Back to Tioman

October 23, 2024

When asked what my favorite island is, I always say that it's a toss up between a few, but Tioman Island is definitely up there! It's an island in Malaysia that I had been to three times previously, and unique in the sense that though it does have some tourism compared to other nearby tropical islands, has remained relatively untouched. It's large, and the interior is jungle, so all the villages and bungalow operations are at different beaches around the island. Tioman has a kind of wild feel -- maybe since the interior is still rainforest, and from time to time is home to the very elusive Rafflesia flower. It's also world famous for rock climbing, but rock climbing of the extreme type. Once, I stayed in the village called Mukut, the gateway to climb the Dragon Horns, two stone massifs, majestic and mysterious. While in that village, I befriended a local that would take people on rock climbing excursions, and he shared some of his photos of the vertical climbing (as well as vertically sleeping on the side of the rock face!)

I remember the first time I came to Tioman island, walking around and not seeing a single other soul----except for an enormous monitor lizard--- and it was so incredibly quiet that I felt like I could actually hear silence. Tioman has changed a little bit and has become slightly more developed in recent years, but the area of Air Batang, also known as ABC, has remained pretty much the same.

A tiki tree to greet you right off the boat.

I see a seesaw!

There are monitor lizards walking around on the island like it's nobody's business--- but on this trip, I didn't see as many as usual. I did, however, have a close up moment with one in particular. I was painting on the beach and super involved in what I was doing when suddenly I looked up -- and hello! A monitor lizard was watching me intently, inches from my feet. I jumped about a foot in the air and so did it, running away so fast on little legs, not unlike a dachshund's run.

There was a wonderful little bakery-- definitely a new addition to the island-- with a case housing the most exquisite looking treats -- and when I checked out the food menu, found something which I knew I needed to come back and try: carbonara spring rolls! I tried to go one afternoon and found that it was closed. A local islander called out to me, "Bakery? They'll be back tomorrow." He then went on to share that the couple who ran the place both had their PhD's, but they decided to leave academia and city life to open their own little bakery on Tioman. Amazing. I ordered the spring rolls and two tiny cheese tarts - one biscoff and the other strawberry-- and enjoyed a view of the beach and my Malaysian iced coffee. Even though it was a cloudy day, the water still looked emerald clear. The carbonara spring rolls were really good-- flaky, airy, and light with a ham, vegetable, and mushroom filling. I'm always amazed at how the halal "pork products" made from chicken in Malaysia taste like the real thing, sometimes even better! Maybe I just like chicken. The cheese tarts were perfection, the crust flaky and buttery and the cheese filling just right. The biscoff went really well with the cheesecake. On a side note, biscoff as a flavor is really popular in Malaysia, and dang it is GOOD!

The owner of where I was staying had about 30-40 cats. Tiny tiny cats which all looked like kittens and were surprisingly polite and also friendly. In the morning, all of the cats would migrate down the hill with the owner for breakfast presumably and it was like watching something out of a Ghibli movie.

One particularly young cat kept coming back to my bungalow. I didn't feed her, but somehow she seemed to like sitting in my space as I drank my morning coffee, wrote in my journal, and taught a couple of online lessons. I really enjoyed her company!