Trautz' travel saga: East Coast Malaysia to Tioman May 2014

Here's Jason, navigating us up the east coast of Malaysia after getting around the bottom of the peninsula at Singapore.

As we neared Sibu Babi Besar (that's the name of the tiny island!) we saw this dead, bloated turtle in the water. We were nearing or inside of the marine park, so this really saddened us. We hope it wasn't one of the rare leatherback turtles that come here to lay their eggs. Most likely it was a green turtle or a hawksbill, as most of the leatherbacks have disappeared.

Our first sight of clear waters again in Malaysia!!

Lots of pretty sunsets around here.

Our view of Tioman Island as we approached.

On shore, we found they recycle the aluminum cans. That's new for around here! Maureen on Calypso was saving the pop tops for someone to make things out of and/or for a charity, so we showed her this bonanza of pickings, but she didn't go for it.

The ferries came by at full speed and created such a wake that they knocked stuff off the shelves and counters and toppled our water containers in the cockpit of YOLO! This was some wake that hit us to do this much damage. Luckily the rum lid was on tight, but the water pitchers spilled their contents and I had a soggy mess to clean up when we got back to the boat that evening. We complained to the rally organizer, and many of us signed a letter requesting the Harbormaster ask the boats to slow down earlier, but we doubt anything came of it; we never saw them slow down while we were there.

Boats anchored off Tioman. The masts in the distance are in the small marina there.

We got our inflatable dinghy back in action here and left the aluminum one upside down on the foredeck of the boat, where this one had sat for over a year. It still has a couple of tiny slow leaks, but it's in better shape than I'd expected. Good old OTIS! Back on the job in Tioman.

Jason with the scuba gear Mark on Merkava loaned us. He and his girlfriend had gone diving and he saved some air in the tank so Jason could use it to clean the props and shafts really well without having to struggle to do so on snorkel. He let us use his extra gear so we could go diving with him and his girlfriend. We rented regulators for a day and had a great dive off a tiny island near Tioman called Rengis.

Chris from Out of the Blue II and Jason trying on our new rally shirts. We had to give the requested sizes when we joined the rally, but we never know how the manufacturer will size his garments. We may need a L or XXL depending on how they size their goods. So a lot of shirt swapping goes on until everyone gets a shirt that seems to fit. I had to wait a couple of days to get mine.

Fruit bats hang out in Tioman trees near the marina. Lots of squeaks and squawks as these guys flap and climb around in the trees. At dusk they will head out in search of fruit--mostly the mangoes on the trees here.

Karen in the dress Myra made for me. My Indonesian black pearls adorn my neck here.

A briefing before the games where Sazli explained that we would have a security escort when we got to Sabah, as there had been political unrest and kidnappings there. The Sail Malaysia yachts were to be the focus of the ESSCOM (the security forces) fleet and were set to make sure nothing happened to us.

The prize table at the games in Tioman. Lots of locals won prizes and we all had a great time playing 7-8 different games here.

A giant myna bird statue in the park where we had the games.

Pandan cakes were the dessert they fed us before we got into the games. Green is from the Pandanus tree; the white ring on top is made from coconut and rice. These are nice and not too sweet.

Fried rice (nasi goreng) and fried noodles (mee goreng) and fried vege puffs (like samosas) were the main dishes at our luncheon.

The local kids got into the free food and drinks, too!

Our team for one of the games. Chris, me, Lyn, Janice and Myra. We had to squeeze a sponge of water into a tiny bottle as fast as we could. We didn't even place in this one!

It's not easy to squeeze the water into the water bottle from these sponges.

Jason's team for coconut bowling: Peter, ?, Jason, Chris, and Mick.

Jason looking determined with his coconut ready to roll. They broke one coconut and had to get another to finish the game!

Our competition in the puzzle game. We had to put together a jigsaw puzzle of Thomas the Train. Our team whooped these kids to take first place!

The winning puzzle team with their finished product. The teams changed for every game, so we got to play with lots of different folks.

One game involved wrapping a child in toilet paper like a mummy. The kids volunteered to stand still while we tried to get creative with the stuff. Goodness knows they don't use the TP in their toilets! This was our victim to wrap. He had such a cute smile and tried to hold so very still while we played.

Our mummy won 2nd place in the contest.

Karen, Jason, Lyn, and Myra with our mummy.

We were all hot and tired and left this game of candy in the flower (flour) to the kids. Just as well when we saw what it was! They couldn't use their hands to get the candy out of a plate of flour. The smarter ones blew the flour away as much as they could before dunking their faces in to collect the candy piece...

otherwise, they ended up looking like this!

The men and women both had teams for tug-of-war. The men were victorious twice, and we lost both times. We got pulled over pretty easily, we don't know how those women got so strong!

The little kids got to dash in for a tarp full of candy. They stuffed it down their shirts til it was all gone.

Jason picking up one of many prize packages that we shared with teammates. We came back to the boat with a full load of 'prizes'. Plastic bowls, pitchers, towels of different sizes and colors and food packages.

Another bundle of prizes.

The jungle walk to the waterfall on Tioman the next day was quite rigorous. The guide set a pace that was way too fast for most of the group and we got strung out a long ways. Here, the group has to cross a log bridge over a creek.

Some insect eats these round holes in the leaves. They look like bullet holes and were only in a certain place on the hike.

Karen in front of a huge toppled tree we had to climb around. The angle doesn't show it, but the hollow tree trunk is big enough to crawl right into.

I was the first one to reach the stairway to the waterfall, made of tires filled with dirt and concrete.

What a welcome sight after a long, hot, muggy walk through the jungle, much of it uphill. Cool water!

My shirt was so soaked with sweat that I just wore it into the water and sat under the waterfall to rinse and cool off. Very refreshing!

Another yachtie making his way to the waterfall across the small pool.

Paraic and Myra sitting on a log. Paraic broke out his beer and watched, but wouldn't get in the water. He cooled his feet while sipping a warm Skol beer.

Jason wouldn't get in either. He sat on the rock and watched us all get wet.

Janice, Lyn and Chris in the waterfall pool. It wasn't spectacular by any means, but it was a cute waterfall with just enough water to get in and cool off.

We walked and/or rode down the other side of the mountain from the waterfall and ended up at Juara Bay on the other side of Tioman. A long jetty and a beautiful beach here. If the winds aren't out of the east, this is a great anchorage. We all had lunch at the restaurant here and enjoyed the relaxing time after our hike.

The beach looking the other way at Juara.

We all climbed into the trucks for the ride back up the very steep hill and back to Tioman. The guard rails were lined with old tires as bumpers. Along most of the guard rail, the posts were installed on the inside, versus the outside, so if a car or motorcycle hit the rail, they would likely to get hurt on the posts.

The view of the bay at Tioman where we are anchored. YOLO is actually blocked by the trees on the right, but you can see it's a pretty view.

Maureen on Calypso arrived just in time to celebrate her birthday. Saol Eile invited us to join them for the dinner--a set meal for 6 people and she provided the cake from a local bakery. This whole fish in mango and chile sauce was one of the dishes. It was a great meal.