The 5000 Project

I waved goodbye to the eccentric Chinese backpacker manager after he dropped me off at a local bus stop in the middle of nowhere. I waited a good hr for a bus and was tempted to hitchhike thinking that the bus may not actually arrive, unfortunately it did so I hopped on and paid the 3 riggit ($1) for the 1.5hr bus ride to kota tinggi (Malaysian public transport is very cheap, in price and comfort). I took another bus to mersing then a ferry ticket to tioman.

I arrived in tioman as the sun was setting, all the single and double rooms were full in all the accommodation provider’s abodes – I met with a French couple (for reasons unknown, most of the tourists on the island were French or from french-speaking countries; odd considering the English initially colonized it) that were in the same situation as me and together we decided to try sleeping on the beach after asking locals if it was ok to do so. To prepare for this bold act, we decided to bunker in at the bar and consume a decent quantity of tax free (no crazy Malaysian alcohol tax on the island) beer – due to the investment towards the bar’s services, the owners allowed us to sleep under the pagola with a fan, they also offered the hammocks in the surrounding area. The sleep was ok in the hammock regardless of the mosquitos.

Perfect blue water

The next day we managed to find a cheap ($6/night each) 2 bedroom chalet (1 double, 1 single). The tioman adventure began with a 4hr trek through the jungle to a nice beach on the other side, amazing scenery, fresh waterfall in the middle to cool off.

Tioman used to be a small fishing island, they used to use traditional methods of net fishing – when the Malaysian government decided to turn it into a tourist haven, they actually built tourist lodgings for the locals to own, on the condition that they stop net fishing within a certain radius.

swimming waterfall halfway through the jungle trek to the other side of the island

During the next few days I asked a few locals if it was ok to fish, they all said it was fine as long as I don’t use a net. So, I decided to purchase a retractable compact fishing rod for $8, with the ultimate goal to catch, fillet, cook and eat self sufficient food during my travels. This is exactly what happened, with the help of my French friend, although the main fish had poisonous spines which made it difficult to cut out large fillets.

The Fish :D

All was fantastic on this island, it was all reasonably cheap; the beaches were nice, the water was crystal clear, the snorkeling was scenic, the jungles were vibrant and immense, the fish were biting, and fishing from the shore was highly illegal for tourists but legal for locals… as we found out while performing the act on the 4th day.

We were fishing from some hard to get to rocks when a guy in an official blue shirt started running towards us yelling that we will get a fine and that we had to stop, he used the hand signal for lock-up, we assumed we were busted but the guy didn’t want to walk out to the rocks to get us, so we decided to go around the other side, climb the rocks and sneak out into the jungle. We took our shirts off and hid the fishing bag under steps on the main jungle path. On the other side of the jungle path, my friend decided to snorkle around the point to possible freedom, while I put on my sunglasses and waited for some backpackers to walk with to somehow camouflage myself amongst the generic western whiteness. The plan worked, we met back at the chalet and I changed my clothes completely (contemplated wearing a hat, but all we had was a cold weather Beanie), emptied my main backpack; and headed to the path to retrieve the fishing bag within my pack. Mission successful.

Later we found out from the Frenchman’s girlfriend (who during this time was on the beach wondering what we were doing) spoke to the guy in blue and it turns out he was just warning us of a possible fine if we continued to fish. The adventure, nonetheless, was most excellent fun.

We decided to leave the next day anyway, to be on the safe side. Once we got the ferry back to mersing, we decided to travel together; little did I know that these guys are pretty adventurous hippies.