Vacation At SGD100 For Noobs

If you’re looking to travel somewhere with a really tight budget, well, get your ass to Tioman! With only SGD100 left after booking for the stay and transport, I had RM 300 and an extra RM 90 given from my dad to set off for an amazing 3 days 2 nights journey.

This beautiful island lets you drink all night without getting broke (I only had a bottle of hoegaarden, Dad, don’t kill me, I love you, if you’re reading this) the prices of alcohols are ridiculous, it was around RM5 at the duty-free shops near the jetty. You get to snorkel and hike up to see the spectacular waterfall.

A massive amount of time spent on our research before going, I’ve finally decided to book a coach + ferry transport to Tanjung Gemok jetty and Tekek jetty on Discovery tour for a total of SGD 78 per person. Huge thanks to Discovery tours as I realized that WTS people sat with us too (*cough* Pricier).

  

The booking of stay at Barat resort was made on Agoda website which was SGD 119 per night because it was chalet style and we had 2 queen size bed for 4 people. Did I mention? Agoda had the best bargain at that period :D lucky me. I pat myself on the back for being so thrifty. 

Anyway….here’s a little timeline:

Coach to Tanjung Gemok	Ferry to Tekek Jetty in Tioman	4 wheel drive (4WD) to Barat resort	Resort (Barat)
3 hr	2 hr	0.5 hr	5 mins -check in

So prepare your U shape neck pillow and a scarf for the loonnnggg journey. (My butt almost went numb).

Upon reaching Tanjung Gemok jetty, we showed our ferry tickets to get our boarding passes. We had to pay for the marine park conservation fee which looked like this for RM 30 per person. This felt like those (pay 20 cents) to go toilet kind of scheme. The only word I could read was boleh, ya feel me? anyone?

Finally we reached the Tekek jetty in Tioman. 5 hours of sitting and I wasn’t complaining because I know that the drivers be it coach or ferry drivers are more tired than us. Thank heavens I’ve reached here in one piece. Take in the view at the jetty.

This photo is taken using my S8. Look a how clear the sea water was!

As we continue walking, at the end of the jetty bridge, there’s a man I don't even know, holding a whiteboard with our names and calling out “BARAT…BARAT!” Who else could it be? That’s our man for the 4WD ! I smiled widely at him because i cannot wait to get into our room and put down our burden backpacks.

Note that we've made an advance booking for the 4WD to our Barat resort as it was up a hill for RM60 to and fro per person. I highly recommend the advance booking.

ATLAS!! Our resort!

Most photos of the resort upon google search of Barat resort were true to it. 

The view opposite our resort was the clear blue sea. 

Here's a panorama shot of the sea view across the resort. 

We've checked into our chalet room 311 on the higher tier and took a stroll down the beach... 

we've discovered a shallow pond.

As you can see, the water was only up to his sheen. We were greeting our friends in the pond. 

Just proving to you that it is yet another clear water pond. We said "HI!" to our aquatic friends. Mini crabs, translucent and black fishes. 

Time for Dinner? Worry about having not enough for snorkeling? Don't worry, this place is like another Sim Lim, our hotel had snorkeling packages at RM140, in which we failed to get the activity packages with the hotel so we had to find our own lobang.

We made our way down the road, to get our dinner, we chanced upon a store that was offering RM120 for snorkeling. HELL YEAH ! My awesome friend bargained to have it at RM100 for 3 snorkeling destinations as we knew that 5 locations would be too long for any of us to handle. We pigs, need our food in between so we settled for the deal of 3 snorkeling destination for RM100.

There! Our financial problem for snorkeling is solved now we can head to Mezani cafe and eat our food in peace.

Here is the food menu, I've ordered the nasi goreng ayam which was fried rice with small fried pieces of chicken for RM 9 and their ice lemon tea for RM 4. It was a great meal and the food did not take too long to come out from the kitchen. I give 5/5 stars for their lemon tea. 

This was how the place looked like. There's a lot of flies at the stores so it is best that you bring insect repellent. Or best, dabao (takeaway) to the resort to eat in peace. 

On the next day, we went to snorkel at 9:30am till about 2:30pm. We had breakfast at our resort, expensive...

This was RM10... Oh, well, at least it was those spongy/chewy type of waffle which I like. Please DO have a good and medium full kind of breakfast before snorkeling.

I did not bring my phone to snorkel in which I should have if I had a waterproof bag for my phone. Also bring sunblock, I stress again, BRING SUNBLOCK! The receptionist spoke to me in Malay and i replied "aku tata wu" means I don't understand Malay. But I'm glad that I blended in with them after snorkeling, what a great way to sun tan at the same time. To add on, the staff at Barat were extremely humble and nice, one of the guy even informed me that the coconut did not taste good that day and told me not to order it. Who even takes the initiative to inform others about things like that nowadays? I'm touched and anyway, I've changed my order to mango smoothie which tasted 5/5 stars flavorful of course RM10, eh! 

We've spent lunch at Mezani, this time I've ordered nasi goreng ayam kunyit, which was fried rice with ginger chicken and ice lemon tea, in total it was RM 16. We head towards the beach to digest our food.

This picture of a huge rock with the arch symbolizes wealth, health and peace. Run your fingers clockwise around the wood grains 3 times and make sure your soul mate is beside you so that you guys would stay together forever and it'll bring you good luck.

This is a picture of the wood grains that is said to bring good luck. 

After the stroll and photo taking by the beach, we headed back to the resort for our dinner.

My dinner at Barat was their spaghetti bolognese, RM18 and it tasted meh, not very good but then again, what do you expect in an island? Edible and probably 6/10 taste wise. Feeling so exhausted from snorkeling and walking around the beach we chilled around our resort, chatting, watching movies like Shaolin Soccer and a Japanese high school themed show and slept in to recharge for our last day. 

On our last day we had breakfast at Mia cafe. Oh lord... noooo... I wished I hadn't gone in.

With the remaining RM, we ordered the banana pancake, cheese omelette, egg and cheese sandwich, orange juice and ice lemon tea. First of all, the food took really long to come to us. Second the food isn't tasty. Please go back to Mezani or head down to the Tekek jetty for you meal! I recommend the stall at the jetty beside the playground, all though the food there is a little pricey around RM 10- 20, but the food is delish and it'll be worth it.

Extras for readers:

-Do pick resorts such as Berjaya or Paya as it is nearer to jetty, duty-free stall, more variety of stall to eat from. You can take a 4WD up to Barat to see the amazing sea and the resort. But there's not much to do there in my opinion.

-Come to Tioman in groups of 4 as the snorkeling activities often required min of 4 pax.

-The huge rock with the arch and wood grain myth was something I made up. 

That's all for the blog and thank you for taking the time to read this. Do share your experiences with me on gmail: pphire1909@gmail.com or facebook at Eveleenliew.