Tioman to Singapore by public transport

Strictly speaking, there are 2 ways to travel between Tioman and Singapore. The direct air route operated by Berjaya Air or the ferry to Mersing and then land route to Singapore.

At this time of writing, one way trip via the air route cost around S$120. Price is reasonable, for me it is anyway. Problem is that its not always available, like fully booked or not on those days that you must travel. Its a once a day flight service from Changi and max passengers is 48 on this Dash 8 aircraft…

The one with stripes down the side is the one to Mersing

Taking the ferry and land route is the most assured way to get back, but I found that it will take 8 or more hours. Altho it cost only S$24, I think its not worth the time and hassle. Well, I had to try it to know it..

There alot of power in that body of water today

I couldnt get a flight out on the day before I have to go back to work… alright, so I try the land route. .. hoping for the best.. and it turned out to be the worst. See, the conditions were bad right from the beginning. Strong winds and heavy swells, ferries were having difficulty just coming along the pier. So, the 0930hrs ferry was late and we left at 1000hrs.

The marina is not too disturbed by the troubled waters

I was the last to board but still there were plenty of seats… but its stinky already… lots of people, kids especially were already throwing out.. well, the beginning of a roller coaster ride… and the ferry stops at several other piers on the island before heading for Mersing. There were some folks at the last pier that couldnt get on board. Ferry is full and they will have to wait 3hrs for the next one. The 1.5 hrs ride took us 2hrs today.

Here we are, at Mersing. Lots of boats are in today

Therefore, I didnt make it for the 1100hrs bus at Mersing. Had lunch and waited for the 1300hrs, which was also late. Departed Mersing 1330hrs and arrived JB Larkin 1600hrs. There were confusion among the passengers, me included, on why this bus doesnt go to Singapore, when our tickets says it does. Of course, the bus driver could not properly communicate the directions on what we should do next. Typically Malaysia, very dissappointing. Naturally, we all got it wrong and boarded the SBS 170 instead and paying more money for that crossing. Lucky me, I have the Singapore EZlink card, not so for the rest who didnt have any loose change SGD. It was all just so unnecessarily confusing, plus touts where everywhere pushing cab rides to SG.

Berthed work boats, a sign of the weather outside this protected harbour

Ok, so the idea is this, get on SBS bus 170 from Larkin and it will go direct to the Causeway immigration at JB. Get off when everybody does, follow the crowd and dont worry, there is always somebody to follow in this very busy exchange. Get to the counter, get stamped out of Malaysia. Follow the crowd again and look for escalator down to the SBS bay, its on the left. Most other buses are on the right. Jump onto bus again and enjoy the ride across the historic causeway. At Singapore immigration, get off and follow the crowd, get stamped in and clear customs. Follow the directions, get back down to the SBS bus bay and off you go.

Heading to SG, look for this bus

I made it across quite easily, having done this before about 20yrs ago… Things have definately been improved. The transfer system is so much more efficient now. A/C immigration buildings and brightly lighted paths, the environment is so much better. No more long queue in dark humid lines standing infront of the immigration officer. Thing of the past, good riddance.

Get off bus 170 at Kranji MRT station. Switch to NS line towards Bishan, switch to Circle line heading towards Serangoon. Made it home 1715hrs. Its like a day at work, from 0830 to 1715hrs, but its also like being in many strange places during that time… I hope not to do this again..

Hike over the mountain at Tioman

We had really wanted to see Juara which is on the other side of Tioman, as in its across the mountain to the east of the marina. If not for the wind and swells recently, we would have gone and try anchor Calliste off the beach for a day. Seems like it would be too uncomfortable to stay onboard in these conditions, so I thought the way to see Juara is to be berthed at the marina and walk over…

At beginning of a long windy uphill.

I mean, I do enjoy long distance walking… but the uphill part is abit daunting.. and not knowing much about the mountain road.  Nobody gives a good description of this walk, like how far, how much time would a average person take to hike over. Its completely unknown, except that people have done it to and fro in a day…

Alright, so I am going to go until I cant continue anymore… and I am not carrying any water nor food… travelling light with not even a backpack. Just a phone, RM90 and no ID… … really, I am not a very smart traveller, just the silly ones with the can-do attitude…

Midway, an opening in the forest to look out over the marina and seas.

