah Fan, Evelyn, Ah Chai


10/09/2004 (Friday)

21:00 - Tom came and fetch me and we left for Seremban stop immediately.

22:30 - Arrived at the Seremban stop. We met up with Chi Loon, Ah Fan, Evelyn and Ah Chai at a cafe next to KFC (can't remember the cafe name =P) and we introduced ourselves. Everyone was very excited about trip. After going to toilet, we were ready to go but Tom asked us to bring extra cash as there was no ATM machine at Tioman. (Huh!? I thought Tioman should be advance ma... got Berjaya there) So, we were queueing to get some cash and we were off
to the next stop. We left about 23:00.

23:00 - Journey was normal. Tom showed us where was Gunung Ledang and told us some ghost stories... Dunno true or not, he only know... lolz.... Then the rest were discussing about GAIA and philophophy.... Aiyo... so the BORING, and I just dozed off =)



11/09/2004 (Saturday)

01:00 - Arrived at the Ayer Hitam toll plaza. Time for toilet stop and time for Tom to smoke.

01:30 - Arrived Kluang and Tom is hungry... we have to go hunt for stalls... First we saw a chinese shop but the boss told us they were closing. Then we moved on to find other shops and we found this Malay stall named Agensi 1001 Warung Kopi. What a funny name.... lolz... sounds like 1001 Arabian Nights. We had supper there and people from car 2 is getting high. People from car 2 are really really good jokers/crappers =X. Anything that come out of their mouth is just so funny... a real happy bunch. After a good laugh, we left the warung at 02:00

2:00 - On the way to Mersing, the roads were double lanes each side all the way until the jungle part. According to Tom,
one year ago, the roads were one lane each and full of bumps. Guess they just expanded and resurfaced the road and want to make it easier to go to Tioman. Then we arrived at the jungle area. Woah... the roads here are really winding and there were lotsa twist and turns. The place was real dark (no lights - just total darkness) and Tom have to drive with highlight. To make matters worst, the were thick forrest fog. This is the first time I am experiencing this thing and the visibility is real bad (onli visible 2 to 3 meters). Luckily we have a professional driver (Tom).... hehehe.... no problem geh. Out of no where Tom just emergency brake! What the hell happenned? Tom said he saw a forrest fox run across the road and emercency brake so as not to kill it. Awww...
how sweet, what an animal lover... Ceehhh, I thought he hit someone or wat? We continued the journey and reach Mersing about 04:00

04:00 - Arrived at Mersing. The first ferry to leave for Tioman is about 07:30. Tom and I scouted around. Shani was sleeping in the car already. Dunno where Jayme when... maybe to the port... Then I saw everyone was sleeping in car 2 and the Ah Chai is sleeping on a bench in front of the car. About 04:30, Tom and I when back to car unwind the window and slept. Walaueh.... there were a lot of mosquitoes and there were a few mosque nearby shouting for Muslims to wake up for prayers. There were at least 2 different mosque cause 1 mosque was calling from my right and another from my left... Hardly got any sleep. Woke up bout 06:45 and we go clean ourselves in the washroom and had morning drink, while Tom went to buy the tickets.

07:30 - There were quite a number at the jetty about 50 plus. We saw the first group left. Then Tom, Shani, Jayme boarded the second boat but a tour guide potong my queue and asked that I let the Japanese go first... I didn't say anything, neither did the people from car2. I just let the Japanese people pass. Woah... some of the Jap girls are so sexy... one by one pass infront of me... hehehe... =D~ Later the boat was overcrowded by Japs and Tom was shouting.... woi, ask me to faster cause he wanted to arrive Tioman and get a good sleep and also the boat was full of Jap lengluis... Later Tom was asked to moved to another boat.... ahahaha... We all boarded the next boat (about 08:00). The water was very calm and there were no splashes... and everyone decided to catch some sleep. But there were a Singaporean couple... talking and talking and talking so loud.... especially the girl... (it's so unlady like - learn this phrase from Tom) The boat has less people and more speedy. At last, we overtook boat 2 where all the Japs lengluis boarded. After that the ride was clear all the way. The weather was perfect and the ater was extremely calm! Arrived at Salang Beach (The most northern beach on Tioman) jetty about 10:15

