My day started at 2:30am as I will try and use some of our points to get an upgrade to Business Class for our trip to Singapore. With the ticket that we have purchased there is a rule that only allows us the opportunity to upgrade 24 hours before the flight is due to leave, which happens to be 2:30am on the 4th September. A bleary eyed David was up at the appointed hour but should have stayed in bed as alas there were no upgrades available. At least we still have our passes that give us access to the business class lounge.
Today is all about getting ready and remembering to pack everything we need for a trip to the tropics. The major disappointment was when I realized that I had lost my passes that will give us access to the Emirates Business Class lounge in Brisbane. Given that we have a limousine pick up (courtesy of Emirates) booked for 11:00pm it will mean a long wait in the departure area. I tried a desperation call to Emirates but alas the access card is issued by Citibank and that would necessitate a call that would not bring the joy that I was looking for.
I was feeling a bit sorry for myself and thinking that I should have checked a few weeks earlier to ensure everything was up to date. My composure took another downturn when I noticed an email from Air Asia informing us that our flight to Yangoon had been cancelled. Obviously it was beyond their control but other options were on offer. The only good thing was that the notification arrived prior to our departure. With a sigh that could have been heard at Lang Park I embarked on an electronic journey of cancelling accommodation, booking new flights and finding some overnight accommodation in Kuala Lumpur. By the time I had finished this unexpected delight I was ready for a glass of cheer.
Jemma came to the rescue and took Alice and I out to our local restaurant, Soul Bistro. The company food and wine relaxed me as well as Alice to the point where my sad face had disappeared. We did not have long to wait before there was a knock on the door and a courteous good evening from our chauffer. Given the time of night we were soon delivered to the departure drop off zone at Brisbane International airport. We were more than 3 hours early but there was already a substantial queue waiting to check-in. As we had previously checked-in on line we were able to join a much shorter queue. It was only a short moment before we saw Gene and Trish who are travelling with us in the extended queue. We made some quick plans to meet them on the other side of immigration after they had checked in.
When we approached the check-in the hostess greeted us warmly. On spec I asked if there were any Business Class seats available for the flight as I had plenty of frequent flyer points. To my surprise she said that there were two seats available but she would have to check with her supervisor. My earlier disappointment turned into abundant joy when she gave us the thumbs up. Gene could see on my face that we were about to dump them for a taste of luxury. Trish and him told us to enjoy it so we toddled off and were soon enjoying the pleasures of smoked salmon and champagne. Ah serendipity!
Day 2, 4th September – Brisbane, Singapore, Tioman Island
The flight was running about 30 minutes late and we ended up boarding around 2:40am. The hostess offered us another glass of champagne before coming around with a mattress for our small sleeping pod. A quick sandwich and I was soon asleep. I did manage a few hours sleep but I still woke up too early to say that I had a decent nights sleep. After a gourmet breakfast where I can’t believe that I declined the champagne we touched down in Singapore at around 8:30am. Alice and I were ushered off before those who had suffered the indignity of travelling economy class and waited for Gene and Trish to emerge. Gene had managed to get our previous seats which were a double at the rear of the plane. We were in no hurry and by the time we had reached the carousel our baggage had been removed. I went outside and located our driver who was patiently waiting for us. His name was Skye and he had been delegated to drive us from Singapore to the Malaysian town of Mersing on the east coast. The drive is approximately 150km and takes around 3 hours if you get a clear run through the border control gates. There was no problem exiting Singapore but the queue for Malaysia was a few hundred metres long. Nevertheless it only took about 15 minutes to have our passports duly stamped.
We stopped for some petrol and tried a couple of ATM’s for some much needed Malaysian Ringgit. Unfortunately to our chagrin none of the machines we tried would dispense the cash. Our driver made the decision to try for some money when we arrived at Mersing. It took about 15 minutes to leave the city precinct and for the next hour we enjoyed a pleasant drive in the country. My old bladder was starting to become irritated but I relaxed when I saw the Mersing city limits (motorcycles not allowed in it). As soon as he pulled up at the bank I made a bee-line for the Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet and immediate release from my cramping inside. With our wallets full of Ringgits and Gene clutching a Malaysian Sim card we made the short trip to the jetty. The taxi trip cost us $S180 and the vehicle that we travelled in was first class. Being ever generous we tipped Skye $S20 for our tardiness and stopping to allow us to sort out our telecommunications and high finances. At the ferry terminal we found out that we had another 3 hours to kill as our ferry would not be departing until 4:00pm. We purchased our tickets to Salang Bay on Tioman Island which cost MR75 ($25) for a return ticket.
