March 1995. UKŁ1 = M$4.5
Georgetown had a very Chinese feel to it and it’s a pleasant place. It’s the main town on the island of Penang – which is just off the coast of Peninsular Malaysia.
We checked into the first budget hotel we could find – the "Tiong Wah" in Love Lane. It cost us M$16 per night (about UKŁ3.50) and it was pretty grim – could do with a bit of a refurbish – but it’s OK for a night or two. A couple of things going for it – it’s cheap, very quiet and it has a pub downstairs which even sells Guinness. It does, however, seem to a have a lot of resident rats. We spent an afternoon wandering around the streets of around Georgetown, and with it being a Sunday, it was very quiet. With visited Fort Cornwallis – the old British "stronghold" and a Chinese Temple.
Georgetown is blessed with some of the best street food I ever experienced and we ate well for a couple of days – a mixture of Indian food and Chinese food straight off stalls on the streets.
I bought another load of travellers cheques from the Hong Kong Bank without any problems. Hong Kong bank is a good place for foreign currency deals.
A few days later we took a ferry back over to Butterworth and then a taxi to Anik Kulim (M$30) and made it to the village where Dibs relatives live – and her Mum was staying.
As soon as we entered the village someone welcomed us and took us to the right people (it wasn’t the kind of place they get tourists, and it seemed like most of the village were expecting us). The village is a purpose-made settlement for workers on the rubber plantation and it seemed that everyone knew each other. Men and women went out working in the day and returned at night, so when we arrived it was pretty quiet – just older people and children.
Dibs was reunited with her Mum and we were soon introduced to the family. The village was a fantastic little spot and a good chance to experience Malaysian life and get away from the backpacker scene (which we definitely got sucked into in S.E. Asia). The whole place is very primitive, but has a small shop and some electricity and boasts a mosque and a Hindu temple. The houses were two-three room concrete places – all pretty much the same. I couldn’t work out whether they were privately owned or just rented from the "estate". Everyone seemed pretty content and went about their day-to-day life without much fuss.
We wandered around the village (much to the amusement of the local children!) and met so many people I lost track of who was who. Everywhere we went we were offered hospitality – drink, food and conversation. Dibs Mum would translate from Malaysian into Punjabi, and then Dibs would translate Punjabi into English for me!
During our stay we were never left alone for more than a few minutes, unless we were sleeping. I tried to explain that they didn’t have to drag us around everywhere, to visit people/places, and that we were happy just exploring by ourselves sometimes. This didn’t wash and they just wanted to plan everything for us. It’s not that I wasn’t happy doing this, it’s just that I didn’t want to put them out all the time.
One day we took a bus into Kulim, the nearest town, to stock up on our supplies. It’s a small town but with everything you could need, and we got lots of essential food including Cornflakes and chocolate (just for a treat!). We ate at a Chinese restaurant, but Dibs Mum and Aunts refused to eat – saying "Chinese food is no good". They are all of Indian origin, and although Malaysia seemed peaceful enough I reckoned there was some tension between the Indian, Malay and Chinese people.
The rest of the week was spent sitting around or going from house to house meeting more people (and eating/drinking more food). We even visited some of Dibs Dads nieces who lived in a large, luxurious house and spoke really good English.
In the evenings we sat and chatted and even occasionally watched some videos (they had an old TV and VCR). Their favourite film was a New Zealand "comedy, horror, zombie" film called "Dead Alive". Very comical.
We would sleep at Dibs Uncle Gurmuk’s house at night. He was a funny old chap who would fall asleep with his cigarette still in his mouth and mumbled all night! We also had a "pet" mouse in our room, which nipped me on the finger one morning. He was lying behind the bed and I put my hand on him when I was half-asleep! It was a bit of a shock, but at least the bite didn’t break my skin!
Everyone was very hospitable and happy to have new faces around.
We spent some days doing "nothing much" in the village, and it was good to do this – just spending time with the locals and not really thinking about anything. Most nights we were treated to dazzling displays by flying "glow" beetles. They were really bright and their "lights" flashed on and off.
One day we took Dibs mum into Georgetown for a look around. She hadn’t been there for along time so it was a real treat for her. She got her visa extended for another month and we wandered around various places tiring her out! We bought ferry tickets to get us over to Sumatra later in the week which cost M$160 return each. We also pigged out on junk food at McDonalds. The food in Malaysia was always good but sometimes you just need a change.
