A Cross-Border Trip to Tioman

Posted on May 19, 2021 by jipp

So my job had required me to go on a very long road trip recently, from KL to Mersing via Kluang, then from Mersing to the island of Tioman by ferry. Most of the country was still on CMCO, so I had to get a cross-border permit from the police.

It would be my second road trip to Mersing, so I literally already knew what to expect, except that I had a companion last time, while this time I had to drive alone – something that I’m fortunately quite used to. I wish I could take off from KL earlier, instead I left from KL quite late in the afternoon so I arrived in Kluang when it was about to get dark, and had to do what I dreaded to do – crossing over to Mersing through vast palm oil plantations and reserve forests – in the dark and alone!

It was like driving through a series of eerie ghost towns with almost completely noone at sight. It was so dark, and I had to avoid looking in the mirror for the fear that something might came up from behind me. I couldn’t help but having things churning at the pit of my stomach and there were times when I suddenly (and inexplicably) had a round of goosebumps on me.

I mean, when you are driving through dark plantations and forests totally on your own, you have to constantly fight off all the thoughts and imaginary things that had been terrifying you since you were a kid. Every now and then I’d imagine a zombie in white shirt with blood all over the body suddenly turned up in the middle of the road and I barely had time to press the brake pedal before the face exploded right in front of the windshield. Urghhh, I shouldn’t have watched all those stupid zombie movies.

I couldn’t help but letting out a big sigh of relief when the town of Mersing finally loomed over and I was in the middle of the town before long. After what appeared to be an unending roller-coaster ride, I decided I deserved a little bit of celebration and ordered a big bottle of Tiger to come with Ayam Masak Halia for dinner.

Finding a hotel room was more difficult than I had expected. I mean, with all the movement restrictions, I really thought they’d be plenty of rooms so I did not book any room in advance. It baffled me abit when I walked from hotel to hotel only to be told that there was no available room. Luckily I found one – which I was told was the last unoccupied room for the night. My body and mind gave in instantly the moment I landed my sorry self on the mattress. It was like a power switch being switched off. Everything just went blank instantly.

Waking up early the next morning, I bought some food and drink from a 7-11 outlet before driving over to the jetty of Mersing. It was still so dark when I got there, and I must be one of the very first to arrive. The parking area was still closed and the gate was still locked, so I waited for a bit more before deciding I might miss the ferry if I waited longer.

There was a long line of cars queuing up behind me, and they too were beginning to get restless and uneasy when there was no sign of anybody coming to open the gate for them. Some later left, probably to go looking for somewhere else to park their vehicles. When it was getting too late, I decided to park the car outside of the parking area – something that I would later regret because the thought of it being broken into or worse being stolen would come to haunt and spoil my duty-come-vacation trip to Tioman.

After buying a ferry ticket for RM50 from the ticket counter (I didn’t know when exactly I was coming back so I only bought a one-way ticket after being told that I could buy the returning ticket at the ferry terminal in Tioman), I walked over to the waiting ferry. Since the movement restrictions came into effect last year, the number of ferry trips had been limited to one-trip per day so I had to catch it if I were to keep up with my schedule.

And it was quite a surprise to see that the ferry was at least at its half-capacity when I expected it to be empty. For a moment I thought life goes as usual in Tioman.

But that changed when I arrived at the island where the effects of the pandemic were obvious and unmistakable. When I came to this island a few years ago, it was bustling with tourists – be it local or international tourists. Tour agents were all over offering people with island-hopping tours and discounted accomodation rates. Luckily Tioman is a residential island where people do stay for real, doing real jobs and having real livelihood (I mean, not just an island catering for tourists). So in a way, life does go on as usual in Tioman, minus the tourists and all the additional economical perks that come with them.

