Tioman pictures on the web, please open Picasa

Tioman kepek fent vannak a picasa blogon! :)

Oh Formula1 we "love" you all / Oh Forma 1 mi mind szeretunk

Today my usual 10 bus ride took me 55 min due to the new bus route... as they blocked half of the city center for the 2010 F1 race!!!!

anyway the finding of the day:

Florence and the Machine's "Dog Days Are Over"

and is you wonder where it is from... the trailer song for my beloved "Eat, Pray, Love" movie trailer!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjay5vgIwt4

Oh hogy a Forma1, ma atlagos 10 perces busz utan 55 perce kerult, miutan a varos kozpont zome mara mar lezarasra kerult, hisz e het vegen rendezik a 2010es F1 futamot Szingapurban!

Sebaj a nap fenypontja, vegre megtudtam mi a kedvenc film elozetesem zeneje:

Florence and the Machine's "Dog Days Are Over"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjay5vgIwt4

Enjoy! Jo hallgatast!

Our Beautiful Tioman

Happened that our feet got itchy last week and as Friday the 10th was public holiday due to Muslim celebrations I could not keep myself on Singaporean soil, we decided to try our luck with Tioman…

Our problems began at the ticket counters: ‘Sorry Miss, we have no more tickets, lah’ and it repeatedly happened with the ferry tickets and the accommodation too. So Mike, 6 hours before departure, put his foot down… we canceled the trip, I was endlessly sad and disappointed as I really wanted to get away from the ‘daily grind.’
Mike promised that we would go the next week, which was this weekend.
We decided to bring some food with us as seemingly we always make the same mistake of not being prepared enough and then starve later. It wasn’t much what we brought - just some tomatoes, apples, grapefruit, cookies and water.

The weekend was an adventure indeed. I was only able to buy tickets for the direct bus to Tanjong Gemok which is the port city on the east cost of Malaysia, about 2-3h away from Johor Bahru which is the city on the Malaysian side of the Strait of Singapore.

So I thought to myself that one-way tickets are better than nothing, and we will find a way to get back I am sure. Of course Thursday night some very very important work had to be finished and it was threatening the journey greatly, I managed to finish it by 3am and our alarm was set for 5am.

We walked down to the bus pick up point where we set off at 6:30. Surprisingly, I realized again how crazy small Singapore is: within 30min we were getting off of the bus at the border checkpoint.
We managed to handle the Singaporean and Malay borders fairly quickly although my Hungarian citizenship seemed to be a ‘never heard of’ thing to the Malay officer but after double checking that I am eligible for a 90 day visa he even called me by my name - “Ms Imola welcome to Malaysia.” At 7:10am it felt like they are rolling a red carpet for me with such a polite greeting.

The bus ride was alright except that it started to pour heavily which wasn’t the best sign ever but my local ‘weather forecasting skills’ which I have developed over the past 2 years have trained me to be an optimist about rain because usually the next day is bright sunshine and great tropical weather, and it is almost guaranteed.
We weren’t able to get a ticket for the 1st ferry from Mersing, so we had to go one more stop (30min extra) to the 2nd ferry terminal from where at 12:30 we left on a boat to Tioman.

We were told that the boat ride will be 2 hours and indeed it was long. Learning from my last bout of seasickness in Thailand, I took a motion sickness pill which made me fall asleep within 15 min. It should be called knock-you-out pill???
After arrival our first thing was to look for a bungalow as we did not book any accommodation knowing that it is plentiful and we were not wrong. We decided to stay at the 2nd place we found, the Double Ace.

It was a bit up a hill from the beach, a mere 2 min walk, the bungalow was ok, a big bed, balcony, palm trees around, fan and mosquito net and an ensuite toilet, where you were able to have hot shower during daytime as the sun was warming the water in the water containers. We paid 50RM per night – which is about 24 SGD / 18US.
We were unable to withdraw money at the ferry terminal (no ATM) but we figured we could take care of it on Tioman, we had about a 100-130 SGD on us.

Yes, but when we asked around they told us that there is only 1 bank on the island, on another beach which is 40min from where we were and it closes Friday at 4pm and opens next Monday. Oh and to feel even better the ATM shuts down at 4pm too, but the girl made us sure to know – oh that machine never accepts any cards… and there is no money exchange at all!!!!

Wow that was not a fun moment for us, we had about 10 Ringgit after the ferry ticket purchase and that didn’t seem like it would last for another 2 days, or 2.5…
We rented 2 bikes with that money and we did an Olympic cycling to Tekek (the only beach with a bank). The bank was still open, so was the ATM, but as it had been said, sure enough it did not accept our visa card, and after waiting a long time in the bank with plenty of noisy, misbehaving local parents and kids, the bank turned out to be unable to connect to “the world” and give us money.