There was a nice little restaurant next to the water so we ordered up a variety of goodies to satisfy our hunger. To kill some time the girls walked back into town to look at a shoe store and buy some pharmaceuticals. At 3:30pm we joined the queue to register our names and provide our ID so that our relatives could be informed just in case the ferry sank. After registration it was off to another counter where we had to pay a marine park tax. Gene and I got ours for half price MR12 ($4) because we are good looking and over 55. The girls on the other hand had to pay the full price of MR25. We then had to get our boarding pass and wait in a covered area until the ferry arrived. The majority of the passengers decided to stand and form a line so that they would be first on board and therefore have first divvies on the best seats. It was a good plan but unfortunately for them the ferry was running about one hour behind schedule.
Our luggage was off loaded but unfortunately for Alice her bag had lost a wheel in transit. We managed to wheel it down the jetty before a second wheel decided to pack it in. I had to carry it on my shoulder for the last 100 metres to our lodgings the Salang Pusaka. I know we are on island time but I was not prepared to wait another 90 minutes for reception to open for the evening. The staff was polite and suggested that we sit down and have a seafood barbeque. I just as politely suggested that they find someone to register us and show us to our rooms. It really has been a long day! Thankfully someone emerged from having their dinner and kindly escorted us to our MR150 ($50) a night deluxe bungalow. I was not expecting luxury and they did not disappoint us.
The chalets come with air conditioning, hot shower and a small refrigerator that is good enough to cool down a cask of wine. I forgot to mention that we packed in 8 litres of wine and a bottle of champagne for the next four weeks. Gene and Trish who are only travelling for a week have a tidy 4 litres plus a bottle of rum. We won’t be going dry on this Muslim Island. Back to the room and it was easy to read the disappointment on the faces of the girls. It may have had something to do with the mould in the bathroom, missing roof tiles, blood on the walls courtesy of previous tenants who had been swatting the mosquitoes. The mattress and pillows had also seen better days. Well we sucked it up and went for a short walk along the foreshore where we found a duty free shop selling cold beer at a reasonable price. As we were sitting back on the balcony and downing a draft of cool beer there was an enormous bang on our corrugated iron roof which gave us all a dreadful fright. The noise continued intermittently before we realized that the bombardment was the result of mangoes falling on our roof.
Our first night’s sleep after what was a very long day was punctuated by buzzing mosquitoes and a thunder storm which caused a fresh avalanche of mangoes.
Day 3, 5th September – Diving Tioman Island
There are plenty of dive shops to choose from but Gene and I settled on the small shop, Scuba-Naut that is vertically integrated with our hotel. They were going out that afternoon at 2:00pm so they happily accepted our verbal booking. When we arrived back at the shop to sort out our gear we discovered that they had a sense of humour as they had booked us in under the pseudonyms of Glen McGrath and Ricky Ponting. The double boat dive is costing MR180 ($60) and includes all gear which appears to be in good condition.
After cramming into our speedboat we were off on a 20 minute ride to the KM Sipadan dive site located of Air Batang beach. The Sipadan is a 1964 royal navy warship which was deliberately scuttled here in 2012. Gene and I surprised ourselves as between us we have had about 4 dives in the last five years. The dive depth was about 30 metres and had only minor difficulty in equalizing. We were able to swim through the wreck which is home to a few big fish and some large schools of bait fish.
Our second dive was in much shallower water with a maximum depth of 16 metres at Soyak Island. It is located only 5 minutes from the jetty and is clearly visible from Salang Bay. This was an excellent dive as we were able to see a black tipped reef shark, barracuda and a small turtle. There was also plenty of coral with some deep purple fan coral in excellent condition. We enjoyed our dives to the degree where we instantly booked in for tomorrow at 10:00am.
Back at the room we found Alice and Trish still resting. It did not take long to convince them to join
We ended up walking to the far end of the bay to a hole in the wall seafood barbeque place that had the requisite faded plastic chairs and the worn plastic tablecloth. Alice and I settled for a combo seafood BBQ which included rice, Tom Yam soup, whole fish, calamari and prawns for MR70 ($24). Gene and Trish ordered a variety of dishes that the waitress tried hard to remember. After a while a range of food from the BBQ and the kitchen arrived at our table. Only 2 soups arrived so Gene and I polished them off. They were extremely spicy and I doubt that Alice could have eaten hers anyway. Trish’s fish failed to arrive so she had to go and order another one which duly arrived. The place was starting to hum and I have no idea how they were getting the orders completed given their processes.
