What are the top ten beautiful islands in the world?
The trip to Tioman Island happened in September last year.
Before coming to Singapore, I was fascinated by the beautiful islands of Malaysia. The paradise-like beach of Redang Island in "Summer Tea" is really intoxicating. It has been a year since I arrived in Singapore. During this period, I have only been to Kuala Lumpur and Malacca. The Genting Casino also left a trace of my hard work, but the island is still the place I yearn for most. The longer I stayed in the Lion City, the stronger my desire became, so I invited a few friends to go to one of the world's top ten beautiful islands in the South China Sea: Tioman Island (Pulau Tioman).
At 5 a.m. on Saturday, September 18, 2004, we took a taxi to the Woodlands Customs in Singapore and left the country directly from there to Johor Bahru in Malaysia. We had already contacted a travel agency there in advance and the price was much cheaper than in Singapore. Johor Bahru may be the most familiar foreign city to Singaporeans. The two places are separated only by the narrow Strait of Johor. We arrived at Woodlands Customs in about half an hour. Although it was still early, people were already flocking to Singapore from Johor Bahru, ready to start the day's work. In the evening, people after get off work will flock to Johor Bahru from Singapore, every day except weekends and holidays. And we happened to be going against the direction of the crowd, so we exited the customs in Singapore and entered the customs in Johor Bahru very quickly. After leaving the Johor Bahru gate, we walked for less than 10 minutes and arrived at City Square, the waiting place we had agreed with the travel agency. It was still early at this time, and a ray of morning light had just emerged from the east. Everyone was tired and sat on the steps by the roadside and took a nap.
At around 7 o'clock, the travel agency's car finally arrived. The driver was a Malay, and the car kept going. It took more than 3 hours to arrive at Mersing, a small coastal town in Johor, where we would take a boat to Tioman.
The first thing to do after arriving in Mersing is to eat. Since it is a tourist area, things here are naturally more expensive than elsewhere. The owners of the food stalls here are all locals. There is a Malay owner who is quite fierce and impressed me deeply. He feels like a local snake. If you look at his stall and then walk away without buying anything, he may come up to pester you or show great displeasure. When we came back from Tioman, we went to Mersing to eat again. I bought nasi lemak at another store, and the "local snake" came over and said, "I also have nasi lemak here, why don't you buy it from me?"
After eating, we came to the pier and boarded the boat to our destination: Tioman Island.
As the ferry gradually left Mersing, the Malaysian mainland became an increasingly thin horizontal line behind us, separating the sea from the sky. Finally, when this horizontal line was completely invisible, our boat seemed to be embedded in a huge blue glass. Only the waves stirred up behind the boat and the sea breeze blowing in front of us proved that we were in a state of motion. You can see many small islands along the way. Some islands are lush and lush with plants; while some islands are bare.
I came to the bow of the ship and lay on the deck to bask in the sun and blow the sea breeze. It felt so good. I really wished that time would stop at that moment. After the ferry sailed on the sea for more than an hour, Tioman Island became vaguely visible, and we began to feel excited. Viewed from a distance, the entire island is covered with mountains and smog, stretching for dozens of kilometers. It seems that even the white clouds prefer this island and gather around it. At this time, I thought of Li Bai's poem "Haike talks about Yingzhou, and it's hard to find a letter in the misty waves." Haha, I got it today. What are you waiting for? Quickly find a good angle and press the shutter to record this beautiful scene.
The boat is about to dock, and the Tioman Island at this time is different from what it was seen from a distance. Looking at Tioman from a distance, it is a blue island, as if it has been heavily outlined with ink between the sea and the sky; at this time, Tioman is presented in front of us, every detail is exposed, the green The mountains, the red holiday houses, the white beaches, the blue-green sea water, everything is so harmonious. I started to look up at Tioman Island. The reason why I wanted to look up was because there are several high mountains on the island. The big trees on the mountain are vaguely visible, and the top of the mountain is shrouded in mist. I began to imagine how pleasant it would be if I could wait to the top of the mountain and overlook Tioman Island and the South China Sea. This later proved to be impossible for us as we had limited time on the island and the mountain path was so steep that we had to follow a professional to get to the top.
