Tioman O Tioman! [Take 2]

The famous 1958 film, "South Pacific," was filmed in Tioman (in the movie as Bali Hai), and Tioman was one of the world's most beautiful islands.

Continuing from the previous story, after we found our hotel, we wasted no time changing to swim gear and eating a quick lunch before setting off on a Coral Island Excursion (70RM) that took us to two snorkeling places and a beach. No one else was scheduled for the same time, so the three of us got the tour all to ourselves -- like we had a private speedboat and tourguide and everything :)

The locals who drive the speedboats really like to scare tourists by going super super fast and bouncing on the waves uncomfortably, and because there were only three of us, the ride was even rougher. Arpun was hanging on in the back with both his hands for dear life :D

We finally got to Coral Island and Arpun taught me how to snorkel for the first time. Oh my god the coral reefs there are indescribably beautiful. I had never been snorkeling before, but apparently the reefs in the Caribbean/Bahamas are far away and they are absolutely no comparison to how wonderfully alive and vibrant all the coral and fishes are in Tioman -- so close you can reach out and grasp the coral (but don't! it kills the coral), stand on them, and kiss the fishes. So colorful you realize everything you had ever seen up til then was pale and muted, that you never really ever understood color. Color was exploding in my eyes, utterly pounding my senses. My eyes darted from one place to another, there was so much detail to intake, I felt as if my vision had expanded and magnified the sea exponentially. Every little cubic centimeter was its own amazing microcosm I could spend hours observing. How this fish moved, that fish breathed, another fish ate, the sea anemone waved... swimming into the middle of great schools of fish and marveling at the precise way they all move at the same time in the correct direction and avoid me perfectly. Other fish unabashedly swam up to me and stared me in the eye, life's questions circling through its small brain. I was so awestruck I forgot several times to breathe correctly and choked on salt water.

I wish I had an underwater camera. The best I can do is find a picture of Tioman that someone else took for their blog, but still, it doesn't do nearly enough justice, even if a picture were worth a thousand words, an experience is worth a billion pictures.

Moving on... when we were tired, the speedboat took us to this gorgeous deserted white sand beach. We had the beach allllllllll to ourselves :-) Rested, played, suntanned, took pictures......


After we were all nicely baked and rested, the speedboat took us to another snorkeling location among large rocks. Here the water was really deep and scuba divers were also by us. The coral was further away, but there were interesting black sea urchins to see, and bigger fish, as well as a jellyfish somewhere around us that I avoided.

The whole excursion took three hours, then we came back and showered (no hot water, but not too necessary for one night), and then found a nice dinner place by the beach to watch the sunset. (Sidenote, oh my god allllll Tioman food is soooooo spicy gah!) Looking out of the restaurant porch over the beach and over the water at the sun and horizon, we felt the often-described island peace. A warm bath of goldenness that reminds us we are all humans on planet Earth, a type of reassurance that we will all be okay in the end.


After dinner, dark clouds began to gather quickly, and I was excited to see an island thunderstorm, like the books and movies all described. We ran to a bar with a covered patio area right before it started pouring and chilled around with cocktails, the perfect relaxing end to a long day. Kathleen and Arpun were talking, but I was lost in concentration, focused on opening every nerve in my body, to feel alive, to intake as much as possible, as fast as possible, grasping onto every little shred of reality, and to carefully store those sensations away in my memories. The sky was pitch black. The ocean was imperceptible in the distance, the shoreline nonexistent. Black black rain fell on blackness. The sound of the falling rain was so natural and soothing because the rain was not falling on tin roofs, cars, or concrete, but millions and millions of leaves -- many of them larger than my face if not my whole self. By the beach though, the rain was quiet. The sand sucked up the rain soundlessly, the sand swelling with water and blurring with the gentle ocean waves. Extraordinary. I stared out into the void, and the blackness that stared back was not Nietzsche's monster, but solace for the wandering heart.