And I am doing this alone. Me, by myself, up the lonely road across Tioman. Look, no way Doug is gonna make it across… he is just gonna talk me out of it, every step of the way… so if it is to be, it is up to me. And so, here we go.

I am not kidding, this is really tough. Only just turning in at the 1st bend and I am so winded already. Okay, need more mental strength here… talked myself into making the 2nd bend, maybe it wont be so steep after that… opps 3rd bend is just as bad… too early to give up, lets try another 100 steps… gotta rest… really sat down on the alu railings for 2 mins… found that my posture while facing up is not comfy at all, turn around face downhill and stretch legs out front. .. arhhh……

Think zen, deep breaths… now slow down the breaths… ok heart rate under control now… feel better now, ok move on.. Its a beautiful day for a walk, make good use of it. .. and I keep telling myself that I have come to far to give up.. Nope, I didnt think that I made much distance at all, just trying to push myself over the slope, and the next one, and the next one…

First signs of human dwelling on this lonely road

So I started at 0845hrs. The SuperCats (Phil, Gina and Felicity) pass me on their motorbikes at 945hrs. Just about time I was seriously thinking about giving up… I listened for the sound of engine as they disappear around a corner further up, trying to gauge how much more incline there is beyond them.. Hmm… I think its quite close now.. PUSH ON! Even if I have to sit on the ground and rest every 20steps, I am going for it!

Bananas! 20ft of tall grass separates me from that fruit!

I am certainly doing better than those monks doing the 3 steps and flat on belly walk! At least I am making better progress… Another reason to push on. … 1030hrs, finally! A long flat! Ok, it should be easy now. The worst is over! So I thought!

Made it! At last!

Coming up next, steep downhill.. what goes up, must come down. If it was hard going up, you can tell that it be just as hard coming down… This time, my problem was my toes. They hurt from being squished in by the pointy down pressure from the steepness of slopes.. so much so that I had to walk backwards to relieve the pressure… I am at the point, where I will do whatever necessary to finish on the Juara side. I’ll roll if I must, I’ll be there! Keep telling myself that…

1130hrs, finally, signs of human habitats! and human activities… did I tell ya I was so dumb and had no water… These green bananas actually looked really good to me then! .. for the record, it took me almost 3hrs to cross… hit the beach food shacks and drink like theres no tomoro… I was drowning myself with coke!

Phils at Juara

Well, the real attraction for me at Juara is Phils’ new getaway house. And so here I am, refreshed and trekking over the beach pathway to Phils’… there is no road, this is THE way…

A Malay style beachfront chalet

And look, a pretty Malay beachfront chalet. Isnt that cute. Its really small, but has a toilet and 2 double deck bunk beds… no A/C, so I wont bother to ask.

Felicity in her soon to be furnished loft room

Lucky me, low tide. .. so I didnt have to get too wet walking over to Phils. They are now putting in cabinets and furniture. Soon they be ready to party! And nobody throws a party like Phil and family…. so looking forward… to seeing it finished… and the party of course.

I can imagine that sun rise over Juara would be so pretty. This house is so perfectly situated to watch sun rise happening in the shade of the rocks and trees. Felicity has the best view, I am jealous

The smaller gardeners quarters

Even the workers that will be hired to maintain this property have a nice hut and a great view. This would be so perfect for me, but I am not one for the service industry …

 Nope, I am going to try get a cab back. Bump into John and Wilma. They walked too, and they were also there to visit with Phil. So we shared the cab fare and it all work out well.. RM90 for 3 of us in a 30 min ride. The driver is going to eat well tonight.

So, at the end of the day…. I got to see Juara, visit Phil and family… and Doug happily settled for the comfort of just seeing the pictures and hearing my story… We shall both be contented.

2012 Sailing Adventure – SG to Aur to Tioman

Foyer of our flat: Collecting stuff that are going with us.