10:15 - What a view! The water was so clear and we saw lotsa ikan bilis below the jetty. We also saw lotsa of fishes and some barracudas. And I saw something like a plastic bag floating... to my suprise, those were jellyfishs dangerous... too many of them) Anyways, we checked into the shallets at Salang Indah about 10:30. The shallets were all air conditioned... Nice!.... After checking in, all were prepared to go snorkel and dive.

11:00 - Chi Loon, Ah Fan and Ah Chai went to B&J diving school to get ready thier gear for scuba diving. There were a few diving school on Tioman & B&J is the one of the best school on Tioman (visit http://www.divetioman.com/). Tom, Shani, Jayme and me went for snorkelling. To tell you guys, I snorkelled once in my life like I was about 13 or 14 year old. After that I have not done any swimming. We rented the life jacket, mask and flippers and ready to go. We jumped into the water.... the water was so cold. Then we got some snorkelling tips from Tom and everyone was ready. Initially I wanted to follow Tom and Jayme but because I have to get used to the basics of snorkelling, I have to stay at shallow
waters. After about an 45 minutes, I saw Shani at the beach. When there to asked her anything happened. She got bitten by a small jellyfish! She said there was no problem. That got me scared... and I stopped snorkelling and waited for Tom and Jayme. They were so slow lar.... waited at least 20 mins. Finally, Tom and Jayme came back and they were telling us that they saw 2 baby eels (rare to see when snorkelling)
and a big barracuda. Then we off for lunch. By the way, Evelyn was sleeping in the shallet all the while. So Ah Chai when to call her for lunch.

12:30 - Lunch was good... and the girls were crazy about squids... Why ar? Anyways, I love to eat seafood, my fave =) And the carpping from car 2 people continues. Laff sei ngor.... =D After lunch everyone was resting accept Shani. Shani is doing her advanced diving course. Good luck Shani!

16:00 - B&J was having this cleaning ops. Clearing of crown-of-thorns. The crown-of-thorns kills corals and B&J want to prevent them from doing more damage to the beautiful corals in Tioman. Tom, Shani, Chi Loon, Ah Fan and Ah Chai took part with others. Initially Jayme and me wanted to follow them, but halfway I chickened out... caused they were going to deep and I'm not that comfortable
with snorkelling yet. So I and Jayme snorkelled around the beach. Jayme took lead and I followed. There was one time, where we were so out and in the ferry's line and about 3 meters deep... woah... lotsa fishes and coral to see but I was felling dizzy and asked Jayme to head back to the beach. I was real tired and when back to the shallet and sleep. Later I found out that Tom, Shani and Ah Chai brought back a big bags of crown-of-thorns. Tom was damm happy but Martin (one of the instructors) told them that those aren't crown-of-thorns but sea urchins..... wahahahaha..... laff sei ngor.... they threw back the sea urchins back into the sea. Luckily there was one crown-of-thons, if not sure malu kau kau =P Oh yeah, found a nokia phone at the beach while walking back to the shallet. The phone model is quite new but water has entered it. Took it back to the shallet and cleaned and wiped it dry. The phone was still working but the phone is in a different language. Dunno what language, must be a foreginer's one. Anyways, I passed the phone to Tom. Tom brought it to the lost and found section of the
shallet office. After all that, when I to sleep... zzzzz


P/S: There is no Maxis signal on Salang beach! WTH... I'm using Maxis... Signal available for digi (013) and celcom (019) only.


