Tioman

Hi!

Another big gap.... sorry! Had a few hurdles in the past week that stopped me from blogging. I should have been back from Malaysia last monday but a small matter of a crazy taxi driver, monsoon rain, 75mph and some failed brakes sort of delayed my return. We are fine. I was on my way to the airport and missed my flight, so I guess my return wasn't meant to be. I had an extra 5 days nursing a sprained wrist and thumb. It could have been a lot worse as neither of us were wearing seatbelts. So ALWAYS buckle up people. I will never make that mistake again.

So we made it to Tioman island in the south China sea, just east of Malaysia. It's about 1 hour flight from Kuala Lumpur and 45mins from Singapore. You arrive to a little airport which is basically a hut, and a couple of blokes trot up the runway and load your bags off the back of a plane that seats about 30 people. So charming. We were collected by boat at the small harbour and taken to our resort (Japamala) by sea, as there is absolutely no road access.... Absolute bliss! If you are after the perfect honeymoon break or just some special time with your loved one, this is the perfect jungle hideaway.

We were greeted off the boat by the staff of the hotel and led to our jungle room nestled on the edge of the rainforest. I have to say, we had a jungle experience in Bali once where the room was partially open to the elements... as beautiful as it was I spent the whole time freaking out and having screaming nightmares about scorpions crawling on my pillow and ants crawling up my nose and laying eggs in my ears, so I was a little concerned that this would be a repeat performance, but my fears were rapidly extinguished.

The rooms are bug free and beautifully designed with the upmost respect for the environment. A couple of them even have trees growing in the bathrooms and huge rocks in the bedrooms... so you see, almost nothing has been disturbed. We had a room perched on the hill, surrounded by trees, and monkeys! Be warned though... if you are addicted to technology it's not your cup of tea. NO phone reception and no telephones in the rooms. You can pick up wifi in the lobby though, but my advice is, leave work at home and just switch off for a bit. It's well worth it.

There are only 12 rooms in the resort, so you will never feel crowded and have total privacy at all times. Most of the guests were gooey honeymoon couples, so they all kept themselves to themselves.

The food was brilliant.. what more can I say? GO! GO! GO!

We stayed for 4 nights and for me it was just enough. I have an active brain and itchy feet and by the 5th day I was craving civilization. I had a brilliant time though and would strongly recommend it to anyone in need of quality time with their nearest and dearest.