So after having Nasi Lemak and Hot Nescafe for breakfast at the very first food stall that I came upon, I walked aroud to look for an accomodation. Then the idea of renting a motorbike came to mind, and that was exactly what I did. At RM50 per day (24 hours – meaning the rate starts ticking from the moment you get hold of the key until you return the bike 24 hours later), I knew I could strike a better deal, but somehow I felt like I wanted to be of a little help to the local community who has obviously been affected by the pandemic so I did not really negotiate. When I asked for a helmet, they laughed saying that people in Tioman do not wear helmets on their bikes. Oh wow, OK then. As the saying goes – When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

So after going back and forth looking for the best accomodation that suits my budget and vacation moods, I decided to stay at a so-called resort called Barbura Resort. Although it is described as a resort, I don’t think it is really up to a resort category, except for the room rate, which is not cheap. Again, I did not really negotiate. I picked a room whose balcony and window faces right to the sea. It was so close to the sea I could hear the sound of waves pounding continously over the beach. I really thought I’d enjoy it – the sound of nature as I’d call it – until I had difficulty bringing myself to a sleep at night because the sound kept triggering an alarm in my ears. Urghh.

So I didn’t do much on the first day. I took a little walk on the beach, starting from Barbura Resort until I came upon a big group of boulders beyond which I can no longer walk further. I took a seat at one of the boulders and continue looking out to the sea and enjoying the sunset view, except that the sunset did not really take form. The sun was obliterated by a heavy layer of clouds before it touched the horizon.

I kept continuing taking in the view, and my eyes was caught by the sight of a lone figure, standing and paddling on a canoe or something. Then I noticed he was not alone. They kept paddling away, against the winds, before disappearing amongst the waves. It was such a sight to remember for long. It was getting too dark to stay around so I walked back to the resort to have a good night rest.

I only explored the island on the next day. Riding on the motorbike without a helmet as the guys at the rental house had told me to do, I started off from the resort towards the famed Tioman Marine Park. I noticed how some of the diving and snorkeling acitivities were still on-going, which was quite a relief to me because I did not want the tourism economy to die down in Tioman either. At least they still had some income to keep things going.

The plan was to ride all the way to Kampung ABC beach, where I stayed last time and where I fell in love with Tioman for the first time. I had come to find out that motorbikes were not allowed to go any further than Tioman Marine Park so I had to park my bike and continued my journey on foot – which I found out was not such a bad idea after all. I took a little hike against the hill, something that I don’t remember doing last time, and took the breath-taking view of the South China Sea from atop a boulder. The sea was so blue, and I could see a couple of boats bobbing up and down in unison with the sea waves. The sight was just so mesmerizing.

Going down to the other side of the hill, I continued walking. By then it was already too hot. But good thing about walking along a coastal area is the cooling off brought about by the coastal winds. The heat was intense, but it would just slide through you. It doesn’t stay in you for too long.

The quiteness of the whole place was unmistakable. I’d see people here and there along the way, but it was a far cry from my last visit where I’d have to give way to incoming passersby every now and then. This time I literally had the whole stretch of beach all to myself. I saw things that were still not there last time – like this swing post. I wish they did not put it up on a pair, at least I wouldn’t look too lonely on a picture. Still I took a few rounds of swings, and it really felt so liberating. It liberated the mind that was so heavy from all the hectic life back in the city. Heh.

I walked on, until I came upon the chalet that I stayed in last time. It broke my heart a little, looking at the state it was in. It looked rundown and abandoned. I remember how I enjoyed my stay there very much last time. The bar that I came to drink at every night was still there, but it was largely abandoned too. I remember arguing with some tourist from Australia about some life principle or something, before his wife barged in and asked him to go back to their hotel room immediately. Then the Malay guy who married a local girl from the very village itself, and left his job in the construction industry (his last job was building the MRT) back in KL to join her to settle down in Tioman for good. I remember enjoying my converstation with  him very very much. 

I walked till to end of the stretch where I had to turn back because the walkway ended there. By then it was past lunch time so I took a seat at one of the very few restaurants that were still in operation. The waiter and his mother were so excited when I told them that I was from Sabah. I’m sure I was not the first Sabahan to have reached them there, but perhaps they don’t get as many visitors from outside as they used to so knowing that they’ve got a visitor from somewhere far away makes them feel excited.

Then I walked back towards where I parked the motorbike and stopped every now and then to take in the beautiful views along the way. It was hard to believe that the whole stretch of beach was so empty and silent that the only sounds I heard were coming from the chirping birds and the pounding sound of the waves. Even the villages that I walked across along the way seemed so empty and silent.

It was late in the afternoon when I reached Barbura Resort again. I spent most of the rest of the evening taking a relaxing break at the resort, either taking a little walk on the beach or just curling myself up on one of the hammocks while getting a hold of a book. When the sweltering sun gave way to a cooler air, I went down to the beach and took a little swim. It felt so good to be swimming again, allowing myself to float freely with my face up while watching the blue sky in its entirety (literally). I felt so free. Heh.

