After our snorkelling adventure on Day 2, followed by the photo taking session by the abandon hut, we hurried back to the resort to wash up a little before scurrying over to the sea bed hoping to reserve a good location to catch the sunset.
Us, freshen up and donning the resort's own range of singlet... a picture of the palm tree to symbolise the beach.. and a rim of wording around the tee that reads "Paya Beach Resort"
Atlas! Like every fairy tale with an happy ending, sunday night at tioman is as good as owing your own land. Practically every inch of the beach is empty now that the sporty good old divers have headed back to the urban world to work/school/live in reality... the number of the staff at the Paya beach resort probably outnumber us tourists..
Apart from Rodman and i, we also met the old couple we first met when we share the coach ride up to Mersing. They were a friendly french couple who we initially though couldnt commerce in English as they had been speaking french.. It wasnt till she spotted us in our snorkelling gear that she first greeted us at the porch of her resort, asking if there were good stuff to see by the beach..
We told her it was our first attempt here in tioman too.. and recommended her some gears to rent, that same evening Rodman and i smiled when we saw them old couple, hand in hands, holding on to the snorkelling gear and making their way to the standalone island.... it was a heartwarming sight =)
Mr Mini-eye still finds the setting sun glaring... can barely spot his pupils.. hurhur//
Loads of sunset pictures coming up, try see the gradual change in position of the sun =)
Little Miss delightful Kristal all smiling from ear-to-ear at his acheivement in wowing Rodman with his birthday surprise
Rodman rare moment of initiating a picture together =)
The sun looks set to sail down..
Us sitting by the beach sofa, admiring the empty shore and recording the sound of the wave and the birds..
Mocking poses that i do all the time
The sun now sailing with full force
Such beautiful sight isnt it? Reminds me of the Literature novel title back in my secondary call "red sky in the morning'... except we are doing this in the evening..
My very creative boyfriend place the camera behind a rock that was embedded in the sand and capture this... i imagine the rock to be a HUGE mountain and a whole new adventure..
The sun now struggling to stay visible
Rodman took a different angle of the sun... by standing near the sea and zooming in... Imma's camera is good.. thumbs up to ourselves.. heehee
Same ol' Rodman turning his back to find me lazing by the chair, so snap a picture to emphasize on my elephant thigns
i then snatch the camera from him and make myself the limelight..
but he didnt gave up, whipping out his Iphone and snapping a few breathtaking postcard-worthy pictures..
Then we had a stupid idea (ok i initiated it) of capturing a panorama scene of our location.. so i offered to snap it since Rodman claims he suck at doing a 360 degree capture....
Somehow i always feel like a fool standing at one spot and turning my body so slow n swiftly in order to capture a balance picture.. All this on a beach and not a flat ground.. it was near impossible.. haha..
The sun finally bid goodbye... such a sad sight... we got reminded tomorrow will be the day we head back to the Lion City..
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Rodman also took a pic of the beach on the other side of the island, you'll notice we are almost all alone here.. i realy like the tranquillity here once in a while.. away from the buzz..and definitely away from the media...
Rodman commented something that makes so much sense.. he said " this is better than watching tv..." i couldnt agree more....
That night we settle dinner by the resort again, but it wasnt all that great this time round since there was hardly any dining guest so the staff didnt serve, we mostly help ourselves to the stuff we needed.
Besides, news of the low tide has broke and so there wasnt any ship coming over that evening to deliver fresh food.. Here are the list of foods they have ran out of.
- Chicken chop, chicken meat, except drumstick
- steak
- pineapple to make pineapple fried rice
- noodle
- fish
- most seafood
- meat to make satay
- vegetable to make salad
So you can imagine the choice of food we were left to chose from, we practically leave it to the chef to decide what was edible around... drinks were mostly straight from the cann since most fruits have run out by then too... I witness a newly check in guests' face of horror when them ang-moh discover beer were out, so were steak, chicken chop and anything they find edible.. In the end they were force to try rice with sambal.... and fries..
We slept peacefully again with the TV mostly on.. and bbb's sad face when he realize the channels wasnt going to air the soccer match he so wanted to see... he even made a trip to the reception to ask if he could watch it somewhere... The receptionist told him he could request the chef (who were chilling by the lounge) to play the soccer matches on the projector screen if he wanted but he didnt..
