The usual
situation was upon us: Amy gets a week off from her teaching job (March Break),
and we’re left wondering where to go, what to do – a serious first-world
problem! Amy was keen on a beach mission (surprise surprise), but we also wanted
to go beyond Bali and/or Indonesia…you know, the “something different” thing.
We had heard
from a friend in Singapore (hi Andrea!) that Tioman Island, off the east coast
of Malaysia was worthy. In fact, get this, in 1970, Time Magazine voted it as
one of the most beautiful islands in the world. Ya, but they were also into
plaid and polyester back then too (something about a leisure suit) J
Anyhooo, looking
at a map, the basic mission for us would involve a flight from Jakarta to
Singapore, then a 4ish-hr bus ride across the border into Malaysia to a port on
the east coast, where we would catch a 2ish-hr ferry to Tioman. Hmmm, didn’t
seem too bad (more on that later!).
Who could
resist the most beautiful island in the world? Giddy up! Let’s do this!
And so it
was. Flights booked, check, buses booked, check, ferries booked check, accom
booked, check. Check check check, all systems go. We even booked a 24-hr
stopover in Singapore on the way through to visit our friend Andrea, and split
a bottle of Prosecco on the rooftop of the Marina Bay Sands – Singapore’s
iconic boat-on-top-of-high-rises hotel in downtown Singapore. Not cheap (did I
mention that Singapore is the world’s most expensive city?), but hey, sometimes
you just gotta pull out the plastic. It was one of those times. Very cool!
All was
going swimmingly, until my body was rudely attacked by an infection of some
kind that manifested itself in the form of an out-of-control hang nail on my left
ring finger that exploded into a raging infection that threaten to eat my hand.
Being in Singapore – home to some of the best medical care on the planet – it
seemed foolhardy to venture onwards to a remote island off the coast of a
developing country with a raging infection underway.
Sometimes
you just have to make hard decisions. We chose the Singapore health care system
over our meticulously planned 6-am bus departure and all points east, and
voila, we were now into Plan B. Plan B was: go to the hospital, get treated,
get on antibiotics or whatever else they throw at me, come back to Andrea’s
pad, then figure out how we are now going to get to Tioman by alternative means
– not an easy task!
Anyway, we'll skip over the gory details, but 24 hours +/- later, after a visit to the
Singapore National University Hospital (full points to the Singapore health
care system!), we found ourselves firmly on Tioman Island soil, enjoying the
fruits of our Plan B – which turned out to be a midnight bus (more fun!)
through Malaysia, to the port town of Mersing, then onto a crack-of-dawn ferry,
and over to Tioman in all of our sleep-deprived glory. Definitely the part of
travelling we can do without.
Our first
port of call, a place called “Paya” on the west side of the island, turned out
to be an over-crowded resort situation catering to loud fluorescent Asian
tourists. Although, given my medical situation dominated by a bandaged finger
and doctor’s instructions to “keep it dry” (er, doc: did I tell you I’m on my
way to a tropical island for a week of holiday?), the air-con room was actually
a good clean place to heal my wounds. It’s that infection thing. Clean is good.
So it actually wasn’t that bad to be in a resort situation for a couple nights.
The true
prize – and the reason we might even say Tioman is the world’s most beautiful island – was when we switched gears
and made our butts to the east side of the island, and a place called Juara. Ah
Juara…..wow. Looking for that perfect
beach to chill, feet in the sand, perhaps a glass of wine at sunset, and let’s not
forget crawling out of bed and into the ocean for a morning dip? If you
answered yes, then Juara is for you.
Juara delivers
in that “chill beach/feet-in-the-sand” category. It’s that perfect combo of
just enough infrastructure (you know, cold beer, beach chairs, and an outdoor
shower – what else do you need?), but no glitzy shiny resort-style
mega-developments. From what we gathered, the lack of development has something
to do with a combo of no direct ferry connections (i.e., the ferry doesn’t land
in Juara, you have to drive over from the west side of the island), marine park
status around the entire island, and something about a rule that makes it illegal
to build anything over three stories high.
Whatever the
reason, no complaints – it’s what makes Juara special among all the places we
have ever been. It’s just hard to find beaches on this planet that aren’t
over-done and ruined by overdevelopment. Somehow, Juara remains relatively
unspoiled. (but don’t tell anyone! J)
So ya, 5 or
so nights of red wine sunsets, coffee sunrises, morning swims, snorkeling,
paddle-boarding, jungle walks to tropical waterfalls, cold beer in the afternoon,
walks on the beach, dinners in the moonlight – oh, did I mention the full moon!
Wow, absolutely stunning full moons night after night shimmering off the ocean.
We both agreed it was probably the most stunning full-moon show we have ever
seen.
As an added
bonus, if you can believe it, the entire island has “duty free” status for some
weird reason (never did figure out why) – meaning at strategic locations, there
are duty-free booze stores offering up cheap beer, spirits, and wine! Coming
from wineless Indo, we were like kids in a candy store – the kind that shop for
good bottles of red wine J Those full moons just got better and better.
Well, as the
story goes, all good things must come to an end. We reluctantly packed up,
arranged our ride over the island to the ferry terminal, ferry to the mainland,
into a car to take us to the Malaysia-Singapore border, into another car and a
2-hr wait at the border (borders eh….nothing but trouble). We were sweating
bullets as we pulled into Singapore’s International Terminal with about 30 mins
left on the clock before take-off.
Anywhere
else we would have been too late. But this is Singapore. No lines, no waits.
Within 10 minutes of entering the glass doors of Terminal 3, we were on the
other side of security, boarding pass in hand, and heading to the gate. We made
it to the gate, flashed our boarding pass, and walked onto the plane.
Sometimes, you just have to believe in miracles.
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| Could not have said it better! |
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