Tioman (Malaysia)

Tioman is a little piece of paradise, located on the south east coast of Malaysia... a long ways from Kuala Lumpur! Not so easy to get to: starting with a 1 hour taxi ride to the bus station at 5am, a 5 or 6 hour, super comfy bus ride to Mersing and then following 4 hours of waiting time at the harbor, a 3 hour ferry ride to the island... so basically a full day of travelling but all well worth it!

We stayed on a small beach on the north east side of the island (Salang Bay), in a small homestay right on the beach. We were able to snorkel right out front. Éloïse saw a blacktip reef shark here. The coral were honestly not so great. The water was so warm it's no wonder the corals have bleached. The temperature of the water was literally as warm as I would take a bath, warmer than the air temperature which was easily over 32 degrees Celsius! But, we did hire the boat of the owner for a day and he took us out snorkelling to the near by island called Coral Island. It's name did not deceive. The corals were lovely and the fish life abundant. We saw a variety of marine life and for the first time, we saw some baby blacktip reef sharks that were about 30 cm in length. They were so cute!!!

On another day, we hired his services again and went around the island of Tioman, stopping here and there for snorkeling, swimming and visiting. One of the stops took us to Juara beach on the western coast of the island where they have a turtle conservation project. Had we known this sooner, we would have planned to stay there for a few days but we had flight plans that unfortunately didn't allow us this flexibility. Nonetheless, we much appreciated all the information the owner shared with us.

​We also stopped in the southern part of the island to visit a waterfall. We had a very refreshing swim here in good company. A really nice couple came along for the boat tour and we exchanged some good stories.

The last evening we were there, we had an amazing diner with the same couple we met on the boat. We had a BBQ feast with fresh squid and fish. My mouth still waters just at the thought of this meal!