Friday: Left for Tioman via Tuas @ 2pm, with a comfortable 3 hour bus journey and a 2 hour ferry ride that played horrible music. That aside, docked at 9pm at Paya Beach Resort with a sprinkling of stars in the night sky. Immediately sent off for a buffet dinner, formed roomies, checked-in, and had a short briefing on the next day's activities.

Saturday: Woke up at 0600 hrs and decided to do a bit of exploring, which was quite silly cos it was still dark. Bumped into an experienced classmate (fortunately!) who was on his way out to explore what the low tide had to offer. So slipped on my $5 booties for the very first time and waded into the shallow sea - the feeling of standing in the sea, far away from the shore... somewhat surreal! Anyways didn't see anything much save for corals (mostly dead) and algae(?), and I had to stop after the waves begin creeping up my for-sleeping-in shorts.

Breakfasted and grouped together to carry out the terrestial practical part of the field trip - Bird species distribution. Looking for birds using binos was totally unfruitful, so we listened out for bird calls in the end. Cool stuff.





Got back to the resort with plenty of time to kill before lunch, so a bunch of us headed towards this tiny "island" cut off from Tioman by the high tide. Waded across the water body, got tanned on the rocks whilst wishing I'd rented snorkelling gear like the others who were now having fun in the blue waters, and scratched myself on a barnacle. Minor, but it stung nonetheless! (And I didn't have my camera with me at that point of time. Bah.)



Lunch was a disappointment- they ran out and took ages to replenish the food. Made do with a ramly burger instead. Bummed around a bit, playing the guitar before Marine pract started at 4pm, but not before finding out that the rental booth had snorkelling masks for myopic people like me, and joy, the very last piece they had was mine for a day, complete with flippers and a life-jacket. So I finally got to snorkel (first time for moi!) with the guys after the pract, and WOW. Smashing experience, even though I'm sure it's no Great Barrier Reef. Sea urchins, sea cucumbers, fishes, corals, all up for my viewing pleasure in the clear sea water. While the following set of photos come courtesy of my project group member(thank you!), they still can't beat being there in person. Bleah.













Bathed, had dinner, informal talks, followed by an inane session of card games - indian poker, bluff, murderer...! Was a good time of laughs and ice-breaking, even tho I already knew most of them. Went down to the beach to strum for a while. Slept at 2am!!!

Sunday: Woke up @ 7, breakfasted, and trooped off to the stream for our fresh water pract. Interesting in its own way cos we worked according to a practical schedule unlike the other 2 sessions. So it was more... in depth? Structured?





Packed, freshened up, and checked-out @ 12, lunched, bummed around in the dining area, playing mahjong and guitar, until the ferry arrived @ 4.



The trip back was quite a blast in itself - in particular the bus journey, where we sat at the back and started playing kooky games like black sheep/white sheep, fuzzy wuzzy, yes/no stories, and telling lame jokes. Heh. I'm quite proud of my scrapes, really. Count them as my marks of honour, courtesy of the corals.

It's offical. I now have a tan. And I love NUS.