Dan's Adventure

The east coast of peninsular Malaysia gets hit by a monsoon every year between November and March, effectively closing down the east coast islands. Businesses close and ferry services stop running between the islands and the mainland. In mid February I was feeling optimistic and started looking into the possibility of diving from either the Perenthians in the north or Tioman further south. The Perenthians had only just opened and I was informed that there was no chance of diving until the end of March, so all hope was pinned on Tioman.

Some friends had recommend B+J Diving Centre on Tioman so I dropped them an email to see what the diving conditions were like. When I learned that the diving was good I jumped on a bus to Mersing and caught the next ferry over to Tioman.

Since it was still low season, Tioman felt a bit like a ghost town, especially the main town Tekek village. So many places boarded up, restaurants constantly empty and shops that never seemed to open. Tioman is essentially a quiet island that at one point someone wanted to make into a big resort destination, but it never took off so now Tioman stands half finished.

Tioman was unfortunately still being hit by the tail end of the monsoon. There was a strong wind making the sea rough and every night there was a heavy downpour for around an hour. Even the local fishing boats were coming into the bay at night for protection. The monsoon meant that the diving conditions weren’t optimal. The journey out to Coral Island made myself and others sea sick because it was just so rough. In addition to the rough conditions, the visibility was rather poor at times. I was just a few weeks too early.

After a couple of trips to Coral Island, it was decided to stick to dive sites closer to Tioman for a few days until the weather improved. I dived 6 times in total at a range of sights, with lots of fish, giant turtles and something I hadn’t seen before – a cuttlefish. Diving from Tioman was a lot of fun. I had never dived a wreck before so diving in the marine park where there are 12 fishing boats sunk was interesting and we also dived at a site with a car wreck – this was no where near the pier so I’ve no idea how the car got there.