It was an emotional goodbye when Emma dropped us off at the bus station. We'd had such a great time with them. We took our backpacks and walked towards the buses but couldn't find an office. After about 10 minutes a very helpful guy explained that the staion had closed and we needed to go to another bus station to catch the bus to Mersing where the boat goes to Tioman. We were trying to flag down another taxi when a driver waved us over and said he would let us on the coach - another example of how nice the people are! Again, it was an executive bus and we had a comfortable journey to Mersing. The bus dropped us off right outside the office for ferry tickets to Tioman and we bought tickets for the 4.30 ferry.

The boat was unsual as the doors were sealed and where our seats were positioned was under the water, Gem thought she could feel the bottom of the boat hitting rocks and about 10 minutes in an annoucement was made to say that the boat had "medical problems" and we turned around to return to port. We were all then put on another boat and waited about an hour before we set off again! By the time we left it was dark and we saw the most amazing lightening across the sea from the back of the boat where you are allowed to go out to once in deeper water.

Tioman is an island off the south east coast of Malaysia and has lots of different small " beach towns" to stay in on the coast each "beach town" having it's own jetty. We decided to stay in a place called ABC and went straight to the guesthouse we had picked from Lonely Planet. By the time we arrived the heavens had opened and it was pitch black. We couldn't find anywhere to eat so we bought some crisps from a shop and went to bed. Our room was like a hut with a balcony but it had it's own bathroom so we decided it would be okay at least for the night - and it was still raining so we were just pleased to be dry!

The next morning we woke up to find our hut was right on the sea (see pics) and we had the most pretty views, we were very pleased! We had planned to spend 3 nights on Tioman but after just 2 days we realised what a special place it was. The locals were so welcoming and the other travellers we were meeting were so interesting. We met a couple, Fran and Robert who stay on the island for 4 months every year and also met two F1 guys, Steve and Nigel who work for Marussia, we bent their ears for 2 nights in a row and it now looks like we may have to support 3 teams next year! We met Triff (William Duffy) , a mad celtic supporter, and became instant friends. We spent many a night with him and others in a bar called A Peace eating fresh bbq fish and rice and drinking copious glasses of vodka pineapple, Triff's favourite tipple!

We went on a snorkeling trip for a day with an American writer and his wife. We had to pay a marine tax when we left Mersing to help conserve the coral and fishing is not allowed within 2km of the shore line on Tioman so the snorkeling was out of this world, we have never seen so much marine life. There were 5 stops on the trip in total, 3 on smaller islands, in another town called Salang for lunch and a place called Monkey Bay. We saw fish of all sizes, shapes and colours, beautiful bright purple coral, sparkling sea urchins and even squid. We also found nemo - lots of him! The local guy who drove our boat was so nice - every time we saw him after while we were walking round ABC he would make us stop to give us a hug or some fruit!

ABC doesn't have any cars and there is one long path that runs from one end to the other so the only motor vehicles you hear are the odd motorbike or motorbike with sidecar. It made the whole place so peaceful. Behind the shore line where there are a few restaurants, basic places to stay and a couple of shops is a massive jungle. With not that many motor vehicles it meant that the wildlife was very easy to spot. We saw lots of monitor lizards (see pics) which was a first for both of us, they leave you alone, just meander across the path every now and then or are sunbathing on a rock. Very magestic creatures, we really enjoyed watching them. Unlike the monkeys..... we have learnt on our trip that macaques are cheeky little things and when we came across a group on the path one day (one with a very small baby) Gem froze with fear and when the leader of the pack hissed at Matt he ran off. After Gem's tears had turned to laughter we decided to always carry a "monkey stick" just in case!

We spent a day walking across the island through the jungle to a place called Juara. Some americans we had met the night before told us to come the road way back as it was easier. The way there only took just over 2 hours and although it was quite a climb through the jungle it was relatively easy, just very hot. Juara beach was very picturesque and we got to see a giant black squirrel - see pics, he was like a cat! However, the road was back was one of the most difficult walks we've done. Over 21Km of steep hills! So much so that Gem could hardly walk the next day, much to the amusement of most of the people on the island!

We also hired a bike each to go to the turtle sanctuary which didn't work out so well. It was a 14k bike ride and the brakes didn't work on both our bikes, we couldn't ride up the hills as it was too steep and coming down definitely needed brakes so we ended up walking with the bikes more than we were on them.... and the cherry on the cake was that the sanctuary was closed when we got there! We did see some lovely views of the island though and a fight between and monitor lizard and a monkey!

We had decided we needed to have a beach day when a new friend Ollie asked us if we wanted to walk to Monkey Bay with him through the jungle and go snorkeling. It was a very nice walk and when we got to the beach there was not one other person there. We snorkled and enjoyed a much needed strawberry ice cream shake on the way back!

On what we had decided would be our last night (night 10) we were invited to a free bar at a bar that had closed down and had booze left. Who says no to a free bar? Inevitabley the next morning we missed our ferry! So for our last day we hid in our hut on the beach and spent the day drinking water on the balcony to ensure we weren't entised to stay yet another night!

Tioman is a special place, we had superb fun there but we are glad that we are moving on to see more of exciting Malaysia, our next destination is Melaka on the West coast.