Family Vacation: Tioman Malaysia

Well, we did it. We actually took our very first local vacation here in Asia. We visited this tiny island off the coast of Malaysia, called Tioman. This is the place where the movie South Pacific was filmed! (well, parts of it anyway)

We took this little rusty plane that seats only 45 people. That was the scariest part of it all, but it was totally worth it. The only other option would be driving in a cab or a bus with all the children for hours (and no car seats!) and I would just rather have my nails pulled out with tweezers than subject all of us to that. So we hopped aboard! As you come into the short runway they slam the breaks hard to prevent hitting the mountain that is at the end of it. Aaahhh, joy.  I wanted to clap in relief when we finally stopped! I completely doped myself up on dramamine too just incase.  My stomach is way to sensitive to take a chance. And while it made me so drowsy, we arrived in one piece and without a repeat of the Greece puking incident!

We stayed at this tiny beach resort called Paya Beach. And it was small but so nice with the kids. We walked the beach looking for shells and did the most amazing snorkeling we have ever seen!

Our little chalet was right across the sidewalk from the beach and just 30 ft out in the water was our snorkeling rock. At low tide you could float 1 to 2 feet above the coral and sea life. We saw every kind of fish you could imagine! Actually it was much like watching Finding Nemo. We saw clown fish in their anemone, big schools of fish, a small sting ray, jelly fish (lots of them!), and so much more. I would totally recommend this place for the snorkeling alone. The chalet was small but had a loft up top for the big boys and a pull out couch for Analyn. It was a bit old, but did the job. Our favorite part was the master bathroom that was outdoors! You could take a shower in the rain, which the kids thought was awesome.

We took a little water taxi to and from the airport. Looks like it was a fun ride.

This is the jetty for our beach. The little town was so small the kids could walk from one end to the other without us being worried. Their favorite thing to do was to visit the souvenir shops. For only 20 ringgit each they bought their way through each day of their vacation and were happy as clams.

Ronin and his "jungles of malaysia" hand gesture. 

The one thing we did not like about staying here was the lack of dining choices. We tried just about every restaurant in town (if you could call them that). Turned out the one attached to the resort was the best one and it still left soooo much to be desired. I couldn't wait to get home and eat a real meal. 

Kai has really been getting into posing for pictures. His big brother has been a great example for that. They love hanging out together. Kai loves Ro-Ro and really responds to him. Ronin helps put him to bed, read him stories and Kai has taken to asking him to help him with things, instead of finding either Analyn or I. It's so great to watch them grow together. Ronin is such a fabulous big brother. The other day Ronin and I came home and Kai ran right past me into Ronin's arms. It made Ronin's day. 

Right under this jetty was a big mass of little dark fish. At first you can't tell what they are. It looks like coral under the water, but then it starts to take shape and you realize you are looking at a school of thousands of small fish that spreads all under the jetty. It's pretty cool.

Analyn thought this log looked like a penguin stuck in the sand. The boys thought that was pretty funny, and deemed it a 'posable' picture.

Baby loved the sand! This night I had just bathed him and we went out at dusk to find the big boys. He crawled through the sand and played with this old rope that was holding a boat. Come to find out, that is the perfect time and place for sand flies to start biting! The next day baby was covered in red dots. But mostly around his head, shoulders and arms. We freaked out and instantly though of bed bugs! But it turned out to be sand flies which can be even worse since they can bring fever, disease and sometimes death! What?! We think he is all better now, but keep watching for signs which can show up months after the fact. We are so sorry baby!

He loved digging for shells as well and didn't seem too bothered by his newly acquired bug bites.

Supposedly there are some "rock falls" around this area, so Patrick and I headed out to find them. Of course I didn't put on ANY bug spray and was quickly eaten alive by the "mosquitos of Malaysia"  We hiked and hiked, sometimes straight up hill and were so glad we decided against bringing the kids. It would have been impossible. We ended up finding this nice sandy beach just up from ours and then proceeded to hike all the way to the next beach resort (the fancy expensive one we opted out of). We hiked for a few hours and saw many things and were completely wiped out by the time we got home. We went so far we had to take a water taxi home. We just wouldn't have made it otherwise. Patrick and I only take 'headshot' photos. We go to amazing places and only have our ugly mugs to show for it.

We watched the sun set every night but closed our blinds to it rising in the mornings. Analyn had her first snorkeling experience which she loved (after she got past the scary stuff) and we collected buckets of shells and coral. We saw lizards and amazing sea life. We even had massages! We watched Ronin and Cache bond as brothers which was sweet, as watched the babies get more and more sleep deprived as the days went on. We ate our weight in ice cream, shopped for cheap trinkets and enjoyed every minute of it. We couldn't even get a decent internet connection, so we ended up getting the real relaxation we needed! Patrick turned around and left for Beijing a few days after so he was really glad he got to spend some quality time with us before he left. So over all it was a successful trip and we weren't even ready to pummel each other at the end! We had a great time and are happy to think about the other beautiful islands in Malaysia just waiting to be explored by the Larsen clan.