snorkeling on Tioman

 Every time that I've been to Tioman island, I've gone snorkeling around the island, and found it to be a colorful paradise of tropical creatures and clear blue waters. Here are some highlights of this past trip!





swimming with baby sharks!


just the best beach snack ever. SPICY!





I found another friend when I went to get lunch at a local place.


Got to see a turtle around here!



When we were on the way back to shore in the afternoon, we came across a huge school of dolphins! They were swimming next to the boat, and we stopped for a bit to marvel at them. As we were finally leaving, a couple of them jumped up straight out of the water! I have only ever seen that in movies or at a water show. To see it in nature, it was just incredible!







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

deliciousness found in the Johor Bahru airport

Image
It was my first time going to the airport in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, even after having been to JB (as the locals call it) multiple times, as I was generally flying in and out of Singapore. Suddenly though, I discovered how much cheaper it was to fly to other Malaysian and Thai cities from JB. My boss said to me, “It’s a very small airport,” to which I nodded. I couldn’t imagine that it would be a large airport, as JB is a fairly small city. In fact, I had no idea that there was an airport there until recent times. Which is why, I was incredibly surprised when I did finally fly out of it, it had pretty amazing food options and shopping. Walking in, there were several Malaysian chain restaurants and kiosks as well as a fancy Japanese coffee chain. I got some coffee, and then bought some tiramisu almonds- SO yum!- at a Beryl's (Malaysian chocolate company) gift shop. I breezed through security, which was pretty easy and friendly. After security, I thought that there wouldn't be as ...
Read more

caffeinated musings in a steamy climate

Image
I sat in a cafe fairly close to the jetty drinking some of the strongest coffee of my life— they happened to have the drink I fell in love with in Chiang Mai at a coffeeshop named Carrot-- a very particular drink called  “The Dirty”.  As far as I know, it’s 500 shots of espresso with a thick layer of magic, heavy cream on the bottom, and cocoa powder on top. This version, they served with a cinnamon stick, which I promptly put to the side.   That day, being blisteringly hot, I had an inkling that I wanted to go to an air-conditioned cafe and write, but which one? I was generally going to Castaway for coffee, mostly for the view- the uber-turquoise sea and a cool breeze, but Castaway strangely had no fancy coffee drinks.   AND THEN, on my stroll, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a photo of my beloved MY “Dirty”  This place is also called Sanae Lipe, and in my neighborhood on Alberta Street in PDX, just a couple of doors down from me is the new-ish Sanae Thai Re...
Read more

Back to Tioman

Image
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 wel...
Read more