Not ones to totally relax until we've earned it, we were up early the next day – before the sun had risen to hike over the mountainous island to the other coast to the only village that side; Juara. Very rarely do boats go round there, and the main way that tourists go is to get in a jeep – the only road on the island. During our research, we also found that you can walk it as there is a designated path that the Japanese cut out through the thick jungle during WWII when they invaded Malaysia. Being the adventurous ones that we are, we decided to hike! It looked like the Japanese did the islanders a favour by cutting the path out because it is now used to feed electricity the Juara and water into Tekek from the huge waterfall that feeds the pipes.
The trek was pretty hardcore; sometimes there were concrete steps, but it was mostly a rough trodden forest path. It was incredibly steep at times and our packs were quite heavy because of the amount of water we had to carry! I struggled with the steepness coming down the mountain and into Juara – James practically being the Duke of Edinburgh himself; a pro at all types of hiking was trying to teach me, but I was pretty knackered to start learning! We hiked for 3 hours and it was amazing – I enjoyed it so much. Along the way we saw some interesting wildlife; a giant black squirrel and a long tailed macque – a first! Juara had two beautiful beaches split by rocks jutting out. We found a restaurant that was actually open and order plenty of food – some of which they had and others they didn’t so it was a bit hit and miss. After restoring our energy we managed to walk about 100 metres down the beach in the blistering hot sun before feeling the need to sit under a palm tree and listen to the sea calling us! Soon we were sun-screening up and running into the sea to play in the waves. We were thinking about hiking back over but thought better of it as we didn’t want to get caught in the forest when darkness falls, and over here, darkness falls very fast. So, we negotiated a price with a couple of bored looking drivers – the only cars to be seen to take us back up and over, down into Tekek. We relaxed on our chalet balcony watching the local guys surf, a little tired to join in.
Not a lot happened the next day other than sleep, swim, read and eat! That night there was a pretty bad storm and we were woken up a few times in the night, wondering whether the roof of our little chalet was going to blow off. The next morning we woke up to devastation on the beaches and the island. There was rubbish, trees and general debris everywhere. A bungalow that some of the family and staff live in as part of our hotel had a tree that had fallen and smashed through the roof in the night while they were sleeping. Luckily it is the only bungalow that has a solid brick wall, which stopped the tree falling right through the whole thing – had it fallen on any other chalet, all made of wood, they would probably be dead. We took a bin liner and wondered up the beach, tidying up all the rubbish that had been washed up, but there was just so much of it, we needed a team, it was such a shame! As we got talking to the locals, they were saying it was the worst storm they have had in three years. This was when we discovered the awesomely chilled café along the beach, run by a load of seasonal workers than bum around during the low season, but happy to have us none the less. This was where we spent most of the day. We were due to return back to the main island the next day to make the final leg down and into Singapore to have plenty of time to sort everything out before flying back. However, due to the bad weather, they apparently cancelled the boat the next day. We asked lots of locals, but they all said different things and the ferry station was just utterly deserted when no boat was there. We didn’t want to miss it if it was there, so we decided to pack up everything and go down there in the morning anyway just in case. So up we got at 5.30 to go down there and were told no boat. So back off to the chalet we had just left, (no one even knew we had gone and come back) and rethought what to do. OK, one day should be alright, so we chilled out again and went back to our funky soul/rock/funk/blues playing café, where I made a friend; a kitten adopted me and happily sat on my lap purring while I read.
The next day we didn’t even bother getting up again to see if the boat was going, and it wasn’t. We bought a body board and had endless hours of fun in the sea and the waves. We chilled out in the beach café over dinner and listened to the pack of guys that run it play in their pretty awesome band and then got talking to them about their life here. It is so chilled and the community of people all work together, and help each other. They are all educated and do such wicked things; the guy we were talking to surfs, juggles fire professionally, is a dive instructor, and plays in his band. He was very proud of his island and his family was one of the first to settle here. He wants to protect the island and preserve what they have, and all the islanders fight hard to warn off developers.
Everyone seemed to be saying the boat was leaving at 12.30 the next morning, and we were actually a little sad to go. The two extra days we got stuck of Tioman was so wonderful, even if I was panicking slightly about whether we could actually get off, and get down to Singapore on time! But we did and we got safely back onto mainland Malaysia.
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