19:00 - Tom called me to wake up for bbq seafood dinner. I woke up and was ready for the bbq XD~~~ Aiseh... reach there the coal still burning. Then we started to bbq. Actually I didn't want to do the bbq. It's so hot and there is lotsa smoke. Thanks to a makcik and 2 ladies (Af Fan and Evelyn) who bbqed all the seafood for us. Then we all started to eat. Bon Appetite! The squids were the most delicious squids I've tasted and the girls were crazy about them. There were fish but a little uncooked. So bbq the fishes second round by Chi Loon and Ah Chai. There was chicken but FYI, I do not take chicken, I don't know why, but I dislike the taste =P. As usual the people from car 2 was crapping and laffing all the way. Then the food was almost finished and Ah Fan asked to order fried rice. She is so skinny but can eat alot =X Then Chi Loon was teasing her she is a 'Fan Tong' (rice bin - where someone gobbles nothing but rice only). Then Tom and Shani have to leave for the night dive. After 10 mins, the fried rice appeared. Hmmm.... the fried rice arrived and the fried rice is so white (maybe forgot to add black soya sauce) and oily... most of us, see the fried rice also full liao... end up everyone ask Ah Fan to sapu the fried rice.
In the end still got 3 quater more rice... wanted to tapao but not feasible. After dinner, Ah Chai wanted to watch football in the bar and drag us all there.

20:30 - When to bar and sit for awhile... I didn't order anything.... was too full.... and I needed to go for a walk... went to walk around and explore the island with Jayme. Saw Tom, Shani and 2 more ppl underwater with torchlight near the jetty. Took pics of them =) After that we continued exploring until 21:30

21:30 - When back to the bar. There was a large crowd. Mostly are kwai lo's and kwai po's. (Salang is very popular for scuba diving and most of the divers here are foreigners)
We saw Tom there with his wet suit. (Just came out of the water). He was complaining that his underwater torchlight went leaking and later at the jetty he was trying to fix his torch and he dropped his rechargable batteries in the water. (sure the torchlight easy spoil lar bro... capalang stuff... RM 30 onli.... a good underwater torch cost about RM200+) The ppl from car 2 is still there crapping, laffing and playing cards. Ordered beer and chill out there. Later Shani came to join us. She was carrying a thick book about diving and she is reading it in the bar cause there will be exams for her tomorrow. It was getting late and Tom wanted to get some rest. We finished our beer and went to dreamland.

23:45 - Dreamland.... zzzzzz



12/09/2004 (Sunday)

09:30 - Woke up and had breakfast with Chi Loon, Ah Fan, Evelyn, Ah Chai and Jayme. Had roti telur. Their roti telur was marvelous - very soft, fresh and perfectly cooked. The gang planned to go snorkelling about 11:00 Tom and Shani were doing their dives again.

11:30 - When snorkelling with Chi Loon, Ah Fan, Evelyn, Ah Chai and Jayme. At last, Evelyn show her face in the water if not will be in bed. Why so like to sleep geh? I was amazed by the swimming skills of Chi Loon. He is real good and was doing alot of skin dive. By now, I'm comfortable with snorkelling =)

12:45 - The people from car 2 is going back today. They brought all their stuffs and checked out of the shallet. Had lunch ala-carte style, everyone was there. People from car 2 was still crapping... aiyo... non stop crapping... lolz.... Took photos of everyone and say good bye to Chi Loon, Ah Fan, Evelyn and Ah Chai.

13:45 - Back to shallet for rest. Tom will have planned a snorkel to the sunken ship for Jayme and me at 16:00.

16:00 - As usual Shani went for her dive. Tom, Jayme and me went snorkelling at the other side of the island. Tom was bringing us to the deep end where we can't see the bottom ocean floor. Then we reach the sunken ship site, the ship
is about 15 meters below. Most unfortunately, it was cloudy and there was no sunlight reaching the bottom, we can't see anything.... Anyways, we continued snorkelling. Tom was showing us big baraccuda, butterfly fish, trigger fish, etc.
When he saw the trigger fish, he was pointing a big fish with his hands and it was a large one. He asked us to back off because trigger fish attacks human. He also told us that a diver's nitemare is not seeing a shark but seeing a trigger fish! So beware of trigger fish! We backed off and continued snorkelling. Then I saw a plastic bag full of coins, I asked Tom to retrieve it the bag. To our amazement, it was a bag full of chpped squid. Hmm.... anyways we fed the fishes with the squids. Continued to snorkel for a while. Got back to shore bout 17:00

