Pulau Tioman
MALAYSIA
Bring on the Beaches!
By AARON
Saturday, July 9, 2011
So Lyndi’s and my lackadaisical (thank you spellcheck) approach to traveling finally caught up to bite us in the butt.
Riding the wave of low-season, we’ve been fortunate enough to just rock up to a location, walk inside numerous hostels or guesthouses, take our pick and book a night. This would work fine if it weren’t the weekend (Tioman is a hot spot for Singaporians/Singaporans/Singaporeons?), and if there wasn’t a huge wedding that took up every accommodation on ABC Beach. Ouch.
It literally got to the point where we and another unfortunate couple were asking a hostel if we could sleep on the floor of the reception room. Luckily, after about 2 hours of phone calls, the lady found us rooms on the neighboring beach, and even if it was about triple our room budget, we gladly accepted and headed to Panuba Bay Resort.
Our room was just okay – for 135 ringgit ($45USD) we got an air-conditioned room with some stained walls and a private bathroom, but hey, we had our own deck overlooking the beach which was nice. Our first night was spent eating a small meal and enjoying some beers on the beach watching the stars.
Next morning we woke up to blue skies, a calm wind and a beautiful view of tropical waters that shimmered with a translucent, turquoise color. All of our worries of overspending our budget went out the window as we got dressed and headed down to the beach for some R & R.
The entire day was spent snorkeling, swimming, laying on the beach and well, basically being lazy as you do in these situations. After about 4 or 5 hours, a slightly sunburned Lyndi and I headed back up to the room for a nap, and then took a nice walk through the jungle back to ABC Beach where one of the bars has a happy hour.
There are some things in life you just can’t beat – gliding through fresh powder on a mountain, swimming in a secluded lagoon at the base of a beautiful waterfall, and sitting on a beach watching the sun set, with a beer in your hand and your bare feet sifting through the soft sand. No matter how many times I’ve done this, it will never get old and that night was no different as we listened to the reggae music drift from the bar, sipped on a cold Tiger beer and watched as the sun slowly set, turning the sky from blue to reddish orange.
Next morning we said goodbye to our first beach in SE Asia and although it was short lived, we knew there were many more to come, so with a smile on our freshly sun-soaked faces we boarded the ferry back to Mersing and started thinking of all the food we would gorge ourselves on while in Kuala Lumpur.