There was a storm brewing so Alice and I left Gene and Trish some money and the joy of working out the bill. The waitress had a pile of orders and had no idea which table they belonged to. Gene sorted her out based on what we received and in the end the total bill was under MR100. All good fun! We only just made it back to our deluxe accommodation when the heavens opened up. The rain and the ensuing mango bombardment provided a cacophony of noise on the tin roof. A couple of relaxing drinks on the balcony and we were ready for bed.
Day 4, 6th September – Unhappy Campers
Gene and I were once again up early, if you can call 7:00am early. We went and had a coffee with the locals before heading back to wake the girls. Once again breakfast was not ready at the hotel so we adjoined to the local food hall for coffee and an egg and onion roti. The roti is basically a pancake that is whipped up on a hot plate by a charming Malay man. The flies and local cats joined us at our water view table.
It was time for the boys to go diving so we left the girls to their own devices and headed off to the dive shop to gear up. There are seven of us diving so we have a slightly bigger, only just, boat than yesterday. We are heading off to Tiger Reef which is approximately 25 minutes west of Salang Bay. Gene and I were the consummate professionals as we had no trouble descending to our maximum depth of 21m. The visibility was not great but there was still plenty of reef fish and coral. We started off with a little swim through and saw a Moray Eel and some large Batfish. A little further into the dive and we were greeted by a turtle that appeared to enjoy swimming in our air bubbles. A couple of more Moray Eels and some Nudibanchs completed what was an excellent dive.
We were back on land at around 3:00pm and after washing our gear we met up with the girls. As we settled down with a beer they regaled us with the news of the day. They had spent the morning chatting with Peter a British expatriate and his Malay wife Reah. They also took the initiative and found a new hotel that met their expectations in terms of cleanliness as well as a view. As everything is still booked out for the weekend the super deluxe rooms at the Salang Sayang will not be available until tomorrow. We gave our nod of approval and they went off to book our new digs and cancel our old ones. The hotel was fine but they did want us out of our rooms by 8:30am and payment for the 3 nights. With the girls now happy we went off in search of an early meal. We ended up with some more Tom Yam soup, hamburgers and a variety of curries. The soup just about exploded my taste buds and I was in desperate need of some milk.
Day 5, 7th September – The Big Move
Time to check-in and Gene and I had the task of hauling the bags up a number of steep steps to our
new rooms. One word can describe the new digs, SENSATIONAL! Our tiled balcony overlooks the beach and the bay. The hotel rooms are set in a picturesque garden with palm trees. Our showers spurt out a constant stream of hot water unlike the trickle we received at the previous place. After unpacking it was time to head off for some more diving.
Our first dive today was at Layeng Layeng . This dive was a little ordinary as the visibility was atrocious. Gene did manage to spot a small Moray Eel which was the only highlight of the dive. The next dive at Tredau which is just north of Salang was probably the best one to date. Under a coral bommie we saw a giant puffer fish and a little further on there was a green turtle. It was blissfully chomping on a piece of coaral and did not seem to mind all the divers posing for photographs with it. There was also some large blue ringed angelfish and yellow masked angelfish. To finish off the dive we saw a big school of bumphead fish which I think are a part of the Parrot family. These guys were huge!Back at our new MR250 ($85) a night lodgings Alice and Trish had tales to tell of the local hooligans. In the early afternoon a large troop of monkeys headed into the resort looking for any tidbits that they could find. As part of this process they would climb onto verandahs and upturn rubbish bins or grab any food that might be lying around. Meanwhile Gene and I relaxed with an ice cold beer and enjoyed the view. Dinner tonight was at Salang Dream who do a pretty good barbeque. The waitress who happened to be a ladyboy was very helpful in organizing our meals.
Day 6, 8th September – Coral Island
Woke up reasonably early after a mosquito free sleep. Gene was on the deck and was being amused by the monkey that he found hand spooning into its mouth the dregs of his rum and coke. We are in no hurry this morning as Gene and I are having a lay day from the diving. The plan is that we will join the girls and embark on an all day around the island speedboat cruise. We have booked with Peter and his wife and are due to depart at 10:30am. Well 10:30 came and went and there was no sign of a boat or anything that resembled a trip. Time was dragging on and eventually we found out that the skipper had decided to travel to Mersing on the main ferry on what we assume was personal business. This basically meant that he would not be back on the island until 12:30pm. A quick change of plans was in order so we booked the boat for a 1:00pm snorkeling trip to Coral Island (MR70 for 4 hours) which is a 20 minute fast speedboat ride from Salang Bay.
