http://www.fivestarsonline.com/
This includes transport to and back, ferry and daily breakfast at the resort.
Paid: S$135.00 (for the standard room with daily breakfast)
Spending money brought there: $250 RM
Meeting place is at Golden Mile Complex at 6am. We only board the coach at about 7am and passed the Woodlands check point into JB at about 830am. With one toilet stop/break from JB to Mersing, we reached Tanjung Gemok ferry terminal at about 11:15am. Do remember to have $5 RM ready at Tanjung Gemok ferry terminal to pay for the conservation fees. You have to make sure to carry the tickets issued to you when u go snorkeling in case they check. The ferry is scheduled to leave for Tioman at 12pm daily. Because there was a problem with the hydraulics on that day, we only managed to leave around 1:15pm. Ferry ride to Tioman took about 1.5 hours. Approximate arrival time in Tioman is around 2-3pm.
(Map courtesy from website: http://www.tiomanpayaresort.com.my/ )
The Jetty at Paya Beach
The sight of pretty marine fishes and corals was overwhelming just at the jetty! It was just amazing to see blue green clear water everywhere (except near the shore). I could even see the sea bed! How I love Mother Nature!
Paya Beach
Paya Beach Spa & Dive Resort
The resort is located just 5 minutes walk from the jetty. Some rooms are located at sea front and some are located just behind. Our standard room (Room Number: J1) is located just beside the restaurant in front of the sea.
The room is pretty comfortable and decent for budget travelers. I just found the bed too soft for me. As the floor is so sandy, I had to wear my sandals around in the room. Occasionally, you might have a few unwelcome guests like spiders and millipedes on the bathroom as the ceiling is partially meshed for ventilation. These guests are expected as all the resorts are located just in front of a primary forest. Remember that these creatures are actually more terrified than you are especially when they stumble into an unfamiliar environment. So what I did to a millipede was to ‘push’ it aside.
One of the good things I love about this resort is that all of the rooms have water taps just outside to wash away the sand on the sandals when we are back from the beach. It is also very thoughtful of them to have clothes lines just outside each room to dry out those wet clothing. It is just so calming to hear the waves on the shores every morning when I wake up.
Confusion: Paya Beach Spa & Dive Resort OR Tioman Paya Resort
Make sure that you don’t confuse yourself with the 2 resorts above.
Paya Beach Spa & Dive Resort is located just at the beach front.
Tioman Paya Resort is located deeper behind the resort above. We had to walk about half a minute on a wooden boardwalk to reach there. It is more secluded and quiet over there.
Snorkeling Gear – Mask, snorkel, life jacket, flippers.
You can just rent your snorkeling gear at any shops there. There isn’t many shops anyway. Prices of the gears are all the same. We rented our gear (we had our own mask and snorkel already) from the Paya beach resort.
Flippers: $7.00 RM per pair
Life Jacket: $7.00 RM each
Life jacket is a must for safety especially in deep water and strong currents. Make sure you get the right fit for the life jackets and flippers. The right fit for life jacket will prevent skin abrasions at the armpits and neck. Having a right fit for flippers will of course prevent them from falling off your feet while kicking in the water.
Snorkeling at Paya Beach Tioman
At Paya Beach, u can just snorkel off from the beach. But do not go into the water during stormy weather. At about 20 meters off the beach and especially near a couple of huge rocks located further out, we could already see parrot fishes, tiger fishes and pretty corals. It’s simply amazing how u can just swim off the shore and see these pretty works from Mother Nature.
FOOD AT PAYA BEACH
Food is relatively cheap at Paya Beach. Some examples:
1) 1 Bottle of Mineral Water 1.5 litre @ $3.00 RM (You have to buy anyway)
2) 1 can of Heineken beer at just $3.50 RM!
3) Watermelon Juice at $2.50 RM
4) Special Ramly burger with egg and cheese @ $4.50 (Must try! – will mention more about this below)
5) Big loaf of Mighty White Bread to feed the fishes @ $2.50 RM (A MUST-BUY- As u can bring the bread out during the day trip or feed to the fishes just at the paya beach jetty)
D’Sinar Beach Restaurant
On the 1st night, we had one of the nicest and biggest serving of ice-kacang here. We also ordered Tom Yam Soup, Fried Squid (SUPER NICE AND CRISPY!) and Kang Kong Berlachan at all under $25 RM.
De Village Restaurant (look out for their yellow sign boards!)
This is the place u should visit for RAMLY BURGERS AND SAMBAL SEAFOOD! Ramly burgers cooked here are so different from SG. For example, the egg is beaten in a cup before they cook and spread on the hot pan. Also, the meat patty is split in the centre to about ¾ through when cooking. The best Ramly burger I have tasted so far. We also took the Special King Ramly Burger which comes with 2 patties, cheese and egg! Just remember to say ‘special’ if u want egg and cheese!