So all in all, I spent two nights in Tioman, and I wish I could stay longer, but the worry that something might have happened to my car kept nagging at the back of my head. To catch up with the ferry, I had to leave very early in the morning and returned the motorbike on the way to the jetty. On the advice by the ticketing woman at the ticket counter back in Mersing, I didn’t buy a return ticket because I was not sure when I was going to return. She told me that I could always buy a ticket at the ferry terminal in Tioman.

So when the young girl at the counter of ferry terminal in Tioman told me otherwise (that I could not buy on the spot), I went a little bit beserk. I asked her to make whatever necessary phone calls to re-confirm, to which she kindly adhere, and although I was quiet sure she was gonna come back with a positive answer, I was still relieved when she told me that it was possible to buy a ticket on board of the ferry. Phew!

The ferry turned out to be at its half-capacity again. And true enough, the conductor let my buy a ticket, and most suprisingly, for RM30 which is RM20 cheaper the ticket that I bought at the jetty terminal in Mersing! The ferry would do a couple of stops on the island before dashing its way off to the mainland. As the island of Tioman loomed further and further away until it finally went out of sight, I told myself that I would come back again, for the third time, most probably when things had all returned to normalcy.

When the ferry finally docked at the jetty terminal of Mersing, my heart began to pound faster. As I was nearing the parking area, all I wanted to know first and foremost was whether the car was still there. Broken into or not was probably second or third. The insurance would do the trick.

And there it was – begginning with the atena, then the chrome bar at the back, and then the rear cabin and of course finally the number plate to make the assurance complete. So knowing that the car was still there already accomodated for half of the relief, now I had to see if it was broken into. So walking slowly around the car, the relief went complete when I found out that all the windows were left unschatched. The car was still there in the exact form it was last seen so I started the engine and whistled my way off – first to a breakfast in Mersing town before returning the long long ride back to KL.

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A Day Trip to Penang

Posted on April 12, 2021 by jipp

So my job required me to go to Penang recently. It would be my very first outstation trip since the MCO (then CMCO, or whatever it was called later and later, it just kept changing I had stopped trying to memorize them all) was reinstated when the number of Covid-19 positive cases sky-rocketed to new record high sometime in October last year. The excitement was there, but I knew Penang – like the rest of the world – is still struggling to return to its normalcy.

I flew off from the historical Subang Airport on a Firefly, and for a moment was taken aback by how eerily silent the airport was. I used to fly a lot from there before Air Asia moved its flying base to KLIA2 so all the hustle and bustle are so embedded in my head it is almost impossible to imagine it in any other way.

After touching down at the just as deadly silent Bayan Lepas Airport in Penang, I took a Grab to the meeting that I was there to attend, and after the meeting I took another Grab to the city of George Town.

I remember how the Grab driver was so eager to tell me about Penang, as if I was some foreigner who had never set foot in Penang ever before. Not wanting to kill his excitement, and me being me, I acted just as excited as he was.

He dropped me off right in front of the hawker that sells the famous Teochew Chendul. I was surprised but delighted by the absence of a long queue that was always there every time I came in my previous visits. After doing all the usual MySejahtera check-in and body temperature scan, I took a seat at an unoccupied table, and instantly ordered a bowl of chendul and a Penang laksa which is another dish that Penang is quiet well known for.

To tell the truth, I was quiet taken aback by how the prices of food had increased so much over the years. I remember when I first came to Penang, I was delighted to find out how cheap (may be ‘affordable’ is a better word but you get what I mean) the food in Penang was. Coming back to Penang now, I no longer think that is the case. But then prices of things have all increased over the years and food in Penang is certainly a no exception.

Having had those two dishes, my stomach (or rather my mouth, I think my stomach had had enough) decided that I was not quiet done yet. So I ordered a Char Kueh Teow and surprised myself by finishing it off to the very last bits. I wondered if it was a real hunger or merely the excitement of being there in Penang with all its hyped-up food right in front of me.

So having had my empty stomach refilled to its fullest capacity, I was all set to explore the UNESCO site of Penang. As always, the streets are certainly my favorite stuff in the city of George Town, and the food probably only comes in second. But it is certainly the combination of both that keeps me coming back to Penang.