It seems like we have a pattern that is influenced by the prevailing S. China sea climate. Every year, about end April, we go on a boat and head out to Tioman. We’ve done that in 2009, 2011 and now 2012! .. I almost made it in 2010 in Eleanor.. I took off, but didnt complete it tho.. Well..,  we are probably doing it 2013… pretty sure .. on route to Japan… possibly, cant be 100% sure, but its a good chance that we be doing that.

Kayaks loaded, fuel loaded, ready to go

This year, I am taking time off work between Labour day and Vesak day to make this a 10 day sailing adventure on board S/V Calliste. Didnt feel too good about leaving 2 cats to the care of 2 teenages in my partially renovated flat.. hope they’ll be alright…

27 Apr 2000hrs: We moved onboard with fresh groceries. Put things away and put kayaks in their places, took awnings down…. At about 2359hrs, we were too pooped to continue and nah… we are not leaving at 0400hrs.

28 Apr 1400hrs: We are finally underway. Yeah! While in Singapore waters, we continue to enjoy mobile broadband and that was fun… Hopefully, we get Maxis broadband to work just as well… I had to make arrangements to get the Maxis Sim card ahead of our departure, and sign up for the monthly prepaid broadband for RM68. Thats not bad, but only 3G of data and wonder how good is the transfer rate.

At about 2000hrs, it was just beginning to get really dark, and I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me… there was a strip of very black water ahead of us…. hmm…. seems to be getting bigger… WHOA! Throttle back engine way down, change course 90′ Port! That was just reflex action and good thing too. We were less than 10meters away from running into some really dense fishing stakes that ran a long ways down to somewhere that I cant see the end. Almost a heart attack… anyway, we got around it by going inshore and passed it in 6meters depth. This end was lighted by some very small blinking red light… I was like, WHOA! Damn crazy garbage people put up this unmarked trap! Yeah right! What blinking light! Damn! #$!%#*@. This is, btw, off Tanjong Ayam.

Approaching Aur. Our favorite island in South China Sea

2200hrs, going thru the narrow passage among the rocks off Rumunia. Good timing, we had a slack tide and passed the dangerous North rocks easily. It was very dark and we relied totally on my 7 yr old Garmin GPSMAP76C and 2005 Bluecharts. I have done this route 3 times before, going up to Tioman, so I was pretty sure that if the old guy(GPS) is working, we would be okay.

Here we are. Moored on the Duyong side of the channel.

29 Apr 0100hrs: My watch. Lots of lights out there to our Starboard. Could be anything, fishing skiffs, big ships… looks like something is closing in on us, I am starting to see some bright red, green and white lights… must be some SG power boats going the same way… hearing their engines now… WHOA! Look at that … how many are there…? They look exactly the same… size, height and lights, and seems to be quite large… 60 to 70 ft perhaps… Changing course 20′ to Port, wanting some distance from this convoy… On closer look, they are military vessels and 7 of them. WHOA! And every one of them checked us out with their on board spot light! I think we have our picture taken 7 times tonight… hmm… are these Malaysian Navy? I didnt think they keep their vessels so up and running… everything seem to be in good working condition…

Calliste at Aur mooring

0400hrs, my watch again. Looks like another big vessel is coming up on our starboard. Couldnt tell where he is going, but its coming a little to close for comfort. 20′ to Port, looks like a very black hull passing us about 50meters on starboard… got beamed again.! They definately saw us…. and bully us into giving way altho it would be nice of them, being the big boys to show a little class and alter course to pass behind us. Since they never did alter course, we did… We know not to expect better of them working vessels in Asia already.

We really love the rocks at Aur and Duyong. See, how pretty.

0630hrs, my watch again… we do like 2hrs on and 2hrs off. Seems to work pretty well. I got this sunrise shift, which is exactly what I wanted. Hoping to catch a glimpse of jumping fishes at the instant sunlight touches down on the water. That was a experience that I had last year and it was so natural and left me with a desire to see it again. I decided that when we are out to sea, I reserve all sunrise watches… I bully Doug into it anyway … Well, this time, I am not so lucky. No jumping fishes, but some consolation, the rising sun was really round. Most of the other sunrises or sunsets that I have seen, usually the sun is partially obscured by clouds.

and Aur waters are beautiful! As usual

0930hrs, off the SW corner of Aur. We are looking for anchoring spots and discovering other parts of Aur that we havent seen last year. See, we really like Aur… more than Tioman really, but its too rustic and we cant be very comfy staying around here. We miss A/C and fresh foods… no, we dun fish and we dun put jumping prawns into a pot of boiling water and cover up quick.