Oh, meanwhile I went for a ride to see what is around and I found out that there is an old Malay lady who is dealing in black money exchange as a side business while selling fried rice over the counter for 3 ringgit (less than one USD)
I would like to mention that it is around 5pm and we haven’t had anything else to eat, just apples and cookies, since 6:30am… and we had to accept the fact yes we hadn’t brought enough food, again.

Mike cycled back to our beach to get all our Singaporean cash which we were able to change to 330RM! Bungalow was 100RM so we had 230 after all, which is ok we thought. (100 SG – 90US)

We immediately got some beers and local peanuts and sat down to chill out and calm down … we were gazing around looking at locals and wondering… “is it true, they live like this, really this is their life…?” Sure enough it is/was. Most of the little houses are hardly any bigger or stronger than our weekend bungalow.
Kids riding motorbikes at age 7-8, ladies are all wearing scarves around their heads, you could see their faces but still on a 30degrees/ 85+F tropical, humid island did not strike me to be comfortable for scarves, but they must obey their religion.

Kids are playing in the dust…life is so simple for those on that island that they hardly did any agriculture either, they just live off the tourists coming to Tioman, which is a very slim target audience at the end of the day.

We headed back to ABC beach and looked around. We were amazed to see that from our window we could see the South China Sea, there was a huge mango tree in front of the balcony, Jackfruit on the left, and we heard absolutely nothing but nature.

Maybe one of the biggest surprises was the mute quietness. Absolutely no noise but a few birds, we realized how noisy our life is in Singapore, the horns, the constant construction, cars, buses….. just NOISY. But here, only birds and bugs.

We looked for some dinner which was long overdue and we ended up at a great little restaurant serving the best cheese omelets ever, which I did not fail to order every single day! : ) 4 times to be exact.

We strolled up and down the beach and turned in early, given the fact that there is not much to do in the evenings. We were tempted by snorkeling day trips but quickly we realized that we just don’t have cash for it as we were on a fixed budget.

The next day we woke up after twelve hours of sleep, from 10pm till 10am, we were so well rested we did not want to believe it. The bed itself played a key role, as the new mattresses were very comfy. Also it was quiet, at night a tiny bit chilled, no mosquitoes whatsoever, so 12h sleep, no problem.

We had a great brunch at the Cheese omelet place and went to rent masks for snorkeling; from Borneo we had the snorkels.
Looking at the map and knowing that we have to take care of our own entertainment we decided to go for a jungle walk and occasionally we will stop to snorkel along the way.
We headed north where we knew we could reach ‘Monkey Bay’ and Salang beach (eventually). After the first section of the jungle trek we ended up on this beach which was sooooooooooooo crazy beautiful I could not hold myself and jumped right into the water. It was clear, warm and around the jetty there were about 500,000 mini fish. Oh it was just paradise.
We set off again walking more, that part of the jungle walk was really long, and had climbs and steep slopes, it took us 45 min~1 hour to reach another bay which we did not know what it was but soon enough we did.

The bay being perfect, having only 6 other people on it apart from us, Mike and I decided to snorkel again, and as we are setting my backpack down on the sand, a male monkey came out from the jungle. The male was going for my backpack, Mike was closer and us being puzzled by the monkey’s brave approach we were guessing that the little nasty animal wants to steal our bag.

When he got closer than we liked, Mike started to scare him away which was apparently even worse because the animal got really aggressive and was clearly showing “Dude, I am a monkey, I want your bag pronto and I do not fear to bite your white human arm if you dare to stop me”
So Mike did try to “fight” him off, but the nasty animal just grabbed my bag and disappeared in the jungle with it. Holy s*** the money stole the bag!!!!!!!!
The camera fall out half way but still, it was a big challenge to get it back, because the money went up on a tree ready to jump on Mike if he comes to pick it up. I found a huge bamboo stick which we used to distract our attacker and Mike was able to get the bag back. Later we learned, that we were not careful enough to double check the contents of the bag and Mike’s sunglasses were the price for that.

The snorkeling otherwise great we saw the biggest shell ever, it was probably a meter /yard long.
I collected a lot of shells as I have a forever eager shell collecting hobby and then we decided to give up on Salang beach but go with the safe option and head back to ABC beach.
You do not want to find yourself in the dark in the jungle.
As we were hiking in the jungle we heard a noise and Mike guessing it is wild boar, I said it is a bird and then none of us was right it was a monkey “singing”.

