We left Melaka by bus which I’d booked online a few weeks earlier. It was a smooth 4 hour journey travelling East coast to West coast, Melaka to Mersing. We passed through hundreds of miles of palm plantations and all in all the journey was uneventful, the highlight being when we reached a protected corridor of rainforest, we saw signs to warn of elephant and tapir crossing the road 🙂 Following conflict with humans in other areas of the country, many elephants have been relocated to the protected forests in the East and North of peninsula Malaysia.
Mersing is one of 2 ferry ports that can take you to the island of Tioman which was to be our next stop. I’d booked our ferry tickets weeks before and I knew that our visit in the middle of February fell towards the end of the monsoon season for the area. The crossing to Tioman Island is notoriously dicey and prone to cancellation without notice, particularly at this time of year. Despite this I remained hopeful that ferries would be running the following day…. We got in a taxi at the bus station and headed for the ferry ticket office to find out what the forecast was. We were told to come back the next day at 8am with our bags and await news.
Mersing is basic but I actually quite liked it. There’s battered old cabs about with multi colour panels, hawkers selling durian from the boot of their battered cars, stray cats everywhere and THE BEST egg fried rice we’ve ever tasted from a restaurant below our hotel. Accommodation is budget budget budget as almost everyone only stays for 1 night. Our taxi took us to The Mersing Hotel where our room was basic but the beds were super comfy and we had 3 singles. A luxury to not have to debate, argue and demand who was sharing with who that night!
The information I’d received from our hotel on Tioman was that you couldn’t use credit or debit cards there, it had to be cash and there were no ATMs on the East side of the island where we were due to be staying. There are no shops and you should bring supplies of snacks etc if you want them. I have kids, of course I want snacks. Tell me I can’t get snacks for a week and suddenly I too want snacks! Tell me I can’t use my card for a week and suddenly I need to empty my bank account of cash. This needed some forethought as there was a limit to how much I could withdraw each day so we’d been regularly visiting ATM’s in Melaka and now Mersing. Added to that, on our planned return to the mainland I’d arranged for a taxi to collect us and take us to Singapore and they wanted payment in Singapore Dollars (SGD) so I’d had to change some Malaysian ringgit (RM) to SGD, work out the exchange rates and what it was going to be costing me in GBP. So that was fun…
We wandered the shops and bought supplies of crisps, noodles, chocolate, biscuits, sweets and face masks but not the life preserving kind as they’re more rare than rocking horse sh#t. I did ask once again in the pharmacy there about face masks and hand sanitiser (I’d asked in each town we’d visited but all stock was being bought and sent to friends and relatives in Singapore) and was again I was told there was no stock. A very lovely Chinese Grab driver in Melaka had tried to give us spares she kept in her car but she’d already given her last one to an elderly gentleman she’d had in. Bless her. The pharmacy in Mersing did however direct me to Mr DIY, a store a few doors down. Apparently they were giving away face masks to each customer. I walked up the street pondering what piece of home improvement equipment I would have to buy, I had visions of myself in a Bob the Builder style tool belt and was just warming to the idea when I arrived and was in fact faced with shelves of edible items. It turns out Mr DIY also stocks a decent range of cereal bars, crisps and sweets. Who knew!? My middle would be expanding but they’re we’re to be no tool belts in sight.
Back at the hotel we made the most of the WiFi and whilst the boys played on their digitals, I watched a film called Lion. It’s a true story about an Indian boy who, at 5 years old becomes separated from his family, is subsequently adopted to an Australian couple, goes in search of his birth family and against the odds, is reunited with them. Tears were shed but it was nice to just relax and have nothing to do for a change.
We got up the next morning and made our way downstairs. We’d been told at check in that the hotel puts on a complimentary transfer to the ferry terminal which would have come in very handy. Unfortunately at 7.30am I was told that it was the drivers day off and that was that. I did push him for a taxi number but he wasn’t forthcoming. Twerp. It’s not far to the ferry terminal and I’d deliberately booked a hotel nearby because it was an early crossing time etc. However, at 7.30am, with children and carrying over 70kg between us I didn’t fancy my chances of getting there by foot without a mutiny. Eventually a taxi came, dropped us and our multitude of bloomin’ bags off and we waited for 2 hours with many others to be told the ferries weren’t crossing that day….oh well, the cafe there had decent waffles.
So what to do now? Call taxi again, go back to hotel and try to get a room before everyone else around us snaps them up! But alas there was no credit left on my phone and not a taxi to be seen. Very little English is spoken here and no one I asked could help. So we walked back to the hotel in about 35°C and carrying all our kit. That was a fun morning. There was absolutely no refusal to walk another step. No sitting down and refusing to move another metre. No tears. No Alfie slipping on his backside on the freshly washed tiles outside a bakery. Thankfully it was his pack that saved him from cracking his head. Anyway, we made it. The guy on the hotel reception was promoted to full weight to&&er when he refused to let us check back in until 12 noon. We could have our same room but despite my protestations that house keeping didn’t need to change the sheets, he just pointed to the sign that said check in 12 noon. It was 11am so we sat there in the tiny reception area with all our bags, waited and watched him check in 2 other sets of guests without question. When the clock struck 12 we were given our room key. We dropped our bags and went for an explore of the town and the beach.
It was at this point that I decided we wouldn’t be going to Singapore the following week due to the rapid increase in cases of Coronavirus there. The plan was to instead come back later in the year on our return loop. As we all now know, that won’t be possible. Thankfully I had decent WiFi and was able to cancel accommodation and flights from our hotel room and claim refunds where possible. If we’d have left the mainland that morning, cancelling that part of the trip would have been much more tricky as WiFi was next to non existent.
We got up the next day and this time the driver was available so we hopped in the minibus and headed, expectant and hopeful to the ferry terminal. This time the ferry was running and it was all a bit of a mad dash to collect boarding passes from one office, marine permits from another and then make your way across the road to the dock. Again Alfie went A over T and it was the extra rucksack he was carrying on his front that broke his fall and saved his face!
The crossing was certainly choppy. There were sick bags hanging at strategic places throughout the seating areas and they were well used by many. Thank heavens for Vicks inhaler sticks and meditation practice!
We made it, a day late perhaps but it was most definitely worth it. 2 hours after leaving the mainland we’d arrived in paradise.
Milo and her boys 