But then, just as it is in most parts of the country, and probably the world over, Penang did not seem to have escaped the impact of the pandemic. Those streets that used to be bustling with tourists and visitors, are mostly empty now. It can be a good thing for seasonal visitors like me, as the emptiness gives me the rare opportunity of taking pictures without any obstruction of the view and all, but then, I don’t think it is a good thing in a long run. Penang has to bounce back and the sooner the better.

I wish I could explore more, but the blistering sun was just too much on me, I could almost feel my brains boiling inside my head. The heat was attacking me from every angle, I could almost feel my skin crunching up, my feet melting. In the end I gave up and took a shade at a food court just off Pengkalan Weld road. I ordered a mug of Orange juice, then another, and another.

I really felt like I could go for another but I had to stop myself. Burning my stomach with asidic drink was the last thing that I could afford to do on a day trip like this one. Instead, I forced myself to get up and continue my lil street exploration. I walked on, without keeping track of my bearing and rambling into more streets along the way. I’d stop whenever something interesting caught my eyes and attention, even though most of the streets were quite empty. It wasn’t hard to find beauty in those emptiness though. Heh.

I wish I could stay longer, but I had a flight to catch later in the evening. So I took another Grab to the airport where I’d spend another hour or two before saying good bye to the beautiful island of Penang.

Fooling around off Armenian Street

There were a lot of places in Penang that I really wanted to come back to, but looking at how most places were closed in light of the damn pandemic, I don’t think it was worth the time of going to all these places only to find out that they were closed, or half-opened. I’d rather be at those places when there were fully-opened, whenever that might be. Of course, there is nothing in this world that I want more right now than for the pandemic to be over – like really really over – so that I can go back to those places that I really want to go back to in their entirety of course, and Penang is certainly one of them.

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Good Bye 2020, Hello 2021

Posted on January 1, 2021 by jipp

As I am writing this, I am flying on an Air Asia flight, crossing over from my beautiful homeland Sabah to Kuala Lumpur, the place that I have now considered my second home since I moved in from Sandakan about 9 years ago. It was supposed to be a surprise homecoming trip, since I already declared to my family that I was not coming home for Christmas (and I was supposed to mean it, with all the swabbing requirement and all. Urghh).

To go with the plan, I checked into one of the best hotels in town (I had always wanted to stay there, and I was waiting for the right time to do it) only to run into my niece who was working there as house cleaner, and was doing her round next to the room that I had checked myself into. Urghh, what a spoiler.  

And despite so, I still ended up celebrating Christmas with my family and enjoying every moment of it. Unfortunately, I could not stay long enough to celebrate the coming of the new year with them. It is almost certain now that I will be ushering in the first dawn of 2021, most probably on my own, in KL.

So, there is definitely so much, and yet so little, to talk about 2020. It was probably the only year where I did not do any travel trip outside of this tiny little shell of Malaysia since I started traveling out back in 2009. My travel diary for 2020 is definitely empty. When the Movement Control Order was first announced, I had at least one confirmed travel trip coming, which was to Taiwan where I was supposed to do a cycling tour with a bunch of my hometown friends.

Of course, with all the concerns about increasing number of imported Covid-19 cases making their full rounds all over social media, we decided not go on with the plan. We didn’t want to risk being quarantined for the entire days that we were supposed to spend there, or worse being condemned to death by Malaysians who were increasingly going anxious about the prospect of being overun by imported cases of Covid-19.

Part of preparatory training before going to the cycling tour in Taiwan before it was eventually canceled

What happened, and is still happening, in 2020 was definitely something that caught the whole world off guard. It’s safe to say that it was something that the entire world population was not prepared for. It was something that I would never have thought to occur, not in this very short lifetime of mine. And yet it happened and I would never see the world the same way I did ever again.

I was at my little office room when the Movement Control Order was first announced on the evening of March 16. Even though the talks of such order were already making rounds all over the social spectrum, it still felt so surreal when it was finally announced. For a moment I was stunned, unable to grasp and chew the whole idea in yet, and I tried to figure out how I was gonna deal with the suddenness of it. It did not really strike me as odd, until I punched out and drove back home and stopped to buy stuff at a grocery store on the way.

