Koh Phangnan, Thailand to Pulau Tioman, Malaysia
Whilst diving on Koh Phangnan our dive guide had mentioned the diving off of the northern tip of Sumatra in Indonesia. An island off the coast from Banda Aech which had been relatively undamaged by the tsunami. We had considered going to Indonesia and had initially decided to leave it for another time. But having heard that it was a beautiful place and the diving was great we decided we should go to Sumatra and see how we got on. It would be an adventure.
This meant we had to take the same journey that last year had left us stranded in southern Thailand, luckily this time it was relatively smooth and so after a taxi, a boat, a mini bus, another mini bus, and another boat ride we found ourselves in Panang, an island off of the west coast of Malaysia and a point from which a ferry sailed daily to Sumatra. Or so the Lying Planet said.....
We arrived late in the evening and couldn't understand why when we went looking for dinner that most of the restaurants were shut. We only realised why the following morning when the clock in the hotel showed an hour later than we thought it was. DOH - Malaysia is an hour ahead of Thailand. No wonder the Malaysian border crossing guards had charged the foreigners for their overtime, it must have been at least 4.30pm when we had come through the previous day!
We set off to sort out our boat ticket only to discover that the boat to Sumatra actually only ran 5 days a week and of course the next day, a Friday, just happened to be the day it didn't go. As we weren't overly enamoured with Georgetown (rundown former colonial capital of Penang) we were just slightly miffed. But still, I do believe these things happen for a reason. The reason in this case was to give us more time to do a bit of research on the Banda Aech region. ..
I'm not entirely sure Mik would have drawn my attention to what he found on the internet but luckily for me I was reading over his shoulder. There were reports of a protest in Banda Aech by those who weren't getting the aid quick enough, for there are still hundreds of people still living in tents there even nearly two years on. The area continues to experience up to 20 small tremors each day but recently one had been strong enough to send people running from their homes. So that, combined with the fact that it was Ramadan and thus services might not be working as normal we decided we would have to give it a miss this time. I do hope we can get there one day though.
So we changed direction and decided to head down the coast and to an island called Pangkor. Having asked the guy in the hotel where to get the bus from we loaded our packs on our back and set off to the nearest bus station from where we could apparently catch a bus to the main bus station and on to Pangkor. Upon arrival we couldn't find any buses heading in the direction we needed and ended up asking a taxi driver if we in fact needed to get to the bus station on the mainland. He said no of course not and that we could get a bus direct to Pangkor from the bus station near the airport, and he, obligingly, would take us there. We figured we weren't getting anywhere at this bus station so we jumped in and he drove us the 20 minutes out of town to the other bus station.
Once there we walked into the booking hall and found a company selling tickets to Pangkor (well the nearest mainland town anyway) Mik went over to get us 2 and ask what time the bus went. The woman gave him the details and as he was reaching in his pocket for the cash said "The bus leaves from Butterworth bus station" Needless to say this wasn't where we were currently located and was in fact the mainland bus station and the one which we had initially assumed the bus would leave from. To say we were a little frustrated at this point is somewhat of an understatement. Mik hadn't been entirely convinced by Pangkor anyway so when I spotted a company with a bus leaving for Kuala Lumpur in 20 minutes I headed over to see if they still had space. We bought 2 tickets and walked outside to find the poshest bus we have seen on our travels to date. There were only 21 seats on the coach due to the fact that they were enormous. They were like first class plane seats complete with personal TV screen and various ways to adjust our seat. We settled ourselves in for the 5 hour journey. Although the bus was very comfortable and goes down as one of Mik's best ever bus journeys I was unlucky enough to get the only TV screen that didn't work and obviously the seat was just too comfy as I didn't even do my usual drifting off to sleep routine. Bummer.
Anyway, we got to Kuala Lumpur, checking into our hotel and headed out to the all you can eat chicken restaurant we had frequented on our last visit. It was a Friday evening at around 7pm and as we walked up the restaurant we saw a massive queue coming out of the door. Now last time we had been it had been practically empty but then it dawned on us that it was a Friday night during Ramadan and that the sun had just gone down. Meaning that those that hadn't eaten all day could now go stuff there faces with chicken as we had intended. We decided it wasn't worth waiting for - besides who leaves an all you can eat restaurant before all the food has gone?
A bit more shopping and sending home of bits and pieces was done while we were here and we also managed to hook up with Rob from Singapore as he was once again in KL on business and we went out for a great Thai meal and a couple of bottles of wine.
Then early the next morning, armed with a couple of Dunkin' Donuts (something I seem to have developed a craving for whenever we are in town which sells them), we jumped onto a bus to Mersing, the jumping off point for Tioman Island. It was a 5 hour journey which passed without incident except for the fact that the only loo stop was at a restaurant which wasn't open, for us anyway. The driver seemed to be very well catered for though, and disappeared for 40 minutes whilst we all stood around waiting!
We passed a couple of hours in Mersing before the boat to Tioman left sending emails and making sure we had enough money to last us as there were no ATM's on the island. A 2 hour boat ride later and we landed at ABC beach which had been recommended to us by Kori and Chad, and went in search of a room.
Cara
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