Hi Everyone! So after being in Singapore for 4 days we decided that it would be nice to chill out on a beach for a while. Tioman Island in Malaysia was recommended to us - 'a paradise island, one of the most popular island getaways in the world' - right we were heading straight for that place! Unfortunately we hit a national holiday so most places informed us that they were full. One place wasnt even sure of the day, let alone the month (good stuff!) so we decided just to head to Mersing (where you get the boat to the island) and sort it out there. The bus journey was fine except for the air conditioning. Now i know i shouldnt complain considering how nice it is when you step in from the heat and humidity of the day, but after 6 hours...after 10mins you have cooled down! 6 hours later you are a block of ice and have lost all sensation in your feet and legs. Anyway, we arrived in Mersing to torrential rain. It was as if someone was standing over me pouring buckets of water on me. We grabbed our bags and headed into the tourist office. They got us booked into a little place on the island, where we would have our own small chalet - sounded perfect. They took us round to the ferry port and we got onto the boat. The boat was pretty tiny but it was a speed boat so it got us there in good time. During the whole one hour journey though, two of the crew (actually they seemed to be mates of the guy driving the boat) decided to sit directly in front of us and stare at us...a little creepy to begin with, but we concluded that they were in fact more interested in each other than us...if you now what i mean! An hour later we were dropped off at our jetty and we followed the signs to ABC chalets. Typically they were right at the very end of this part of the island, and carrying the bags in the heat was no easy task. We were so delighted to get there....until we were told that we were at the wrong end. Our chalet was at the other end of this part of the island. I actually though i was going to breakdown and bribe someone to carry my bag for me. Well we turned around and slowly made our way back to the jetty and then continued going until we reached our destination. At that point the heavens opened and we had another downpour....things were looking super so far! The people running our chalets were really friendly. They told us to sit down and relax while they finished preparing our chalet. Well I call it a chalet but it was more like a very small hut. It had a bed in it and a small bathroom attached. Though for 1.79 quid each a night whose complaining?!! The beach was about 10m away as well which was great! We had dinner at one of the little restaurants on the beach which was so nice. Everyone saying hello as they pass on their scooters. (weirdly at the end of each section of the island there are steps to the next section, so the scooters can only go along one particular strip, though everyone seems to own them. It really didnt take long to walk from one end of our strip to the other, but i suppose its easier than walking!) That night we settled into bed, looking forward to a hopefully blue sky tomorrow, thinking we had found a own little piece of paradise. That was until tash discovered a giant cockroach. It really was massive! Its safe to say that our mosquito net (which had big holes in it) didnt really allow us to sleep easy that night. The next day unfortunately the weather was still a little cloudy so we decided to take a walk around part of the island. We got about half way down before we realised that actually our part was the nicest and the weather was getting better so we should get onto the beach. By the time we got there it had got a little cloudy but we got out there anyway! Didnt stay long as tash was being bitten alive by something. We decided to cut our losses and leave the next day. God this all sounds very negative! The island itself is very nice its just a shame that the weather was a bit poo. It would have been a great if we had had blue skies as you can spend the whole day outside. Would certainly consider coming back at some point! Anyway off to Kuala Lumpur!