Got up early, straped on the packs and walked to the Pudyara Station, the bustling main KL bus terminal. Found the right platform for our bus to Mersing and got aboard. The bus was amazingly comfortable, much better than any Australian bus with only 3 seats across in each row and heaps of leg room and layback seats. Traveled mainly through plantation country across the peninsula and down to Mersing, the launching point to Tioman Island. Getting off the bus we were hustled by various hawkers to pay for an immediate ferry fare to Tioman. We wanted to get a few things organised before heading across, so we declined but people were quite pushy. "Nothing in Mersing, you to go island now, much better, Mersing there is nothing, you pay for ticket now!" After firmly denyinng, we walked to the ferry terminal and discovered the ferry price of 35RM was fixed for everyone so bought tickets for the following morning. 7:30 am. Apparently ferry schedule was set by the tide.

Wandered back into Mersing and tried to get some prices for accommodation. Stumbled across a great travel agent in Mersing who recommended Salang Beach and the resort here called Salang Indah Resort. (The resort we were going to spend time in was booked out over Chinese New Year.)

Feeling a bit less harassed we looked around for somewhere to eat. A little local place on the street fitted the bill. Served us some incredible sizzling squid with tofu and rice. The food is so much better in Malaysia, there is something about it. The freshness of ingredients combined with the fact that everything is cooked on the spot for you. (and also maybe because everytime we go to eat we are starving - eating sometimes gets put at the bottom of priority list when entering new places!!!) Seabreeze came in and we had some afternoon beers, felt very relaxed.

We then had a 1.5 km walk to the hostel we had arranged. (We had heard there had been floods in Mersing in January and booked ahead so as not to be caught out!) Pleasant walk along the beach to the place called 'Khali guesthouse' passing many local children who all thought we were hilariously funny with all our packs. Arriving at the guesthouse we were very impressed by the gardens and set up of the place until we met the host who was completely stoned. ( fair enough because the set up was much like a stoner's paradise!!) He could barely walk, let alone talk and his eyes were very glazed. He showed us two options for accommodation, dropping the keys for the door no less than three times! We decided on the less expensive option. The low season meant that the place was deserted and the room was quite dirty and dusty, but it ended up being an ok place in the end despite the billions of mossies. The net we bought did the trick and we ended up getting a good night sleep. We had to get to the ferry early in the morning and tried to arrange a lift in. He looked horrified at the thought of anyone getting up that early in the morning, and seemed to have such difficulty with coherent thought we gave up