Saturday, 26 September 2009

Tioman trip...

Over the Hari Raya Puasa long weekend, I went to Tioman with my hubby, parents-in-law, sister-in-law and her boyfriend. This was the first time I went to a resort for a short holiday trip. I was really looking forward to it. However, the trip turned out to be a rather bad, or should I use a stronger word, VERY bad... haiz.. But then it's not everything that was bad lah... there were good things also...

My parents-in-law had booked a driver for the journey from Singapore to Mersing jetty where we would go to Tioman by a small ship. At the resort (Berjaya Resort), we stayed in a suite comprises of 2 bedrooms, 1 living room, 1 balcony, 1 kitchen and 1 bathroom. I find it rather spacious, good for 4 people. Of course, for the 6 of us, it was not that spacious. However, I liked the room and the view of the balcony as I could view the sea from there. There is also a complete set of cutlery and crockery in the kitchen. Even those motels which I stayed before at other countries, such as USA, do not have such amenities. Thumbs up!

Beach
The beach was rather clean and the sea was calm. We spent some time at the beach picking up seashells after we reached our suite and did some unpacking. This was my first time picking up seashells in my life ever. My sister-in-law collects seashells so we helped to pick for her. I managed to found a very very big seashell for her as well as other unique ones like those black in colour. I was really amazed to find such unique seashells and was very happy to spend such great time at the beach.

Swimming at the pool
Another good thing was the swimming pool which was just outside the mini lobby. You will never miss it when you arrive at the lobby after alighting from the shuttle bus. On the 2nd day, we went for a swim in the morning at about 10am. It has been a very very long time since I stepped into the swimming pool due to certain personal reasons. For those who are close to me will know what I mean so I shan't elaborate here. Anyway, for the purpose of this trip, I went to buy a swimming suit [the one I had long long time ago sure cannot fit liow loh : )]. When we went to the pool, there wasn't any one there. It was like a private pool for us. Everyone was there except for my father-in-law as he had more important things to do (see below). When I entered the pool, I felt a bit afraid of the water. I think it's natural since I long time never swim already. I tried all the strokes I learnt before and I'm glad that I remembered each of them. We stayed in the pool for 2 hours before going back to our room for a shower.

Snorkeling
After the shower, we went to take a boat which my father-in-law specially chartered it to bring us for snorkeling. We were scammed by the person (called Rizal) who brought us to the jetty. You know what, the boat which was supposed to bring us to the snorkeling places were delayed and we were left stranded at the jetty for quite some time. That Rizal was uncontactable and my father-in-law had to talk to one of the locals there who happened to know Rizal and asked him to get a boat for us. Finally, we were able to get on to a speed boat which brought us to 3 places for snorkelling. Only my hubby, his sister and her boyfriend went for snorkeling. I did not go down as I was afraid that I would be sea-sick. The amazing thing was I did not get sea-sick at all! Anyway, I was given the task of being a photographer so I was snapping away photos of the sea, fishes and our snorkelers. The sea was calm and the fishes were beautiful.

After snorkeling, we returned to our suite and was shocked to find that the floor tiles in the living room had cracked. We thought that it was most likely the water that came from the air-con and seeped through the tiles. During that night, more tiles cracked and my hubby who was sleeping in the living room had no choice but to squeezed with me in the single bed in one of the bedrooms.

We were scammed again when we were coming back the next day. The ship which we were supposed to embark to go back to Mersing Jetty did not even come at all. We kept asking the locals at the jetty and they did not even know the time the ship would come. We even asked our driver (whom was supposed to drive us back to Singapore from Mersing Jetty) to ask the locals at Mersing Jetty. The office there was not even opened. Aiyoh... where's everybody? Must have gone for their Hari Raya celebrations and did not bother about us. In the end, we had no choice but to purchase another ticket to embark another ship that would take us back to another jetty at Malaysia mainland. We were so flustered and frustrated about what had happened.

After so much that had happened, I really have a bad impression of Tioman. I don't think I would want to go back there again.


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