We woke up around 2 or 3 in the afternoon we found we had a visitor sleeping on our porch:
This was the coolest cat we have met on our trip thus far. She was extremely friendly and really seemed to enjoy the company of people. She spent a good deal of time with us and our Finnish neighbours. She did not seem to like being alone.
After playing with the cat, who we decided to call nebula (or Nebby for short) we realized we were extremely hungry. We had not eaten anything since dinner the night before. Fortunately, Paradise Point had a restaurant, which was run by the wife of the man who had met gotten us settled with the chalet. The restaurant was covered, but otherwise open aired and looked out over the beach and water beyond. A nice wind blew in from the bay and we were very comfortable as we sat down to order. The prices on the menu seemed to indicate that they would be small portions so we ordered a lot of food (we were very hungry anyway). When our food came, we discovered that it was actually fairly large in size and shocking good. I don't know what that woman's secret was but every single item that we ate there was delicious. There was also fresh juice made by the man (when I say fresh I mean we saw him squeezing the oranges at the counter or putting the pineapple through the juicer). There was coconut curry, regular Malay curry, fruit pancakes, porridge, fried rice, fried noodles, omelettes of all sorts. All of which were some of the best we've eaten in Malaysia. And it was all really cheap, even by Malay standards. There were other restaurants in Juara, but we never bothered to try any of them, except to get beer (the place next store sold beer for 4-6 RM a can depending on the brand). Really why eat elsewhere, when you can be certain that the best is right there (and certainly the cheapest). To say the least, we stuffed our face every chance we got at the Paradise Point restaurant.
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| The restaurant. |
We did not have too much time on our first day in Juara, but we went swimming on the beach right in front of Paradise Point and walked up it to the river that flowed into the Ocean not that far up the beach. The water was crystal clear mountain water and even colder than the ocean. When the moon rose and we had another delicious meal, we bought some beer and watched the red moon rising over the ocean. We wandered back to our chalet and hopped into bed around 11. We went to sleep thinking that we had really found something nice, something we really could call paradise. Something to really brag about.
But there are always problems, even in paradise. If not caused by the locals, then by the other guests (this I think is probably more often the case). Out sweet dreams were shattered about 2 hours later, when from the chalet next to us we heard a man yell, angrily and very loudly: "I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!" Followed by the sound of a struggle. We both sat right up in bed, with our hearts pounding and our veins filling with adrenaline (I'm assuming on this part). There was some more yelling and struggling as we sat, scared and bewildered in bed. We did not know what to do. Whether it was a good idea to check outside, or to just stay put inside and hope that it would all be over soon. When it sounded like it had died down next door we peaked outside. Two of our neighbours were sitting outside watching a movie on their computer, in the other direction from the noise. They turned out to be two Fins I mentioned earlier, who were named Samuel and Panu. They had heard the noise and said it seemed like our direct neighbours were probably drunk. Our neighbour directly on the other side of us came out then. She we learned later was from Nambia (I think; "just North of South Africa," as she put it). She had spent the day with our noisy neighbours and was rather concerned. They were three brothers and a father from England, plus one of the brother's girlfriend. They had not seemed crazy to her. We all said that we would come outside again if things really seemed to be getting out of hand and maybe try and stop what was going on if we could (well Samuel and Panu, certainly seemed like they could handle that sort of situation anyway).
We went back inside and tried to sleep, but there was some more yelling from next door and though it subsided fairly quickly we decided to put our big bag and the small table in front of our door for the rest of the night.
While we did sleep for the rest of the night peacefully we woke up worried and did our best to avoid seeing those particular neighbours. When we got up and went out for breakfast Samuel and Panu were eating too (along with the cat close by). They said that they had not heard anything else last night and were concerned when we told them we had. We asked the owner if our neighbours were leaving today and he said that two of the brother and the father had left already, just leaving the couple. We all assumed that this was the end of it. We chatted for a bit with Samuel and Panu. They had also walked to Juara as well, but using the foot path and it had only taken them an hour and half (it took us 3 hours on the road). They were both trained chefs, but Samuel was now a Paramedic and Panu was training to be a nurse, though he was unsure if this was really what he wanted to do. They had bought 6 fish the day before and the lady at Paradise Point had cooked and spiced them all for 8 RM.
The next few days could have passed completely blissfully and for the most part they did. We rented snorkels on one day and snorkelled all around the bay. We saw more wonders of the sea, though the coral was rather dead closer to the shore. We walked all the way up and down Juara's beautiful beach. We gazed at more stars in the night sky and drank more cheap beer (I forgot to mention Tioman Island is a duty free zone, so beer was much cheaper than anywhere else in Malaysia). On another day we rented a sea kayak and kayaked out to another bay with a lot of coral. And we spent a lot of time just swimming right in front us. We read well into our books (A Walk in the Woods for me; The Painted Veil for Nancy). It would have been perfect, the sort of vacation you spot you don't need to write about, except to say that it was indeed perfect and send envy inspiring pictures to your friends, like these:
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| Nancy frustrated with all the pictures I was taking. |
We loved our time there, except for one thing. As it turned out, the noisy neighbours had not really left. The couple were in fact the noisy ones. In the afternoon of the second day there after our scary night we were sitting one the beach in front of Paradise Point when we heard the start of another shouting match begin. It seemed to start with the guy yelling very loudly something about not reading. It seemed like a very odd thing to be arguing about, but it soon turned into a full fledged screaming match. I don't really know what it was about, but it hard not to catch the intensity of the anger. I'm sure everyone on that part of the beach heard it. We walked over to the owners who were watching the chalet that the argument was coming from warily. They were sure that there was nothing physical. The same thing had happened earlier while we were out. Maybe it was normal for them, the man suggested in confusion. We asked if we could change rooms and they regretfully informed us that they had no other rooms at the moment. It was not their fault.
