My unexpected journey - no kuantan but yes to mersing & Tioman

I was expected to go Kuantan but due to so many unforeseen events happening and all do not turn out as planned, we end out to change plan last minute.

The journey for this trip or I shall call the Tioman Island Trip start at 7pm where we had our dinner at Sg Long before departing to board the bus. The bus we took appears to be so punctual and we have to stick at KL for 3 hours before our bus will depart. Upon arrival in PuduRaya, we search for a place to chill out while wait for the bus to Mersing. We can stop at Tanjung Gemuk for ferry but due to some reason we had to go down at Mersing and take ferry from there. We chill out in Mc Donald’s for 1 hour before we walk around Petaling Street. Then we walk back to PuduRaya and wait for the bus. Upon the arrival of the bus, we depart to our destination, Mersing.

The journey will take around 8 hours according to the website but due to the “expert driver” we expected to arrive in 6 hours time. The driver is extremely “horrible”. He drive very fast and keep on overtake other vehicle. He can even overtake another bus while climbing the hills in Kuala Pilah which is a single lane road. That really freaks me out!!

Around 2am, the bus stop at nowhere. It was so dark and what we can see is light of cars from far far away. It was a straight road with no road light. The bus stops for 20 minutes for supper break.

The bus departs again and continues the journey. It was totally dark throughout the journey from the food stall until Muazzam Shah in Pahang. In certain junction I can just see signboard from the bus light. It was amazing how the bus driver can speed at such a dark place. Around 3.30 am I spotted the Summerset Resort Signboard, the place where I been and had a fabulous time. I use to take 7 hour to arrive at this point 4 years ago but this bus driver can make it in 4 hours time. Amazing!! Then the bus continue the journey to Mersing and Tioman signboard can be seen almost everywhere.

We arrive at Mersing R&R and we suppose to wait for the office to open. While waiting, we saw few aunty and uncle doing their daily morning routine which is tai-chi. Sun started to rise and it was my first time to see such a perfect sun rise. Is like an egg yolk rising from the sea and shyly hiding behind some cloud. It was nice. It was follow by watching some fishermen going out to sea and one boat catching crab pass over. We manage to snap some photo.

7a.m and it was half an hour before the ferry will depart. The office is still not operating. After calling, they say they misunderstood due to miscommunication of Singapore and Malaysia branch. Because of this, we decided to go ahead to Tioman with speed boat and thus incurring extra RM 15 per person. If not we will need to wait until 10.30am. How could the office misunderstand my arrival time as I already confirm few time with them!!

Tioman is a very isolated island. It was definitely bigger than what I expected. The size is equal to half of Singapore with mainly thick rainforest and hills. Out of all, there are nice beaches and lagoons around with clear water. This entire mean, it is surely far away from the mainland. The journey of speed boat which is really fast takes around 1 hour 10 minutes to arrive. The first stop is our resort because in the boat only have 12 people and our selected resort is situated at the middle of the island. Upon arrival, we were greeted by the resort employee who led us to the resort. We then checking in and were serve with welcoming drink. I believe we also been charge for this in the package!! Since all room is not ready for occupying, we walk around with the village map. Nice hotel. I believe I did not make the wrong choice after all.

We went around the village and saw a huge monitor lizard, other chalets available at the village and of course some free duty shop. We then have a first meal there which is Tioman Island Ais Kacang. The seller can speak Mandarin very well although she is Malay. At 11 am we return to the resort to check in. Fortunately they provide a space for us to put luggage earlier so we no need to bring it out for a walk just now. Upon checking into the room, we unpack our things and went out for lunch in Tioman Island. Our lunch is simple and cheap. Sambal tumis brinjal and Sambal Telur plus with white rice as our lunch. It cost RM 2.50.

What we do next is to enter a Chinese shop, the one and only (the aunty keep on say, we as Chinese must always suppose Chinese). We survey the liquor price and sun block. Then we return to the resort to redeem for our life jacket and snorkeling set. We then back to the aunty shop to buy for liquor and kite. We play kite at the beach although we fail millions of times. Then follow by snorkeling in front of our resort. We can see a lot of fish around such as green nemo, rainbow fish and sea cucumber. It was then the something unpredictable happen. A history that will be secret forever!!! Dun ever look back my friends…

Due to that, we end up in rooms and sleep. ZQ feeling so bored and decided to play kite. He wants to master the kite flying skills. Unbelievable I can fly it in 2 minutes time and use all the string. Hahaha. However it then stuck on coconut tree where we took around 10 minutes to bring it down to earth. Zhe Quan continues his effort but never pass. The wind is not strong anyway. The stunt man Zhe Quan plan to climb coconut tree. I should call him monkey from now on..haha…

Is time for dinner and we have a very very bad dinner. The fish is not fresh and all other food is salty and not good at all. We are thinking that we will be suffering in 3 days to consume such a bad food.

After dinner we have a walk along the beach and start to do bond fire. It never success even we use a packet of matches. We can’t blame our skill because we have limited resources and only 8 matches available. Moreover the stick is wet. Then we go back and play poker and drink till we drunk.

The second day starts with good shower and excellent breakfast. Thank god it doesn’t taste like the dinner yesterday. We have typical Malays Nasi Lemak and western breakfast as the meal. We back to room to change and ready for the adventurous snorkeling trip. Our first destination is 5 meter deep Renggis Island. Just opposite Berjaya Resort. There are many nice coral and fishes around the island. How nice seeing fishes fighting for the bread from my hand in front of my eye. We spent around an hour there and I accidentally talk to a Korean guy who I mistaken as Yen Thoong. What to do, all people is naked with same life jacket and the big goggle closes almost all the faces. Somehow he can respond back and I talk to him for few minutes. How embarrassing. Haha.

