Limping Marathon Runner

Back from a short break (wasn't exactly a holiday), Muggs feels slightly recharged. Overall, it was a great break away from work. This short getaway left me with a "I need a real holiday....." feeling. Be warned.... this is a really long blog post.

From previous blog, my ass got dragged to a seminar by my sup on Friday morning. I rushed back like a mad dog, around 6pm, grabbing my stuff and headed off to the meet up location. With my dive buddy, WilBeer, Muggs met up with TonyS and SulF. Great seeing them again. We got acquainted with the DM (his name - Man), Sunny, Bong, and 3 other caucasian divers. Ready to go, we were ushered into a mini-van. Mini-vans travel faster than coaches. Less waiting time and better maneuverability. Crossed the customs in a jiffy and we reached Kota Tinggi for a short food/toilet break. Muggs ordered Mee Goreng and it was crappy. Muggs would have made a better meal. The only thing that satisfied Muggs, Milo-Ice. Ready to go, we boarded the mini-van and headed to Mersing. Reached Mersing at wee hours of Saturday morning. Since there wasn't going to be any boat rides, we had to bunk in to a local accomodation. It was a nice, plain simple kind of place that we stayed in. The place is decorated with a Balinese touch. Too bad, it was really dark. Pics wouldn't turn out to be any good. Hence, I didn't take any.

Slept for a few hours and awaken by the Muslim chanting from a nearby mosque at 5.30am. We washed up, took breakfast and waited for the speedboat. Merely a 1hr plus ride, we reached our destination. Now, Muggs has never stayed in this part of Pulau Tioman before. At the jetty, I saw a sign saying "Internet Access Here". Instantly, Muggs had a spinning headache. Is that signs of Internet Deficiency? Withdrawal symptoms? On the way to the resort, I saw people on a mountain bike. I can't recce the surrounding if a mountain biking trail is near by. Not enough time. We settled down in the dining area with a cooling Mango syrup drink before heading to our room. Nice...!


No time to waste. Unpacking our dive gears, changed and we gathered for our first dive briefing. Since its a check-out dive, we're doing something shallow. Not too deep, probably around 15metres. WilBeer had a close picture shot at a blue spotted ray. Muggs is still waiting for him to email me the pics. We came back for lunch. Waited till 2.15pm before going out for a second dive of the day. Muggs looked for an old friend that can be found anywhere near dive resorts. Mr. Hammock.


I dozed off for a while before a slight drizzle woke Muggs up. Rather reluctant, I had to move my butt. Anyway, it was near dive time, I thought I might as well gear up. We had our second dive briefing. By then, the passing drizzle (wasn't much of a shower) stopped. Perfect. All ready to go, we headed to our second dive spot. same thing, around 15metres, we had a bottom time of 45mins.

We did a surface interval of 45mins. Muggs just want to relax. Plus, I didn't really like the next dive site, which was Tekek Wrecks. Muggs stayed onboard with my dive bud, WilBeer (he's lazing out too), and he took a pic of a crab sun-tanning on a buoy. We saw a tiny trigger fish about the length of a finger. But, little fella was too quick for any good shot. Our 3 caucasian fellow divers couldn't locate the wrecks. *Phew*... they were feeling a little grumpy about this. We all headed back. Dinner time!! BBQ... great food. At least better than the Mee Goreng that I've had.


The rest of the guys went for night dive. Though Muggs likes night dive (different things to see), Muggs is afraid of cold waters. I went to watch T.V. programmes at the dining area instead. To my surprise, they have cable T.V.!! ESPN was on, live soccer match. I watched the match till the rest of them got back from night dive. Soon, it was bed time. Time to crash out. That was Saturday.

Sunday started with a bang when the dive shop's music playing Reggae Jamaican music (since my room was just next to the dive shop). TonyS banged on the door, "Shaky shaky, wakey wakey! Time to dive!". I got up, cleaned up and had a quick breakfast. WilBeer refused to wake up, claiming that he's done for this trip. He said he'll just do some snorkeling. So, Muggs buddied up with TonyS and we went for the first morning dive at Malang Rocks for dive 3. Spotted a 0.5metre cuttlefish turned from white to brown before it took off and I thought to myself that what I witnessed was really cool. Right after surfacing, the speedboat took us to Genting Bay for the second dive of the morning. While the boat stopped there for our surface interval, the waves rocked our boat. The part where Muggs hates most. Food, yet to digest, slowly finding its way to Muggs throat. Needless to say, the smell of speedboat fuel and exhaust acted as a catalyst to my Merlion act. Knowing that I could hold it any longer in the reservior of my throat, I abandoned ship. Once I dived into the water, vomitus came spewing out of my mouth, faster than I can say, "Chow time!". Fishes dived sporadically at the "food" scattered underwater. Not a pretty sight. Ewwww. 45mins later, the rest of the group did a second dive, which Muggs opt out again (C'mon its Rest and Relax dive trip isn't it?). Muggs had a good nap (rocking good time) on the boat while waiting for the group to surface. Once they all surfaced, we went back to the resort to wash up our equipment. Lunch was served. We left the resort after lunch, heading back home and that was the end of our trip. WilBeer swears to come back to Pulau Tioman for more food, drinks and snorkeling. Probably hiking/trekking too. So, for this trip, 3 dives out of 6. Very relaxing indeed.


Like the pics? Muggs found the photo frame scripts and used GIMP to edit them. These are the few pics that I liked about this trip among other crappy shots.