kevindive
Registered
or not to stay. Just looking for recommendations.
Thank you.
Thank you.
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there are many options:
1) juara - by far the most beautiful and peaceful place in tioman, with a long stretch of beach, a river at each end you can kayak up for a close-up view of the monkeys and snakes. it has no late afternoon heat as it is on the east side of the island and the sun dips below the mountain therefore you dont need aircon and its very comfortable. they also have a turtle sanctuary and are a short boat ride from the waterfull at the south end of the island which is nice for a half day visit. downside: the diving. i think there is a shop that opened last year next to the turtle sanctuary but the diving on that side isnt very good except one or two spots.
2) salang - a built up but nice place (on weekdays) with some beach and some rock. gets very crowded and crazy on weekends because all the locals from malaysia and singapore seem to come here on weekends. a nice quiet place to stay is at the north end of salang at ella's place or the one past that. there are four or fie dive shops. i would recommend sea monkees (formely fishermans) or azmi's. they are run by friendly locals and alot of fun to dive with and hang out with throughout the day. i would not recommend b&j because they change miserable western staff at least once a year because no one like working for them. therefore your dice guides are unlikely to be happy or to be familiar with the dive sites, plus the enclosed atmsphere of the dive shop and attitude of staff is not conducice to sitting around and chatting.
---------- Post added March 10th, 2014 at 11:12 PM ----------
t......there are two good shore dives off salang: the wreck, in front of dive asia, which has fallen apart but still attracts alot of fish, and the jetty near the other dive shops - massive schools of fish and interesting things under the jetty (watchout for boat traffic).
3) ABC - a big and peacefull place not that built up which attracts alot of backpackers. cheaper rooms and more expensice food than salang. more bars and good places to eat than salang. oh, i forgot to mention: salang has a duty free shop but the bar and restaurant next to it have been torn down to make way for new construction(likely still on going) of a big ugly prison like hotel aimed intended to be used as acomodation mainly for people in snorkeling package grouos from singapore. anyway, abc especially with the tiny beach at the south end and crispy pizza bar called sunset, is probably the best area to stay f you are diving. not as nice as juara and gets the late afternoon sun, but is peacefull with good room and bar and restaurant options and id close enough to the good diving (all the little islands off the northwest of tioman) to still be able to dive there. i would not recommend diving with b&j though, not only for the reasons stated earlier but also because if you dive with b&j from abc you will have to first take the boat ride to salang and pick up their passangers (usually they are late) before going out diving(on a big slow cattle boat) then drop them off before returning. - takes most of the day to go for two dives. if you do three, they will drop people off in salang after two, pick up those who want to do the afternoon dive, return to salang to drop them off then head back to abc. so you are then looking at night time by time they return. not sure who else is still in business at abc as far as dive shops are concerned but i think there is a lil one next to the jetty.
4) berjaya - thats where all the stuffy rich people who like to spend their time at the resort and golf course stay. they are over priced and their dive shop is a joke.
5) tekek - has a couple nice dive shops but it is the main village and has all the schools, government officilas, airport, etc.. so not so nice to stay, plus no beach or anything remotely close to it. berjaya no longer flies to tioman anyway so you will need to take the ferry.
6) anywhere south of tekek is nice and peacefull, but a bit far from the good diving for them to frequent often so you will most likely be stuck diving the tiny nearbyisland in front of tekek and the two or three wrecks in the very uninteresting very bad vis mari e park and what ever other joke of divesites they frequent. the tiny island in front of tekek is a nice dice site though.
hope this helps!