Trip to Tioman 1

After much hassle of meeting up together discussing about June holidays, at last we decided to go to Tioman. Honestly, I was not keen when it comes to the Sun, Sand and the Sea. Since I am not a swimmer, sea is not one of my favourite playground. I can describe myself as a 'Water-Phobiotic' person. Ever heard of that? Can be found only in my personal dictionary. We set the date on the 6th, 7th and 8th June. It was a 3 days 2 nights to Tioman. Since Erma has been to Tioman twice, she planned everything for the trip. Booked a hotel at Panuba Inn Resort (http://www.panubainn.com.my/).

6th June 2008
We started our journey at 5.30 am. All of us met at Hubby's office at Sembawang. Drove to causeway and thank God it was a smooth one. No jam maybe it was still in the wee hours of morning. We kiasu mah. Then we drove straight to Mersing using the old road. There is no other way that leads to Mersing anyway. Love the scenery along the way. Watching the sunrise in between the oil palm trees was really soothing. Something that we would never get to see in Singapore. The roads is quite a winding one but it was one hell of fun. After 2 hours of driving, we reached Mersing town at around 9.30 am. It was not that difficult to find Mersing Jetty, it was straight, straight and straight...hehe. Parked our cars at the "Padang Bola" cum Car Park. It's quite safe there as they will lock the gate to the car park. Paid RM18 for 3 days. The pakcik took our car plate no. to make sure that the car will be there when we come back on Sunday.

Then we proceed for our breakfast and collected our Ferry Ticket at Panuba Inn Resort at Mersing office. At 11am we were already at the Jetty waiting for the Ferry. It was Catamaran Citra Liner. The biggest ferry that goes to Tioman. A smooth ride to Tioman I would say, well I slept throughout the 2hrs journey though. The first stop at Tioman was Kampung Genting.

While waiting for the ferry to move to its next destination, I captured these beautiful pictures. It was really awesome. No one can describe.

Next stop was Berjaya Tioman. A 5-Star hotel but do not have a 5-star service. That was what commented by some readers in a forum. Hence, a big No-No to this hotel.
Third stop was Kampung ABC. We had to alight here as the big Catamaran could not go to Panuba's Jetty as the water is quite shallow there. We saw an old pakcik with a boat sampan near the jetty and he was shouting.."Panuba Jetty??" I looked at others with my big round eyes. What? That sampan? Gila ke? Aku nie dah lah water-phobiotic! We decided not to take the sampan. While waiting for another 'bigger' boat, a medium sized ferry came and a pakcik at the jetty asked the captain whether we can tumpang to Panuba. He said "Boleh, sorang RM" What?? The distance is just abt 5 minutes and he charged us RM10. Well rather than taking the sampan, we had no other choice and paid RM 60 for 6 adults only. Free of charge for the kids and we reached Panuba in less than 5 minutes.
The moment I set my foot at Panuba Inn's Jetty, I was fascinated by its beautiful beaches and and of coz the chalet itself.

Panuba Inn is located on the northern end of the village in Air Batang, fronting the beautiful Panuba Beach. There are four types of room available, namely Anggur, Belimbing, Durian and Super Durian. Interesting choice of names, I must say. Some of the rooms are directly facing the beautiful beach, while others are built slightly higher above ground on stilts, with commanding view of the ocean as well. No matter which room you choose, you will still get the ocean view.

These stairs lead us to our chalet.

Our chalet is the one right on the left at above pictures. The one with a whitetowel at the balcony. The view from that balcony was really awesome. This is the view that welcomes us.

We had our buffet lunch at the restaurant. Served with several lauk kampung hmmm..sedaappp i tell you. It was not that fantastic lah but the simplicity of lauk kampung gave a different taste to our usual taste buds.

With a full stomach, we checked-in to our rooms. So what's next? Landing time..!! Tidorlaah. So penat after that 2hrs of ferry ride and that heart-stopping moments of us needing to take the boat sampan to Panuba. Nap till 5pm when Erma shouted from her chalet.."Oooeeii turunlah, mandi laut!!".

We spent the day at the beach, and sunworshipping (yes the sun is still up) with the rest of tourist. In my heart, I was still not looking forward to the snorkelling trip the next day. To be continued....