AWESOME Tioman Holiday!

It was a weekend that I have been longing for... TIOMAN!

After much research on which village I should go to for a weekend stay and a weekend dive, I made my reservations and awaited for the journey to the island. The bus was 11.30pm, departing from Terminal Berserpadu Selatan in Bandar Tasik Selatan. It was a very looooooooong journey from Kuala Lumpur to Mersing and though I was drained tired, I wasn't able to get sleep as the lady sitting behind me was busy talking loudly over the phone for hours!

...the new ticketing system with our names on it...

...the departure area that looks like an airport...

...on our way in the bus...

It was 4.30am in Mersing Bus Station. Lynn and I were contemplating whether we should take the walk to the terminal in the dark but just before we started our walk, the bus driver called us for RM5 to send us to the terminal. We boarded the bus again and we arrived at the terminal in less than 5 minutes instead of a 20 minutes walk! We waited until 6.00am to meet up with the tour agent to pick up our ferry tickets and boarded the ferry at 6.30am to reach Paya Village at 8.45am.

...the jetty terminal in Mersing...

Day 1 was all about diving! Meet up with Fareed, Dive Instructor in Sealantis and decided on the sites that day. Buddied with Jimmy, we went off to Sawadee Wreck for our first dive and later to Renggis for our second dive. It was 12.00pm that we went back to Paya Village for our lunch of Chicken Rice and Diet Coke and not forgetting a bottle of RM6 Hoergaarden. After a good meal, we departed for another dive in Tomok. The evening was later spent on the beach, watching the sunset before a good dinner in the resort.

...Paya Village beach...

...starry starry night in the island...

Day 2 was much more relaxing with 2 snorkeling trips to Renggis and Marine Park in a wooden boat. We had breakfast early that morning and boarded the boat at 9.00am for a morning of sightseeing under the hot sun. I was amazed that we saw a Morey Eel and 2 stingrays swimming underneath us.

...leaving Paya Village jetty for snorkeling...

We went back to the village for lunch in the resort and decided to spend the afternoon on the beach before a short snorkel out to the rocks in front of the beach. Funny that after such a long swim, we could still stand up on the our feet with the water just barely above our knee.

...the bright sunny afternoon on the beach...

...the wooden wall in our room...

...butter prawn for dinner...

...beers for supper with a game of uno...

Our last day on the island was well spent with a boat ride out for dives. So far, this particular boat trip is one that I will never forget. We left Paya Village for a 20 minutes speedboat to Tiger Reef and half way through, a plastic bag caught on the propeller of the boat. The engine overheated and we spent 1/2 hour getting the alarm off and another 1/2 hour drifted away to the dive site. Upon reaching the site, we geared up and made the plunged but the next thing I knew, I was swept away by the strong current. PANICKED! So I aborted the dive *sweats*

I managed to do the 2nd dive after some moments of sea sick due to drinking too much salt water. We reached the village at 2.00pm where I ran all the way back to the room to get a quick shower and rushed back to the dive centre to settle the payment and my dive log and bought one bottle of Hoergaarden and boarded the ferry at 2.30pm.

Upon reaching Mersing, we realized that there weren't any buses down to Kuala Lumpur. The only one left was to Kluang and transit another bus to Kuala Lumpur. So we bought the tickets and got our way down.

...the tickets to Kluang and to KL...

Though there were a bit of rush here and there, it was an AWESOME WEEKEND!

The dive sites were amazing! The resort was clean. The food was delicious. The beer was cheap. The people were friendly...and overall it was just AWESOME!

DEFINITELY PLANNING ANOTHER TRIP TO PAYA VILLAGE, TIOMAN SOON!