Tahoe Johnson’s Journey to Southeast Asia

Golf Course -Tiamon IslandMonitor LizarJungle monkies, Air Batang beach, Josh, all

 Pictures – breakast on beach, JOsh eating dragon fruit, Annika befriending cat-“tiger”, annika found a coconut on ground and had the restaurant open it up so she could drink the juice.

Note:  check back to previous blogs, we may have added pictures. 

 Back to civilization 1/12/09 – catching up on blogs and pictures

After a very bumpy ferry ride (a combination of a roller coaster, bumper boats and a bucking bronco!), we landed on Tioman Island. It’s the epitome of a tropical island rising up out of the sea, with small villages clinging to the edge of the shore. The jungle rises up thousands of feet right behind the village in a riot of greenery and growth. I am right now sitting on the veranda of our guesthouse, and the waves are about 20 feet away! We have 2 small rooms with AC and hot showers. Nothing special, but an upgrade to where we’ve been and hey – it’s right on the beach! The only surprising part was the heat and humidity. When you see all those pictures of tropical isles, you don’t see the sweat and the mosquitoes! Natalie got eaten alive the first night and was pretty miserably itchy the next day.  On our way to our guesthouse, we saw a 4 foot long monitor lizard, which we later learned was an iguana. Later that day, Josh and Tim saw jungle monkeys scampering in the trees and a snake curled up on a branch! There’s only one short piece of road on the island, so we walk down the beach to find someplace to eat each night. There’s actually not a whole lot of choice as a lot of places are closed for the season. Tonight, we ate at a small table about 2 feet from the surf and had curried mackerel! (All 5 of us for about $10!) Our guesthouse restaurant is on pilings over the water and is a peaceful place to eat breakfast. We’ve really enjoyed talking to the family that owns our guesthouse. There are several grown kids and their families running the place, and their house is sort of open to the restaurant, so the kids run in and out and I (Natalie) have had a chance to talk quite a bit with one of the moms. Tim went golfing at a golf course hewn out of the jungle. He played with monkeys on the tee boxes, iguanas walking across the fairways, and white herons everywhere. Just goreous despite bad greens.  On one par 3 had to hit over the ocean and sand bank to get to the green.  When looking for a ball off the fairway, he had to be very careful as he didn’t know what would jump out of the jungle!  We also went for a walk in the jungle rainforest, on a grown-over path. After about 10 minutes, the kids were too freaked out about what they might see, and we were all already wet with sweat, so we turned around. Besides, we hear the snakes are poisonous!

We were planning to leave the island today, but found out that the ferry has been cancelled for the next 5 days! I guess the government watches the weather and if the winds are too great, they don’t allow the boat companies to go. Probably a good thing, but not in our plans! The bright side is that Josh was able to take an intro scuba course, and now with the delay, he can add on a few days of instruction and have his full diving license. It’s been a highlight for him and opened up a whole new world. The coral reef off the island is pretty good although the clarity isn’t great due to the monsoon.  So at this point, we are hoping to leave by the 13^th. Can’t get any internet til back on the mainland, so we’ll be off the island by the time you read this.

Pictures:  Palm Groves – harvesting palm oil, rice paddies, Sunset at Tioman Island, Annika, Queens traveling on bus, Local bus – not always so tour looking or feeling, Ferry to Tioman Island, Tioman Island sunset (note:  if you click on the pictures they should blow up to a bigger look) 

Our guest house in Melaka was not what the books claimed it to be. It was very “rustic,” and the kids weren’t too pleased. Very hot with only a broken fan, and a well-used community toilet and cold showers. But I (Natalie) liked it – it was in an old Chinese style with hardwood floors and an inner verandah surrounding a central courtyard. The courtyard had huge banana palms growing up through the opening to the sky. Our room faced the street, which was only about 10 feet wide. A Chinese family was doing some deep housecleaning for the upcoming Chinese New Year at midnight! That, combined with the call to prayer at the mosque down the street made for a short night. The street we were on had a Chinese temple and a mosque within a stone’s throw from each other.  The next part of our journey is to head up to Kuala Lumpur. However, while getting breakfast at a traveler’s café, we met an English woman and our plans changed on the spot.  We decided to go out of our way across Malaysia to the east coast and then to Tioman Island.  We originally planned to do this in April, after the monsoon, since much of the east coast is shut down during the monsoon. But according to the woman we met, the island was open and it seemed we all needed a break from the heat and travel, so we took a chance and tomorrow we hope the winds die down so the ferry shuttle can take us to the island for some “rest” time…The trip to Mersing took close to 5 hours and the last two were on bumpy country roads with Malaysian “techno” music and a screeching women’s voice in the background. However, we passed through rice fields, miles of Palm Orchards for the cultivation of palm oil, and forest growth. Mersing is quite small and quiet. The kids were happy to find a restaurant that served pizza! An added experience was losing electricity in the middle of the meal! Getting back to our backpacker guesthouse, we enjoyed chatting with a German/Austrian couple, a Czech artist and the hostel owner who was originally from Yemen. We again lost electricity, but the kids pulled out their flashlights and got right into their journaling.   The wind is quite strong, we we hope they don’t cancel the ferry tomorrow. 

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