Snorkelling in Tioman Island

One more item off my bucket list!! My virgin snorkelling trip to Tioman Island in Malaysia was a great success.

With lots of confusion over deciding the departure date, things were not certain until the last minute. After all the uncertainty, we finally concluded 11 July 2012 as our departure date . W booked our coach package from a Travel agency called Konsortium.

We took off at 6.30 am  from Golden Mile Complex, Singapore. The coach was very comfortable with nice reclining seats.The bus reached Tanjung Gemuk around 11.15 am. From where we had to catch the ferry which departed at 11.30 am. It is 1 hour 45 minutes by ferry to reach Tioman, the mini paradise.

We stayed at the Paya Beach Resort which is located at the Kampong Paya (Paya Village). After the check in at around 1.45 pm, we just threw our bags on the bed and quickly rushed the the local restaurant to satisfy our hunger. As we did not have any other activities planned for the day, we headed down to take a walk by the beach and click pictures.  Along the way, we discovered this 'amazing spot' where they had a hammock suspended between two coconut trees and 2-3 swings to play. I relaxed for a while in hammock overlooking the blue beach. 

Day 2 started off with buffet breakfast and then quickly we got to the jetty by 8.45 from where we were picked up for our snorkelling tour. The boat took us to Ringgis Island which is just 15-20 mins away. Ringgis island was nothing but a tiny piece of land with thick bushes. But the real beauty lies under the water! With the snorkel and tightly secured life jacket and 10 minutes briefing, we jumped off the boat into the chilled blue sea. Thousands of beautifully colored marine fishes.  The underwater world is so much beautiful than I could ever imagine! The fishes (which I can't even name!) were beautifully colored. The sea corals were also pretty and I managed to spot a few green colored sea corals too! The activities crew member Mr.Danker was  kind enough to guide me to swim a little further where he showed me a starfish.It was an hour of snorkelling here. I was very much comfortable with snorkelling because I've been swimming since 6. Thanks to my parents.

We were taken to a place called Marine Park, which is a man made conservatory of marine life. We had an hour to snorkel here too. Another hour of bliss! We reached resort by 1.00 pm, just nice for lunch. A good meal, then we were off the beach to get a sun tan. Evening was spent with some soverigner shopping and then again a relaxing walk by the beach (after all, it's a beach holiday!).

Day 3. Had to check out by 10.00 am after which we deposited our bags at the lobby and we took a beach walk, again! Then back to Singapore. This time, I alighted at the woodlands checkpoint and took the bus AC-7 which apprarently is very convinent for people living in north. $2 for a ticket and I was dropped off at my door step (just below my block) in 15 mins time from Malaysia! Wow!

Tioman had all the qualities to call it a 'beautiful deserted island'.It was a nice vacation just before the starting of a new semester at University. Great way to relax, relax and just relax!!

Sri

Ba..Ba... Batam (Indonesia)

As per as our plan,we visited Batam over the Chinese New Year break. It was a 3 days and 2 nights trip.Listen here, those of you who find the name of the place very unfamiliar.Batam is one of the 17,000 plus islands of Indonesia.It's nearer to Singapore therefore making it a popular tourist destination for the Singaporeans and even Malaysians.We had to get on a ferry from Harbor front in Singapore to reach the island and the supposedly 45 minute ride took around 1 and a half hour due to the public holiday rush.

It's a relatively small island(but approximately twice the size of Singapore) where the majority of the tourists come from the neighboring countries such as Singapore or Malaysia or even from the west.

Batam seems to be an infamously famous spot for 'massage' centers, if you know what I mean! But yeah, it's good to get some real good relaxing massage at a relatively cheaper cost. As for the places to see, there is a Hindu temple which looks far different from a typical one. Doing shopping in Batam can be real cheap especially for goods such as handbags, wallets, ladies accessories, foot wears and so on.My cousin and I even managed to buy a few cases for our iPhone which came for a cheaper than it would cost in Singapore.The 'Art of Bargaining' is the key attribute that you should posses in oder to get some great deals! And yeah, at times you may find yourself difficult to communicate with the locals due to their lack of knowledge in English language, therefore learning a few words from Bahasa Indonesia or even Malay in prior to your visit would be a great help.Even some simple sentences such as 'apa ini' (What's this?) can be a great help!

Despite visiting a few malls, however, I did not find it any better than Thailand or Dubai (obviously!).The highlight was that I got to spend my 21st birthday in Batam.As for the water sports, we heard that there are quite a few like para sailing, water skiing and all that but we had to travel further away from our hotel and would need to spend at least a whole day there so we ditched that plan and ventured onto shopping areas instead. Next time if there is a need to buy cheap iPhone accessories or need a massage for relaxation then Batam is the place! Considering the list of places to see,you will certainly not need more than 1 or 2 days to spend there.

The ferry which carried us all.

Shopping is NEVER tiring!