17:30 - When back to the shallet to rest and sleep..... zzzzzz

19:30 - By now, Shani have completed all her dives for Advanced level and passed all. Congrats! Tom, Shani, Jayme and me when to have bbq seafood again but at a different restaurant. Tom selected the seafood and the chef will bbq it for us. Tom ordered quite alot. Meanwhile I was watching F1 racing... damm hungry liao... food took so long to come. Food only arrived about 20:20. I was enjoying the food while watching F1 (Yup! I'm a F1 maniac and Ferrari supporter =X) Everyone was full by 21:00 and there are still a lot more food. I was still watching and eating... later I found out I sapu everything clean... =X Tom was showing the bagus hand signal to me. He have never seen someone eat so much.... ahahaha.... I was happy mar, ferrari won one and two. When I happy, I eat more XD~~~~

21:45 - After dinner, we were were discussing what to do for our last day.

Option 1: Free and easy, do nothing
Option 2: Do snorkelling at 4 different locations
Option 3: Do snorkelling at Pulau Renjis
Option 4: Go terkking up the hill (up 45 mins and down 45 mins). Behind the hills was a private beach. You can do whatever you want down there =)
Option 5: Go kayaking to a nearby island and back
Option 6: Go scuba diving - 1 day course

Obviously, I was confident with snorkelling and chose option 6 =) We went to B&J about 22:00 to ask about the discovery course. Luckily Ben (dive instructor) was still there and he said it was not a problem. Yeah!

22:15 - When to the bar to chill out with Tom and Jayme. Shani when to bed cause too tired. The crowd was less cause it's Sunday nite (Monday is a working day) and most of the people have already left Tioman.

00:00 - Dreamland.... zzzz


13/04/2004 (Monday)

09:00 - Breakfast with Tom, Shani and Jayme. Had 2 roti telur and a roti canai. Why so hungry today?

10:00 - Get ready for my diving course. Tom introduced me to Jay, my dive master of the day. Actually Jay is assistant dive master and have 10 years of experience in diving. The course started with the basics. There was his hard-cover flip book for discovery scuba diving. Firstly, Jay asked about my medical history. Then he show me to do's and dont's of scuba diving. Then there was how to do this and that.
The theory part was really short. Then Jay showed me the equipments and asked me suit up. Then follow him on how to set the tank, BCD, belt, weight, float, mask, tiubs, etc...

11:00 - Then we walked to the beach about my chest level and do test dive. Woah... breathing in water is different in water. Rule number one: continue to breath in and out and DO NOT hold your breath! It was difficult for me, cause I was holding my breath then release. After a few rounds I was getting used to it. Then he showed me how to clean up mask if water when inside it under water... wahahaha... this is really useful! Then he showed me how to share air if I'm out of air. Difficult at first, and after 4 or 5 tries, no problems for me. Then, we moved on futher to ocean depth about 2m and started to teach me how to sink and float. Initially I can't sink, he was getting fed-up after numereous tries and pushed
me down the ocean floor and I was stationary there... can't move.... cause the belt a little too heavy for me... so he removed 1 kg bar from the belt. Ahhh.... then I was scuba diving... woohoo... following Jay around here and there... Later he asked me to look at my meter reading. We were
about 9 meters down from sea level =) Damm happy! After that we headed back and the jetty and back to the shore. Wanted to take the photo with full scuba diving equipment, but Tom put my bag in the locker and went snorkelling =\ Nvm, next time only take photo.

12:30 - Jay taught me to remove the scuba diving equipments and how to clean the equipment. Then about 13:00, Jay got a short test. Got all correct accept one that I was not sure. Tom came back from snorkelling and took pics with Jay =)

13:30 - Back in shallet. Time to clean up and pack. Finished packing bout 14:15. Jayme asked to tke photos around the island.