1 happy kayaker among rocks at Aur

1130hrs, everywhere around Aur are pretty rocks or sandy beaches. We pick up a mooring on the Duyong side this time, as it seems to be a busy weekend for the dive operators on the Aur side.

Now time to cook a little something for brunch, and then time to relax and catch up on sleep… Yes, the midday heat almost killed us.

1 laid back kayaker in the cool shade among rocks at Aur

1600hrs, time to crawl out of the cabin and go for a little exploration. Things are starting to cool down around here and there’s even a little sailing breeze if we are going anywhere.

We found this little inlet among the rocks at Duyong. This is so serene.

1800hrs, done with rock grocking. Very pleased with ourselves for having done that. Its like 1 thing off our list. On the paddle back to Calliste, I went around to the other 2 sailboats moored off the resort. Socializing… sun down happy hour. Everyone’s bound for Tioman in a day or two.

30Apr 0330hrs, we left the mooring. Nobody came up to collect for our mooring… guess we were lucky once again. One of the sailboats paid RM20.

It was a very dark night. The moon had set and other than a few little lights for the various boats in the channel, we could see nothing… and then there were some flashes in the sky and we could make out the edges of the islands. We relied on my trusty old GPS and our tracks to help us get out of the channel.

Reosrts at Tioman… yawn… havent we seen that before…

0400hrs, we are out of the lee of Duyong and I wondered if we should turn back. Seems to be heavy weather brewing out there. Doug thinks it wont be too severe and nothing that Calliste couldnt handle. Ya, I know, but… ok… prepare for a boisterous ride over to Tioman. Here we go… Choppy 2 -3 meters wave coming in from starboard. Wind against current… so we got a good boost from the current and even tho we are bashing into the waves, we make good speed. Overall 3+ knots, sometimes 4… until we crash into a biggie wave, then we drop down to 1+ knots and slowly build back up.

Leaving Doug to helm the most boisterous bit with his stronger stomach, I went down to get the 1st snooze… Lying flat in the cabin while Calliste is being knocked around… wasnt too bad for me. Nah, I wasnt feeling queasy at all… but standing up and bracing in the cabin for a few minutes, I start feeling my stomach turned upside down…

0600hrs, my watch now. Doug was so nice, he got me up when we entered the lee of Permangol island. We have shelter from the island for about 1hr as we travel north. Well, its my favorite sunrise watch again, but it probably would be dissapointing because of the weather… kinda sleep drunk and a little drudging it… but got to be fair eh…

Yep, here we are. Snug as a bug in a rug at Tioman marina

0800hrs, Tioman insight and the seas are a little less boisterous now. Looks like the storm blew itself out and we didnt get any rain that we thot we might… yes, I was right about the disappointing sunrise… off watch, head straight for the bunk.

1000hrs, finally up again… and now have some energy. Now we can gawk at Tioman and resorts as we pass them. The seas are not quite settled yet, residue from the storm.. but I am surprise, we still have the current going with us… interesting…

1300hrs, we arrived and tied up temporarily inside the marina. Now to take care of the paperwork and be formally cleared into Malaysia. 1600hrs, we moved into a more permanent slip. 1800hrs, off to a cold beer with the gang at Captain Kerks. Yes! We have arrived!

The new walk from Keppel Marina to Labrador park

At the waterfront walkway infront of Caribean and Reflections

So we have a new Boardwalk across the water, linking us on Calliste @ Keppel Bay Marina to Labrador Park… lets check it out.

Its a nice morning walk.. while its still cool.. across the bridge linking Keppel island to mainland Singapore, then onto the landscaped waterfront walkway along Caribean Condos, onto the waterfront walkway along the soon to be occupied Reflections, onto the boardwalk across a swamp and finally onto Labrador park.

Yup, across the swamp on a broadwalk.

