Kami pergi ke Pulau Tioman Day 2

Note: This is about day 2 of the trip. Read out Day one.

Up early on the second morning, all excited about getting into the water and doing some snorkeling, we were looking forward for the day. An early cup of Teh got us going.



Tioman island, apart from having clean beaches, also has some very lush green vegetation. Its a good idea to head out for an early morning walk and snap a few photographs.








Ahmad, our resort agent, took care of organizing a snorkeling trip for us as part of our deal. He organized for somebody to pick us up from the resort with the gear and the works. He even arranged for packed lunches. Of course, we had to pay for renting out the snorkeling gear, since that wasn't part of the deal.



The snorkeling guy took us near an island, and gave us one full hour for snorkeling. This was deep water. Here, a little problem presented itself to me. I did not know how to swim and did not initially want to try it, but given everybody's encouragement and the fact that life jacket was on, I decided to jump.



I was warned that I would feel a sense of panic in the sea, not knowing how to swim. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened. I panicked, searched for the nearest thing to hold on to, which was the side of the boat. Once I held it, the legs, which were unsupported, starting looking something to anchor on.



All it could find was the side of boat, which was really a very bad idea. All I ended up doing was bruising myself at the side of the boat. So, my legs from knee down was badly bruised with scratches from the side of the boat. I somehow managed to get back into the boat. With so much blood oozing out, I was pretty disappointed.








Somehow, in all this, I did not want to spoil the party from Rajiv and Hyacie, whom I indicated to carry on. They did have quite a nice time snorkeling there. In the meanwhile, me and Nidhi (who never even bothered to get a snorkeling gear) decided to feed the fishes and watch them. It was quite a fun thing to do.






Once the designated hour was up, he took us to Marine Park, which was a far better place to snorkel, even for novices like me, since it was shallow water and you can launch yourself from the beach. I got back into the water (with the bruises still intact :-) and spent some time doing snorkeling. I have to say that the experience was quite worth it. It is amazing to have a peek into the marine life with all the dynamics there.



In hindsight, if the guy had first brought us to shallow water, allowed people like me to gain a little confidence and then taken us to deep water, I would have probably managed much better. But, hey, life ain't fair!





I did this till our time was up, after which our boat guy took us back to the resort. I wanted to do a little more snorkeling which I was hoping to do in the beach next to the resort, since it was shallow. Unfortunately, we had low tide and hence there wasn't enough depth to put your face into the water.



So, effectively, my experience was about as much as I could extract at Marine Park. Nevertheless, it was quite fun to try this out. At the end of the day, there was lot more Rummy before we headed to bed. We had a few hours to spare the next morning and we planned to do some trekking. Will write about it in the final article for this trip.