Embassy Hotel Mersing

... happy to be here. I stayed awake till 2am sitting on the balcony in awe at the beauty of it all. Tioman really is an island paradise.

I started my PADI course the next day and was introduced to my partner Danny,. Danny is a cool character who loves his yoga and karate. He runs a health retreat in Ontario and English is his second language. He was a great bloke who would let me laugh with him when he misinterpreted things during our practical and ...

Day 1: 4 September 2009 (Friday)

Next Week is the one week school holidays for the kids and 4 families are going to stay at the Austin Hills Golf Resort for a 2 nights getaway.

The Y Family decided to drive in earlier in the afternoon to avoid the traffic jam at the Woodlands Custom. And as for the other 3 families which includes ours have arranged to meet at the Esso Petrol Station (1st petrol kiosk) after the 2nd Link Custom in Johor after daddies ...

... some of you may know this story, but basically we got on the ferry to stretch the old legs when we witnessed a baby being born on the back of a Toyota pick-up truck! mid ferry crossing! little baby was delivered by taxi driver, who, throughout the delivery puffed on his fag and basically co-ordinated umbrellas to keep the sun off them. BIZARRE & RANDOM. coach to Trang, racist French women asked where we were going at bus stop, we said ...

... por todas las playas. Finalmente el barco nos deja en la de nosotros en Salang, no teniamos hotel y conocimos un chica de inglaterra. Tony espero en un hotel mientras nosotros mirabamos varios balnearios no habia muchos turistas la isla parwcia desolada la razon de esto es el monson teniamos de donde escoger terminamos en en Salang Sayang Resort un chalet al frente del mar una bellea estamos felices. Decidimos buscar un restaurante para comer y despues ir a dormir.

... the middle of nowhere!! for quite a while again but it was ok because we had Hussein friend special Singaporian Muttabak!!! very nice although it did not agree with everyone's stomach 8. Eventually the other cars arrived and we left for the jungle. It was midnight!! No one ever told me we were going to ...

... actually need a sink. My room was also lacking toilet paper. Come to think of it, every bathroom in Malaysioa is lacking toilet paper. However, all of the bathrooms either have this mysterious bucket, or a little sprayer think on the wall next to the toilet. Now I had never really thought about the lack of toilet paper and the presence of this spray-nozzle thing, but now I put 2 and 2 together. Malaysians don't use toilet paper!!!! I think ...

... on me what a fabulous place it was! No alcohol, no coffee, no cigarettes even! Everyone was gather together, mingling, eating fresh off the tree fruit! Try finding such a place so vibrant, so bustling, so busy on a Sunday night anywhere else in the world! I've never seen it anywhere! Go FRUIT! The night ended with me discovering mangosteens and eating about fifty thousand of them! Gen's mum and dad are champs - thanks!

... trishaw drivers approached up with their flashing, decorated bikes - but we declined a ride. We explored a temple and took a few photos. Next we set off in search of a place to have a meal and ended up in a cafe where we had a beer. The food didn't look terribly great so we carried on. The place where we ended up was nice with a local feel. I think it was called Journey or something to that affect. After a beer and our meal we retired to the hostel for a sleep.

... to leave and head back to KL, but Michaela twisted my arm (it didn't take much twisting) and I decided to stay, so along with Paul we went over to Sentosa, wandered around and sat on the beach for a while. We tried to get back to the hostel in time to say farewell to Al and Loz who were leaving but we missed them. I was supposed to be going to book my bus back up to KL for the following morning, but two of the girls came back to say their buses were all fully booked. I ...