My first island getaway

Pulau Tiga or Tiga Island. The latter sounds so funny to me I don't know why hoho It is sometimes referred as Survivor Island because yes, the reality show Survivor (first season) was filmed in that island. I was so addicted to that show~!!! But now I'm more of an Amazing Race fan huhu

Epa, Dudu, Ninang, Cory and I made it to Pulau Tiga last year (and I only bothered to blog about this now?!).

We were actually in Beaufort for our School Based Experience for a week. We went to see the Proboscis Monkey and fireflies at Kota Klias. Truth be told, the ride in the boat looking at monkeys were not so fun. It was exciting for the first half hour but man, 3 hours looking at monkeys?

The gem of the place was definitely the firelies. So beautiful~!!! They were illuminating the trees, kinda reminds me of Christmas trees hoho sooooo pretty~! Sadly, the ride to see the fireflies was only like 10 minutes. We were only starting to register the view when the boat started and we went back to the jetty. Though the view cannot be captured (by my digicam, anyway), it is forever embedded in my mind. So pretty X 146472712982183.

My mom said that back in her time, there's no need to pay to look at fireflies. If only Doraemon were mine~!

After Beaufort, we went to my kampung, Kuala Penyu.

Stayed one night in my dad's kampung house. I figured I should take my friends to Sawangan Beach, where we can see Pulau Tiga in the distance.

Sawangan Beach, I used to go here everytime I went balik kampung huhu

Is that a timun laut? What's that in English, sea cucumber? I was so afraid that I would step into one, there's actually many of them there~!!!

Because the trip to Pulau Tiga was eons ago, I shall do my best to remember it~! We took a boat from Kuala Penyu to Pulau Tiga. It took about 30minutes for us to get there. I just love boat rides. I like the wind in my hair, the splashes of water and just the thought of having fun later huhu


We didn't plan to stay overnight in the island. Instead we planned to just take the day tour and get back in the evening. Huhu We're such cheapskates~! It was desperate times okay, if not, we would've stayed.

From Kuala Penyu jetty headed to Pulau Tiga

Cory again, this time at Pulau Tiga's jetty.

In the island, we constantly felt like we're in a different country. hehe because there's so many foreigners over there. I think we were the only Malaysians there, apart from the resort staff, ofcourse. Which is an advantage to us, maybe because the staff rarely see Malaysians, they were so nice to us. Or maybe because we are damn gorgeous haha

This is where we had our meals and where you register when you first arrive. There are people who will welcome you and give you some juices while you register.

We then found out that we couldn't take the day tour as it was late when we got to the island. So, we must stay overnight. Cheap plan gone wrong huhu We didn't even bring clothes~!!! Okay, we did, but just one extra pair for the mud bath and ofcourse undergarments. That's it~! So, you'll detect in the pictures that we'll be wearing 2 different tops only hehehe Thank God I brought some lotions to wangi-wangi hoho

We checked in our room (students are so poor, we crashed in 1 room haha can you imagine, 5 girls sharing 3 joined beds hehe) and had lunch. About 2pm, we went to the Volcano Mud pool. I thought it was just around the corner but we had to hike for 2km to get to the mud. Walking through the jungle, we can hear the sounds of various animals, and the air was refreshing~!

It wasn't like you're entering some forbidden jungle, there were markers beside the trail that shows how many meters have you travelled from the resort. When theres a fork in the trail, there is always a sign that tells you which way to go. It was really reassuring and helpful.

2km later, we arrived at our destination. The volcano mud is supposed to be good for the skin hehe so we wasted no time getting into the mud... err, kinda. When we first looked at the mud, it was so.... eww. Eww like a buffalo just took a big dumped in there.

Not so eww now~! Double peace some more~!

There was nobody around so we took our time. I think Epa was the first to hop in. I was the third. Initially, it was so gross but in time, I felt good in that mud. Because it is mud from the volcano, the density is high so we wont drown. My feet never touched the bottom of the mud pool. It is sooooo fun to be in it~!

See, you can't drown in here. You'll float even if you don't want to~!

There were a few minutes of terror for me though. When all of us was happily chatting and swimming in the mud pool, a group of monkeys appeared and crept near and near. They were making lots of noises too~! Honestly, I was terrified~! Our rescuers? Tourists from Hungary. They came and perhaps the monkeys saw that there were quite a number of us there that they decided to leave us alone. The staff did told us about monkeys known to get near people in the pool.

See that yellow thingy below the picture, that's the trail marker. It shows how many meters have you travelled from the resort.

After an eternity of soaking in the mud pool, we decided to head back (mud from head to toe~!). I was imagining running to the blue ocean and let the big waves (not surfing waves, huhu) wash away the muds. Little did I know...

Explorer mode kicked in and we decided to take another route, we figured out that the other route would take us to the same resort, it will just take longer. We were headed to Rocky Beach instead of taking the trail we followed to get to the mud pool originally. 

The trail was alot harder where we have to jump to cross some holes. When we arrived at Rocky Beach, I thought it was pretty with all the rocks hence Rocky Beach but it crumbled my hope lah... you know, the whole running to the ocean and all haih... From there, we can see Snake Island.

Behold, Rocky Beach~!

And to top it off, the resort was not there~! So, we have to go back to the trail, went past the volcano mud pool and went back to the original path we took. When we told the staff about our trip in the jungle, they laughed. They, themselves haven't gone to Rocky Beach~!

A little bit tired after the mishap but we went and enjoy the rockless beach at the resort anyway. It was super fun~! I love playing around at the beach. The colour of the sea is pretty and the waves was big. Dudu later confessed that it was the first time she went into the ocean. Which is hard to believe, because she lives very near to one~!

Ninang and Dudu enjoying their dinner. The food was good and it's a buffet~! If you're not full, you can always have seconds or thirds or fourths or... you get the idea. XD

After dinner, we headed to the audio room. Had a blast karaoke-ing the whole night and watching orang putih playing snooker. Epa didn't sing that night, did you?

Audio room... We're picking the songs we wanted to sing hoho

Ninang and I pouring our hearts out at a Westlife number huhu or was it Dancing Queen?

Took a stroll down the beach. I've always thought that strolling along the water edges was a romantic thing. Why is it so romantic huh? Went back to our humble room and Zzz-ed...

I was the first one up in the morning. A rattle on the roof woke me up. Assuming it was some branches, I went out the room and looked around. To my surprise, it was monkeys~! This island sure have lots of monkeys~! Some of them were climbing the trees near the beach and there were those who carefreely walked on top of the roof.

We went back to Kuala Penyu soon after breakfast. Pulau Tiga is such a fascinating place. I would come and visit again someday(hopefully~!). We didn't have time to snorkel, jetski, go fishing and play the banana boat (eh-hem, I'm blaming the fact that we are students again, therefore the lack of fund~!) and I would love to see the Survivor camps. There are trails that would lead to the actual camps of the 2 tribes in Survivor.

I found out later that if you go in groups, you can have a mini Survivor camp~! You can go to the actual Survivor site and make your own camps, cook your own food and even have challenges, just like the real Survivor~!

For information on Pulau Tiga, visit http://pulau-tiga.com/index.html. We went there without bookings and when negotiating, we asked for mark downs and they gave us discounts hoho

The trip was fun~! I loved every moment of it. Maybe it was the picturesque place and ofcourse because it was spent with my dear friends ohohoho

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The cheapskates.