The walk is about 1.5km across everything manmade. Stone slabs floors with embedded lights, designer park benches and dwarf palms. Looks nice and maintained, un-natural and cold…

Looks like a exciting day out for these guys

Labrador park is just a small little park that is really quite nice and more natural. Its more for real people to have fun in. People actually fish, walk and gawk at the flowers and set off on expeditions here.

And off they go.

Such good luck, we see a kayak fishing group preparing and going off. 0800hrs, they are off already. Check out their gear. Seems like they are a group that has finances setup and ready to enjoy off days with a passion. I mean, they do stand out among the locals who are financially well set but have no passion. Think you need a job to keep from going senile and becoming useless? Why not a exciting (yes, it expensive) hobby?

BTW, a group of older folks stopped and gawked at their equipment and energy… and said out loud, “Wonder how much fish they are going to get from all that money and effort.” Obviously, they dont get it.

Morning of Easter 2012

Our yellow multi purpose room

This Easter is special… its the day that I stop major reno work .. and so this is the state of the house reno and its going stay this way for about 2 months.. We are taking a break from reno and will be gone sailing… our annual pilgrimage to Tioman.

Temporary kitchen setup

Its still about 2 weeks to departure, and now we are full swing into sailing preparations. Moving sails on and tools off Calliste, stocking up food and fuel… etc. Going on vacation like ours is alot of work to begin with… and then 10 days of island fun.. this time, Calliste will be gone for couple of months, hence more prep work..

Fridge in its place! Yes!

Around the house, we will be picking up the pieces and doing little finishing touches when we can, but not much. Its feels like camping out, but much more comfy now with the fridge in its final position, altho the kitchen top is not even started. A temporary kitchen just to get us by… Notice the portable single induction stove and kettle?

Doors and A/C are in!

With the doors installed and keeping the A/C ‘ed air in and saw dust storms out, my very blue bedroom is pretty much done..

Meal corner in our bedroom...

 

Yes, we still need paint on the doors… details! Blar! I am just so anxious to get this over with… I keep thinking that its done!

And a little eating corner in the room… like a studio. A little radio set tucked away in the corner, easy music while we relax in here.  Things are slowly getting better around here…

Some dust settling over at my great reno project

2nd floor landing... thats done!

Soon I be done with “reno” talk… I hope. This took much longer than I anticipated. sigh… balancing my work as a engineer and doing my most of own reno and managing people that I hire occasionally… its driving me nuts.

Before, workshop for this reno project

For some reason, hiring workers that are any good has been difficult. They either dont have the right tools, or are just bent to finish it quickly and move on to the next job, leaving me to either clean up their work or clean up their mess. .. and sometimes a tool goes missing… lemme see… 1 screw driver and 1 hacksaw is missing… ya, little annoyances…

1 almost done wall in the future multipurpose room.

Anyway, its coming along, slowly and surely.  Soon this messy workshop will become the multipurpose room, which will be a dining cum lounge cum guest quarters. This is partial transformation thats already done. Yes, its yellow! Bright and cheery. Yes, the stairway is pink! I love vibrant colors for this apartment.

The laundry area.. works in progress

And look, a wash basin setup in the laundry area. Yes, its going to be yellow too… when I get to finish the painting..

Foyer and MPRoom separated by a translucent wall..

I thought it was fun to use the frosted polycarbonate material for the partition wall separating the foyer and multipurpose room.. Me thinks me staying over kinda guest wont like it as much as I do… .. hee hee hee…

Temporary kitchen separated from reno by unused polycarbonate sheets.

We moved the makeshift kitchen from our future bedroom into kitchen! Finally… but still its temporary… The dish washing sink and stove base is not yet constructed… well… we were busy with other stuff alright. Yesyes.. my fault, I grossly over estimated my ability to do things … I thot it was cool to go sleepless for a month and finish all this stuff… yeah right… I thot again..

The finishing touches on our future bedroom

Well, I guess I have to be realistic and live with my faults and recognize my limited “abilities”… 

Now that the A/C is in and we are finishing up the door jambs, we be moving into our very blue bedroom soon… I cant wait! How many moons have it been since I started this reno! Argghhh!!

… Looking forward to the shopping days at IKEA, splurging on furniture and appliances that I will realize later that I didnt need  … soon it will be time for that… and then… Yes! its over!

