Pulau Tioman Trip

24^th June – 27^th June 2009

First day

I was very excited about my trip to Pulau Tioman with my college mates. So, the day had come. I was the first to arrive at the Puduraya Station. Then, Pei Thieng, Jenny and Kenzy saw me sitting on the bench. They could not recognize my face as I had a hair cut and was wearing a cap. They said that I looked like a young kid. Haha… Then, Shirley and her boy friend, Roy gathered with us. After awhile, Wan Ling, Yin Nee, Siew Han and Kuh Loong came from Wai Kwan’s birthday.

Our bus started leaving from KL at 11.30pm. I sat with Jenny. Leaving Kuh Loong sat with Yin Nee. Hehe… Everyone was happy and excited and we could not wait to be at Pulau Tioman.

Second day

We reached Mersing at 5am. The sky was dark and the atmosphere was quiet. All of us had breakfast at the Mamak. There were several ‘ang mo’ in the shop. I assumed that they would be going to Pulau Tioman too.

(Arrived at Mersing)

After having breakfast, they went to buy some mineral waters at 7-eleven. I didn’t join them because the hotel should have provided for us. Last time, when I went to Pulau Lang Tengah, I bought the mineral water just like them but then the hotel actually was provided to us. Thus, it was heavy to carry such a big bottle.

After that, we went to the port. Siew Han and Wan Ling collected the ferry tickets from the tour agency before we could onboard the ferry. While waiting, Pei Thieng, Jenny and Yin Nee played one of the kids’ favourite. Monica and her boy friend, Calvan joined us at the port. Her boy friend looked mature. I heard that he is 28 years old.

(At the port)

The ferry started leaving from the port at 8am and reached the Sun Beach Resort at 9.30am. I took this opportunity to catch my sleep in the ferry as I didn’t sleep well in the bus. (Yawning all the time)

When we reached the place, a guy from the Sun Beach Resort guided us and brought a trolley for us to put our luggage. The sea water was crystal clear. I could see fishes swimming here and there. The colour of the sand was brown. It was different from Pulau Lang Tengah.

The place was like Malay kampong. Yin Nee, Wan Ling, Siew Han and I shared a room while Kuh Loong, Kenzy, Pei Thieng and Jenny shared a room next to us. For the other couples, they had their own rooms. There were two queen beds. No tv and cupboard. If compared with Pulau Lang Tengah resort, the size of the room is bigger.

We quickly changed our clothes to swim suit as we could not wait any longer to try the beach. Siew Han and Wan Ling were the sexy girls. They wore bikini. Kuh Loong and Kenzy suggested that we played beach volleyball. I don’t know this game much. Actually, I dislike playing volleyball as it hurt my hands. Anyway, playing with friends would have different feelings. Kuh Loong, Kenzy, Pei Thieng and Jenny knew the game. The rest of us were just a beginner. We practised the skills of catching the ball by making a big circle. Siew Han was fast learner as she started to love the game. Oh… Monica and Calvan did not join us. Shirley and Roy joined us later. Roy was a good player. I heard that he played for school team. Then, we started to play as teams. Jenny, Siew Han, Wan Ling, Roy and I were in a team. Although I was in the playing field, Roy always caught the balls and I just avoided the balls.

After that, Kenzy suggested to change the game to ‘Monkeys catch the ball’. He picked me and Kuh Loong as the monkeys. Luckily, I managed to catch a ball. As we playing, Yin Nee and Siew Han became the monkeys. There was an incident. Yin Nee’s nose was hit by Siew Han’s shoulder while catching the ball. Yin Nee’s nose became blue red. She felt like a bone was cracked. We tried to calm her down. Kenzy brought some ice. Jenny was giving a helping hand.

The rest of us went swimming. While swimming, Kenzy told us that he saw a few of fishes in somewhere. I forgot to bring my goggles. Haiz… Without the goggles, I could not see clearly in the water. Luckily, Pei Thieng lent me her goggles for temporary. There were many huge stones and a lot of oysters on it. Stepping on the oyster, it hurt my legs. I got a few scratches.

At 2pm, we took a bath and decided to have lunch at the stalls nearby. We chose the last stall. However, their service was very poor. They don’t even take orders from us and just ignored us. So, we moved to another stall. I noticed that there were several mistakes on their menu. The price was the same as KL. I ordered Nasi Paptrik and Air Bendung. Nasi Ayam Goreng was not enough for Kenzy so he ate King Size Burger. Monica and her boy friend joined us for lunch.

After having lunch, Kuh Loong, Jenny, Pei Thieng, Wan Ling, Yin Nee and I played a game called ‘Mafia’. This game was introduced by Kenzy. In order to win this game, you have to be a good liar and debater. At first, I remained quiet and they started to ‘shoot’ me saying that I’m the Mafia. I also convinced them to trust me as an innocent. I played a few roles as spy, citizen and Mafia. However, I didn’t have a chance to be a doctor. But, when I received a card as a doctor for the last game, I went to save others and ended up ‘being killed’. Haha… When Jenny and Kuh Loong played as a Mafia, we didn’t expect they were. Yin Nee was also good in acting. Pei Thieng always asked, “Are you the Mafia?” “Who do you suspect the Mafia is?” Pei Thieng did not play a Mafia role all the time.

