In Search of White Sand
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008After a few days of Pangkor Island I really wasn’t expecting much from Tioman. But Pulau Tioman, on the other side of Malaysia, was a world apart from that other place. I only went there to kill a few days while waiting for my flight to India (for which I finally have a visa). I stepped off the ferry at ABC, and it was completely silent. One other guy got off with me and zoomed off somewhere on his moped. Walking down the jetty I was a little nervous about walking around, in the dark on what seemed a deserted island. I saw a sign saying that if a muslim is caught drinking alcohol on the island they are liable to “3 years imprisonment, RM5000 (€1000) fine or a flogging of no more that 6 strokes”. Happy that I was born a Christian I proceeded to try and find a bed for the night.
There’s no road on that part of the island, only a little path between the beach and the jungle. Every few hundred feet there is a small restaurant or a few chalets people can stay in. With no one approaching me I eventually had to ask a guy how I could get to a hostel. He just said follow the path and I should find something. And sure enough I did. This being a couples place I had the dorm to myself. Smelled funnier than the last place on Pangkor but after flushing the toilet a few times and drowning the place in perfume it was just fine.
[read on]
cybersusst