Also, the ones who prefer to plan in advance and who likes luxury, there various beautiful resorts and villas available. Tioman is for everyone.
So, I was told that it is monsoon season in Tioman in February, but without caring, I decided to take a chance and went ahead. Due to the off season, there were no direct buses available from Singapore to Mersing, so we took an express bus from Singapore to Johor Baru and another bus from there to Mersing. We reached Mersing around 6 pm and apparently, because it is off season and due to high tide, there were no ferries to Tioman in the evening. So v had to spend the night in Mersing. Mering is a very small town, and you can see the whole of town in less than an hour.
There were a few hotels available, but I only wanted to stay in a bag packer’s hostel and I managed to find one. In fact we were 7 of us travelling to gather and the hoste had just one room and another bunker bed available. So the owner, Omar gave us an extra bed and few mattresses to fit 7 people in one room. I was supposed to sleep on the bunker bed, but a non polite guy took up my bed and put me on his broken bed. It was highly uncomfortable so I decided to crash with the rest in the room. The breeze was so chilly that we were actually freezing in the room without a fan. We met some interesting people in the hostel who were also travelling to Tioman.
The next day, due to terrible hang over we had to skip the scuba lesson. After having brunch, we headed back to Paya. This was a slightly lazy and relaxing day. We took a shower and headed back to the beach. The beach at Paya is very rocky. A friend and I decided to climb the rocks and stare at the sea. It was a wonderful sight. I was sunbathing on the rock. Later in the evening, we went for a full body spa, which was heavenly. In the night again we sat by the sea and sang and drank under the moonlight.
The ferry timings in Tioman are very irregular. Our 10am ferry only showed up by 11:30am. Although, I spent the whole morning taking pictures. We headed to Mersing and then to JB and then back home.
Over all, it was a fun and relaxing trip, exactly what everyone was looking for.