Pulau Tioman

On Sept. 20-22nd I went with Sunny Cove on a dive trip to Pulau Tioman. The coral was beautiful and there were some nice fish. Visibility was great, but not like Cozumel. We stayed at the Paya Beach Resort , which was fairly nice. The buffet food was edible, but the rooms were nice. I paid an extra 90SGD for a single room. The whole thing cost around 400SGD. We had a private coach take us to Mersing Jetty for the Ferry to Tioman and the Ferry wasn't super crowded. We had reserved spaces on the Ferry to get back, so we didn't have to fight people.

Going across the border to Malaysia is a pain though. There are long lines and lots of buses and vans on both sides of the border. You have to go through both Singaporean and Malaysian immigration both ways. I can't believe that Malaysians would do this commute everyday, but some do.

My review of Sunny Cove: I had an enjoyable trip and would do it again. Nevertheless, I was surprised to learn that the dive master going with us was not from Sunny Cove and that no Sunny Cover personnel were leading the trip. I also overheard the Dive Cove personnel complaining to the Dive Company DMs about the lack of notice from Sunny Cove and that they felt overloaded because they had their own customers. Also, I had asked to rent a dive computer. I was told by sunny cove staff that I would be getting one from the Dive Cove. When I arrived in Tioman, I found out that there were no computers for rent, and I was not able to use my own regulator set and had to rent, since I didn't have a depth gauge. I was very disappointed that I had to rent gear that had a small leak at the gauge connection, and that Dive Cove did not seem to be informed by Sunny Cove about the situations and needs of the Sunny Cove divers.