This time when we sauntered down from our room the boat was waiting for us. There were two other guests on the boat who were both Malay girls and the skipper introduced himself as Captain One. The first snorkeling stop was fantastic. The boat was moored just off Coral Island and the visibility was great. The girls were quick to through on their masks and fins and they were soon skimming over the water admiring all the tropical reef fish and the abundant coral. There were plenty of anemones hosting clown fish and the occasional parrot fish. When Alice and Trish finally clambered back on board they declared it their best ever snorkeling experience. Captain One then drove us over to the other side of the island which had a movie set quality to it. The water was shallow, crystal clear and lapped at a white sand beach which had a near impregnable jungle behind it. We had another snorkel here which was okay but not as good as the previous one. The real entertainment was watching Captain One whom Gene has now named "Don One" (Juan) putting the moves on one of the Malay girls. It looks like they have been together before but nevertheless he is being overly attentive towards her.Our next stop was at Malang Rock which is just off Coral Island. The current was strong so only
Gene and I ventured in. I’m glad that we did as the marine life was prolific. After about 20 minutes we were back on board and headed for Salang Bay where the currents were more favorable. There were plenty of sea anemones which were hosting all sizes of clown fish. With the snorkeling over it was back to the chalet for an afternoon tipple. In Gene’s case make that a nanna nap.
Day 7, 9th September – Planet Of The Apes
With the snorkeling out of the way it was back to the serious business of diving. Gene and I are the only divers today so we have plenty of room on the boat. Fan Canyon off Coral Island is the destination for our first dive. It is a drift dive with a maximum depth of 14m. As the name suggests there is a lot of coral to view on this dive. The visibility was once again in the 10m to 12m range which makes it difficult to spot the bigger species that may be a little further out. We did get a good look at a huge Moray Eel and a Cod. The dive lasted about 50 minutes before we surfaced.Once we were back on board the boat scooted over to Malang Rock and anchored on the lee side. We enjoyed a sandwich before setting up our equipment for the second dive. I must be improving as the setup only took a couple of minutes. This is a great dive site but once again the visibility takes the edge off the experience. Our dive master Azzi pointed out a blue spotted stingray and a green turtle that was snacking away on a piece of coral. There were a couple of tight swim throughs and it was interesting to observe our bubbles trapped on the rock ceiling above us.
The girls meanwhile have taken a boat taxi to spend the day at Tekek which is the administrative centre for the island. They had a pleasant morning walking along the foreshore towards Air Batang. There was nothing exciting about Tekek except for the ATM machine so they ordered a taxi to convey them to the Berjaya Resort. Alice and Trish are not timid and it wasn’t long before they were swimming in the hotel pool and enjoying a cappuccino. Oh the decadence!
While we waited for them to return from their sojourn Gene managed another power nap. From our balcony we could see the girls arriving at the jetty. As they approached the room we could see that they looked bedraggled. Apparently speedboats are not much fun when the wind is up and the ride is bumpy. After a hot shower and a change of clothes they joined us to watch the local ape population indulging in some mayhem. For some fun I growled at one of the large males. He obviously took me as a threat and without any hesitation he leapt off the neighbouring roof and launched himself at me. I would like to say that I stared him down but such was the ferocity of his charge that I dived back into the sanctuary of our room. Alice and I went back outside to see if we could intimidate the villainous Koba (Planet of the Apes) but he would have none of it. Once again he charged us and I practically ran over Alice in my haste to get back inside. After our brush with Koba we will be treating these bad boys with more respect.
Tonight we are having dinner at Salang Dreams which does a very good barbeque. Like all the restaurants on the island they do not serve alcohol however you are welcome to BYO. One of the good things about Tioman Island is that it is duty free which means we can buy a can of beer for RM4. This is far cheaper than the prices on the mainland. Our meal of squid, grouper, chips, curry and rice was just under $20 a couple.
Day 8, 10th September – The Missing
There are no boat dives today but two shore dives will keep us occupied for most of the day. We headed up to the northern end of the bay and after gearing up made the slow swim out into deeper water. Our destination was an old wreck that lies at a depth of about 24 metres. The wreck supports a good array of marine life including a big school of yellow and black striped fish (Don’t know name). There were also blue banded angelfish, bat fish, grouper and a small turtle.After lunch the dive location was the house reef. This entailed a short walk from the dive shop and entering the water just south of the jetty. Our luck with visibility has not changed as the change of tide has stirred the sand up. We can see for about 8 metres which is just good enough. There are a couple of small coral outcrops near the jetty but the highlight was swimming through a large school of baitfish. They were so thick that the light from the sun was blocked. After the jetty we finned across to an artificial reef. A large Batfish accompanied us like a faithful dog to the reef.
