The dolldrums of monsoon season and hopping around SE Asia

I am now in Indonesia =] How did that happen you ask? Well it is an interesting story of woes and hardship (not really). I spent way too much time in Melaka, trying to decide what my next move would be and where I wanted to go. Option 1: Fly to Bali to met up with The Wolf Pack (Sheryl, Nick, Jeniffer and Nicole). The problem was, if I were to met them I would need to spend another 4 days in Melaka before flying to Bali, and the flight would be expensive since I would be flying on a Saturday. Option 2: Catch a ferry to Sumatra and travel south/east through Indonesia. Option 3: Catch a flight to Jakarta and skip Sumatra and travel through Java and south/east through Indonesia. Option 4: Give South Malaysia one last chance to impress me and head to the east coast to Tioman Island for a bit of beach time during the start of the monsoon season.

In the end I was so tired of stressing about timing and money and planning, that I decided to just head to Tioman Island and de-stress for a bit. Wrong Move Heather! After a hellish 8am bus ride out of Melaka to Mersing (so I could catch the ferry to the island) I get there and find out I missed the last ferry of the day by 10 mins.=[ So me and Taylor (another American I met on the bus) had to spend the night in dirty, filthy, boring Mersing. There is nothing, and I mean NOTHING, redeemable about Mersing. Crappy food, crappy rooms, crappy sights...very few redeeming features. The night market was fun...and that was about it. Bright and early the next morning we headed to the dock to catch the ferry and headed out to Tioman Island. When we got there...we were the only folks to get off on the beach we chose, and upon checking into the hostel I saw in the registry no one new had checked in for over 2 weeks! After a cursory exploration of the beach we soon realized most places were closed because of monsoon season and even finding an ATM would require a 45 min walk to a different beach.

I ended up getting horrible blisters on my feet because I was walking around in plastic flipflops. Wwe went swimming in the ocean and only afterward realized where we chose to swim was right next to a water runoff point, which basically meant all the random water runoff from houses (i.e. toilets, sinks, showers), restaurants and basic drainage from the buildings were mixing in the ocean water we were swimming in. 30 minuts later my blisters started to turn red and hurt and I started freaking out about infected feet! Two antibiotic pills later and finally finding the one place on the beach that everyone goes to eat at we settled down for some really good pizza. The owner of the bar/grill told us that the next day they were closing up shop for the season and we decided it was time to get the hell off the island least we get stuck. Apparently, once the actual monsoons start the ferry is hit or miss for weeks on end.

The next morning we packed up and headed out to the dock to catch the 7:30 am ferry. It was pouring down rain. The kind that after 30 seconds you are soaked to the bone and your shoes have been turned a soggy mess with more water inside than out. The ferry was late....and hour late! and once we finally board, the A/C is running at high and I am freezing. I ended up having to sit outside at the back, in the rain, because it was warmer. Finally got back to Mersing and hopped on the first bus to JB (the Malaysian town bordering Singapore). I end up staying the night in JB because it is a bit cheaper than Singapore, book a flight to Jakarta just to I could get the hell out of Malaysia, and catch a few hours sleep. The next day I spent on a bus ride to Singapore, dealing with immigration, trying to find the right transportation to the airport, and eventually spending 5 hours sitting at the airport waiting for my flight at 6pm. I arrive in Indonesia, have the immigration lady try and hussle me out of money by saying I could not get a visa without proof on a flight leaving the country...but for only $25 US dollars she could look the other way. I played ignorant and eventually got my visa approved. 2 hours later I was checked into my hostel and sitting down for a wonderful meal of dim sum. I was already in love with Indonesia.