The real Bali Hai

Trip Start May 06, 2007
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Trip End Jul 24, 2008


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Flag of Malaysia  , Pahang,
Thursday, July 10, 2008

After all the craziness getting to Mersing, I was very happy to say goodbye to Eva, Manya, and Ariel (they were headed to a different, smaller island) and wait to board my ferry to Tioman Island.  Tioman is a much bigger island than the Perhentians.  It has a number of different beaches, none of which are pure backpacker beaches like the one I visited on the Perhentians.  Based on recommendations from other travelers, I decided to head to Salang, the beach that's the furthest north, since it sounded like a good mix of a nice beach, cheap accommodation, some backpackers, a few monkeys, and a handful of monitor lizards.  While waiting for the ferry I met Michael from Germany who I ended up spending the week hanging out with.

In 1958 Tioman Island was used as the setting of the fictional Bali Hai in the movie version of the musical South Pacific.  Then in the 70s Time magazine named Tioman as one of the world's most beautiful island.  With all this attention, Tioman Island has become much more commercialized and built up in comparison to the Perhentians.  There's a small airport on Tektek, a beach near the center of the island.  On Salang Beach there was electricity all day long.  There was a paved sidewalk along the length of the beach and a couple of the locals even had motorbikes to ride up and down it.  The restaurants even made an effort to serve your food in a timely fashion - completely unheard of on the Perhentians!  The beach itself wasn't quite as pretty, but Tioman had something that the Perhentians sorely lacked - hammocks.  I spent many hours reading in a hammock overlooking the ocean.  This is my idea of relaxation!

Even though the beach itself wasn't nearly as beautiful as the Perhentians and the water wasn't quite as clear, I still managed to enjoy myself.  Most of my time was spent alternating between the beach and a hammock, working my way through a couple of good books.  I thought about going snorkeling, but decided against it since I knew I'd prefer reading on the beach.  Tioman also lacked the characters who inhabit the Perhentians, or at least if they are there, they don't hang out on Salang Beach.

Tioman is a very popular weekend destination for Singaporeans.  During my first couple of days the island was pretty empty but come Friday afternoon it filled up and remained packed until Sunday evening.  The many Singapore residents on Tioman included Nico and Sandra, a French couple who Michael went scuba diving with.  They invited Michael and me to stay with them in Singapore, where they've been living and working for the last 6 months.  Neither of us wanted to turn down an invitation for free accommodation in our next destination, so of course we said yes and arranged to see them on Wednesday when we were planning on arriving in Singapore.
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