Lee n Tan

Headed over to Tioman on the 10 o’clock ferry, about a 2 1/2 hour ride. We got to see half of the island as our bay – Salang – where we booked our accommodation was the last drop off for the ferry. We booked our accommodation yesterday in Mersing so we had no real idea of what it would be like. Well it is great just what we wanted; we are a short walk up the hill in a little hut looking over the bay & jetty….the perfect spot.

We had a bite to eat and then went for a wander. The bay is very small, no roads at all only paths so no traffic. We did discover that our resort ‘Salang Sayang’ is at the best of the bay for swimming. We had dinner on the beach and then met up with the Swedes for a drink, finally we discovered their names – Hobrick & Fanny (pronounced Fanni). They had arrived on the island yesterday so they had already settled in.

Arrived in Mersing @ 9.30pm last night the bus trip was only 2 1/2 hours I’m sure we will be in for some much longer ones in the future!! When we hopped off the bus we were greeted by a tout for a backpackers and it just so happened to be the backpackers we had read about so Lee & I quite quickly put our bags in the trunk & hopped in. There was a Swedish couple that we also on the bus with us and they were a bit hesitate (thinking he might just drive off with their bags) but once we had a chat they threw theirs in and we all hopped in.

O’Mars was a very basic but clean little place above some shops on the main road of the town. We all grabbed a bed in the dorm (only sleeps 6) for 10RM a night….very cheap. We had another guy join us later in the evening, he and I met over some Mozzie Repellent. The Mozzies were quite bad and it got to the stage where I just couldn’t take it anymore so I fumbled around in my bag & pulled some out. Once I sprayed this guy says ‘Do you have Mozzie Spray? Can I have some?’ It was pretty dark so neither of us could see anything but at least we both got some sleep after that.

Spent the day walking around checking out the little township of Mersing, it was an old fishing village although nowadays not much fishing is done. We had lunch & a few beers at the Port Cafe with Andrew (my new found mozzie friend) and the Swedes. During the lunch Andrew friend Stef arrived from Tioman to help him out of his jam (his cards were not working and he had no money!!). She has been travelling with Andrew & his mate for about 2 months & has saved his hide on many occasions.

We stocked up on a few supplies for the trip over to Tioman Island tomorrow, then had Indian with Andrew & Stef & a new guy to O’Mars, Steven from NZ. After dinner we went back to the Port Cafe with Steven for a couple of quiet beers. Mersing was a sleepy town but it had a good feel about it.

Packed our bags and said goodbye to ‘The Bush Family’ and their lovely house and bed (thankyou Nambaree).

Caught a local bus to the Transit Centre and hopped on another to JB. The Checkpoint and bridge where very busy and it took a while to get over the causeway between the 2 countries (its the weekend).

What a difference from Singapore to Malaysia. JB is very dirty, busy with people & traffic and most of the speech & sings are in Malaysian. Once we got through customs we made our way over to the shopping centre n

Our first real day of rain for our holiday. Thunderstorms & heavy rain nearly all morning so we didn’t leave the house until late.

We hopped on the bus and made our way into Chinatown, had a wander around and found another Hawker Centre – Maxwell Rd. These hawkers centres are fantastic we had some awesome curry puffs & some Muslim dishes. After lunch we walked around aimlessly and found another shopping area and decided to have some chill out time and treated ourselves to our first foot massage. They were not quite as relaxing as a Thai Foot Massage a little bit too much pressure on the reflexology points, we need to get to Thailand quick as it was also quite expensive.

After our massage we sat in our favourite shopping centre ‘Bugis’ not many places in Singapore that we found were you could just sit in aircon and relax…..we are longing for the Malaysian beaches. We make our way over the causeway tomorrow to Johor Bahru or JB then probably towards the east coast to hit some beaches or an island.

The late afternoon and evening were filled up with getting to and Lee playing Underwater Hockey. Friday nights for them is just social so its one game all in no matter how many are playing so Lee didn’t quite enjoy the play as much as Tuesday. After the game was over everyone piled into cars and we made our way to Lau Pa Sat another Hawker centre. We had a huge dinner the food is soooo cheap and sooooo good! We said our goodbyes and Jimmy gave us another lift back to Greg’s House, he has been so helpful.

Tuesday 11th Mar

We were out & about early. We said goodbye to the “Happy Hotel’ & headed over to Little India to see if we could get out of our accom. All is good we were charged a cancellation fee.
We made contact with Greg & taxied over his place. Well we have gone from the slums to millionaires row. We dropped our bags with the maid & headed out.
We went for lunch at the same hawker centre we ate at last night then went for a look around the harbour area. Then had dinner in Bugis and tried our first ‘Crispy Pancake’ very nice!

Wednesday 12th Mar

Today we headed to the Singapore Zoo…….what an awesome zoo. Everything from Elephants to Meerkats (they are so tiny).
After wearing our feet into the ground we went to find a watering hole near the river and sat for quite a while, it was good to get off our aching/blistered feet. We must look a sight hobbling around Singapore!!!