Pulau Tioman 1st Day

So after and intense 2 days of waiting, heat, humidity, tropical storms, waiting some more, night buses, more waiting, and Paul Blart Mall Cop on the two hour boat ride, we finally made it to a small island off the east coast of Malaysia called Pulau Tioman. In an instant, my "Malaysia sucks, when do I go back to Japan?" changed to "Next time I come to Malaysia ..."

We got off at a village called Salang and this place is amazing. The crystal clear blue waters, coconuts dropping off trees almost killing me, scuba divers, snorkelers, monitor lizards, friendly locals, cats with half ther tails cut off (probably because of the monitors), awesome freshly squeezed orange juice ... it's my first tropical island, but I don't want to leave.


The locals, when there aren't any customers at their shops, just hang out with each other smoking, shooting the shit, and relaxing on the beach. At night, the bars light up, the BBQ's fire up, Bob Marley starts singing, and I go to sleep because of an 8:00 wake-up call for scuba diving.

So far, it's one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. This white-skinned Japanese boy who hasn't been to a real beach for 3 years isn't so crazy about the sunburns and blood-sucking sandflies though.

I had never imagined that I would be hanging out on a tropical beach in Malaysia.