Snorkeling all day!
Trip Start
Unknown
1
17
39
Trip End
Ongoing
Pulau Tioman, Pahang, Malaysia
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Destination, Monkey Beach! We went out with the dive group from Fisherman's Divers and they dropped us off at Monkey Beach just 5 minutes boat ride south of Salang Bay. The other way to get here is through the 1 hour rocky and hilly trail. Monkey Beach is very nice. It is quiet and deserted. If you get here in the morning, they won't be anybody else probably until noon. Most snorkelers do not come to the beach. During low tide, you can see the slightly brownish yellow sand. But at high tide, there's not much beach. So be careful when because we almost lost our lunch packs and snorkel gears while we were napping at the beach! The beach is actually pretty clean except some litter from the nearby abandoned chalets. Yeah, there's abandoned chalets again!
After saving our lunch packs from being washed away, we quickly ate it and then we started snorkeling. There were a couple of boats coming from Tekek when I started snorkeling, to my relief they only stayed for a short while. I snorkeled for almost an hour, just enjoying the warm water and taking lots of pictures of the corals and fishes. When I finished snorkeling, I went back to the beach and found that there were about another 5 people just got there. They took the trail from Salang to get here. Then we decided to start walking back to Salang and snorkel some more from Salang Bay just around the jetty.
The trek back was quite hard mostly because we didn't bring shoes and my left slipper broke. I found one at the abandoned chalet but it was a right slipper. So I was trekking through the rocky and hilly trail with two right slippers and heavy snorkel gears. Not easy! But we managed to get back to Salang in one hour. Had a quick snack then back in the water!
Dinner was awesome. We had freshly barbecued tuna at a restaurant called Mini White House. The funny this was most of the staff that worked there were somewhat 'gender confused'. Maybe there was something in the water! But the fish was really yummy and we had banana milo milkshake to go with it. After dinner, just stroll along the village enjoying the last night at Tioman.
Comments
I second Tioman as a fantastic get-away island. In fact, there are quite a few such paradise islands off Malaysia's East Coast. Can't go wrong there, they're stunning.
However, sometimes the bottle-neck is the ferry operators, as seats on the ferries are limited. In these cases, it's good to know that there are some idyllic beaches along the mainland too; no need to go to offshore perse.
Have a look at Tanjung Resang, for instance. This stunning stretch of beach is flanked by pristine wilderness and is just a few hours away from Singapore and KL.
But when you're there, it feels like you've stepped back in time, it's so rustic, so authentic. The silence is deafening, apart from the sea lapping up on the beach and the breeze rustling in the trees.
Best of all, it's kid-friendly too, very gradually sloping beaches and no odd currents or tide rips going on. Plenty of beach and sea activities too. And the makan there is the icing on the cake.
We're regulars there and I think it shows :)
Have fun!
Thanks for that suggestion. I have never heard of it and I have no idea of its location. Will look into it and hopefully go there and discover it myself!