We also bought loads of crackers!

The entrance of the Hindu Temple. Nice, isn't it?

The Great Wall of China!

There was this school educational trip to Beijing, that had been organised by our Secondary school when I was in Secondary-3(which is about 3 and a half years back!), mainly for the students taking History and Chinese Literature. Being a History student and having the zest to travel, I jumped in for the opportunity. On a serious note, when the itinerary form was given to us a few weeks before the actual travel, I had no idea about the places like the Forbidden City,Summer palace,Tianmen square and so on. The only thing that attracted me on the list is THE GREAT WALL! That’s what made me travel to Beijing.

Right after we landed in Beijing we were taken to different places each day as per as the Travel itinerary list. That’s when I got to see the richness of the Forbidden City, its nothing but a palace. It was so huge, than what you imagine it to be!

-->The forbidden city.

Finally the most anticipated day arrives. The day in which they had planned to take us to the Great Wall .I was all happy and enthusiastic. Little did I know that I actually have to climb up the stairs to explore! There were two paths that we can choose to climb on to reach the peak. We chose the left side which had steps that are not as steep as the right side ,but still it was so difficult to walk up. So much of energy was needed. But of course I have been longing to see this place and I got the chance finally, so that thought kept me motivated to reach to the peak. No Pain No gain!

--The Great wall!

The wall was built to protect their own borders.

Malaysia- Dining at the sky top!

Its exactly been a year and 2 days since my last trip to Kuala Lumpur(KL).We flew by Air Asia to the KL International Airport which is located at Sepang, about an hour and a half drive from the City.Our return trip was by train to Singapore,I enjoyed the scenery on the way,though this is not the first time that we travel across the Singapore border to KL by train.We have done so when I was a kid,but it was an overnight journey.We used to live in Malaysia when I was a kid, so it was like I am rediscovering KL all over again.

It was an advantage that we had booked our room at a Hotel (Crowne Plaza) which was located at the Central area and was easily accessible to most of the tourist attractions like The Twin Tower and so on.Therefore right after spending that very first day by roaming around the streets of KL City, we headed to the famous Menara Kuala Lampur(KL Tower) in the evening.It is 421 Meters tall and the tallest tower in South East Asia. We had booked for our Buffet Dinner at the Revolving restaurant which is located at the top of the Tower itself. You can enjoy your food while taking a 360 degree breathtaking view of the KL city.There where three different stations for the main menu and 1 for fruits and pastries.It takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes for one complete rotation.It was my first time dining in at such a place! It seemed like the whole city was under my feet.I took my own sweet time to try out different delicacies that was there.There is no specific dish that I liked there because I enjoyed each and every single dish that I decided to try out.It was a real experience to dine in there and was worth the total bill of a 3-digit amount that we payed!


->A fantastic view of KL from the restaurant.

Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok had the hustle-bustle of any other big city with lots and lots of tourists flocking up.It was a quick 2 hour flight from Singapore to Suvarnabhumi Airport,Bangkok.On day-1 we took one of these tuk-tuk's to visit the Grand Palace and a Buddha Temple which is said to be about 700 year old! The Buddha statue looked tremendous ,painted with gold.I was stunned for a second looking at it.I considered myself Lucky to have been having an opportunity to see that temple.I rewarded myself with some Thai Food for lunch,which tasted pretty good.But,I must say that the Thai food which I have had in Singapore and Malaysia so far is so much different from the authentic one.We roamed in and around the city for about 4 or 5 hours before we headed to a Whole sale shopping mall which was located just beside our Hotel,Grand Diamond.The mall was huge.Me and my sister were asked to shop around,whereas my parents were resting at one of these resting areas in the mall(they where too tired after walking up and down the mall for an hour or so).We were surprised to know that most of the shops and restaurants in Bangkok closes before 8 Pm! Having not buying much at the end of the day-1 shopping as the shops closed before we could finish seeing all ,we made use of the opportunity the next day where we headed to the mall around 4 Pm so that we would have more time to shop.We bought so much of stuffs including Dresses,Bikinis and some hair clips which would cost a bomb in Singapore in total! I came to a conclusion that Thailand is a good choice for shopping (especially for girls),and you need to bargain as much as possible to get best deals!
The Grand Palace
We also booked for a half day city tour and were taken to one of these pagoda's.It took 15 minutes to reach there by boat.At the end of our half day city tour we were taken to the floating market where by you can see vendors and purchasers floating in their small rowing boats,selling or buying goods.But I was disappointed to see that the Bangkok floating market is not as big and nice as the original Floating market which is located about 110 Kilo-Meters from Bangkok.We did not have time to visit that as it was said to be one or two hour hour journey from the city(but have planned to cover those places on our next trip!).Over all it was a nice and memorable trip to Thailand-The land of friendly people.

Caught this at a food stall in the Food court.

This is the gigantic 700 year old Buddha!