As I tap away on this keyboard I can hear the waves splashing on the western shore of Pulau Tioman (pulau means island) off the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. We're staying on a gorgeous beach called Air Batang (colloquially known as ABC). It is very cheap and profoundly beautiful. We've been snorkelling on beaches where the coral is thick and you can see the colour of the fish and plants from the boat above.
We've made some friends: Bjorn and Johan from Sweden, Wolfie Wolfman (Wolfgang) from Germany and Linda, an American. We all chipped to make up the 40 Ringit (about $CAD 12.00) we needed to hire a local Malay guide with a speed boat take us to all the best snorkelling reefs in the area - it was an all day with equipment included.The Malay people are very nice, the island is predominantly Muslim on the Island, but few women wear the hijab and everyone seems to be accustomed to liberal European beach attire. Nevertheless, everyone stops short of nudity.
It is 38C today but we seem to have acclimatized. Not having the luxury of sleeping in air con has certainly expedited the acclimatization process! ...most of the time we don't even miss it. However, we love the fans in every room - nights without them would be unbearable. The humidity on the other hand seems to have had an effect on my skin and I have developed a "prickly heat" on my arms. It seems to be going away though...slowly.
This week has been amazing and has cost us practically nothing. Empty white sandy beaches are easy to find, and this is the high season. Resorts have just started to take root here and in 10-15 years I expect it will feel like Club Med. We've been hiking through the jungle which is thick away from coastal areas. This is real jungle. The genuine article with vines, huge bugs, monkeys and snakes (we have yet to see the latter in the wild). We had some monkeys trying to drop mangos on our heads when we got too close for a picture. That was funny. Certainly funnier than the six-foot monitor lizard that snapped at us when we got carried away with our photo op!
The absence of medical facilities is an issue here though. One night as we all were eating on in the restaurant of Nazri's Place which overhangs the beautiful South China Sea we noticed a Danish couple and their kids heading out towards a little speed boat. Nazri’s son worked feverishly to start the engine and once he did he sped away with the two parents who were holding their two year old son, leaving their other kids who were between 5 and 9 standing alone on the beach. The staff was all looking nervously as the boat sped away to a nursing station located south of where we were staying. When we asked Nazri’s daughter, who was also our waitress, what had happened, she said that their baby had died. I tried to help her with her English because I was sure she had chosen the wrong verb -- after all, Jill had been playing with the kid earlier that day. "You mean 'sick,' right? The baby is sick?", I suggested. "No, no," she repeated. "Their baby died from a fever." Bjorn and Johan went to the beach to console the kids who were still standing on the perfect beach staring into the distance where the boat disappeared...the close relation between Swedish and Danish allows for easy communication. As it turns out, the little shaggy blond-haired two-year-old had developed a fever the night before. In the morning the fever had gone away and he was looking and feeling normal. However, after spending the day in the sun on the beach the fever came back and the combination completely consumed him. It was a major wake-up call for us. We were no longer in a world when modern medicine are just a 911 call away.
If you want to check a map (detailed map of Malaysia) - were going to a fishing village up north called Marang (not Merang to the south) we may stay here for a bit or go to some of the islands off the coast then eventually to Thailand. That's all to report for now.
A.
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