June 13, 2002

Tekek village

Tioman, with an area of 20km by 20km, was located off the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. It was densely forested, fringed by kampongs, corals and beaches. We took a two hour coach ride from Singapore to Mersing, 56km off Tioman. Then, it followed by another two hour air-conditioned boat journey to Lalang of Tioman. Berjaya Tioman Beach Resort, at Lalang, was the luxurious hotel where we dwelled for the next three days.

Going from the receptionist to our rooms was quite a distance as the whole resort vicinity was wide. After checking in, we chartered a mini-van for RM2.50 per person to visit Tekek village, the kampong-kind capital of Tioman. We were alighted at the starting point of cross-island trek from Tekek to Juara. We were told that the one-way journey took about 2 hours, and we intended to visit a small waterfall in the middle of the track. Unfortunately, we did not complete our little quest. We took another alternative to stroll along the coast beach of quiet Tekek village. While waiting for the sunset, we had a cheap seafood dinner at an open-air restaurant situated by the sand. The day was not well spent but we enjoyed the idling time.

June 14, 2002

The day started with a drizzle with occasional thunders. Initially it made us worry that our pre-booked snorkelling activity might be cancelled. Luckily for us, the sun started to disperse the clouds and calm the sea. We boarded a boat at the beach and headed to Coral island, first of our five snorkelling spots. The boatman passed each of us a life vest and a pair of googles only. These implied that I had to swim harder without flippers; and with neither contact lens nor googles with power lens, I had blurred visions of the coral seabed. Thus I appreciated the much better snorkelling services provided during my trip to Pulau Redang.

Fish swam like a meteor rain	Timeless sunset

The coral and fish presences around Coral island were not striking enough. Not far from the island was Majana Rock, a rocky pile jutting out from the water. Swarms of fish swam around the rocky area while nibbling from one rock to another coral piece. When a group of fish moved unidirectionally and their silver linings glittered under the sunray, the beautiful scene resembled an underwater meteor rain. After a short lunch at Salang village where few monster lizards roamed freely, we proceeded to Monkey Bay. It was less crowded with glassy water and countless hungry fishes eagerly to be fed with breads by human trespassers.

Then we headed to Tioman Marine Park, the third largest sealife sanctuary in Malaysia. The water there was so deep and murky that the coral seabed was far from visible. Bigger fishes congested near the sea surface and looked quite daunting. I swam slowly and cautiously to prevent kicking any of them. Our last destination was the mushroom-shaped Renggis island, not far from the pier of Berjaya resort. See my sketch of Tioman island. The water depth around the small islet was not more than 12m and the coral visibility was good. Sea urchins scattered around the seabed, thus wearing life vest was important. I was truly blessed to witness a fish spraying its shimmering eggs in bulk, like falling snows in summer.

The return to the resort marked the end of the snorkelling activity in a day. It was not up to my satisfaction as I felt the snorkelling was only within a short day and the equipments could be improved. However, that did not spoil my mood in enjoying a hearty buffet dinner later.

June 15, 2002

A rest at a pier during cycling

Though we had to board a ferry for our return trip in late morning, we decided to steal some time to rent bicycles and peddle to Tekek village. Almost half of our time was wasted in dragging our wheels to overcome a long stretch of uphill and downhill. But as this was my first time to cycle outside my country on humpy roads with slight traffic of vans and motorbikes, it was an experience to challenge my cycling skills. We rested idlly on one of the piers at Tekek village and shifted our mood for departure, before we returned back to the resort to check out. The wait for the ferry was long, thus I sat on the jetty alone and captured my last views of Tioman. Then I saw big group of small fishes suddenly jumped in shock out of the water, causing big water ripples and startled me to be as a city workman again.