After 9 hours of travel, we were finally here, on the island that literally means “A place to rest” and that was exactly what I intended to do. After checking in and dumping the bags in our chalet, we hurried to the private cove that was owned by the resort. The warm waters begged me to come in, and against my better judgement and memory of Tioman, I dived in. I’m glad I did. The water was lovely and we found ourselves spending the better part of 3 hours simply floating and relaxing with small fish swimming around us.
Our resort was on the west coast, with all the bars and night life on the east, and therefore that night we decided to walk across to the other side. This 15 minute walk would take us through the narrower part of the island, passing the forest to get there. Once there, we realised that just like the mainland, all the shops and more importantly the bars were closed. We had no choice but to head back and drink a bottle of wine. Luckily as I mentioned, there were two screw top bottles which we could drink before trying to find a corkscrew.
The next morning, after breakfast we packed our bags ready for a hike to a waterfall within the forest. However, it soon dawned on us, that there was so such thing on this island, we were fed misinformation. With nothing else to do, we were contemplating going back to the beach, when we saw the poster for Snorkelling. 5 places for 25 Ringgits! I wasn’t too convinced, especially after trying it before in Tioman, but agreed when I was told that this time there would be a life jacket involved. Having paid the captain, we boarded the powerboat and headed to the first destination.
Once there, the guys jumped out and began swimming. I hesitated and slowly went in, but panic once again overtook me. With the jacket on me, I wasn’t drowning, but instead could feel myself being pulled by the current under the boat. I felt uncomfortable and so went back onto the boat. However, it wasn’t before I did plunge my head in to see the fish, and again I was disappointed. Without my glasses, and with no contact lenses, Snorkelling is totally useless for me.
At the other destinations on the boat ride, I didn’t bother to get out, instead staying onboard and viewing the fish with my glasses on. Thankfully, because of the clear waters, it was a perfect view directly down. The second place was called Shark Point, and naturally, most of the crew were hesitant about swimming here. Those that did, said the Reef Sharks that they saw were amazing, claiming they were 5 feet long. Afterwards we went to two Turtle zones where I got really lucky, as one Giant Turtle came up right next to the boat, as if to say Hi. The fifth and final point was an offshore lighthouse, which gave the daring a chance to climb and dive off from various points.
With the Snorkelling trip over, we headed back to the resort to rest. At the jetty, I noticed something large swimming in the harbour very close to the shore and peering down, noticed that it was a Reef Shark. I suddenly went pale when I realised that the private cove that we were swimming and relaxing in the day before, was no more than a 100 metres from this place, and if the shark could get here, well I didn’t want to think about what that meant!
After the trip, one of the guys went to take a nap and I couldn’t resist the chance to lay on a hammock. However, once again, the lack of shops prevented me and I was forced to use a deck chair instead. Trying to read didn’t work as my reading material, Frankenstein, proved too jarring for the environment.
That evening, after sunset we resorted once again to entertaining ourselves by playing cards and drinking wine. The night before we had finished the two bottles we could open, so we went searching for a corkscrew. The first visitor we encountered was a Swiss man who annoyingly had left his Swiss Army Knife back in the mainland. After a few other attempts it was clear that no one had brought a corkscrew. With no other choice, we decided to break the bottle against a sharp corner. It was not effective, as we gained perhaps two glasses of wine from an entire bottle. Trying our luck again, the second corked bottle was destroyed completed. It was a crying shame as this was the better of the four wines. With nothing else to do, we decided to sleep early, since the next day we would have to leave at 8am to catch the first boat out.