With our dive over we needed to settle up our account with the dive shop. We needed access to our room and luckily I found Alice down by the beach. She thought Trish was at the room so Gene went on ahead. When we arrived Gene was standing forlornly at his door. He jumped our balcony and luckily the door was unlocked but there was no Trish or evidence of a note. We settled up our dive account which cost us just under $60 for a double boat dive with all gear supplied. A large storm was brewing so we walked the length of the bay in search of the missing Trish. She was nowhere to be found so we could only assume that she had decided to take a walk over the mountain to a neighbouring bay. With the storm over we were heading back to the room when we saw Trish arrive on a small motorized dinghy. It turned out that she had walked to Monkey Bay and was trapped there due to the storm. There is only one family who lives there and they earn most of their income from conveying tourists for MR40 back to Salang Bay.Trish was obviously happy to be back and Alice helped her celebrate with a bottle of champagne. It is
our last dinner tonight so it was off to the Salang Indah which has great water views. The food was great and ridiculously cheap at about $13 a couple. I love these prices!
Day 9, 11th September – Where’s The Bus
On the previous day Gene had organized a taxi for the return trip to Singapore and his driver was waiting when we arrived. On the other hand I declined to book our bus tickets to Kuala Lumpur on the pretext that there would be plenty of seats available and it would save us RM20 in unnecessary booking fees. I wanted to get to the bus terminal by midday on the off chance that there was a bus at 12:30pm. We had plenty of time so we went across the road and purchased a few T-shirts before getting a lift with Trish and Gene to the bus station. On arrival we said our farewells and saluted what was a fabulous time.
My joy quickly turned to horror as each counter said that all the tickets for the 12:30 and 1:30 trips had been sold. Oops I forgot that this was supposed to be the start of school holidays! I checked with a couple of taxi drivers and found out that the taxi fare for the 351km trip to KL would be RM750 ($250). It was a reasonable price considering the distance but I declined and went back to try my luck at the bus counter. The not so good news was that there were seats available on the 10:00pm bus but the kind lady offered me an alternative. She ended up selling us the last two tickets on the 1:30pm bus to a bigger town called Kluang which is another 100km up the road. There are a number of bus companies travelling between Kluang and KL so she thought I should have no problem in getting an onward journey.
Feeling relieved that we had made it to our next destination we hired an unmetered taxi and accepted the price of RM30 ($10) for conveyance to our hotel. I think a normal driver may have taken 30 minutes but with the pedal to the metal he made it 20 minutes to the Alpha Genesis Hotel in the area of Bukit Bintang. We booked this hotel on Hotelopia and are paying $249 for four nights in a deluxe room. Our check-in could not have gone any better as there were no queues. An even more pleasant surprise is that they have upgraded us to a business class room as they had run out of deluxe rooms. When we walked in the room I could not believe how big it was. There is a separate lounge room with an extra television a small eating area that has a large refrigerator as well as a microwave. Can’t help but feel loved!
After we settled in it was off for a short walk to get a feel for the area. It is a real happening area with night clubs, street eateries, massages and convenience stores. After being in an area where you could not buy a drink we were suddenly being offered two for one cocktails from nearly every establishment. We ended up having dinner at a no frills Indian style restaurant. Our total bill for a very filling meal with non alcoholic drinks was about $9.
Day 10, 12th September – Shopping, Hotmail and Contracts
Breakfast was included in the room rate and was reasonable but not exceptional. After it had settled we went walking in search of Skechers store and the Pavilion Shopping centre. A few wrong turns later we finally found this huge store that easily beats anything in Brisbane in terms of opulence. The prices were all similar to home so Alice was a little disappointed. She did however manage to find a good quality duffle style suitcase to replace the one with the broken wheel.
When I went to attach the file to our email the USB did a back flip and all the files on the stick were lost. I was really frustrated but determined to get the contract back to the agent. Two trips and a different USB later I was finally able to send the files or so I thought. Stupid me I forgot that the email was forwarded from our home address and as a result of selecting “reply to all” I sent the file to myself. On the second attempt I got it right. By the time I had finished all this rigmarole it was time for dinner and an early night.
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