The Next day
We woke up to enjoy the breakfast provided by the resort again, it was the same feast of cereal, egg and malay food, except with the smaller crowd we enjoy our breakfast better..
Rodman and i chatted alot about how the holiday had refresh our mind and how we enjoy the massage (completely miss out taking pictures... we were whisk into a shared kampung hut and place on separate with a full hour of massage each.. i had hair scalp treatment and Rodman had full body massage.. he fell into a deep sleep during .. while i try my best to withstand the pulling of hair with the massage going on... overall it was a good experience as the environemtn make it super worthwhile.. there were running water underneath the hut and the sound of the running water makes one feel exceptionally relax.. )
Then we check out of our room, to sit by the sea again to bid our goodbye..
i finally put on my straw hat, hadnt found an opportunity to use them.
Rodman looking fed up like he always look every morning... he is actually in a good mood..
the beautiful sea in the morning, the same area we capture those sun set the night before..
Mr Grumpy face
we did something awfully weird, and took out the bar of Kit-kat we got from the minimart and ate them, by the beach.. teeheehee.. i was telling him i'll never witness another couple doing the same.
Then we left the resort completely since the island looks quiet and empty, we decided to take another stroll around the Paya beach..
This was the back of the resort, it is a large mountain that the resort offer trekking program to... there are also fresh water being supplied by the mountain top.. more on that later.
here're the stretch of shophouses by the jetty, they are most eatery if not snorkelling equipment rental shop. Rodman n i discover their gears here are available for rent and an even cheaper rate of S$15, but we didnt regret renting form the resort because we were in-house guest after all =)
Mr Grumpy face looking happier =))
i turn my back on the hut Rodman was resting and this is the jetty, about less than a hundred steps from the entrance of Paya beach, it's a small island =)
more on the shore by the jetty
This are like BMW/FERARRI of the island, their mode of transportation, their sea-taxi,their motobikes.. haha.. we saw a family of 3 returning from their trip to the "city"... then the mother call out to another man on shore who was riding a motobike across the plank of wood..
He immediately stop his bike, got off his helmet, grab the two large round plastic lying on the sand bed to be share by all the boat.. ran over to the boat who had park by the sand now.. throw the canister under the boat, did some command together with the family of 3 (with the chubby son just hopping around giving encouragement).. they pull the boat to roll ahead with the canister underneath it.. and repeat the process till the boat was parked neatly on the sand... i find it very refreshing to witness something i never thought would happen in Singapore..
so moving back to the mountain, i manage to zoom my camera to its maximum to capture this. Notice the running water from the top? It's actually fresh water that goes directly into the indoor swimming pool of the Paya beach resort. Pretty innovative idea if you ask me, Rodman had a dip in the pool and he enjoyed it. especially knowing its sources.
zoom out to show how huge the mountain is... basically the centre piece of Tioman Island
then we walk nearer to the jetty and discover another surprise
bed of fishes (mostly like those we saw deeper in the sea when we snorkel)
this shot is a proof how mega size the school of fishes were
the current was pushing the fishes nearer together.. pretty cute sight
some of the bigger fishes, notice the strip body? i wanted to capture a clearer picture but realize the local besides me were fishing so i walk over to snap this clearest pic
we saw this type of fishes in abundance inside the sea, cute aint they? A pity while us tourist sign and paid for marine conservation, the locals didnt.
Felt a little sad when we first saw this, but it wasnt right to stop the local from doing what they do daily
Ferry for Mersing terminal draws near, but wasnt ours.
this is the sea-taxi to get tourist from one island to another..
Then our ferry came, and we finally left Kampung Paya, glad the ferry took a round trip to pick up the tourist from the other island...
another resort in the other Kampungs, tioman island is split into several tiny Kampungs, like yishun, AMK, jurong here in Singapore..
Finally out of Tioman and back to Malaysia.
To summarize our trip, here are some instanx for reliving the moments
highly missing tioman, i'll be back..
Happy turning 27th Darby, there's more adventure awaiting you for every year we spend together =))
~Sweet.Silly.Stinky.Sleepyhead~