We returned to Kulim late and watched an amusing Hindi film called "Disco Dancer" and ate some fantastic fish curry.
After a week in the village we had a tearful goodbye and returned to Georgetown. This time we checked into the "Ying Hee" hotel on Lebuh Chula for a cheap M$10 per night. It’s basic but much nicer and cleaner than the "Tiong Wah". Over the past few days my foot had swollen up with an infection so I got some medication and we did some general last-minute preparation before leaving for Sumatra.
March 1995. UKŁ1 = 3800 Indonesian Rupiah (at time of travel)
The boat to Sumatra – Expres Bahagia – took six hours, and at the port we took a free bus into Medan which took half and hour or so.
Medan is a big dirty, sweaty dump and we were besieged by touts – a bit like being back in India. Usually I don’t mind the hassle and gather some fun out of it, but these guys were mean, and Medan didn’t look to me to have much to offer. We decided there and then that we’d leave the next day.
We took a rickshaw to the Hotel Sahbiba, which cost 20,000 Rps per night (about UKŁ5). It’s also pretty grim and a bit too much of a "young stupid backpacker hangout" for my liking. Full of the type of traveller who roams Asia looking for nothing more than drugs, sex and a party. The types that wear silly clothes, don’t wash, and pretend to be modern day hippies, whilst paying no respect to the local culture. I’d talked to so many of these "travellers" and often found that they quite often didn’t even really know where they were, or if so, they didn’t know anything about the place they were in, and had simply followed the "party trail". Fair enough, I suppose, and I must admit that I was guilty of some partying and following certain well-trodden trails, but I did try to take in my surroundings and the local culture, and make my own opinions. Each to their own I suppose.
I gathered that most of the travellers staying at the hotel would be heading out to some remote surfing/drug taking spots somewhere in northern Sumatra, that someone in Koh Samui or Bali had told them about. They spent all night shouting and drinking (even after I’d told them to shut up), and I suppose that’s what they did most of the time – until they ran out of money when they would phone "daddy" and get some more shipped out.
We stayed at the Sahbiba because we just couldn’t find a reasonably priced room anywhere else. We wanted to get out of this shit hole fast, so we went to the bus stand and booked a bus to Lake Toba the following day for 9000 Rps each. We changed some money, ate at KFC (the only place we could find which was open) and hit the sack.
Medan was NOT a good introduction to Indonesia. I can’t see why any traveller would stay here for more than one night, so I suppose that’s why prices are hiked up and the place is a shambles.
We’d arranged a rickshaw to pick us up in the morning, but he let us down, so we eventually persuaded another driver to take us to the bus station (after much haggling and persuasion). The 9:00 bus we’d booked eventually left sometime after 10:00. The bus was OK and we were back in the third world again, which felt kind of good. It was packed full of people and livestock and every time we stopped (which was a lot) we were pestered by various hawkers. "Mister, Mister… water, smoke,….."etc. It certainly helps the journey go faster than sitting on an air-con bus.
We arrived at the town of Prapat at around 3:30 p.m. where we went to the tourist office and booked our onward travel (as it’s difficult to do it from Samosir island on Lake Toba itself) for a few days time.
We then took the ferry to Samosir island, which I’m happy to say is beautiful. Set on the clear blue waters of Lake Toba – the biggest lake in S.E. Asia – it’s haven. Friendly people greeted us and we decided to stay at "Linda’s guesthouse" in our own bungalow for 5000 Rps per night. It’s a really nice place – as are most of the places on the island. The food, which "Linda" cooked up, was wonderful and we spent the first day settling in.
Lake Toba turned out to be a very relaxing and interesting place. The climate was near perfect as it’s quite high up (so not too humid) and we spent our days doing various walks around the peninsular and reading/writing. My foot started to recover (I was determined not to let it get me down!), although on one particularly long walk Dibs had to help me the last mile or so! One settlement had an ancient meeting and execution place – where the locals of old apparently killed their prisoners and then ate them (beating them unconscious before beheading them)! A local chap was more than happy to tell us all the gory details.
On our final day we took the ferry back to Prapat and checked into our room, which we’d pre-booked at the "Andilos Hotel". This place is definitely not for the faint hearted as the toilets were the worst I’d even seen and the rooms were pretty grim – we even found peep holes in the walls. We ate in town and chatted to some Danish travellers before bedding down.