Tioman Island is 39 kilometers long and 19 kilometers wide, which is about the same size as Singapore Island. There are more than a dozen beaches on the island, and the beaches can only be accessed by ferry. Each beach has a corresponding holiday house. We stayed at Paya Holiday House, which was the third stop on the ferry. The first stop before us was Genting. The name reminded me of the smoky scene on Genting Highlands.
After landing on the island, we hung the Paya sign on our chests and waited for the hotel people to come find us. A dark-skinned local quickly gathered all the travelers in Paya and led them to our holiday home. The holiday house we stayed in was 100 meters away from the seaside, and there were some flowers and plants planted in front of the house. The back of the house is close to the mountains. When you wake up in the morning, you can see many animals that get up early to look for food, such as monkeys and monitor lizards.
There is a very large lizard on the island, about 2 meters long. The conditions inside the house are pretty good, with two adjacent double rooms, each with a large bed.
After putting down our luggage, we rushed to the beach to swim. It was dusk at this time, and the tide was low. There were many exposed stones on the shore. They looked like mud, but they were indeed hard to step on. You can also pick up many strange-shaped corals. Looking at the sea at Tioman Island, you can truly feel the vastness of the sea. Such vastness cannot be seen in Singapore. There are too many ships on the sea in Singapore, and the spots are blocking the view. What are you waiting for? It’s a good time to jump into the sea and swim. Swimming in the sea doesn't feel so good. The bitter seawater stimulates my taste buds from time to time. After swimming for about ten minutes, we landed. We also saw a sea snake on the way back. I have long heard that sea snakes are highly venomous. Fortunately, I didn't encounter one when I was swimming just now.
Don’t forget to leave your footprints on the beach :-)
The next day’s itinerary is to go diving on a boat arranged by the hotel. We got up early, had breakfast arranged by the hotel, and went to the beach. The weather was very good, the clear blue of the water was mixed with the green of Tioman, and a curved rainbow could be seen on the sea, adding a good mood to this trip.
Get on the boat and get ready to go to sea. This is an ordinary small motor boat, carrying about 20 people. We encountered many warships along the way, and we could also see Singapore’s warships. After the introduction by the crew, we learned that this was a military exercise held by six countries in the South China Sea.
Finally we arrived at our diving location. There are many things to do on Tioman Island, and diving is a must. Many tourists who come to Tioman Island come specifically for diving. They carry heavy oxygen bottles and wear duck shoes. This kind of deep diving can get close to corals and animals and plants on the seabed. It requires training and a license before you can go into the water. We rookie players usually can only try snorkeling. The so-called snorkeling means putting on a life jacket, a periscope, and a tube sticking out of the water for breathing. All the equipment is rented in the store, and the boss introduced us to some simple usage techniques. We lay face down on the water and could see beautiful corals and fish of various colors swimming around on the bottom of the sea. There are so many fish that if you hold a piece of bread in your hand, hundreds of fish will gather around you. We also tried to catch fish in the water with a small piece of bread in a plastic bag as bait, but these fish were much smarter than we imagined and catching them was almost impossible. Maybe there are too many tourists here, and they have been through many battles. It's a pity that I don't have a camera for diving, so I can't take pictures of the corals and fish on the bottom of the sea.
After noon, dark clouds suddenly covered the sea and it started to rain heavily. We all got on board and hid in the cabin. A local crew member came over and said to me with a smile: "A heavy rain!" His English was not very good, but he said this sentence very well. He came to me and said this sentence to me several times. Every time I smiled and nodded to him. Maybe he often encounters such scenes at sea, so this sentence is the most familiar.
At night, the island was dark, with only people resting in the open-air bar. Beer is very cheap on the island, much cheaper than in Singapore. I ordered a glass of Tiger and found a seat near the seaside, blowing in the night sea breeze and listening to country music. It was an unforgettable experience.