It was much more crowded than it usually was, and there were long queues of people at the cash registers. I could not help but feeling a little bit worried too, looking at how the people were scrambling to get their hands on stuff. And yet I told myself that things were going to be alright. I bought a packet of brown rice, in the hope that if things would go really bad, I at least still have some carbo to feed my stomach with. I did not buy any other thing that day.

The days and weeks and even months that followed were quite chaotic. There was so much uncertainly going on and people were enjoying cooking up their own theories and speculations. It dit not help at all that policies, laws and SOPs kept on changing from time to time.

The order was so strict in the first couple of months that I found myself sitting alone at home probably more than I have ever experienced in my whole life before. And yet I probably luckier than most other people, because I had the space, probably more that I needed, and I could always go and buy stuff without much obstruction because I was the head of the family that was non-existent.

While a part of me was still struggling to grasp the whole idea, another part of me was actually beginning to enjoy it before long. I mean, after working my ass off almost on a daily basis since I graduated in 2004 and probably beyond, I finally got the chance to take some time off and enjoy a long (pysical) absence from work. It almost felt like an early retirement really (except that we had to continue observing work from home). Heh.

Thinking back now, I would say, things would have gone so differently if it happened back in the early 90s and beyond when access to online activities and social media were still very much limited. I wouldn’t have survived through it with just mIRC (or whatever it was called).  If I had to admit something about myself, I would say I am a very homey person. I may be a case of one in a million, but I really enjoy my time at home – alone.  

I remember how the enjoyment did baffle and worry me at least a couple of times, so much so that I began searching about ‘Hikikomori’ when I happened to watch a documentary about it on Youtube. I have always considered myself a socially-skilled person, that I could easily fit into any form of society or societal organization (ahem!), and that I could always break into the shell of any social silo if you wish to put it that way.

And yet I enjoy myself alone at home more than anywhere else. I don’t think my times alone at home ever killed my social skills though, and yet I don’t intend to do more of  them in the coming years. I really think I should socialize more. I just feel that is the right thing to do.

No one can ever be sure of how 2021 is going to be like. I always believe that the world has its own ways of returning things into normalcy, and that what we are experiencing now is part of the cycle. What is happening now has probably been a little bit off the cycle, but it is still very much it – a cycle. I don’t think things are going to get back to normal in 2021 – not in its entirety at least – but things are gonna be on their way to it before the year even ends.

Travel-wise, many countries are gonna start opening their borders again, but people may still be hesitant about traveling, not until the things about the pandemic have settled at least to a safe degree. I am not gonna say no to a travel trip or two, but it all really depends on the restrictions that a country is going to impose on travelers coming into her. I mean, I wouldn’t want to travel to a country only to be locked in for half if not the entire period of the trip.  But really, I wouldn’t say no to a travel trip or two.

So – saying good bye to 2020, I’m really looking forward to a better 2021. Please bring it on already!

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A Short Stay at Kota Kinabalu Le Meridien Hotel

Posted on November 7, 2020 by jipp

So my job required me to go back to Sabah quite recently. It was my first trip back to Sabah since MCO was announced so suddenly early this year. Despite thousands of reasons to be sorry for for all days and weeks and months that I (and most other Malaysians of course) was grounded at home, the MCO or rather the damn virus for one did open doors of possibility for fancy hotels in KK, or probably even in the whole of Malaysia for that reason, to drag down their prices due to lack of businesses.

So, grabbing the opportunity upon seeing one, I picked Le Meridien Hotel – a hotel that I could hardly afford to stay at on a normal non-Covid rate.

Upon arriving, I picked a room from where I could see part of the city and part of the sea right through the glass wall. I could even watch the sunset from the room – and you know what they all say about sunset in Kota Kinabalu.

The bathroom was full of fluffy white towels, and the bath tub was shiny and immaculate, which was exactly what I would expect from a five-star hotel. I didn’t get to use the tub though – which was least surprising since I have one at home and had only used it once or twice in all my 9 years of staying there so far. Bath tub is not really my thing.

If there was one thing that really stood out from most other hotels that I had stayed in before, it was probably the bed. Or, perhaps, it was not really the bed, but the pillows. The pillows were so fluffy, so soft and they would shrink and grip around your neck when you land your head on it. It was so comfortable to be on I couldn’t stop wondering where the hell they bought those damn pillows from.

