26 Jun 2010
We were scheduled to meet up in front of DFS Galleria at Scotts Road, Orchard at 6.30 am and leave at 6.40 am. However, the bus came 1 hour late, and we only left around 7.30 am. The journey was quite long, we took bus from Singapore all the way to Tanjong Gemok terminal in Pahang to board the ferry to Tioman Island. We reached Paya Beach Resort at around 2.30 in the afternoon. The first impression was the resort is simple but feels comfortable. The room is not big, and 3 people I feel is already the maximum number of people to stay comfortably in a superior room, just nice for 3 of us.
After unpacking our luggage and taking a quick shower, we went out to check about our snorkeling trip and grabbed something as our super late lunch. There is Sunrise Cafe near the jetty that sells quite cheap food, we got our fried rice for MYR5. Originally, the snorkeling trip included 3 places (Marine Park, Salang Village, and Pulau Rengis) from 9 am to 1 pm. They offered to upgrade the trip to include additional 2 places from 9 am to 3 pm for MYR35. There will be equipment rental of MYR15, no matter which package we take. So we decided to take the upgrade and took the equipment to do some practise on the beach.
Dinner for the day is BBQ seafood, which was not superb. Fried rice and fried noodle sucks, grilled fish and grilled sotong is ok. A side note on this, actually it might be a better choice not to take full board package (additional SGD35 for full board package) since there are plenty of cheap food around, and the snorkeling trip will only cost MYR70 + MYR15 (equipment rental) for the upgraded one.
We spent the night drinking white wine we bought from duty free shop there and played UNO cards while gossiping around.
27 Jun 2010
We needed to wake up early because the snorkeling trip will start at 9 am. It was raining the whole night before, and the weather was still cloudy in the morning. We were worried that they will cancel the trip. But apparently no, 12 of us on the same boat set off for snorkeling. The sea was bumpy and the speedboat ride is like a rollercoaster.
The first place to stop is Tanjung Genting, it has a beautiful underwater scenery. The water is steady too. I enjoyed my first snorkeling ever very much. After 45 minutes, we set off for Pasir Panjang beach, it is simple a small beach, and I feel the water is not that clean. Hence we just did sunbathing there and played with sands.
Our lunch was packed from the resort, we had it in Salang Village, the place where we stopped for lunch. We took some funny photos and enjoyed fresh juice by the beach. I feel the food there is not cheap. There are two more places for snorkeling after Salang Village. Marine Park is just so so, the underwater scenery is artificial. There are some colourful fish around. The last stop in Pulau Rengis. It has nice underwater scenery, but the water is wavy. I did not do anything but I got further away from the speedboat. I needed to swim againts the wave to get back to the speedboat. It was tiring.
We were so exhausted when we got back to the resort, we took a bath and rest for a while before we went out to find coconut to drink. Too bad they said there is no coconut sold on the island. The dinner for the day is chinese food buffet. It was just ok, not great. The night was spent on beer this time, Stella Artois and Asahi beer with some stupid poems Fanfan tried to teach me to recite.
28 Jun 2010
Time flew so fast, here is the last day already. We had our breakfast in the resort and checked out at 10am. It is a bit weird that their check-out time is 10 am, while our ferry back is at 1 pm. We spent the time to take some photos, ate ice cream and had some chicken wings as our small lunch.
The ferry was late, it left at 1.30 and reached Tanjong Gemok terminal at around 4 pm. A tour guide was waiting with our names list already. We were sent to Restaurant Nusantara for late lunch, before we proceeded with our journey back to Singapore.
Overall, the trip was enjoyable. It would be even more enjoyable if we could dive. The journey is a bit too tiring, but there is another option to fly by Berjaya Air with a more costly price.
