Craig Misses Indian Food More Than He Misses You

To further our post-India culture shock, after spending two days in Kuala Lumpur we headed to Puala Tioman, a small island paradise.

First of all, our bus to the port town of Mersing was about as different to a bus in India as you can get. Instead of 300-decibel Bollywood movies playing over three sets of speakers, we listened to easy-listening Top 40 Malaysian music set at the volume of a baby's fart. No one was yelling at each other or at their mobile phones - most people slept. Instead of missing seat cushions and windows, the bus was quite luxurious and less than 40 years old (in fact, it seemed brand new). And in place of potholed, dirt roads littered with goats and cows, we drove down modern paved highways, smooth as the farting baby's bottom.

Stepping foot onto ABC beach on Tioman, we truly left India's often-frantic pace behind. The beach we stayed at had no road, just a concrete foot path lined with family-run restaurants and bungalow complexes. The odd scooter (many complete with a sidecar full of waving kids) would lazily ferry children to and from school.

We spent our time on the island unwinding, swimming in crystal-clear blue water, and relaxing on the beach in between sampling lots of delicious home-made Malaysian food. We went on jungle treks to explore other beaches, with swinging monkeys overhead and shy six-food-long monitor lizards crossing our path. We even managed to get back into the routine of morning jogs, something we never did in India, since here we no longer have to deal with avoiding random cows and kamikazee rickshaw drivers, or air quality equal to that of a coal factory located at a wastewater treatment plant.

With $10 CAD/night bungalows to rent a mere 20 metres from the beach and meals costing between $1 and $4, Pulau Tioman is the kind of place that can kidnap a person for awhile. After a week of ultimate relaxing, we were ready to jump onto the backpacker circuit of Malaysia, with a three hour ferry ride and a four hour bus ride to our next destination.

We've been in the sleepy mainland beach town of Cherating for three days now. All the rain we didn't get in India is catching up to us, and it's rained on and off all day today.

Tomorrow we leave for our next destination: another island full of beaches and duty-free alcohol. As we follow the east coast highway north, we find the Malaysian backpacker trail to be just our cup of tea: it follows the coast and we never find ourselves too far from a beach.

PS - Yes, Thailand is our next destination. Yes, we know about all the unrest there - our moms keep emailing us articles. And yes, Craig is excited to get some photojournalism action there.