A week on Tioman

Our official favourite place is The Panuba Inn on Tioman. It is the best place to unwind and chill out that we have found, and we have made five trips there over the last few years.










Having last week off work was an opportunity to go away, and it had to be Panuba. Diving for me, on the doorstep, and beach and snorkelling for Kat.
Despite fairly horrible food, and the usual inability to understand the needs of tourists that seems to plague Malaysia, we had a fantastic time. Tioman is such a beautiful island, and the light in the evenings is spectacular.









The diving, as ever, was superb. Bali Hai (the dive shop) is my favourite, and it was good to see Sonia still there, running the show now. I managed to squeeze 12 dives (and a night dive) into the trip, and whilst the visability was not at its absolute best, it was still fantastic. I still think coral island, and especially Batu Layar are the best dive sites on the peninsular.
This photo was taken in the Coral garden off Coral Island, and I have uploaded it straight here, without any photoshop adjustments. Wonderful healthy coral. I could have stayed down there for hours...
Tioman should be a really convienient destination, being only a few hours away by car (at least, Mersing is only a few hours away) but we have just arrived home exhausted after a 12 hour journey. Bloody ridiculous. So much waiting around for ferries and buses. I HAVE to get a car!
We were woken on the bus in the way there at 4am, to be told that the bus no longer stops at mersing R&R, and we needed to transfer to a little mini van. In the confusion, I left my new specs on the bus...(RM1200 down the drain.) Extremely annoying. On the upside, I have been very impressed by my eyes without them! I can't read anything, but everything else has been fine. Perhaps I will use my old ones for reading, and try going without for a while.
So..another lovely trip to Tioman. Roll on the next visit!