TIOman

Again an early pick up at 7:15 a.m. to the airport, where we should catch the flight to Singapore and further onwards to Tioman.

In Singapore we needed to take a regular taxi to reach Queens Street, where the taxis for Mersing leave. The jetty in Mersing is about two hours away and there are traffic jams at the border too. Quite short to reach the last ferry at 2.30 pm and hopefully it departed, we thought, since we were told that at the beginning of Monsun the ferries don't really leave every day. Finally also with convincing the taxi driver to speed up, we reached the ferry!

After almost 10 hours travelling we finally reached our cute resort, only 5 minutes from the Jetty by shuttle and the whole resort was made up like a village with smaller and 2-floored wooden cottages each with an own balkony. Located directly at the beautiful beach and als has a pool....jumping from sweet to salty water in only a few steps ;).

We wanted to start each day as convenient as possible, so we booked breakfast at the hotel for 32RM each day. And it was worth it: large buffet with all kinds of goodies like an omlett maker, sweet stuff, but also ham&cheese as well as warm dishes and lots of fruits ;).

The scenery around the resort is worth exploring for long walks along the beach to get to quiet places, where rocks meet the water and invite you for some nice pictures. There is also the opportunity to take a taxi to the other side of the island, Juara beach. Quiet place with some houses and restaurants, but nothing else than that.

Places to eat are rare close by, but in the city probably more frequent. We decided to stay close and chose places that offered fresh fish, that friendly ladies had selected the same day, and simple dishes, but not less tasty and really cheap with approx. 3,50€ for ginger fried shrimps.

We wanted to have a last beach day and so we got up early to grab some breakfast, which btw was excellent, and try to get fastest way to Bintan island in Indonesia, only one hour by ferry. What we had already discovered, that the ferries to Bintan directly were from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, about 20 minutes from our hotel. One way ferry ticket was 23 SIN Dollars and the Visa upon arrival about 30€. But ferry schedule wasn't that freequent as expected and the weather today was mostly cloudy and rainy....in the end not really worth the hastle and travel!!

Alternative: let's check out the Singapore Zoo ;), supposed to be really good.

After a twenty minute cab ride for only 20 Dollars we reached. Entrance fee for the Zoo including a tram taking you through the Zoo was 37 Dollars and worth each Cent. It was made up like a huge jungle and you felt like in the middle of the nature! 4 hours and we had seen almost everything, also the lion feeding.

Tired and hungry we took a cab back!

Now we were ready to get back....it felt like 4 weeks of travel with sooo many different landscapes and adventures, great trip!