Our bus south to Bukittinggi took fourteen long hours and cost 22,500 Rps. It was very uncomfortable, with sharp bars under the hardly-padded seats. The journey was quite exciting through thick jungle, although the driving was a bit dangerous at times. The bus was almost entirely full of backpackers, although we did pick up or drop off people along the way. On the way we stopped at some Hot Springs and then at the equator at a place called Bonjol. It was great to stand on the equator - marked by a daubed red line and a large globe by the roadside – and take photo’s. Even a few local youths turned up selling "I crossed the equator" T-shirts. I had to buy one (after much hard bargaining)! We got one puncture in the middle of nowhere, which took about half an hour to fix. This gave us a good opportunity to have a wander around the rain forest.
Sumatra is a rough and wild place. Lots of rainforest, big rivers, poor roads and lots of rain. It’s a big island with a small population, and the sort of place you could spend a long time if you are the adventurous type. I think if we’d visited at another time – for example at the start of a trip – we’d have appreciated it more and spent a lot more time there. Unfortunately we go into a "rush mode" and just sped around without taking too much time to explore off the beaten track. I wouldn’t recommend just going to the main cities – much better to get out to the smaller, quieter places. During our visit some parts of the north were out of bound due to "tribal problems" and some of the islands which we’d thought about visiting were also pretty much put-of-bounds due to bad malaria outbreaks.
We eventually got to Bukittinggi at 8:10 p.m. And scoured a few hotels with the Danish couple – Uffe and Henrietta – until we settled in "Denams" Hotel, which cost 15,000 Rps per night for a room with private bath. As soon as we’d checked in and cleaned up we headed into town with the Danes where we drunk a couple of nice cold large Anchor beers and some satisfying food. Tough stuff or what!
The following day it rained cats & dogs so we sat around in a restaurant, catching up on reading and writing and chatting to two English girls – Sissy and Annabel – and a Canadian lad called Chris. We also went to a travel agent to enquire about flight into Australia. We had hoped to travel down to Kupang in Timor and then catch the flight to Darwin, but we were told that all flights on this route were suspended! We decided to wait until Singapore until further action.
We booked transport to Singapore, deciding to take this route rather than backtrack up Sumatra to use our return ferry ticket to Penang. The thought of another 14-hour bus journey did not appeal at the moment. The only thing we would be missing out on is a visit to the Orang-utan sanctuary – something we’d just have to live with.
Bukittinggi is quite a pleasant town with a laid-back feel to it. We wandered around the Panorama Park, which had some amusing monkeys in it, and visited some caves which were used by the Japanese during the second world war. They were still in good condition and covered a large area – very mazelike and quite spooky/dark at times. There were lots of bats down there causing havoc! We also completed a half-day trek around the surrounding countryside (half a day was the maximum we could manage in the intense heat and humidity). The walk took in some interesting jungle, small villages and terraced fields. The walk really sapped our strength.
We were a bit confused about our bus journey the following day. We needed to take a pick-up van (they call them "Bemos") to the bus station for our early morning bus. Like most towns in Indonesia, the bus stations seem to be miles away from the centre of town – I reckon they do a deal with taxi drivers when planning where to build them. We’ve been told the bus to Pekanbaru leaves at 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. No-one seems to know the real time!
Although we’d had a good time in Sumatra we were a bit tired and were starting to think that our rush around the island had been a bit of a mistake.
We woke early and took a Bemo to the bus station at 6:00 a.m. and found a bus leaving at 6:20 a.m. Whether or not it was the bus we were planning to get on I don’t know, but we got on it and didn’t budge. The journey across the middle of Sumatra was spectacular, winding through more thick rainforest and getting up to quite a high altitude. It took eight hours to get to Pekanbaru, which is a big, polluted town – built to serve the oil industry. There were no other tourists on the bus and the place seemed pretty short of non-Indonesians. Great – a bit of adventure?! A man who spoke English grabbed us as we disembarked and took us to a cheap hotel (probably the only one in Pekanbaru) called "Poppies Homestay". It was really nice and good value at 5000 Rps each per night including breakfast. To be honest it was one of the nicest places we stayed at in Sumatra and I’d recommend it. It had a real "homely" atmosphere.
