Sunday, May 29, 2011

Tioman Island in Malaysia: Explored and Conquered (Part II)

Joemill 10:18:00 PM malaysia, nature 4 comments

All the exhaustion that was meant to see half of the western part of the island in the day propelled us to a good night sleep afterwards. Indeed, it was a “mission accomplished” in our pockets. We dozed off soundly with the cold sea breeze gently piercing into the chalet until the sound of the phone alarm at 6AM prodded us for a brand new day to be seized. It was time for jungle trekking to Juara, a village in the east.

Fried noodles and coffee for breakfast were esteemed to be adequate for the journey -- with a stock of energy bars, some junks, and water in our backpacks.

The signboard at the foot of the mountain said it would be a 7km trek to Juara. We got our itchy feet started at 7:41AM. It should be easier this time since the last trek had us fully-stretched, I thought. It didn’t hurt as much of a hurdle for the first few minutes over because the trail was more pronounced, even cemented, but the steepness of it, of what seemed to be an eternal stairway (our feet probably landed on over hundreds of steps if not close to a thousand) left us begging to stop almost every minute, or was it just me. It was never easy.

Good thing, no snake chanced to greet us along the way. It would have been so polite of them, thus accelerating our pace, though, a local assured us that there were no poisonous snakes in the jungle. No fauna visible, not even a single bird showed up. We were merely among the trees.

After exactly 1 hour, we were finally out of the jungle. If we had traversed a perfectly symmetrical mountain and found our way up to its peak, then walking down the slope would be another hour lapsed equally, forgetting rolling. It was a rather straightforward walk, but braking every time with my able legs was causing some stress on my knees, nonetheless.

We went side-tripping to a waterfall just a few meters from the roadside, took some pictures until another group of tourists arrived.

We continued our way to Juara, this time seeing monkeys and a shy squirrel. At 9:29AM, the Juara welcome signboard greeted us, saying “Selamat datang di Juara,” and at 9:40AM, we had finally arrived at the beach. So 2 hours is what it takes for a 7km trek from Tekek to Juara beach.

Juara appealed to me as a ghost town with only the waves coming from the South China Sea roaring and crashing onto its long, wide, and white beach breaking the silence. The village is perfect if you want the peace and quiet you’ve always wanted, and, for me, Juara offers the best beach among others on the island.

We soon realized that there is a surfing competition being held annually in Juara. Some people went surfing at that time while we tried for the first time skimboarding (we have just realized this very week that that board we borrowed from the kind restaurant girl where we had lunch at wasn’t a surf board, ha ha). I felt that surfing or skimboarding is something worth a second try next time.

At 12:17PM, we took a van going back to Tekek for 30 ringgit each and arrived twenty minutes later.

Our trip back to Mersing was scheduled at 4:30PM, but we departed so late at 5:23PM. I understood that because of the low tides, and, not to my surprise, we were at a complete slo-mo nearing Mersing.

If you could still remember in Part I, the trip versioning went to an all-time high to as far as version D. The supposed plan was that Kuala Lumpur would be the last stop on the trip, but it was the holidays! How could we forget that buses also have a time off? Buses are the only means of transportation to KL (discounting the highly-priced taxis), so we resorted to just taking a taxi to Johor Bahru. We were reluctantly going back home, ending our adventure, and trying to forget Kuala Lumpur.

we crept our way to the jungle, while everyone was still sleeping

fried noodles and coffee for breakfast

onwards to the foot of the mountain to Juara

hibiscus rosa-sinensis (the gumamela) - the national flower of Malaysia

Jungle Trek to Juara

the starting point of a 7km journey

water pipes

rubber tree

huggable enough of a trunk!

drinking water catchment area

the stairway to eternity

streams

they're fighting for sunlight

almost there!

featuring my formidable stick to ward off the enemies

left to right: the paved road and the road less travelled; we just came from the latter

the long downward walk

pointing to the waterfall

a waterfall

she was threatened perhaps, so she towered herself up

Selamat datang di Juara (Welcome to Juara)

we did it!

Juara Beach

Juara jetty

Juara beach

still Juara beach

still the same surfing beach

monkey boy (that's me!)

thanks to Adidas, our main sponsor (wishful thinking! ha ha!)

my ever-reliable red Habagat bag

Juara Surfing Competition 2010

spicy fried rice for lunch with watermelon fruit shake

monitor lizard

back to Tekek

ticket to Mersing

still don't know the name of this little friend, anyone who can help me out?

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Tioman Island in Malaysia: Explored and Conquered (Part I)

Joemill 8:00:00 PM malaysia, nature No comments

The celebration of the Chinese New Year paved the way for a trip in the name of love-for-the-outdoors. My friend and I had always wanted a getaway to anywhere distant from anything synonymous to work. Malaysia became a clear top choice, accessibility and budget-wise, and Tioman Island (or Pulau Tioman), our impression was that it could satiate our islander souls.