Later when we were sitting farther down the beach, the owner came by and pointed, the couple that had just walked by holding hands were our noisy neighbours. He said again that maybe it was normal for them to "talk talk" like that and then make up. he apologized again about not having any other room. We said it was okay and it wasn't his fault. Still whenever we went to sleep we were sure to put the bag and table against the door.
Maybe it was normal for them, but anger of that intensity, of that seeming irrationality, is always dangerous and we were not going let it too close to us if we could help it. There are a lot of things to get angry about in relationships, but part of love, at least I think, is how you control yourself when you are angry. If you are always violently exploding at someone over anything, how can you claim to really care for them. Sure emotions can run away with you, but the more you let it the more it will. I think if you really truly care you will be able to hold yourself to a higher standard even in anger, prevent yourself from yelling and screaming being hurtful and violent. Perhaps I'm wrong, but if what we witnessed next door to us is love, I don't want it.
Okay, maybe I'm being a little harsh. It is harder for some people to control themselves. And maybe they just had some issues that had lain undealt with for a long time and they simply all manifested at once. Maybe a combination of factors led to it and it was all settled by the time they left. There was certainly no more fighting at night for the rest of the time we were there. Who knows. We certainly weren't about to ask what it was all about. If it was something that had to be dealt with, I wish they could have done it else where or at least quieter. Whatever the case it made us both a little sad and more than a little scared while we were at Paradise Point and marred what could have been some of the best memories we will have of Malaysia.
Well enough complaining. Anger is the responsibility of the one who is angered.
When we left Juara we decided to take a 4 wheel drive. Not surprisingly Paradise Point supplied us with the cheapest option. Before we left the owner asked us to tell our friends about. Too bad so few of our friends are travellers. We do highly recommend Paradise Point, for a good budget spot in Juara. If you're looking for tropical paradise, its there for cheap and it also has the best and cheapest food on Tioman, that we could see. Hopefully though, there won't be any annoying neighbours.
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| Nancy enjoying the back of the truck. |
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| The road from the back of the truck. |
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| The scenery. |
The ride back took 20 minutes and we enjoyed the view from the back of the pick up truck as it wove its way along the road. Before we knew it, we were back at Cheers. This time though, it was open and they had a room for us. It was a 3 bed deal, but they gave it to us for only 50 RM as there was only two of us. After making ourselves at home in the room (and discovering that we had forgotten my watch back at Paradise Point), we made our way into Tekek, this time by the light of day. We had been told that the marine park was a good place to snorkel and see many a fish, so we went in that direction. Tekek is much more developed than Juara and it lacks much of the small town charm that we liked about Juara. We could not walk along the beach because there wasn't one in the direction we were going until the marine park itself. We walked on asphalt road in the blazing sun with little in the way of shade. The shops and restaurants all seemed over priced here and blander. The houses less well kept and the jetty huge and ugly. We wish we were still in Juara (sometimes I still wish this). We were almost to the marine park when we ran into Samuel and Panu again. They had just walked back from Juara. They said they were off to Cheers.
We reached the marine park and found that it was a very small beach and that you had to pay to use the snorkelling area. We moved on to the beach at ABC, which was a decent beach.
We found a cool place on the beach to eat called the Cabana, though it was quite bit more expensive. It had a feel like a pirates den and seemed to be made entirely of drift wood. The staff were very friendly and we talked with them for a bit too. After dinner we ran into Samuel and Panu at Cheers. They were going back to Mersing the next day and then on to Cherating and Thailand. They showed us some of the underwater pictures they had taken at the marine park (where no one had asked them to pay so they didn't). There were a lot of fish there. They also showed us a video using their underwater camera, in which they both got mobbed by too many curious fish. We exchanged e-mails and blogs with them and wished them happy travels. We then sat in our room and read while drinking some Chang beer, a Thai brand, which cost only 2.5 RM. Chang apparently means elephant in Thai.
Our final day on Tioman we did a lot of snorkelling around the main Tekek beach, in the opposite direction of the jetty. It was a pretty nice beach and the snorkelling was quite good once we swam out deep enough. We also bought our ferry tickets back to Mersing and spent a good deal of time at the Cabana reading and eating. There was a few other foreigners there. One was an Australian man (by his accent anyway) with his toddler son. They were actually sailing around Malaysia and his vessel (a sailing ship; is it called a yacht?) was anchored directly in front of the Cabana. I got this mostly from over hearing a the conversation he was having with a young English woman while his son ran around the Cabana. He was apparently the primary caregiver.
We went to sleep early that night because the ferry (so the ticket claimed) left at 7:30 the next morning. As we no longer had an alarm to wake us up, we slept poorly that night and were not fully rested when we got out of bed at 6:30. Which was too bad, because we had a long day ahead of us.
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