The next stop is the marine park of Tioman. The government had announce 3 marine park in peninsular Malaysia which is Payar island in Langkawi, Sea around Perhentian and Redang island and Tioman island. There is lot of big fishes around but not so much coral as they are still in effort of growing some coral. However there is a lot of parrotfish, sea urchin, and schools of tiny fishes as well as Silver big fish that I personally do not know what was it. Just know that I was bitten by a big fish but was not injured. We also learn water jumping from the beach boy.

The half and hour journey back was fun as we snap some photo with the beach boy and chat about Tioman. Upon arrival at resort, we straight go for bath. Due to too hungry and limited time, we had to bath in group. Duns think too much!! We are not gay nor naked inside the toilet..haha.. Of course not 4 of us bath together la since the toilet also quite small. So Zhe Quan choose to be alone..haha

We rush to the restaurant for food. We are so hungry after sing so much energy in snorkeling. We had Fried rice with fried chicken and not forgetting the mouth watering “archa” and keropok ikan. Nice. Then we meet the beach boy at a café so we can go Rockfall. Before going rockfall, we go snap some photo and sleep near the beach. Journey to rockfall take around 10 minutes and it was a pleasant one. I just love it so much. The cooling water of waterfall makes me so excited and thus I jump into the water. Of course it was not a real huge and dangerous waterfall. It was like a baby pool with very shallow water. It was refreshing to bath there.

Then we back to the beach again and we plan for sun tanned. Firstly I was buried by Zhe Quan and Yen Thoong and they transform me to “D cup sexy gals” All the mat salleh who pass through say it was a nice art. Some even snap my photo..haha..Then I jump into the sea and sun tan near the shallow sea water. Due to some “creative imagination from Zhe Quan, we end up searching for death coral which have nice shape. You won’t believe what we found!!

Is dinner time so we headed back to our room to have quick shower. Before that, monkey Kan climb the tree again. After a quick shower we headed to the restaurant for food hoping it will be nicer and not like the dinner before. Thank god the food is so nice and people who hate brinjal like me can even love it after testing the food there.

It was time for camp fire again. This time around we are smarter. We collect a lot of dry branches along the way when we back from Rockfall and use it to start the bond fire. Within few minutes we manage to have a great bond fire. Lying around at the beach with warm heat from the bond fire is extremely amazing.

After 40 minutes of chatting and snapping photo with the fire that we have created, we walk to the jetty bridge and saw some local resident “mencandat” squid. Simply because of that, we also buy fishing rode just to have fun of it. Unfortunately after few hours of trying, we still caught nothing. Haha. We then headed back to resort where all of us sleep like a pig because we are too tired.

Day 3 start with a nice shower and packing up. Then we have an excellent breakfast of mixed western food and local dishes. After the breakfast, we have a final walk at the beach and Zhe Quan try to create sand wording or event the art of sand while 3 of us sit down and enjoy the beauty of Tioman. The beach starts to have high tide around 9am and the beach look absolutely beautiful. We snap some photo and catch some sea cucumber. Haha…


We then back to the resort to pack and check out from the resort and purchase some souvenir before we have our final meal at the island. Again we eat at the Ice Kacang stall where it also serves some native Malay food. It cost around RM 5.00 for a great food. We then take the boat earlier so we can do some beach hopping. The ferry took us to other beaches which are also very beautiful such as Tekek beach, Ayer Batang beach, Panuba Inn Beach, Salang beach and Genting. On the way, we also manage to saw some sea eagle, nice gulf and lagoon. For example, the monkey bay was one of the best bays in Tioman with crystal clear water and golden yellow sand.

We finally have a 2 hour journey on boat before arrive in Mersing at 4pm. We purchase the bus ticket for 6pm and have our early dinner at Mersing jetty. The journey back to Kl took around 5 hours and it was a thrill ride as the Transnational Bus driver drives the bus extremely fast.


The whole journey, I didn’t believe that I was in Tioman because 4 of us are the only Malaysian there. The others were either mat salleh or Chinese from Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan. Unbelievable! Believe it. Tioman the island life!!









Fact of Tioman:

Legend saying a princess dragon flying to meet her mate at Singapore and have a rest in a middle of sea after founding it was extremely beautiful. In southern of Tioman, there is a 2 horn peak that looks like a dragon horn. This believes have been a legendary for Tioman since after.

Distance : 36 nautical miles
Size : 39km long 12km wide
Total Beaches : 15 beaches include 10 which is well develops with resorts
Water : Crystal Clear with Turquoise Colour.
Coral : Abundance especially near rocky places
Fish : Abundance – Parrotfish, butterfly fish, sea urchin, nemo, Tuna, anchovies, and etc.
Marine Park : Yes. One of the 3 in Peninsula Malaysia
Environment : Palm, yellow sand, and rainforest.
Entry Point : Ferry via Mersing or Tanjung Gemuk or flight by Berjaya Air(Subang) or Pelangi Air(Singapore)
Resorts : Rustic Village environment
Activities : Snorkeling, Scuba Diving, Jungle Tracking, Sun tanning, Beach swimming, beach volleyball, kite flying, canoe (jeski seem not famouse here).
Tourist : Singaporean and mostly Overseas. Malaysian is quit rare in Tioman.

Technology : No ATM machine, Internet connection is bad in certain place except via Digi Wide wireless internet, Cellphone connection bad in certain place and no Digi line except in Tekek and lalang town. Mastercard acceptable in tourist spot.

Duty Free : Only in Tekek. Others beaches have small duty free shop. Not all liquors or beers are duty free and chocolate is not duty free here.