When we left the Perhentian Islands we were smelling like 2 sumo wrestlers in a sauna as we had not been able to wash our clothes for a while! So we thought it was only fair to the Malaysian population to stay in Kota Bharu on the main land for a night and get our clothes washed before heading down to Tioman. We got out of Kota Bharu as fast as possible because it was Pants (Rough Guide wrong again!). Then the start of our Logistical nigtmare that would continue for 3 days began. We attempted to take a taxi to Mersing but once we realised this would bankrupt us we had to resort to travelling like backpackers -on a bus - can you believe it? Well we wont be doing that again (well at least not till Aus) - Ive never come across such an incompetent bus company, every time they let someone on or off they seem to stop for half a bloody hour! Sorry I sound like Victor Meldrew dont I? 9 hours to go 300km's! Once we arrived (at 5 in the morning) we were as grumpy as an old age pensioner on a low pension (that pictures at the start of the ride by the way!) We found a local cafe full of locals, surprise surprise and had a cuppa whilst we waited for 2 hours for the boat to arrive. Once we got to Air Batang beach on Tioman Island I viewed every single crap resort and reported to lin, who was minding our bags, that they were all crap. So off we went to another beach, only to get there we had to take the bloody monopolist boat taxi. This cost us the same amount as it did to get to the Island from the mainland - anyway we paid up as we hadn't slept for 36 hours and needed a decent place to crash out. To cut a long storey short all the places on this beach were pants too so we picked the best of a bad bunch and tried to settle down for some sleep only to notice that behing the bed were dead cockroaches and mice droppings - this filled us with confidence! But with our last energy reserves rapidly depleating we quickly deployed our Mosquito net and made our bed more secure than Fort Knox! You know your in a s*** place when you havnt slept for 36 hours and you still cant manage to - with the crappy air-con on and the inside temperature still rising to somewhere above 9 million degrees we gave up and decided we'd be better off being 2 zombie snorkellers! We planned to stay 3 nights but after this shocking series of events we decided to escape from the island the following day. Once we got back to the mainland (after the boat got stuck in shallow waters a few times) we went to get the bus to Singapore - oh no we didnt!!! it was bloody full. Back to our style of travelling - we took a taxi. WEre happy to be safely back in Singapore! Wooooohoooooooooooooooo.