The Forgotten Bag: Pulau Tioman, Malaysia

For our first trip since becoming residents of Singapore we flew 40 minutes to Palau Tiomon, a small island off the east coast of Malaysia in the South China sea.

We chose this location based on the recommendation of a family friend and former Singapore resident. When we arrived we knew only the village that was our ultimate destination, Salang. We read what little the internet had to offer about Salang and it seemed just fine. We also had an accommodation recommendation from the aforementioned family friend. We quickly learned there were no roads to Salang but that problem was overcome by a water taxi. The water taxi dropped us at the end of a long pier, the gateway to Salang, and sped off leaving us bright-eyed while clueless. As we walked down the pier towards the village we couldn’t help but notice there was not a soul to be found. This place wasn’t absent tourists, it was absent any form of life aside from monkeys, big lizards and creepy stray cats.

We wandered around town for a bit and did happen upon a few locals (or so we presumed). We found the recommended hostel (Puteri Salang) but couldn’t find a front office, a bellhop, anybody (running theme). Finally a man on a bike, Eddie, came by and answered our prayers – he either ran the Puteri Salang or felt more than comfortable pretending to do so. He walked us to an unlocked chalet, telling us on the way that we were the only tourists he’d seen in a while because it rains all day, every day. Once he let us in (we didn’t have much room to argue) he just told us to pay him ($13/night) when we decided to leave.

I now know that Tioman is a resort island that is currently few weeks from the beginning of the season and a few months from the height of the season. Essentially, we unknowingly walked into Martha’s Vineyard circa March meets Deliverance meets Malaysia. We rushed to the beach to enjoy what we were sorry to assume would be our only sunshine (incorrect assumption; it never rained and was mostly sunny). Over the next two hours we realized a few things; there were about two dozen locals and no tourists, there was a lot of garbage around the beach including tar balls and a thin sheath of oil in the water and worst of all there was no beer in the village. Perfect.

We agreed in the medium term, i.e., the next day we would leave and go find another village on the island. We spent the rest of the day on this hike over a hill to a secluded cove named Monkey Bay which turned out to be a real treat however we weren’t going to spend the next three days hiking to and from Monkey Bay. Julia would either die or divorce me. Monkey Bay was a clean beach absent any form of human life which in this case was welcomed. We returned to Salang around sunset to a pleasant surprise, a few cases of beer had just arrived at the local restaurant and we bought two – each about 70 degrees but they hit the spot (see picture).

That night we ate at the restaurant – we were the only patrons on a reasonably pleasant porch overlooking the beach (which was – all in all – quite pleasant from a distance). However, the staff and some of their friends (all men in their 30’s) were also on the porch smoking cigarettes and watching Harry Potter on subtitles. Seriously.

The next day we took a boat back to the village/city (Tekek) with the airport and began a 3 hour hike to a town called Juara – we read about the hike beforehand. When we arrived in Juara we immediately say a respectable and typical looking beach restaurant with three Australian tourists having a beer. Jackpot. The rest is history – wonderful beach, dirt cheap lodging (chalet on the beach), food, beer, etc. The only interesting story is that we realized we didn’t have enough money to live very well and Juara has no ATM or credit-card accepting vendors so we had to hitchhike in the back of a pickup truck back to Tekek to visit the town ATM. More dramatic than it seems but we did have to pinch ourselves a few times.