We wandered into town in the afternoon and ate some Padang food (a sort of buffet where you get a bowl of rice and loads of other bits and bobs in bowls put in front of you – you pay for what you eat). It was nice, but the restaurant (the best we could find) was grotty, and the town didn’t seem to have much to offer. No interesting mosques or parks within walking distance. It was extremely hot and humid (still) and we soon got tired.
We returned to Poppies to find other travellers there – a German girl called Katrina, an Australian called Jason and a Korean couple, Juan and Sung Lee (or something like that!). We had a nice evening.
In the morning an extremely knackered bus picked us up at 8:00 a.m. and broke down twenty minutes later – leaving us stranded by a roadside on the outskirts of town for two hours. Eventually a replacement bus arrived and we drove along the road towards the coast. The road was in really bad condition. Unpaved – just dirt track with some huge potholes and landslides. All good fun, but very uncomfortable. It’s not surprising that the buses are in bad shape! We eventually got to a river with a small ferry taking vehicles across, but we ended up waiting another hour and a half while the ferryman had his lunch!
When we did get to the "port" we found that the place was nothing more than a just a clearing in the jungle/swamp. The place just had a couple of jetties and box buildings and was infested by flies. Nice! More good news – the boat had already left and when we inquired when the next one would arrive we were told "tomorrow"! So – we were stranded (with about twenty Indonesians) with nowhere to stay. I noticed that the locals just found some shade and "got on with it", so we just chose to do the same. Unfortunately, Jason the Aussie got very upset and started ranting and raving at locals. This didn’t help (it never does) and Juan the Korean had to calm him down. What a bad attitude I thought. (He did turn out to be a complete prick).
We found one of the shacks was a sort of restaurant, or at least the man in there had some food he wanted to sell us. We encamped ourselves there and ate pretty much all of the food they had, and even a few cans of "Sunkist" orange drink (which really was Sunkist after being in the sun all day!). There wasn’t really anything to do outside.
The group started to see the fun side of this experience and we found amusement in many things, and the locals were very friendly. The local "toilet" was at the end of the jetty and consisted of a small hut with a hole in the floor. It was top entertainment watching people go out there at low tide to do their business! Bombs away!
After a while one of the locals agreed that we could sleep in the "Police Station" at the end of another jetty. Excellent stuff. I thought Jason had spoiled our chances with the locals, but we’d done well. The other option would have been to sleep outside, and the place was now swarming with mozzies. Most of the locals had occupied the harbour office on the other jetty.
So, we slept on the Police Station floor and slept pretty well. Apart from the group of rats, which lived there and took quite a bit of interested in us, it wasn’t bad at all.
The next day we eventually got on the extremely overcrowded boat to Batam – an island of Singapore. It was far too packed to get inside the boat, so we sat on the roof. I always hear on the news about Indonesian boats sinking "due to overcrowding". This was potentially one of them, but there were no other options, so we had to go.
The sun was intense but the workers on the boat provided us with cardboard to cover our heads, and plenty of bags of mineral water. We stopped briefly at another island called Tanjung Pinang – which appeared to be entirely made out of aluminium and had thousands of huge TV aerials! The journey took us through mangrove swamps and past many small-uninhabited islands and we saw quite a bit of wildlife, including some flying fish – which were amazing. The journey took five hours, during which time Dibs managed to get her top set on fir by a "stray" cigarette. It seems like everyone smokes in Indonesia – this can be annoying at times – although most choose the clove-flavoured cigarettes, which smell pleasant.
When we got to Batam we bought tickets and got onto the 6:00 p.m. jet boat to Singapore, which was very modern and fast – as expected.
UKŁ1 = S$2 approx (at time of travel)
We arrived in Singapore looking bedraggled, dirty and hungry. I’m surprised the let us through customs! Jason knew of a good guesthouse so we took a bus to the district of "Little India" where it is located. Singapore was just as I’d imagined – extremely clean with lots of gleaming skyscrapers. It was hard to believe that yesterday we’d been in the jungle.
The Guesthouse, "Ali’s Nest" was full so we stayed in a Chinese hotel opposite, and the owner, (Ali), who was really nice, agreed to let us a room the following day. The room cost S$25 (about UKŁ12.50). Singapore is expensive compared to everywhere else we’ve been.
