6 days ago
I am writing from Pulau Tioman, a small island off the east coast of Malaysia. Which means that the internet must, in fact, be everywhere now.
Vanya and I landed in Singapore five nights ago now, staying for one full day and leaving the the next morning. It was an excellent recovery stop from 24 hours of transit, however, after one full day exploring "unique Singapore," Vanya and I decided that this was about all the city-state was good for on our particular trip.
We then caught a bus from Singapore to Mersing, Malaysia, where we had a large, Malaysian lunch before catching a ferry to Pulau Tioman. During our three hour wait for the ferry our travel agent showed us a photo of a man eaten by a python and spent the next 30 minutes or so explaining in detail what to do/not to do when bit by a Malaysian snake. So now I know. A monsoon hit just as we made it to the ferry terminal, and with just a corrugated tin roof above us, we had just the right southeast asian soundtrack to give me low hopes for the trip to the island.
But Pulau Tioman is, well, what I always I imagined a really, really beautiful, volcanic island would be. We are at the nothernmost town, Salang, of the five or so that pepper the west coast. Salang is more or less a winding stretch of beach chalets connected by a golf-cart sized path, with cafes, restaurants, and a bar in between. Yesterday Vanya and I hiked south to a beach called Monkey Bay, secluded from Salang by an unexpectedly steep jungle hike that took us over an hour. We saw a couple of noisy monkeys above us in the rainforest, but realized the true meaning of the name "monkey bay" when one of the monkeys -- I have never, ever trusted a monkey -- snuck out of the rainforest and began rifling through the contents of our neighbor's backpack. Our two neighbors, a Western couple, thought it was somewhat humorous until they realized that that monkey is actually going to take something from me and keep it. At which point, in a stunning reversal of evolution, the human male began yelling and screaming and running in order to intimidate the primate. It worked.
Meanwhile, after assuring Vanya with false confidence that there were, to my knowledge, no jellyfish in the South China Sea, I dove into a school of baby jellyfish and was promptly stung by two of them. They leave little, burning bumps, like bee stings. Have you seen the movie "Sphere?" Not really like that, but in my mind it was like that. But the beach was stunning, and we were able to swim. For dinner we shared a Red Snapper served with a spicy, sweet-and-sour Malaysian sauce, which we ate at our beach table. I fell asleep to the sound of a two-piece Malaysian rock band playing a few doors down from our chalet, playing a "ONE two three four, ONE TWO three four" bass rhythm ; it was a muslim, family celebration.
Today Vanya and I took a dive boat out to Coral Island, just northeast of Salang, where I did two dives with adivemaster, and Vanya snorkeled twice with the Captain of the ship. The captain spoke one or two words of english, but we all understood each other perfectly. The first dive took me briefly to 90 feet and lasted 47 minutes, the second to 55 feet and lasted 55 minutes. I could list the fish I saw, but that would bore you -- it is sufficient enough to say that it looked like someone had spilled a 64 box of Crayolas into the water.
Are you pissed yet? It won't all be like this, I can assure you. But I was in Seattle 6 days ago.
Vanya and I landed in Singapore five nights ago now, staying for one full day and leaving the the next morning. It was an excellent recovery stop from 24 hours of transit, however, after one full day exploring "unique Singapore," Vanya and I decided that this was about all the city-state was good for on our particular trip.
We then caught a bus from Singapore to Mersing, Malaysia, where we had a large, Malaysian lunch before catching a ferry to Pulau Tioman. During our three hour wait for the ferry our travel agent showed us a photo of a man eaten by a python and spent the next 30 minutes or so explaining in detail what to do/not to do when bit by a Malaysian snake. So now I know. A monsoon hit just as we made it to the ferry terminal, and with just a corrugated tin roof above us, we had just the right southeast asian soundtrack to give me low hopes for the trip to the island.
But Pulau Tioman is, well, what I always I imagined a really, really beautiful, volcanic island would be. We are at the nothernmost town, Salang, of the five or so that pepper the west coast. Salang is more or less a winding stretch of beach chalets connected by a golf-cart sized path, with cafes, restaurants, and a bar in between. Yesterday Vanya and I hiked south to a beach called Monkey Bay, secluded from Salang by an unexpectedly steep jungle hike that took us over an hour. We saw a couple of noisy monkeys above us in the rainforest, but realized the true meaning of the name "monkey bay" when one of the monkeys -- I have never, ever trusted a monkey -- snuck out of the rainforest and began rifling through the contents of our neighbor's backpack. Our two neighbors, a Western couple, thought it was somewhat humorous until they realized that that monkey is actually going to take something from me and keep it. At which point, in a stunning reversal of evolution, the human male began yelling and screaming and running in order to intimidate the primate. It worked.
Meanwhile, after assuring Vanya with false confidence that there were, to my knowledge, no jellyfish in the South China Sea, I dove into a school of baby jellyfish and was promptly stung by two of them. They leave little, burning bumps, like bee stings. Have you seen the movie "Sphere?" Not really like that, but in my mind it was like that. But the beach was stunning, and we were able to swim. For dinner we shared a Red Snapper served with a spicy, sweet-and-sour Malaysian sauce, which we ate at our beach table. I fell asleep to the sound of a two-piece Malaysian rock band playing a few doors down from our chalet, playing a "ONE two three four, ONE TWO three four" bass rhythm ; it was a muslim, family celebration.
Today Vanya and I took a dive boat out to Coral Island, just northeast of Salang, where I did two dives with adivemaster, and Vanya snorkeled twice with the Captain of the ship. The captain spoke one or two words of english, but we all understood each other perfectly. The first dive took me briefly to 90 feet and lasted 47 minutes, the second to 55 feet and lasted 55 minutes. I could list the fish I saw, but that would bore you -- it is sufficient enough to say that it looked like someone had spilled a 64 box of Crayolas into the water.
Are you pissed yet? It won't all be like this, I can assure you. But I was in Seattle 6 days ago.
posted by conor | 3:18 AM
1 Comments:
haha... I can imagine mom's reaction to the Jellyfish stings. :) Love you much. Sounds like a blast so far, I'm jealous. You're not missing much here, it's rainy and cold. :( I have a game tonight and tomorrow night, I'll let you know how they go. Love you!!!
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