I'll pick up where i left off!After the chicken rice dinner, we followed fred and susan back home to their place, because we were not allowed to stay with the grandparents.
Susan & Fred's house was sooo amazing for us after having lived in a tiny shit one roomed studio apartment in hong kong for the past 2 months. It was wünderbaaar!
However, our stay there this time would be for only a couple of hours!
It was late at night, probably past midnight.
We finally got a hold of the internet again, and started searching for busses that would take us to Mersing in malaysia. From Mersing we would take a ferry to Tioman.
The busses were nt reachable by phone and the internet did not help much other than give us the locations of where the busses leave from singapore.We ended up deciding that we would wake up at 5am, grab a cab to golden mile complex in singapore at 5.30. This is where the busses to Mersin leave from.
Once there. . . we would just have to hope that there were busses available to book!
So we quickly started getting ready for sleep.
We probably got into bed at around 2-3am. . . giving us 2-3 hours of sleep haha. It sucked!
Well in the morning (Btw, Fred and Susan were
very nice to us, they helped us with the cab and were pretty much awake when we were, so they didn't get that much sleep that night either!)We packed our bags and walked downstairs to the cab.
The cab driver was an extremely talkative indian man, haha he was rambling on the entire half hour trip to Golden mile complex. He was talking about the F1 races that would be held in singapore that weekend, he talked about a hooker that always stood on a street we passed by, he talked about everything.
All i wanted to do was sleep. . . . He was funny though.
When we got to the Golden Mile Complex, we saw people waiting outside, a small group. A good sign, because they also had packings and some of them were westerners looking like they were ready to travel.However, the buss office was not open yet, so we sat outside the office for a while until one tired employee walked in and started preparing.
When the office finally opened, i ran inside and asked for 2 tickets to mersing as soon as possible.
Oh right, the reason we woke up this early is because the buss ride should take about 4 hours, and the last ferry from Mersing to tioman leaves at around noon, and it would suck ass if we missed the last ferry and had to find a place to stay in mersing. . .

Anyway, we were lucky! All i had to do, was pay and we got 2 buss tickets on a buss that left at 6.30am to Mersing!
I was so happy that everything with the busses worked out! Cause i was a bit worried the night before. However, i was still worried about the ferry to tioman which we still hadn't booked, nor did we have a place to stay in Tioman. . . . in worst case scenario we would have to sleep outside on some beach that night haha.
Well Claire and I got on the buss. After filling out some immigration forms, passing through the singapore immigration and then the malaysian immigration, Claire and I finally got to catch up
on our sleep.After a while of sleeping the woman guide that followed along on the buss asked us where we were going and if we needed to exchange money.
When we told her we had not yet booked any ferry rides, she said we just had to pay her and we'd get the tickets. Which we did and it worked out fine.
When we told her we did not have a place to stay in tioman she said that her friend would show us the Panuba Inn Resort (The place we were checking out on the internet when we were still in hong kong) office and help us book a room.
When we told her we had to exchange money. . .. no i was worried.
She said she could help us exchange money. . .. but when i asked how much the rate between american dollars and malaysian ringgit was, i got a number that baffled me.
I thought that the american dollars would yield me a much higher amount of ringgit than she offered!
So i started suspecting her for wanting to cheat me of my money.

So i told her, i would get back to her on that one.
I tried calling fred who works for a bank in singapore, but the damn phone wouldn't work.
I tried to get a hold of internet to contact Yee Yee who is always online msn. . . . but no such luck.
It sucked. . .. i had no idea if she was cheating me or if she was being honest. . .
Finally i ended up walking to one of the westerners on the buss who i overheard speaking german.
When he told me how much the ringgit were juxtaposed to euros. I could estimate the value and realized she was telling the truth and that i had thought ringgit were a lot weaker than they actually were.

It may not sound very troublesome, but this process of finding out if someone wanted to cheat me of my money or not, especially when i could not contact anyone close to me, or check the internet for rates. . . . It was a looong and dispairing experience hehe. . . . it turned out well though!
When we arrived in Mersing, we got off the buss and met up with the guide's friend, who offered to drive us into town where we could visit a bank and change some money at the money exchanger. To walk into town from the pier where the buss had stopped was too far.
The man first drove us to the bank, wher Claire took out some money.

