Tioman Island: We Stayed for the Snorkeling!

Tioman Islands, Malaysia. Came here for the nostalgia (Akiko’s family vacation spot when living in Singapore); stayed for the world class snorkeling! 🤿

Besides the crazy beautiful underwater scenery we witnessed, the best part was—the owner at our home stay, X Rector in Genting Village, gives advanced snorkeling lessons before the guided tour to the secret hideaway snorkeling spots.

Why? It’s more difficult to snorkel 🤿 in shallow waters because you can’t stand up (on the corals) or float upright to deal with the snorkeling gear in case it gets flooded with water. To go out far enough to swim above the colorful coral reefs, sea life, and turtles, we’d need to keep our head in the water for over an hour and learn how to clear our gear of water without panicking. The lessons also helped deal with swimming in crashing waves near rocks and against heavy current.

Then, we felt fully prepared to snorkel in and around and between Malang Rock, and float above the coral seascape of Tulai.

We saw color live coral of all shapes and sizes, so many fish and schools of fish, two turtles, at least three sharks, a school of barracudas, stingrays, lots of sea urchins, sea cucumbers, giant clam, can’t remember the rest!