Sabrina's blog. Then the next day the vw buggers had a fun drive to PD..... well other then that i also felt the tremor last monday at around 10.40pm... looked at rose and said "woah, did u feel that?" rose just had this 'poor mo... long hard weekend!' look.....
well i guess all that in my next post......
ANyway i wrote the following on tioman a week ago but only just had the time to put in a few photos...
Although it was a 5 hour drive, it felt very quick and was a surprisingly pleasant drive to Mersing with only one stop at Kluang for breakfast. We set out in two cars about 5.30am without any delays... surprisingly... :)
We reached Kluang about 8am and G took us to a famous cafe which was located next to the train station but it was closed on that day... so we took a drive around Kluang town and settled in a corner shop which had a variety of chinese and Indian food... the roti canai wasnt that good but the rest of the food especially the ' yong tou foo' was very nice... and the surrounding post war buildings set a nice appeal to the whole place...
The road got interesting after we passed the Palm Oil Factory.... very twisting with very badly maintained.... the patch work tarring along the sides of the road keep us in the middle of it... so we seriously needed to look out for on coming traffic.... but I guess only G and I can appreciate it... so while G and I were having fun with the driving, some were gritting their teeth at the corners but most of them were sleeping....... sleeping!!
As we entered Mersing, it was apparent that the whole world was there....
(foot note: interesting fact; Mersing is about 360km from home, thats like driving to the Penang Bridge toll gate at, but we used less petrol to get to Mersing... mayb bcos of the hilly terrain on the way to Penang)
........the jetty ofcos was packed with people from all over the world..... We only cld get tickets for the 2.30pm ferry but the resort lady told us if we waited at the counter they wld inform us if there is place on the boat... So as G and I parked the cars the others got the bags out and waited at the jetty.....
it was absolute caos at the jetty .... talk about dissorganised... and ofcos all this is made even more worse by idiotic people who see the incompetence as an oppotunity to get on an earlier ferry to Tioman ,..... and the ferry officials are either really dumb or just too lazy to be bothered about it...... i was really getting sick of watching this circus... felt like shouting at them to get their act together......
But instead,... i had a drink at a bar called PORT which was near the jetty... as time passed by rather quickly, it was time then to wait for our ferry..... we started queuing up ...but as the ferry docked ...suddenly everyone was forming their own line into the entrance... what the FU^K !!!!!!!..... caos... arrgggghhh... fu>king animals lah!!!... and when we finally got thru the gates ...one guy took my ticket, tore the stub and gave it back to me, then another guy shoved a laminated piece of paper with numbers on it and said "Boarding Pass".... then about 3 meters away another guy asked for my boarding pass... so i gave it to him..... all this in less then 15 seconds after stumbling out of the gate....
Rose was ahead of me in the line. When she managed to get through ...she didnt get a boarding pass... so the third guy who is collecting the boarding pass asked her to go back all of 10 feet (bout 3 meters) to get one... if not he wont let her pass..... !!???!!!!! WHAT THE FUKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what was the point of the stupid damn boarding pass.... pls someone tell me!!!!!.....
Finally we were all in the ferry..... but I really wonder how many people on it actually had tickets for the 2.30pm ferry .... and i seriously hope that everyone who were scheduled for this ferry managed to get on... sigh!!
So yeah we were finally on our way to Tioman.... and thats when i knocked out and slept thru the 2 hour trip to the Island.....woke up just as we reached Tioman.... it was a welcomed sight after almost 7 hours of travelling and 4 hours of waiting.... PANUBA INN RESORT here we come...yeah!! yeah!!..... time to kick back and relax........
By the time we checked-in and unpacked and bath, it was already time for dinner. The food at panuba was nothing to shout about but their desserts were decent..... beer was cheap, i guess because Tioman is duty free.
After dinner we bummed on the beach for awhile before heading back to our rooms for a round of UNO!!!!!!! dose tres.......... chakotay!!!!!!!!!!
The next morning at breakfast i was... i mean ....we were totally disappointed to find the buffet breakfast which comes with the room consisted of fried mee hoo (2nd day was fried mee and 3rd day fried Kuey Teow) and plain bread of which u can toast ... oh and free flow of coffee, tea and yellow colour water which is supposed to be juice..... !!?? and thats it.... everything else on the breakfast menu you will need to order and pay for it separately...... so every morning i ordered scrambled eggs.... with toast ofcos and coffee... pleasant breakfast with the sound of the waves crashing on the shore.... hmmmm nice....
Well after breafast we planned to take a boat ride to Tekek Town (where the berjaya airport is and all the duty free shops).... We stocked up on liquor and cheap beer.... Suprisingly there was hardly any kind of chocolates.... there was only one shop which had chocolates but it was quite sad... actually the duty free shops in Tioman are a far cry from the ones in Langkawi. After lunch and more liquor purchasing, we made our way back to Panuba .... spent the rest of the evening snorkeling and teaching Rema and Saro how to snorkel since it was their first time ever. Even Rose tried snorkeling but got too scared and st....
The next day only G, Rema and Saro and myself took the snorkeling trip to Coral Island, Monkey Beach and a lunch stop over at Salang which was on the northern tip of Tioman. Coral Island is still as beautiful as the last time i visited 4 or 5 years ago.... but i still dont get why the boats are still allowed to be driven (u drive a boat ah is that correct) over the corals... hmmmmm
Crystal clear waters..... myriad of fishes and coral.... sigh.... it was heaven.... but it was really really hot... the sun was unbearable.... but im sure the mat sallehs all loved it....... Food in Salang wasnt that great but believe me... if you really want to 'cuci mata' (wash your eyes) this is surely the place... for men and women.... wink wink....
Once we got back to Panuba we found that the rest were lazing on the beach and some were swimming and so I joined them to snorkel some more....... i even managed to teach Rose how to snorkel...... finally...... yeah!!
After dinner i was a goner... while the others played cards... woke up the next day and realized it was going home time.... :( we managed to catch an earlier ferry back to mersing....
Well... here are some sunsets i captured in tioman... Sab these are for you...
Check out the slide show or click on the picasa sign to go to my tioman album...
mo
