West to East - off to Borneo

The Islands out this side of Malaysia were a very pleasant surprise. After Palau Sibu we headed off in search of the waterfall rumored to be on Palau Tinggi. A couple of anchorages later at a few villages we met with success.

On the way back to the boat we stumbled on a small eating-place. Once seated they brought out a really nice fish curry, veges and a few other things. With no menu to gauge the cost we keep asking, “Berapa?” (how much) but with no clear answer, Amanda headed into the kitchen and after much discussion was eventually told 70 Ringgit ($25). A far price would have been 15 Ringgit so we pointed this out, paid for our drink and made moves to leave. Obviously embarrassed a local rushed over claiming he had paid for our meal and not to leave. Local workers were arriving so I suggested that they would appreciate such a lovely meal and we headed back to the boat for lunch.

Next stop Palau Aur, I thought this was going to be my favorite but was yet to visit Tioman. Crewmember Josh decided to climb the closest rock to spice up his afternoon.

A snorkel sounded like a better idea to me.

We tore ourselves away heading to Palau Tioman our clearing out spot. Hard to believe, but it was even better here. The water visibility here was 25m+. Crewmember / dive instructor Josh got roped into a trade doing Amanda’s advanced ticket and changing my dive tickets over to Padi and that involved mostly an exchange of beer. We hired 9 tanks and 4 sets of gear and headed out for a few days of diving.

Of course diving really worked up a thirst and the friendly guys at the Pirate beach bar (Tioman Cabana) helped us out with this problem. Things got a little messy on our last night when they ran out of beer. Feeling bad we were served really discounted Tequila which ended up with me leading the locals and the bar in a Haka rendition at about 1am.

With still 400 miles to go we set out at 7pm the following evening still recovering from my hangover. The weather treated us nicely with everyone except Sloop happy to be motor sailing for the first day.

We all practiced our safety on board skills but fortunately it was 3 uneventful days later that we entered Malaysian waters again to be greeted by the coast guard.