Everyone was tired and we agreed to follow Jason to a Muslim restaurant that he recommend. It was a cheap, cheerful and fast little place and we ate roti, dall and chicken. The food was pretty average and the Koreans didn’t like it, but Jason had insisted we ate there – like it was something special. I became very argumentative and made a bit of a fool of myself, so I decided to retire back to my room and get some sleep. Probably the best thing as I was in a really foul mood, - probably due to extreme tiredness. I couldn’t remember being so "wound up" before.
The thing was, Jason had kept going on about this "Roti and Dall" since we met him and it wasn’t what we wanted after eating pretty poor quality food for a few days. I mean – there we were in Singapore – a culinary heaven – and we were eating the cheapest shit in town!
He wanted to lead us around Singapore but we decided we’d probably go our own way. I showered at the hotel, felt much better, and then slept like a log! I apologised the next morning to "the gang" about my behaviour the night before.
The following day was spent walking, shopping and eating. We had stuff to sort out and Singapore was the place to do it. We booked some more flights – Singapore to Bali and then Bali to Cairns, which cost about 270 quid each. We wandered around the huge shopping complexes along Orchard Road which are extremely well air-conditioned and we bought all kinds of things which we’d needed for a while – especially clothing, which was such good value and quality here. We shopped around for cameras (we’d decided to update our compact camera here), and decided on what sort of price range we were looking at.
We moved into Ali’s next in the evening and although the place is pretty poky, the atmosphere is excellent. We ate Indian food in a "hawker centre" in the evening and it was delicious.
The following day we took to bus to Singapore Zoo. The best zoo I’ve ever been to – the animals just get so much room and the whole place is really spread out with beautiful gardens. We even had our photo taken with three Orang-utans! We spent most of the day there.
Later in the day we wandered down to Clarks Quay, which is a great place in the evenings. It has lots of food stalls, nightlife and offers splendid people-watching opportunities. We ate Chinese food from the stalls and then later wandered to an English pub called "The Yard". It was authentic – maybe a little too authentic – and I enjoyed a couple of pints of Boddingtons while Dibs had a couple of Baileys. A nice treat. I was hoping that they would be showing the 5-nations rugby, but there weren’t. Never mind. Lots of people came in to see if the rugby was on, but the owner explained that only Star TV were showing it and that only hotels had Star TV. I wondered how much more successful the Yard would be if he invested a little money on a satellite dish and showed British sport.
We had a late night chatting and drinking beer with Ali and other guests. Ali had a fridge full of beer that he would sell at a bargain price. Later on in the evening when I declined more beer (as my budget was disappearing) he would just say "Oh – never mind – have another beer anyway". He certainly liked a drink or two and even cracked a bottle of "Jack Daniels" open. He ran the place with a gay American man called Kioki.
We had to go to the famous Raffles hotel, so the next day, after a filling breakfast at the hotel, we went there and say in the Long Bar for an hour or so sipping Singapore Slings (of course). We dressed up the best we could but they still wouldn’t let us sit in the lobby, because Dibs had sandals on! Sipping Singapore Slings in Singapore on a Sunday!
Later in the day we took the cable car from Mt Faber over to Sentosa Island – a sort of fun-park. The only place we wanted to visit there was "Underwater World", which at S$12 per head was a touch expensive, but worth it. You get to handle various sea-creatures then walk through a glass tunnel with fish all around you.
We returned to the guesthouse and spent another late boozy evening there, watching the Premiership Football update on TV!
The buses in Malaysia are very modern and we took one to Kuala Lumpur for M$18 each (about Ł3.50). We headed for a hotel that had been recommended – the Sunrise Lodge – but declined to stay there. It was really grotty – grotty rooms and grotty people running it. The place stunk. It was chucking it down with rain, so we didn’t travel far before we decided to stay at the KL hotel. Same price as the Sunrise (or thereabouts) – M$35 for a double, very clean but noisy on a main street. We just couldn’t be arsed to look for anything else. We wandered into town in the pouring rain to eat and booked tickets to the Cameron Highlands the following day. KL is just another big city and one night was enough.
The next day we went to a cinema and watched Forest Gump. The projectionist got his reels mixed up (there were three) and after part 1 we started to watch part 3. It took him ten minutes or so to realise what he’d done and change them!