Been working!

Very large window grill

Work more, write less… thats what happen. So in the last 3 weeks that I was “new post less”, have routed electrics and lights to main bedroom and painted the walls. … means I still have electrics to route and more LED lights to install. ..

One of the many crazy things that I do and call it a hobby...

Okay, so we completed building the mega window grill and ready for install. .. by a professional window and grill installer with very long extendable ladder. The ones that I have wont cut it. Thats why we are not installing it ourselves and besides, we dont want to violate a serious building code. I mean it will be a serious offence if our mega window grill slip and fall downstairs, causing injury to others or ourselves or damage to public property… resulting in citations, fines and whatever.. and we can avoid this by simply letting the pros do it… get it!

Another partition wall in the making..

Then we started on the framing for another partition wall that will seperate the foyer from the multipurpose room. This room would be the workshop, entertainment and guestroom…. depending on needs of the day… so how do we work in all these non-similar functions into a room…. we’ll see..

Its fun watching... for a change

… oh.. I am so tired from all this working… planning, buying the materials, doing the work.. just sometimes, I wish its easier to get what I want… so here I have… a pro painter! Thats something isnt it… and I can just sit back and watch…

.. not much progress….

One more corner done...

We were sicker than dogs in the last 2 weeks! Coughing until we hit the ground, crawling over to the bed. Lethargies, whatever and everything. .. Looks like we’ll miss some stuff going into Easter Sunday party…

Removing unintentional paint. Its quite easy.

I wonder why we must go thru this suffering … is it becos we dont rest enuf otherwise.

Well, but here we are, rested and getting back our strength… and already moving on with some successes.

New doorways into the new bedroom

Just finishing up the doorways here. Didnt know it took so much energy to put in screws… we still get light headed quite easily.. so we take it easy for now. Must be the lack of food for the past 2 weeks…

Window grill building... on site...

And then, now feeling much better… ready to do bigger things… literally… The plan is to build the aluminium window grill.. its 8′ x 12.5′ …

So, 1st the grill, then fill the screen modules later. .. maybe after Easter…

Progress!

Me at my new site office... across the room

I wish we were done… but I can only say that we made good progress. … and we are likely to finish just before Good Friday, and hopefully we could have a Easter Egg hunt party … Plan is in the works. ..

Framing a partition between future bedroom and kitchen.

This is me sitting in my new “site office”… also temporary kitchen. Well at least 1 corner in my very blue future bedroom is done. Also testing the daylight LED here. Daylight looks alot better than warmwhite against this very vibrant blue wall and partition.

Oh, how do you like the white wood frame/trimmings?

At the foyer... painting station.

While I am collecting egg shells… and keeping them safe… we’ll be finishing up this partition between my future room and the kitchen.

The other completed corner is in the foyer… yes its PINK! and some Lilac white. Colors that I have done so far are Sassy (pink), Lilac white, Harmony (blue) from Nippon Easy Wash and Premium Odorless range. Yes, I painted the ceiling with this pricey paint too. I insist on good quality Nippon paint only.. Nippon should reward me for being such a good return customer since 1990.

… and yes, I use Bordelac Innosence on wood doors and Pearl Grey on railing soon to go on. Partition trimmings are coated with Timberlac white..

After 4 days of work!

The beginnings of a partition wall.

While everyone were enjoying the long weekend. … Lang and co were working on reno…

Its a quiet neighbourhood, so we try not to disturb the peace… with our machining noise that is… we try… but when its raining heavy and ringing thunder, thats our chance to quickly saw up some wood for making this partition wall.

Wall painted while still on the ground.

Assembly is not so noisy.. phew. Painting is nice and quiet… I love the painting part, cos its the finishing part of a project. Its relaxing and its very visual… especially when I choose such bold colors to work with.

And now the wall is up.

And here it is… we have a lift off .. from the floor that is..

Pushing it up is easy.. its very light, plywood and block board construction.. to be filled in with foam for soundproofing, then screw in the other side.. After front side is up, the rest should be easier to fit.

And after this partition, there’s still 3 more “fake” walls to build … and the list of other things goes on.