Ratraces in vacations

Sunny days, long days, fun days, beautiful days ... hazy days?

The haze caught up with us on our escapade to Tioman, from the 17th to 20th of August. But that is the extent of the bad news. Haha.

Let me recount what happened on our holiday. We left Bandar Utama at 4.45am to start out 5 hour long journey to Mersing, Johor by car. Sardine packed in Seng Chor's Nissan, we made our way on the highway that is the North South Highway, south bound. Traffic was good (what else, travelling in the wee hours of the morning?) and soon the highway gave way to the winding, narrow trunk road lined with hundreds upon hundreds of oil palms and rubber trees. Speaking of the haze, I could see it quite clearly even at that early early hour of the morning, masquerading as mist. It was pea soup thick and at times hid the sun from our eyes. Our journey to Mersing was, thankfully, uneventful and quick, as I was asleep for most of it :) . Five hours later we arrived at Mersing and made our way to the Sun and Sand Travel, Berjaya's agency (I think). We spent about 30 minutes there and when we got out once more, to our surprise, or more like shock, we found that we had been fined for illegal parking. Oh holidays ...

Our ferry started sailing, or rather speeding towards Tioman Island from the Jetty at about 11am. It was more comfortable a boat ride than I remember from out last trip. This time the boat was bigger and better equipped, even air conditioned. It took all of 1 hour and 30 mins.

Here we are finally at Tioman Island. Woo Hoo. We lugged all our luggage (haha) to the specially provided bus waiting for us at the jetty's end and reached Berjaya Holiday resort in two shakes of a duck's tail (how this idiom came to be is beyond me ...)

This was our home for the next 3 plus days. An elegant, mansion-esque kampung styled house. Berjaya holiday resort has two types of accommodation: chalets (like this) and apartments. We stayed in rooms 318 and 319, fully air conditioned, fully hot showered, etc.

We were a bunch of hungry people. Haha. This is the amount of food we brought along with us, basically for breakfast and lunch. We had loads of things from cereal and milk to biscuits and instant noodles to bread and canned fish to sweets and chocolates and beverages. We ate and ate and ate. Dinner time was usually eaten at the local restaurants. The food was yum for the first and third evenings at Citra Anugerah Seafood restaurant, a stone's throw from the Resort, but lacking on our second evening at a different restaurant. Food was always aplenty.

Highlights

Snorkeling: Next to diving, snorkeling is a 'must do' in any tropical island paradise, and since I am not qualified to dive ... yet ... snorkeling was part and parcel of the trip. We managed to snorkel in three spots: Dalam Bay, The Marine Park and Renggis Island, a small island just off the shore from Berjaya Resort. Dalam Bay was new to me, as on the last trip to Tioman, we went on a slightly different snorkeling route. Dalam Bay was ok. Most of the corals, if I remember properly, were brownish, but fish were aplenty. The Marine Park was something of a disappointment, as it is more for fish feeding. If you think piranhas are voracious, think again. Drop a piece of something into the water and it gets attacked left, right and centre by fish of all sizes. Whoa. I say that it was a disappointment because there were not many varieties of fish and hardly and coral and I was attacked by what I think were tiny jellyfish ... as I was swimming, following a fish toward some ropes, I felt something, um, somethings stinging me ... and that also through my shirt. What a feeling ... .

Well not all was lost as Renggis Island more than compensated for the snorkeling trip thus far. Although not quite as I remembered it, Renggis Island was coral heaven, comparatively, and housed an astonishing number of fish and other marine life (sea cucumbers and urchins). I was on the look out for nudibranches (thanks to Seng Chor) but because they were either expecting me or were also on vacation, I was looking in vain. Sigh ... Oh nudi, where art thou?

Trekking to the waterfalls: This was something new as it was included in the round island trip. We arrived at some part of the island (south I think) and made our way up the stairs towards the waterfalls. There were a lot of steps, I can tell you that and I was rather warm by the time I arrived. The scene that greeted me was a sight for sore eyes: a pristine waterfall surrounded by verdant life, clear waters plunging into a small but deep pool, the smell of fresh forest water and trees ... ahhh. Most of us waded into the cold waters and rested a while, what a way to relax from the hustle bustle of city life. I even saw a frog sunbathing on a rock.

Games and more games: Games are always a highlight in our gatherings. And the core group of gamers were all here on vacation ... haha. We played the usual card games, chor tai tee, Up and Down the River and the 7 game. Also a few rounds of the enjoyable Ratrace, but the highlight of this highlight was our newest game: Kashflow. It is a very interesting and 'real' game as it teaches you things like positive and negative cashflow, the ratrace and how to invest your money in life. There's babies, downsizing and even 'doodads' (everyday expenses that can break your savings). In a sense we brought the ratrace into our escape from it. Hahah.

I have loads more pictures of the sea, the beach, the resort, the food and fun. Please let me know if you would like to see them.

To end this post, here are some pictures of our group of 5 (so who's Timmy? Haha).

God bless you all.