We took the bus to the Cameron Highlands, and again, it was clean and comfortable.
Cameron Highlands – Tahna Rata
The Cameron Highlands are in the centre of peninsular Malaysia. The whole area is a combination of jungle, terraced fields and tea plantations. The air is cool and fresh and it’s only a small place. The British developed it like many hill stations, in the empire days as a retreat from the heat and humidity of the cities and coast. The whole place still retains a British feel, with some Victorian/Tudor looking buildings – including "Ye Olde Smokehouse" – a sort of British pub/country club. There was also the odd red English phonebox and gold club. This, combined with the Chinese and Indian stalls and temples, made for interesting scenery. Our main purpose for visiting the highlands was to do some jungle walking, and to get out into the countryside after spending quite a few days in cities.
We tried to get a room at "Fathers Guest House" – as recommended by two English girls we met in Singapore. It was full (although it looked nice), so we "cadged" a lift to a place called "Bala’s" which is just out of town. It’s an old schoolhouse with lots of character and it’s in a reasonably good location. Our room was M$20 per night – which is reasonable. The food they served was pretty average, although the afternoon tea was a nice touch. Unfortunately the management were very unfriendly. We headed into town on our first evening with two English girls – Vicky and Nicky – and ate at a Chinese restaurant for M$8 each and had a good evening out.
The next day we moved to a different hotel – the "Cameron Holiday Inn" (nothing to do with the Holiday Inn chain!), which is much nicer. The room was M$25 with a bathroom which interconnects two rooms. The couple in the other room (German) locked us out!
We found a jungle walk guide map, with numbered walks, so the next day we did two of them. Numbers 11 and 12 – which took about three hours. The walks pass through jungle trails, high up into the hills with great views. We saw quite a bit of wildlife, including a foot long centipede! The walk ended outside the gold course, back in Tahna rata, and we were soaked through by the humidity. We made it back to the hotel just before another huge downpour (which seems to be a regular afternoon thing).
We stopped off at a local travel agent to book transport onto Mersing. This involves a stop at KL. We suspected the travel agent was ripping us off for the second bus (KL to Mersing), so we just bought travel as far as KL and decided to chance it and book when we arrived.
The Cameron Highlands turned out to be a great place to spend a few days. On our last full day it was my birthday, so we made a day of it. We took a tour from the hotel in a small minibus to see some sights. Not being a big fan of tours I was a bit sceptical, but it turned out to be well worthwhile. We visited a tea plantation (and tea factory), numerous farms – including a butterfly farm and a mushroom farm, and finally a huge Chinese temple. I liked the Tea plantation best, as we got to see how tea was produced. The smell inside the factory was overpowering.
We had thought about going to "Ye Olde Smokehouse" in the evening but just wandered into town to eat. I knew the Smokehouse would be expensive, and rather than pay lots of money for English food (which probably wouldn’t be that good), we opted to choose a local restaurant. We had a full three-course meal (Soup -–Roast Beef – ice cream) and it was delicious. I also drank quite a few beers back at the guest house (on my own!). beer is expensive relative to the other costs in Malaysia so I’d generally decided not to drink, but seeing that it was my birthday I submitted.
The bus back to KL the next day was OK, but it rained hard again and by the time we’d got across town from one bus stand to the other, we were soaked. When I got to the ticket counter, the price came to M$33. I emptied all my money out to find I only had M$32.95! I didn’t want to make a fuss, but the ticket-man said he would hold me two tickets until I got the rest of the money - 5 lousy cents! Dibs was waiting for me in KFC with the bags, so I dashed back to get some more money and eventually we got our tickets. Good job – the bus was full.
We found a nice waiting room with a/c to shelter from the rain, and found out our bus departed at 10:30 p.m. for the night trip across to Mersing – which is the port for boats to Tioman Island – and is on the other side of the island.
The bus left on time and arrived at Mersing at 4:00 a.m. We sat around the bus station with two English lads – Heath and Anthony – and a Malaysian lad, eventually getting a ticket for the ferry (M$20 each) and a Chinese breakfast (friend noodles). We had to take a tiny fishing boat to the main boat due to a low tide. This was great fun – and the boat to boat transfer was very entertaining. We sat on the boat for nearly an hour and then set off for Tioman Island. The journey took four hours, not two as stated (the usual Asian ship timings!), and whilst on the boat we learned that this very vessel has sunk a few years ago and was recently restored. I was just glad we could swim. The boat stopped at various places on the island, but we stayed on until the last stop – Salang beach. It definitely looked the best beach and the "backpacker" beach (called ABC) looked a dump.