Then he drove us to the currency exchanger where i changed my remaining hong kong dollars, a bit of the american dollars and a bit of singaporian dollars into Malaysian Ringgit.
Very troublesome. . . . the initial plan was to change the money when we were in singapore earlier that day, before we got on the buss. . . .. but it was too early and nothing was open. . . . this fact had frightened me the entire ride from singapore to mersing hehe.
After the man had helped us out in town, he drove us back to the pier, took us to the Panuba Inn Resort office where i got a "Durian room" for Claire and I.
Afterwards, the man showed us the ferry office, where he helped us buy return tickets which you could use on any day, so we didn't have to confirm a comming home date (Because we didn't have one).

I ended up realizing that we should tip this man for all his help, so i told Claire and we gave him a fairly generous amount of malaysian ringgit. He was happy and assisted us a bit further before we took farewell of him and got on the ferry to Tioman.
While on the ferry ride to tioman which took about an hour i think, i kept on trying to get it through my head that everything had worked out!
A few days ago i was certain we wouldn't even make it to singapore!
After that horrible experience (FULL OF STRESS) of leaving hong kong, and then everything that had happened today and the night before, which was also very very
troublesome and stressfull. . . .. . . . i just couldn't believe we were actually sitting on a ferry toward paradice with moeny, and a booked room at the resort we had tried to reach for about 2 weeks without success back in hong kong! It felt unrealistic.I could just feel the breeze blowing in our faces, i could see the clear waters, i could see islands, i could feel the heat, i could finally breathe again. . . . . now for a week. . . . no worries. . . no problems. . . . no connection to the world outside of paradice tioman!. . . . . just me. . .. Claire. . .. and the beach. . .. .and beer. . .. and coconuts. . . and. . . etc.
That sums up the trip to tioman!
haha, hope everything is well with everyone!

Lotsa Love
/Alex
PS.
Anonymous
Yeh i take it you're Johan. . . . go Fk yourself! hahaha, see ya back in singapore soon braaaaah!
Lena
Aaaahh yeees, i'm sorry it took so long, but a LOT of crap was going on hehe, but as you can see i am healthy and well in australia already!
Please do not worry about me handling two bloggs, trust me, it's so easy, i just press ctrl + c and then i paste all this into the other blog. . . . takes. . . . less than 30 seconds! It's alright i'll keep the white one as well!

Yeeeeeeh i'm well aware of the serious life comming closer and closer, i've already applied to universities and so on, so now i just wait! But i think i have learned a LOT of very very valuable lessons during this time. . .. things that would have taken years to learn if i had jumped straight into school.
Well, Claire's grandmother Disa actually grew up in stockholm! Her last name is Björkman and her mother grew up in kiruna!
I'm not sure how long i will be in australia to be honest. My return ticket is on the 20th f november, but i might extend it. . . we'll see
Hopefully Claire will come sometime after christmas perhaps? I hope anyways haha
Ofc you may ask as many questions as you'd like, the questions i dont' want to answer i won't answer, but doesn't hurt asking ;) Besides, there's not many questions i wouldn't answer haha
Well i hope everything is well with you! And please, try to get facebook working! I have many many more photos there!

Lotsa love
Farfar
Haha yes, the girls love your comments that you leave on my photos. And my friends can't believe that you're my grandfather haha.
As for internet on tioman, we did manage to get a hold of internet for one night before dinner at the resort's reception. . .. . we only had time to use it to search for our next hotel because we were leaving the place the next day. . . . didn't help though we didn't find anything haha
hahahha wise words my grandfather, yes you are correct. A superstar such as myself should be flying in a private jumbo jet with swimming pools and open bars! You know how to live!

Yes i will bring back presents for the relatives back home, but mainly for Fred, Susan and their maid who took so well care of us!
hahha yes it was a horrid experience, don't worry, soon my posts will be only about beaches and beautiful weather!
Hope everything is well with you farfar!
Send my love to Farmor and the bimark family haha.
Lots of love!





