One of the reasons why I had wanted to stay at Le Meridien Hotel so badly was the existence of the swimming pool at the roof top, from where I could enjoy the sweeping view of South China Sea, with all the islands in the vicinity. Unfortunately, it was closed when I was there and I wouldn’t say I was not disappointed. Either they wanted to balance the lack of businesses out with the cut on the maintenance cost, or they wanted to avoid any possible transmission of Covid-19 through the water. After all, not much is really known about the virus just yet.

But just down the stairs from there was the café, which offers exactly the same view, except it was not an open air. Instead, the view had to be enjoyed through the glass panels, without the fresh air from the sea of course.

But of course my stay at the hotel was not all about the room and the hotel itself, but more of the opportunity to meet up with friends. For one it was close to Waterfront, which was to me a perfect place to hang out with friends. If truth to be told though, I had not been to this part of the city for so many years I had almost forgotten its existence. Now that I was back there again, I got reminded of the fact that there is so much that KK can offer.

So I ended up staying there for 3 nights. If truth was to be told, I was expecting more from a five-star hotel. There was nothing special about the hospitality. In fact, it was so ordinary. There was one time when I had already reached the door, only to be denied access to the room because the access card just went malfunctioned.

I thundered my way to the reception counter – which involved walking along the very long corridor, and going down on the lift and returned. I couldn’t contain my anger and frustration so I just spewed them out at the receptionist. I mean, I can’t believe why something so silly could happen at a five-star hotel.

LOL! Totally for the Photo only

But at least I could always say, I’ve stayed there.

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Traveling Solo and Loneliness

Posted on June 13, 2020 by jipp

Traveling alone can be both fun and lonely. But the beauty actually lies in the loneliness itself. There is something about the loneliness that makes and gives you the chance to think a lot about lots of things, things that you don’t really get to think and ponder upon when you are traveling with a friend. I started off with traveling alone to England and France, and I did it again on my second trip which was to Vietnam if my memory serves me right. And since then I did more solo trips than those with a travel buddy.

If you ask me why, I may not be able to explain it the way I want to. Simply said, I just like it – I really really do. It gives me the chance to really really throw myself into the trip, instead of spending much of the time talking and trying to put senses in my conversations with my travel buddy/ies, which can be tiring at times. But I’ll go to that in my next post, if ever.  

Well, after doing so many solo trips, I should have gotten so used to them. But somehow something happened to me when I was in Myanmar – or in Bagan to be exact – that still baffles me up to this day.

I arrived in Bagan in the wee hour after a gruelling 12-hour bus ride from Yangon. Upon disembarking from the bus, I shared a jeep with a group of 3 young tourists. One of them was a guy from Germany who was working in Singapore, and the other two were American girl friends from New York. One of them was working in Beijing while the other was in Hong Kong and they just decided to travel to Myanmar together.

After checking in at probably the only hotel in New Bagan that was available at a reasonable price (I was shocked to find out that hotels were very limited and pricey in Bagan), we decided that there was no time to waste so we rented two e-bikes and went straight to the pagoda temples, for which Bagan is best known.

So we went to some of the more well-known temples, and stopped only for lunch, before continuing exploring again. We ended our pagoda tour by going to the Shwesandaw Pagoda to view the world-renowned sunset of Bagan. It was without doubt one of the most beautiful sunset views that I have ever seen.

Our day did not quite stop there. We went for one final meal over dinner together – with a few bottles of beer were opened of course – before calling it a day. There was no doubt I had some of the best company with them.

Their plan was to stay for another night the next day but somehow they decided they had had of the Pagoda temples in Bagan and it was time to move on to their next destination which was Inley Lake so it really was a sudden good bye.

It was so sudden that I caught myself not quite prepared for it and by the time they were leaving a sudden surge of loneliness and sadness suddenly washed over me. I had said good bye a great deal of times with impromptu travel buddies in the past but this was quite different. I found that day that I was no longer immune to loneliness when travelling alone, that sometimes having a company is not really a bad idea after all.

But the trip – my trip – had to go on. I re-rented the e-bike and continued exploring the ancient Pagodas, this time on my own, and it wasn’t long before I returned to the enjoyment of traveling alone. It still turned out to be one of the best travel trips that I’ve ever been to in all my years of traveling.

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