Dibs shopped around for a room while I watched the bags and we eventually got a place at "Khalid’s Place" – a small hut to ourselves with a bath, fan and even a mozzie net for M$20 per night. There were lots of good places to stay, and the prices varied depending on location (with regards to the sea), etc.
We found Tioman to be a great place to relax. It was voted on of the top five paradise islands in the world (apparently) and we could see why. The jungle and palm trees go right to the edge of the beautiful clear water. Salang beach sits in front of a hill of jungle, and the beaches are pure and white. Luckily the island is still fairly undeveloped – or it was – and Salang was a quiet place to relax, dive, snorkel or walk into the jungle. Food and drink, as one would expect, is expensive on the island in comparison to the mainland, but as far as paradise islands is concerned it’s very reasonable. We paid about the equivalent of 50p for a can of soft drink for example.
The sea was clear and full of fish – and very shallow for a long way out. We spent most of our days in the sea or on the beach relaxing. The locals were extremely laid back and simple things like preparing breakfast or serving a drink could take forever. Whilst on Tioman I managed to swap two books for two other books at a bookstall. The first time I’d ever got a straight swap in Asia (usually it was 2 for one or 1 + money for one). This proved how laid back the island was. The fact that the heat climbed to 35 ° C some afternoons – which added to the laid back pace.
There was a small swamp between out hut and the beach, in which some huge monitor lizards lived. They are supposed to be harmless, but looked pretty menacing to me. Some of them are about five-foot long! The locals would feed them with chunks of meat, or any other leftovers they had. We tended to eat down at the beach, where locals were selling meat and you barbecued it there on the sand. The cheapest way to eat on the island.
We spent about one week in Tioman – until we decided we’d have to move on or stay forever!
The boat journey back (on a different boat) only took two hours and was very comfortable. We took the 12:30 bus back down to Singapore and got into town at about 5:00 p.m.
We headed back to Ali’s nest (with Heath and Anthony the English lads), but it was fairly full again. We opted to sleep on the kitchen floor for a night and move into a room the next day.
We ate good Indian food at a restaurant called Maharaja’s, and had a few beers until hitting the sack. Heath and Anthony are "on the piss", and tried to tempt me into some late night boozing, but we need to keep on budget and I’m tired – so I declined. Sleep on the kitchen floor was OK until Ali’s sister came in during the early hours of the morning and woke us all up. She was in a bad mood and banged around the place for ages!
The next day was a big Singapore-style shopping day. We went mad. We bought more travellers cheques, and Australian guidebook, another pair of sandals (my third of the trip!), a new daypack (the old one had finally died) and a new camera. We got a really good deal at a place called Sim Lim Plaza. It was away from the main shopping zone and the prices were much better. For some reason I had a really bad stomach, but luckily Singapore is blessed with public facilities, so I spent most of the day dashing between them! Must have been last nights curry. After all this time in Asia my stomach plays up in one of the cleanest cities in the world!
In the evening Ali hosted a barbecue, which was excellent. Lots of food and booze amongst a really good crowd of people. Heath and Anthony went clubbing but we decided not to go. Heath is flying into Bali with us the next day.
Changi airport is a real delight. Our flight was delayed by a couple of hours, but we didn’t care because the airport had so much to do. You could spend a day there!
So – next stop Bali. We had enjoyed our two short stays in Singapore and our look around Malaysia. Sumatra – well at least we'd had a look and experienced it, and we were glad we had.
Our stay with Dibs family in Kulim had been very special and we’d particularly enjoyed our visits to Lake Toba, the Cameron Highlands and Tioman Island – places where we’d been able to relax in beautiful surroundings.
We felt replenished and ready to tackle some more serious adventure around Bali and the islands of Nusa Tengarra. We were, however, both beginning to feel the effects of almost six months of travel in Asia. We had both lost a lot of weight, which wasn’t such a problem for me as I’d been packing extra before leaving, but Dibs was very thin. Our energy levels got sapped very quickly and deep down I think we were craving getting to Australia where we could slip back into a "normal" lifestyle for a while.
