The Man Who Was a Bird; Backpacking Pulau Tioman

If your version of a paradise island is long white beaches, turquoise waters and rain forest covered mountains with a sprinkle of heavy sunlight, Tioman is the place for you. Offering fair diving and some jungle trekking one could spend several days here. Unless one is me that is. For me it's gets old quite fast and after a few strolls in the jungle and a dives in the ocean it turns mundane. A hard life, I know.

For a short getaway this destination fits like a glove.

Walking along Juara Beach

For budget travelers the ABC or air batang beach and harbour area is the way to go. Salang used to be the place but not caters mainly to Asian families and travelers from Singapore. There are still a bit of young blood here though. Even though the island was fully booked and people had a trouble finding accommodation the beaches felt almost empty so there is definitely room for some solitary time if one wishes. In ABC there aren't too man y places to go after late a clock. Things close early and that includes the bars, all two of the. Well there are a few more but the only ones I'd recommend are sunset bar at the southern end of ABC and the B&J dive bar a couple of minutes north of the pier. Getting to Tioman will cost you 45 or 35 RM depending on if you take the first ferry or not. The early one is 10RM more expensive. But it will give you an advantage over the other backpackers when securing housing.

Guarding the guesthouse

In terms of diving I encountered four dive shops but only looked into two of them. Eco divers and B&J dive center. Eco divers being the cheaper one I'd have normally gone with them since I'm quite self sufficient in the blue. However it turned out that two of my dive buddies from Koh Lanta, Thailand now worked at B&J. Did my diving with these guys and they seemed to run a good shop. At lest first. One day a dive master didn't turn up so we dove with one Dive Master(DM) short. No biggie, but I did have to haul a OW diver back down and hand him almost 4kg of weights for him to stay down. Still there was some nice diving to be done. I'd say it was on par with the perhentians, gili trawangan and koh lanta/phi phi.

My two French musketeers

Accommodation is quite easy to find. Getting of the Pier the cheaper places are to the south and the tad more costly are to the north. There are exceptions though. I'd stay away from Johan's since there are bedbugs there at the moment. I ended up staying at merwas or some place with a similar name for a staggering 30RM per night for my own bungalow with a big bed and a fan. The veranda with my own little ocean sunset view was definitely an added bonus. There was only cold water but in this heat I'm not one to complain, much.

Considering that this is one of the cheapest places to buy alcohol in Malaysia the nightlife is near pathetic. During happy hours (5pm-7pm)at sunset bar you will get 3 tiger beers for 10 RM which is damn good for Malaysia. If one feels frisky enough (I did) to traverse the little hill separating ABC from the neighbouring town to the south one can find a couple of duty free stores selling alcohol much cheaper. I scored 3 Hogarden for 10RM or 5 Jazz beer for 10 RM. There are also crates for sale at discount prices. Vodka, whine and other spirits are also cheap, for Malaysia. 45RM for a big bottle of Absolute Vodka or 120RM for some champagne.

There is only one accessible ATM than I know of and it's located about 20 meters north of the airport. No fees are declared on the machine which refers to fees online, somewhere. Dive centers will charge you 3% for card payment so if you can withdraw money without fees in your previous destination it might be a good choice.

When it comes to the beaches the Juara beach is in my opinion the best one I've tried here. It's long white shores are purely sand but can have hints of organic(seaweed and such) degree at times. The second beach I'll recommend is Salang which have some nice sandy beaches with proper snorkeling not far away. The ABC beach is by far the lesser one is this trio of comparison with plenty of little rocks. It is however very nice for snorkeling and and other water activities like sailing and windsurfing. There is no really strong wind though so don't expect anything mind blowing. After all we are on a rest and relaxation trip.

The Juara Path's stream

Walking around the island is an option for the hardy but is quite rewarding for nature loves and people with ants in their pants (like me). The Juara trek is a 7km mountain forest trek which means a lot of steps and ups and downs. There is a small stream close to the drinking water station which one might play around in. Not sure if this is entirely advised by the local administration though. From ABC it's definitely another 1-1-5k to the beginning of the trail. So walking one way or taking a return trip will be a while. I'd book 2-3hours, one way minimum. There is also a route for 4WD vehicles on which one might stroll. This route is a fair bit longer. I'd guess 4km longer from ABC.
Another green hike is the one to monkey bay. Somewhat shorter than the Juara one but I never got around to walking it. It is however rumored the monkey bay is quite the looker when it comes to beaches. Walking around one should keep those eyes open. There are plenty of snakes and large reptiles around. I only spotted one two meter long black snake but king cobras and boas are known to show up in the area. Did spot a 1.5 meter long lizard swimming around though. In fact it's said that the reason there are so few cats on the island is  because they become reptile food if they stray too far. The native monkeys in the island don't seem to share this problem and there are plenty of them to steal a bit of fruit if left unattended. Another addition to the wildlife is the range of raptors (birds) that roam the islands. The legend goes that once when a British traveler visited the island he pointed at it and asked what it was named. A local responded with "Tio" I am, referring to the black bird. This being pronounced "Tioman" the explorer understood it as the name of the island and so it got it's name.