14:50 - Took our stuffs and check out. Met up with Tom and Shani at the cafe. Didn't want to eat anything. Just order some karipaps cause I full jor - I just whacked a protein power bar at the shallet about 13:40 XD~~~~

15:10 - Leaving the cafe, we saw Ben. Tom took photos of Ben, Jayme and me. Then Tom handed me back my new digicam. I took it and somehow my hands got slippery and dropped my NIKON 5200 that was just 5 days old and worth RM1500. OMG! I saw it slip and didn't want a direct impact and I put out my leg to save my NIKON 5200. The NIKON 5200 landed on my feet and somersaulted about 5 or 6 times... I was damm worried liao... I thought sure gone liao.... Tried to move it, the NIKON 5200 didn't response....
sei lor.... Offed the camera for 5 secs and tried to on it back... Luckily thanks to god, the NIKON 5200 is working again, all photos were intact. Also luckily, I asked the
dealer to changed the SD to KINGMAX bacause KINGMAX SD Card guarantee their card is shock proof, fire proof, water proof and alot more proof. The NIKON 5200 suffered only minor scars.... At least everything is working! NIKON and KINGMAX BEST SIAAAALLLL!!!! =X

15:15 - Said bye to everyone in B&J and off to the jetty. Our boat was suppose to arrive at 15:00 but until now, no boat was to be seen. We saw some steamy stuffs done by the foreigners in the water... go ask Tom =X See until forgot to snap photos.... aiseh... It was over in a few minutes =X We waited for the boat until about 15:40.

15:40 - We boarded the boat. The next stop was Berjaya Hotel. There Tom snapped pictures of where they were building the Marina. Then we stopped at Kampung ABC izit? (can't remember the stop) Then we off Tioman.... Wah! the water were so chompy and not very calm. Then they will close all the windows. When you close all windows it get's hot and stuffy. Initially it was like a rollercoaster ride but after a while it became like what Tom said - free sauna and massage.

17:30 - Reach the Mersing jetty. Have some drinks and rest from the free sauna and massage =P Then I went shopping for glow in the dark t-shirts. Bought a total of 3 t-shirts =)

18:00 - Tom took his car from the parking lot and stuff all our bags into the boot. We were going back to Kluang for dinner. Again, the road back was through the winding road at the jungle. Tom was very good with the car and drove quite fast and overtook a lot of cars.

20:15 - Reach Kluang for dinner. The restaurant we wanted to go didn't open and we were rounding mindlessly for about 15 mins until Jayme called her aunty. Jayme's aunty also recommended the same restaurant. ALAMAK!!! Anyways Tom suggested to eat nearby... ok with me cause I hungry jor... When we were ordering, Tom asked if I eat tien kai (frog)? What?! I told him I don't eat forg lar onli seafood.... Then he asked me wanna try wild boar or squirrel? What!? I told him again I don't eat other meat accept seafood! At last, they ordered asam fish head curry, fish cake, prwans, veges, tien kai and yee mee.

21:00 - After dinner, continued our journey back to KL/PJ....

23:00 - Reach the Melaka stop. Washroom stop. Tom's smokes again. Oh yeah... the fella sapu a carton of Malboro Lights into his bag just before leaving Tioman. Duty free mar.... and after the budget, price for 20 pcs ciggies have risen to RM6.50. Clever ar..... =P

23:15 - Continued driving back to KL/PJ....


13/09/2004 (Tuesday)

01:00 - Reached PJ. First, Tom dropped off Jayme, then me, followed by Shani.

02:00 - Unpacked everything and goto dreamland.... zzzzzzzz


What I learned from the trip?
I learned to snorkel and dicosver scuba diving. Underwater life is really interesting.

Do I recommend scuba diving?
Yes! It was awesome! Take scuba diving only if you know basic swimming and snorkelling. =)

Would I recommend people to go on the trip?
Yes! Definitely! It's an experience of a lifetime =)

P/S: One more thing, I still lost about 1 to 2 kgs from this trip despite of the good food. That's funny. I ate so much and I still lost weight. I'm still puzzled but very happy indeed XD