On the 2nd night, we ordered Sambal Stingray, Sambal Fish and Sambal Sotong with rice (Approx $26 RM). The sambal is slightly different from SG version. They actually put in peanuts in their sambal sauce. The sambal sauce is actually home-made as you can see the whole pot of sambal at the shop. It taste especially good with rice. Some how, I just love the taste. I would have bought the sambal sauce home for my mum if they are selling it.
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Tioman Day Tours
We booked the tour from the Snorkel gear rental shop right outside the Paya Beach Resort reception counter. There are basically 2 types of day tour.
1. Marine Park and Reggis Island Tour (9am -1pm , excludes lunch) $30 RM
This tour includes 1 snorkeling trip at the marine park and 1 snorkeling trip at Reggis Island.
2. Tulai Island, Salang beach, Marine Park and Reggis Island Tour (9am-3pm excludes lunch) $50 RM
This tour includes 2 snorkeling spots around Tulai Island, Lunch at your own expenses at Salang beach, 1 snorkeling trip at Marine Park and 1 snorkeling trip at Reggis Island.
Tulai Island, Salang beach, Marine Park and Reggis Island Tour
We opt for the tour above as we simply love snorkeling and swimming with the fishes.
Tulai Island snorkeling (2 snorkeling trips – approximately 1 hour each)
At 9am, the speedboat took off to a couple of really huge rock formations near Tulai Island. These rocks are part of Tulai Island. Over there, there are hard corals as well as soft corals, not to mention the pretty fishes.
After 1 hour at the rocks, we proceeded to Tulai Island. Tulai Island has one of the prettiest beaches I have seen so far. The sand is white and soft. Corals and marine fishes are very close to the shore. Water is very clear and it is actually safe to snorkel without life jacket in the shallow waters. We even spotted a baby stingray with blue spots there!
Salang beach (Lunch for about 1 hour)
Salang Beach is located at the other tip of Pulau Tioman. It’s pretty secluded as well. We had a hearty lunch at one of the restaurant over there at just about $30 RM for 2 persons.
Mains: Rice with Tom Yam Soup, Fried Kang Kong and Stir-fried Squid.
Dessert: Banana Pancake with Strawberry ice cream
Marine Park
Marine park is a ‘must go’ place for all tourists. In fact I think is the ‘most visited’ place in Tioman. There’s nothing but bread-hungry fishes. These fishes are slightly bigger than those u see in the water and other than that there’s no big deal about them. Other than those common marine fishes, we did spot a big cuttlefish with blue spots there. I didn’t like that place actually as it was too unreal. The environment and the settings are all man-made. Water is also not clear there as people are always feeding bread to the fishes and the fishes are always clearing their bowels. Maybe I was too spoilt with Mother Nature’s creations at Tioman.
Reggis Island (1 hour)
We had our last snorkel at Reggis Island. This is the place where you can spot sharks if u are lucky enough. Our guide who swam in front of us wanted to show us one baby shark but we missed it apparently as we were swimming too slowly due to strong currents. Over here, water is crystal clear. From Reggis Island, it was a mere 5 minute’s boat ride back to Paya beach.
Day 3 (Last day)
To the Rock Falls (Waterfall)
You will find the sign board ‘To Rockfalls’ somewhere on the pathway towards Tioman Paya Resort. (See Pics above) On the last day, we actually tried to venture into the forest to look for the rock falls but we only managed to find a small stream and there after there were a few pathways which we were unsure of. Being pressed for time, we turned back to pack our bags.
Check out time is at 10am. Ferry will pick up at 12pm. By about 1:30pm we reached Mersing and had our lunch before we proceed straight to JB checkpoint to beat the jam. Lunch at the Mersing Jetty was terribly expensive! We bought a plate of rice with 2 prawns , 2 cuttlefish, bean sprouts. 1 chicken wing (it was self-service by the way) and together with 2 teh tarik which cost $18.00 RM!! Apparently the prawns cost $3.00 RM each, Sotong at $2.00 RM each!! Please remember to read the menu properly before ordering. See pics of the food and the food store we bought from below.
We finally reached Golden Mile Complex at about 7pm.
Overall, we spent a total of just over $200 SGD inclusive of the tour package and spending. For budget and student travelers, Paya Beach Resort is one of the best place to stay when u go Tioman. In fact, Tioman is less touristy and less commercialized compared to Bali, Phuket and Krabi that I have been to so far. There’s no touting and the friendly locals there are never pushy about buying things from them. Tioman is very down-to-earth place that anyone looking for a short and affordable getaway should visit. I will be going there again really soon!
P.S. Do also remember that Tioman is closed during October-March due to monsoon. Wind and currents are so strong that the boats/ferry cannot even dock.
Pictures are courtesy from my bf taken with Nikon D70S
