JURA - Tioman Island, home for two nights and three days
Woke up at 6am, got the 6.30am bus from Singapore, through immigration to Johar Bahru in Malaysia, then the bus from there to Mersing on the east coast (about a 2 hour drive). The local wheeler dealer offering cut price speedboat tickets to Tioman promptly began informing us about his “better than anyone else” deals 3 nanoseconds after disembarking the bus in Mersing, but at 35 RM (£6) for the 51km speedboat journey to Tioman who can complain? He whisked a few of us straight off to the jetty and onto the boat for Tioman it was.
Speeding the 51 km across to Tioman from Mersing
Island after island we whizzed by
Speeding past jungle clad island after jungle clad island I knew instantly that my decision to quit Singapore in favour of the Seribuat Archipelago was fully justified. Kept having flash backs to Pure Shores (1998) with that hotty Leonardo Di Caprio, and also that Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies (1998), when he parachutes into the South China Sea. It was just like the movies.
At the same time I was massively excited about the trip through to Juara, as I’d read that after disembarking at Tekek it was an hour’s 4x4 ride across the island to the eastern most outcrop where I had planned a few days of absolute total chill out time. So off it was at Tekek. Without a clue of where to get the 4x4 from I approached a friendly local who quite clearly didn’t understand one syllable of my recently learnt Malay. But neither did I fully understand his heavily accented English, but the gist was “Juara, 4x4 go, there, wait.” After a few minutes another local trundled across to me. And he was a legend! I’ve got more fingers on one hand that he had teeth! He phoned around (mobile phones being a recent addition to the island’s 6 or 7 villages) to get a 4x4 over to Tekek. After a few minutes of heavily gestured English I found out that the island has 4 4x4s, a couple of cars, but other than that just motor bikes. Though he pointed out that at the moment the dirt track to Juaru (10km) on the other side of the island is only accessible in 3 4x4s, one has to take me quarter of the way up, then you gotta walk for a bit, then into another one and repeat the process again a little further up… Apparently the road is still impassable even with the best 4x4s Tioman’s got to offer after the monsoon Deceember – February. Instantly, I knew my decision to escape the busier western villages was right. An hour later (Malay time is slow…slow…stop) and after numerous mobile phone conversations the 4x4 turned up as well as a couple of Dutch backpackers, PJ and partner, so we split the cost and jumped in. I don’t think I’ll ever complain about an English road again. And I’ll leave the story to the pictures below, but let me say one thing: my question to the local at Tekek, “so you definitely couldn’t get that across to Juara [pointing to an old Datson]” now seemed stupid. The road was horrific.
Second 4x4
and third 4x4, this part of the road completely churned up. Though some hardened locals still rekoned they could get their bikes up through it, albeit pushing them at that...
Arriving at Juara we looked around a few of the beach front chalets before making a decision on the Juara Matriana chalets right on the beach front and got chalets next to each other. Nothing but the sound of the South China sea gently lapping just feet away.
This is one of those times in one’s life when you can’t actually believe you are where you are.
My chalet is the one with the yellow towel...
View from down the beach a little...wild jungle
That night we made our way down to the Juara Bistro (one of 4 tiny beach front cafes stretched out intermittently around the bay) and promptly realised that we were pretty much the only people here. Writing this a day later and about the leave tomorrow morning, I have seen only a German couple staying in chalets further around the bay – so at the moment the population of Juara is an Englishman, two dutch, two German and the handful of villagers… Besides the normal topics of conversation over dinner we made the all-important observation that out beach chalets faced due east. Meaning a perfect sunrise.
After a moon lit stroll along the beach back to the chalet I drew the curtain, and to the fizz of the south China sea I drifted off to Tina Turner’s Best of album, not seeing daylight til 6.50 when I found myself positioned for the perfect sunrise, just down towards the north of the bay:
Being independent, the banter with the locals is phenomenal. All I seemed to need to do was position myself on the rocky outcrop of the headland and they’d storm on over mesmerised by the camera. So it only seemed fair to teach them some jumping mayhem. And it was. Absolute carnage:
Friendly faces...
Kung Fu
Sky Jumps
Spot on
Later on I decided to attempt the 7km jungle trek to Tekek. After a 2km walk back up part of the 4x4 track to Tekek, the path veers off to the right and becomes thick jungle. Saw a handful of monkeys, some literally jumping between trees and away when they saw me, disturbed a few lizards on the path, the biggest being at least 4 feet – huge!! The most worry of all though were these:
The Black Widow spider. After running into one or two, and the advice of our Trek America leader these are things you do not want to mess with – the world’s deadliest spider. Not all that big, maybe the size of a 50p but with a perfect hourglass on it’s rear makes it distinctive. One bite and you’ve got 20 minutes. Thankfully I only saw 5 or 6 and anyway, I’m sure they can’t bite through Tevas! Quite an experience trekking through the jungle, and Lonely Planet are absolutely right…you get absolutely drenched. A combination of sweat, rain and humidity. Lizards running away from you, and their sudden noise, raises the heart rate a bit though!
The black widow I spotted...
On reaching Tekek I wandered down to the airstrip where I booked onto the once a day flight to KL (Kuala Lumpur), well I say booked, rather he wrote my name on the back of his hand (literally) and said be here no later than 1pm tomorrow. Can you imagine rocking up at Heathrow and asking to fly to Amsterdam? “Ah yes Sir, what time? Your name? Credit card for deposit? Terms and conditions Sir? Oh sorry my computers crashed can you give me the information again? Let me give you the ticket…!? Oh no, literally jotted it on the back of his hand and said pay tomorrow – cash only! Berjaya Air, if Carlsberg did airstrips, they’d probably be just like Tioman (the best in the world)
Photoage from the flight to be taken tomorrow!
Sunrise at Jura. Due East!
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