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Tasha's Travels
Hi Everyone
Well the picture of those lush beach bungalows on the ocean is what we were expecting our island paradise to be- but as you can see from my photo album for Tioman... what we arrived into was very different!
Unfortunately our bus pulled into Mersing to catch the ferry over to the island just as the monsoon rain storm hit- so not only did we arrive feeling somewhat seasick from the choppy crossing we were also completely soaked! Initially i was quite excited about the island- despite it being very dark and stormy, i thought we had found a real gem, with this tiny little island tucked away from the tourist trap and a chance to see the real 'Malaysia'. I was wrong.
Our beach 'chalet' was some old shack that was infested with cochroaches and strange bug nests all over the walls, and the bathroom was so gross. This wouldn't have been a big deal as we have seen much worse on this trip, but unfortunately thanks to the weather this was where we were forced to spend most of our time.
After sitting in the hut sheltering from the rain for the first day and amusing ourselves with books and nail varnish we were starting to get serious cabin fever. We ventured out that evening to find a few larger shacks which were the restaurants- and we had a pretty nice meal- although we were malled by some scrawny little cats who seem to have infested the island!
The following day we decided to check out the island, determined to find some civilization or a beach even. We walked half the length of the island to find nothing more than more shacks and a few 'shops' and shack with some shelves! We gave the scarp of beach outside our 'chalet' a go as well, but i got eaten to death by some weird snad flies, so we went straight to the boat house and booked our ferry out of there. Can't complain really for 1.70 a night and the island has a lot of potential and i think we were unfortunately shoved in the grotty end for cheap scapes.
If the weather had been kinder i think it would have been a lot better, because the setting is actually pretty awesome. You have these little wooden huts along the shore with the locals and just a few little cafes and dive places and then behind them is the jungle- like out of King Kong, amazing. I actually saw some monkeys leaping through the trees and what i thought was a crocodile run across my path but Claire informs me it was just a large lizard.
So not a total success and it seems the monsoon season may out an end to our dream of a paradise beach- i'm gutted!! But i am still keeping hope!
We are now in Kual Lumpur which is actually pretty bustly and lively, and there is lots to do! We're off to an Elephant sanctuary tomorro which i am so excited about! Its going to be amazing! So will get the photos of that up tomorro!!
tasha
xxx
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