The next activity is to play volleyball with Monica and Calvan at 6pm. I didn’t join them this time as my right hand was hurt. I just watched their game.

Our dinner started at 7pm in the canteen. Our night activity was to play a few games. It’s testing your memory. Pei Thieng was good in this. Kenzy played until gave up as Pei Thieng always won him. Kuh Loong was bad in pronouncing the name in Malay such as Nasi Pattaya to Nati Pattaya, Roti Planta to Rosi Planta. All of us laughed like mad. Later, a guide told us to rent the equipment today as we would go snorkeling early in the morning. We stopped the game temporary and went to rent the equipments. The rental of equipments is RM18 for a day.

Siew Han, Monica, Calvan and I were ready at the canteen. I filled up my waterbottle while Siew Han watching the view outside to know where did the karaoke come from. Suddenly, I heard Siew Han’s screaming. An insert sting her hand. Kuh Loong and Yin Nee brought her to see doctor immediately.

Siew Han was given painkiller. Hopefully she would not get any fever on the next day. We continued our games. This time the loser needs to drink beer. We played several games such as 007, numberings, etc until 11pm.

Third day

Luckily, Siew Han did not have any fever. We had a breakfast before departing. A boat took us to another island at 8am. I heard that it took an hour to reach the place. When we reached the place, Kenzy helped me to adjust my goggles. Last time, Mei Yee helped me to do it when I was in Pulau Lang Tengah. There were different kinds of fish such as Nemo. The sea corals were beautiful.

Next stop was at Marine Park. I thought we could see all kind of fish without snorkeling. Actually we had to and I was already tired. We were playing a fool like jumping into the water except Shirley. She was hanging around.

(Marine Park)

After that, we took a bath as we would be going to Duty Free Shop. To my disappointment, there was only one shop and they sold two brands of chocolates. Since I came here all the way, I decided to buy those two brands, Daim and Ferore Roche. The prices of the wines, beers and cigarette were cheaper but it’s not suitable for me.

When we were on the boat, I chat with Roy for awhile. Shirley was tired and sleeping beside him. Roy has been studying in TARC for diploma. Now, he is studying Engineering in UTAR in the fourth year. I guess he is older than me 2 years. I realized that he skip classes for this trip. He told me that he went to Pulau Redang for 3 times. Shirley was afraid to go into water so that’s why she did not join us. He also told me that he went Genting with his friend to watch gambling for the whole day without sleeping. However, on the next day, they were sleepy in class. Wow… I can’t believe it. While chatting, I heard Kuh Loong singing. The song went like this. “I believe I can fly, I believe I can through the sky” Jenny and I laughed at him.

Once we reached the resort, we had a bath. Kuh Loong wanted to play volleyball. Monica, Siew Han, Jenny, Yin Nee, Pei Thieng and I went to have ice-kacang instead. Pei Thieng was the only person to join Kuh Loong. I accompanied Yin Nee and Jenny to buy souvenirs. I found out that those souvenirs were not any special. It’s just that the thing is made by them. Thus, it’s expensive. I prefer giving chocolate to friends is better.

All of us joined the guys playing football, traffic light game, and river and sea games except Wan Ling and Calvan who was sleeping. Our barbeque started at 7pm. Yin Nee, Kuh Loong and I were the last to arrive the place. I took my favourite vegetable which was salad. I sat between Jenny and Roy. Roy told me that salad is also his favourite but this taste of salad was worse. Oh..no.. Yes, he was right. The taste of salad was salty. I regretted to take a lot of salad. They were barbequed the sausages, kampong fish and ‘sotong' for us. Roy warned us that the taste of jelly was not good. Haha...

After eating, we shared stories and jokes. Siew Han, Monica, Wan Ling and Kenzy used wrong words. Kuh Loong was the first to do this and his disease spread to others. I tried the wine. After drinking, you would feel hot. I saw Shirley’s face turned red and was sleepy. Roy and Shirley went back to their room. Only left 10 of us staying there. Calvan ordered two jar of beer. A bartender was a ‘ah kua’ named Koko served us. A Malay worker came to join them playing games. Jenny and I decided to go back and sleep.

When Wan Ling, Siew Han and Yin Nee came back, Monica and Calvan visited us. I saw Calvan was drunk and acted like a kid. Haha… Monica kept persuading him to go back to room.

Fourth day

I packed everything in the morning. We had our breakfast before leaving. The ferry arrived at 9am. Monica and Calvan did not join us since they were going back by car.

(Forming the words-Sun Beach)

When we reached the port, Siew Han was the first to meet Phoebe. It was wonderful to see her on time. Phoebe would be going to US in July. I’m going to miss her. We had lunch in a restaurant and ordered wine prawns, ‘yau mug’, ‘tau fu’, asam fish and pork meat. The cost was RM238.

There were a few Pakistanis and Kuh Loong told us that they have a discussion in the toilet so he assumed they would take action anytime. We just laughed at his imagination. Kenzy always make fun of Kuh Loong. Siew Han always pointed out Kuh Loong’s mistakes. We collected and made a list of his mistakes. Pity him… Hehe…

(A list of Koh Lung's language)

When the bus reached the station, it was time to say ‘goodbye’ to each other. I knew that we planned to watch ‘Transformer’ on Monday so we would be seeing each other again. Haha…