Snorkeling trip at Tioman Island

I went to Tioman for its famous underwater scenery, even though I wasn’t able to view those beautiful underwater scenery during my first diving trip, I managed to get what I want during my snorkeling trip the next day.

Fishes under the jetty

Me and Amy got a contact from the hotel receptionist and soon got ourselves a boat and a tour guide. We mentioned to the tour guide that we wanted to see beautiful fishes and corals, luckily he was more than happy to bring us to some of the nice snorkeling spot.

Our tour guide

The tour guide brought us to 3 different places to snorkel for the whole day trip. We snorkeled around some of the small islands off the main island where pollution was at a minimum level.

The crystal clear water was really nice as I can still see the white sands a few meters in the water. There were also a lot of beautiful corals but too bad I cannot afford a underwater camera... if you really want to see the corals of Tioman Island, please google it.

Once we jumped into the water the fishes were swimming towards us, at first I thought there were welcoming us but later on the tour guide told us that the fishes were waiting for humans to feed them.

I took some biscuits I bought and in no time all the fishes were swimming towards me. The fishes had no fear towards humans and soon my hand which was holding the biscuits was surrounded by fishes trying to have lunch. It was like the fishes had been starved for a billion years.

If you are holding the food I suggest that you let it go, because sometimes those fishes can't really tell which one is food and which one is your hand. I got bitten a few times because I was holding the food for too long.

Snorkeling in Tioman is definitely a must if you have the opportunity to visit Tioman.

And the other thing you must do at Tioman is to buy alcohols and cigarettes because Tioman is a free tax district in Malaysia. A can of Heineken beer is only RM3, you can drink till you drop at Tioman.

My first diving experience in Tioman Island

After much considering, I decided to try diving after hearing so many fun things about it from my friends. I don’t want my first diving experience to be in a dirty sea so Pangkor Island is definitely out, so I went to Tioman Island since I have never been to there before.

The Tioman Sign at the back of a shoplot

Located 32km off the Peninsula Malaysia, the journey to Tioman Island wasn’t a good experience. First of all, I had to drive all the way to Mersing, the ferry port for almost all Tioman travelers, and took a ferry to Tioman.

Sounds simple, but I had a three and a half hour ferry ride in choppy seawater, plus one very very very tiny seat, lousy air-cond system, and a lot of noisy ah-bengs­ who were trying to make all Malaysians in shame in front of a lot of foreigners. Imagine that and you can feel how sien I was in the ferry.

When I reached Tioman it was already 3pm, so without wasting more time, I faster checked into my booked hotel. The name of the hotel is Barbura Seaview Resort, not exactly five star ratings because I wanted to save money for my first diving experience.

My hotel room, got air-cond one ar, don't play play

The diving centre is just beside my hotel, run by a Japanese who prefer working at the beach than in air-conditioned office cubicle.

The beach behind my hotel

The diving centre

I forgot how much I paid, but my diving trip included watching a DVD as a lesson in the diving centre and an experienced guide who will guide me during the dive.

The DVD lesson which nearly made me fall asleep, but quite informative

After the lesson, the guide went through what I had learnt from the DVD and let me try on all the gears and familiarize with it before going in. The guide also taught me some important hand signals to be used such as showing middle finger if other people accidentally pull of your goggles in the water.

After everything was done, we swam from the beach to the middle of the sea, and dived in.

As a first timer, I was a bit kelam-kabut in the water, I couldn’t control my floating and was either went too low or too high in the water. I think the guide was also a bit kelam-kabut when he couldn’t find me.

Too bad I don’t have a waterproof camera, if I got one then I can show you how funny I was in the water.

The place where I dived doesn’t have much corals or pretty fishes because it’s just a training ground for first time divers. If you want to see more pretty corals and fishes, you have to take more lessons and of course, pay more so that the diving centre can ferry you to other places.

I don’t have the money so I just resort to the lousy underwater view.

After nearly one and a half hour of diving, I had to head back to the beach because I was left with not much oxygen in my oxygen tank.

It was already 7p.m. when I reached the beach.

It was quite an experience for me as I never done this before. If I got the money, I will definitely take the entire diving course and get myself a diving license.

Room for rent

A room for rent for at Taman Pinggiran Cempaka, an apartment with guard house near Pandan Indah.

Monthly rental: RM230.

Transportations:
1) 5 minutes walk to Pandan Indah Star LRT station nearby.
2) Easy access to the MRR2 highway and Jalan Ampang, near to Pandan Indah town and KL city.

Room: Furnished with single bed, clothes closets and ceiling fan.
House: Fully furnished with TV, Astro, DVD player, fridge, washing machine, wireless Streamyx, dining table and many more.

Non smoker preferred.

Interested please drop me an e-mail at leongyiyang@yahoo.com or leave a comment, if possible please provide your contact details so that I can get back to you ASAP.

A curse

My car was scratched while I parked overnight at a housing area somewhere near Sri Petaling.


I am very sure that my car didn't block the road and I don't think I have enemies from Sri Petaling.


I think that anti-social fucker did it for fun.

So to the fucker who scratched my car:

If you were a male, I wish that your balls and your dick drop off because you simply not deserve to have one.

If you were a female, I wish that a huge dick grows on your face so that everyone knows that you are a dickhead.