Matt and Kylie

Palau Tioman

It took six hours on a bus to get from Melacca (on the West Coast) to Mersing (on the East Coast), a wee Port Town that people only really go to to get to Tioman Island.  Due to the bus driver’s (wannabe rally driver?) erm, unique take on swerving round other traffic and corners, I wasn’t the only one feeling queasy by the end.  Anyway, we had time for a quick bite to eat at a gorgeous bistro run by a Swiss Chef and his wife with a divine menu before boarding the ferry.

The seven of us decided to stay at ABC (Air Batang) beach, caught an eighty minute ferry and arrived on the jetty of the primitive, but picturesque Island.  As it turns out, finding accommodation with enough room to house seven people in such a small place is rather unrealistic, so  Matt and I took a small fan bungalow with a private bathroom, veranda and giant mosquito net guarding the bed (and in turn blocking the fan wind) at one place, while Aux, Lissa and Sam shared another bungalow next to Mok and Ross at another guesthouse next door.  At 50 MYR (About NZD $25) we were pretty happy.

We spent three nights out on the intensely hot Island; it was duty free (meaning cheap beer – happy hour = 3 beers for about NZD$5) which kept everyone pretty happy.  Being a Muslim country, alcohol is generally not served in Muslim restaurants, and when it is served in for example Chinese Restaurants, it is pretty expensive.  Matt’s first night on the cheap booze ended in pure Matt style… I headed for bed at about midnight and was awoken by him bashing on the cabin door, looking mournful and helpless claiming he had stubbed his toe (quite badly) clambering over rocks on the beach in the dark.  We sorted that out fine, then the next night when he was in charge of dressing it, he appeared after dinner with it wrapped in silver duct tape.  Apparently a good way to keep sand out and the plaster on.  Note to self:  Do not leave Matt in charge of First Aid.

Our evenings were spent hanging out at a bar (shack on the beach surrounded by plastic chairs and hammocks).  We ate at restaurants over looking the sea and cantilevering over the sea.  One evening I was watching a couple of guys shimmying up a coconut tree to retrieve the goods for a minute, then turned around to take some photographs of the sunset over the sea.  The guy up the tree grabbed an English-speaking guy on a nearby building site and bought him over to me.  He told me that the coconut guy had got me a coconut.  With that coconut guy grinned, held out the coconut to me then scampered back off to get on with the job.  He had cut me a coconut off the tree, cut off the bottom (so I could put it down on a table) and cut off the top so I could drink it.  Made my day!  And was delicious!  I proudly marched it back to the bar where the bar staff gave me a straw and enjoyed it for the rest of the night.

We had been told to watch out for Monitor Lizard, apparently they are quite impressive.  Dear god.  They seriously, looked one generation away from being crocodiles.  Mok went out wondering one day and saw one that he swore was bigger than him, and at least 2m long(!)  We nicknamed him Jurassic, and went back to the little dam a couple of times to try and see him; we think we heard him thumping around in the scrub, but he turned out to be a bit of a shy fella. The funny thing was though, they seemed scared of people; if they were on the path and saw you coming, they would scamper off into the bushes.

The lizards I could quite happily deal with, it was the snakes that gave me the heebie jeebies.  We were having breakfast one day when Ross talked to the owner and produced a photo of a python and a cobra having a scrap on the beach.  Turns out the cobra was trying to bite the python who was immune to the venom.  After a while, tired of being bitten, they python wraps itself around the bigger cobra and starts to squeeze it. 

Cobra: 0.  Python: 1.  Kylie: early stages of hyperventilation. 

They tried to reassure me that this was ‘python country now,’ and the locals told me that pythons would, for the most part, leave you alone.  They then followed that up with ‘but be careful if you do see a cobra, they are very aggressive.’  Neat.  We found a couple of pythons in some trees above where Jurassic lived.  It became a ritual to go and see everyday if they had moved and where to.  You know, just to keep tabs and make sure they weren’t headed towards our bungalow.  Turns out I have a snake phobia. 

When the time to leave came, we were told by the locals that the boat would leave at 12 so we arrived a wee bit early just in case.  Nobody said these things were prompt, and it finally arrived at 2.30. In the meantime, Matt and Aux had time for a quick dip in the sea, jumping off the jetty and into the water for a quick snorkel.  The salt water did Matt’s stubbed toe the world of good and it healed up in the next few days.  We had a brilliant time with friends in a wee piece of paradise.

And thanks to Aux for the brilliant spider photo and the first two lizard photo’s below!