It was a bright, sunny day in Mersing, a small port town on the east coast of mainland Malaysia. The smell of mushroom omelettes was in the air while traders, bounding with energy tried to sell their sugar cane drink. It was independence day in Malaysia, and there was only one boat due to set sail for Tioman, a small Island in the South China Sea. With time to kill before the big departure, I gave in to the demands of the sugar cane sellers. “One please”, words I would soon regret! It was disgusting, never have I been more disappointed by sugar, I had to get the taste out of my mouth, I bought a grass jelly drink, which had the consistency of slugs but went down a treat. After this misadventure, I had just enough time to chow down on a mushroom omelette to settle my stomach before the little wooden boat sailed off into the calm shimmering blue sea, to an Island paradise just over the horizon.
The Jagged Peaks of Tioman, Towering Above the Rainforest |
As soon as the rickety old fishing vessel left the harbour, the clouds began to multiply, growing larger and more ominous. What had looked like a great day for sailing was becoming more of a nightmare. An hour into the trip and the wind was beginning to howl, by now the clouds had merged into one great monolith and had turned the sky black. The waves were being whipped by the wind and our hardy little ship was showing signs of struggling. The wind only intensified as we soldiered on, the waves swelled to the worrying heights of 10 or 15ft. Not massive, but on what was essentially a glorified rowing boat with an engine which was falling to bits, nothing could have been more terrifying.
As the waves grew bigger, more and more people began to throw up, locals who were on their way home after a shopping trip to Mersing were struggling to keep their groceries intact and free from hot chunks of breakfast. Eggs were flying everywhere and one person who had bought a chicken was just about able to keep it under control. The seas continued to get higher and the boat was beginning to let in water, every wave shook the boat making it roll around, its wooden planks unable to take any more pressure. The situation deteriorated further, as we started to sink in the storm and our boat was ripped apart by the violent waves we spotted a larger boat that couldn’t have been more than a mile away, they saw that we were in distress and came to our rescue. It was a small motor boat with room for about 50 people, but more importantly it had a roof to stop the torrential rain and breaking waves from flooding it.
Is Island Paradise worth Hellish Seasickness? |
We were knee deep in our unwanted cargo of salt-water which we were bailing furiously when we finally docked with our rescuers. Everyone leapt from one boat to the other, timing the jump with the waves, just one meter separated us from certain peril. We may no longer have been facing a watery grave but we were still a long way from dry land, Tioman was now closer than the mainland so we kept sailing, not even looking back at the abandoned wooden dinghy which was now doomed to be consumed by the sea.
With our new boat completely overcrowded anarchy broke out. People were rolling around on the floor being sick, people were sick on me and I puked on others, even the captain was hurling. All I could see was half digested mushrooms, grass jelly slugs in a grim sugary mix and a terrified chicken frantically flapping about. I had well passed stage 1 sea sickness (thinking you're going to die) and was right in the middle of stage 2 (wishing you were going to die), everyone was there, all sorts of weird and wonderful seasickness cures were being passed around, to no avail.
A Beautiful Waterfall in the Lush Green Forests of Tioman Island |
Seven hours into a journey which would usually take just 1½, the seas calmed and the lights of Tioman grew closer. The only thing now separating us from dry land was a 100m jetty with most of the wooden floor planks missing. Balancing carefully and leaping between the segments of the walkway that remained, we had all managed to survive the boat ride from hell, somehow.
8 comments:
wow these pics are great and these places are just heaven on earth cool thank you for sharing
what a nice and really amazing island so nice and amazing too good this ice land is for enjoyment full fun
Maylasia is beautiful, Tioman is everything a tropical island should be, its worth the risk to visit such an amazing place, anyway you can fly there these days!
Its true, I visited before Tioman was commercialized, boat was the only way, now I think the journey is pretty easy!
Wow--that's quite the story and experience. Glad you and the others made it in alright!
How awesome, your trip must have been on one of the old bum boats they used to use to get across. Not much later, these old boats were banned by the government because, well, because of scenes like above.
Sadly, there were a few fatal cases involving the more modern speedboats, so these speedboats, too, are now no longer permitted to operate between Mersing and Tioman.
The only boats remaining now is the Blue Water ferry. Alas, the cabin is closed. It's safer, sure, but not nearly as much fun as the good old days when you were allowed to wander about on deck, smell the silty air and feel the cold spray.
Still better safe than covered in puke eh :)
Thanks for the update Deirdre, It's been such a long time since my (almost) ill fate trip, (18 years) that its really interesting to know what's going on there these days..
What a beautiful post!
Great read!
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