We planned it to be a come-what-may experience and thought less planning would make it all the more exciting -- kind of used to cramming new experiences. In the end, it proved to be worth the impromptu itinerary changes from version A to B, C and then to D.

Getting to Malaysia, we took SBS Bus 170 from Kranji MRT at 7:50AM, the 3rd of February. We arrived shortly at the Singapore checkpoint in Woodlands, got off the bus, queued for immigration clearance , and then waited for the next SBS Bus 170 that’s headed to the other end of the Johor-Singapore Causeway. We got off again at the Malaysian checkpoint to clear immigration – filled in the white card at the counter to the right of the entrance and queued. It took us within 15 minutes before getting cleared. The immigration officers didn’t spend too much time questioning us. At 8:16AM, we hopped on the next SBS Bus 170 to Larkin Bus Terminal, which would take around 10 minutes.

The hardest part was getting a ticket to Mersing, the gateway to Tioman. Bus tickets to Mersing were already sold out. There were later schedules on the morning, but we just couldn’t wait any longer. So to quell itinerary version A, we moved on to version B and, instead, took the next bus going to Kota Tinggi. We departed Larkin at 8:50AM and arrived at the Kota Tinggi bus terminal 1 hour later. From that ride, I realized I was back to the countryside, and it just pumped up my excitement.

After an hour-long wait for the next bus to Mersing, the bus finally hit the road at 11:00AM. Exactly two hours later, we were already in Mersing.

As luck would have it, the day just couldn’t get any better as we were literally STUCK! The sea wasn’t navigable, perfect timing! It was a low tide, thus, no boat to Tioman! So version C came into picture. We could’ve opted for other places in lieu of Tioman, but we stuck to it, remaining faithful to a perfect getaway to Tioman, we thought.

We spent the whole afternoon at the park and coast before tiring ourselves to staying the night at a hotel for 60 ringgit. At first, we thought our tent would be enough for the night but nah.

At 6:00AM the next day, we left the hotel, headed to the ferry terminal and bought the tickets for 70 ringgit per person (two-way fare via Blue Water Express speedboat) and paid 5 ringgit for the Marine Park Conservation fee. Most of the people in the company were Caucasians and locals.

At 8:00AM, we were already speeding off to the island. There are actually drop-off points in Tioman Island depending on where you would be staying. The boat docked first at the Tekek jetty at 9:53AM, then headed north to Marine Park Centre, Air Batang, and, finally, Salang jetty at 10:25AM.

We briefly explored Salang, the northernmost kampong (village) of Tioman, took pictures at their white-sand beach and had our lunch at a restaurant. Then we moved up to the mountain to find the trail to Panuba Bay, which would later become part of a 3-hour trek. Going up and down the mountain was rather tricky; you have to keep an eye on the power cable to serve as your guide besides the trail posts. But alas, after seeing a troop of monkeys hooting loudly, and hearing a distracting human voice that seemed to be just near from where we were, we lost the trail and were led to a small beach at 12:40PM. Soon we realized that that voice was from one of those people on a boat far off the beach.

The said beach is actually part of Monkey Bay and is detached from the greater part of the bay by a large rock. Unlike Salang, Monkey Bay is an undeveloped area. There were probably attempts at developing it, as evidenced by an abandoned house and a tire swing hanging out to the sea. We continued trekking, crashed the waters this time and climbed up to the mountain only to be greeted by thorn-bearing plants, making our way unbearable. So we raced down again from the mountain to yet another beach, the Monkey Beach, at 2:14PM, found the trail back telling us that there were 42 more posts to Panuba, and 2 foreigners joined us along the way.

We held our feet to the fire to keep on walking, until Panuba Bay came to view at 3:05PM. We threw our bags and tent on the beach, sundried our shirts soaked in sweat, shoes, and socks, expended our energy bars and water, and rested for 25 minutes. That’s what 3 hours of trekking could do. Besides, we’d have to do a little jungle trekking once again.

We arrived in Air Batang (commonly called ABC) 20 minutes later. ABC was chockfull of backpackers who were either reading a book at their chalets or bicycling, and, wow, villagers love the game of football.

Next to the village is the Marine Park Centre, which is excellent for snorkeling. It was already 4:10PM when we arrived there. We grabbed some burgers and Coke, and rested again.

We’re back on the road at 5:45PM, and I have to say Tioman has a nice esplanade stretching along the Centre. We passed by Tioman Airport before finally arriving in Tekek at 6:30PM.

What an exhausting day, but the day’s sweat was all worth it! We spent the night at a beachfront chalet for 70 ringgit.

Salang + Jungle Trek 1