This one did not attack us, we had enough of monkey aggression for the day, the male back on the beach want even big, but his teeth and of course immediately when you see yourself opposed to such a creature you run your previous biology class vs National Geography knowledge to know you do not want his bite if it is possible.
The other serious consideration for us was that we did not see a single hospital or doctor’s office anywhere, we are still wondering how women give birth…? (old fashion or something) (and now I think of my friend back in SG where they told her last week that her baby birth next month will cost her 17,000SG)

We made it back just fine and had a great dinner, again with cheese omelets and beer. : ) Before the dinner we sat down at the only one bar where accidentally we met 2 Hungarians who came from Australia to have a little holiday as their visa requires them to leave in every 6 months.

It was an experience indeed, ‘Boli’ (his nickname) was a modern day nomad, dreadlocks and suntan.
He was 45 but lives like a young 20, he lives to travel, as we learned over the night he visited and then we mean visited (spent a month-3 months in a country) all Europe, Turkey, went to India on land, lived in India for 6 months, Tenerife, Morocco, he was swimming in rivers with crocodiles, he was petting dingos at the Ayers Rock in Australia, he ate nun’s donation in Spain… you name it he saw it. He want to the US too and he is a drummer of a quite known Hungarian “world music” band.
Some called it “Shaman punk” : )

He has a house in Hungary but as he does not really have a family he left years ago and never really returned. His stories were amazing, he is the type who likes to live it rough… does not need much he works on farms or anything and that money is enough for him for weeks. He has been living in Australia for over 1.5 years, he says that he loves it and getting a van there is very easy which leaves plenty of freedom to go anywhere he just wants to.

He did the El Camino the same way, one day he decided to get on the road and walk; the El Camino is a nearly 1000km long pilgrimage in Northern Spain.
He is invited by many people on his journeies, somehow everybody seems to care and share as little as a dinner, a room or just a chat with him. He was an interesting person to talk to, somebody who really turned his back on the average life, having a home and warm food on the table, but in return he really have seen half of the world in depth we just wish to.

Today, Sunday morning we had a little hesitation what to do as we recognized Mike’s glasses absence but Mike had the final word for it so we did not return to Monkey bay to look for them, I would have gone if it would have been my glasses, but I guess we are different that way. Instead we had a long swimming with the fishy fish and finished the day nicely.
Our boat left at 1pm and we were lucky to be offered a bus ride back from the driver on the way here on Friday. So as we arrived back the driver was already waiting for us and now, we are on the bus, trying to make our way back on the crowded Sunday night roads.
Pictures will come shortly...

Moment of fame

Accidentally I found this video, not sure about the girl in it, but why I kept watching because the first imagiges are sure enough are from Budapest and also the last ones...

I guess after 2 years of Asia I knid of appreciate little home moments like this :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0frdSqCLRXg&feature=branded

Ma csak veletlenul kattintgattam, a youtube-on es erre a vidora ranezve fejemhez kaptam, mert az elso kepek bizony hogy Budapestrol vannak, es az utolsok is!
Nem tudom, ki a lany, de igy 2 ev Azsia utan csak orultam a hazai kepeknek! :)

Legkedvesebb Ausztral Baratnenk / Our Most Beloved Aussie Friend

She had a short visit on the way to Bali and we were trilled to see her again!

Tioman

Most, hogy pentekunk szabadnap igy megindult bennunk a legkuzdhetetlen vagy, hogy bevegyuk regota vagyott Tioman falait... ez a kis sziget tolunk eszakra, Malajzia keleti oldalan fekszik.

Kepek alapjan meseszep es ami igen barati, hogy kozel is van. Sajnos mire a jegypenztar ele ertunk mar elkelt az osszes tavolsagi buszjegy, ami a kikotoig vitt volna minket. Igy a hagyomanyos, stresszes utom kell menni, azaz hajnalok hajnalan keli, elmenni helyi tomegkozlekedessel a hatarig, ott atjutni, majd onnet taxival a megfelelo buszaplyaudvarra menni, ott megkuzdeni a malaj erokkel, hogy ferjunk fel a malaj tavolsagi buszra, lehetoleg meg reggel. Ott azon zutykolodes 2.5 oran at.
Ekkor leszunk Mersingnel, ahol is a kikoto van... ott ismet kozelharca komp jegyert...
Ha az sikerul, akkor 2 ora hajozas es mar a szigeten is vagyunk... es ott szallas kereses...

Hat igy leirva picit meredek, de az az igazsag, hogy sosem utazunk igy, es hat be kell vallani kalandos lesz, de ugy vagyok vele, hogy a kaland meg mindig erdekesebb, mint Szingapurban 3 napot zsinorban elutni...

Ami meg kerdesesebb az a vasarnapi visszaut, mert MINDENKI akkor fog hazajonni a hosszu hetvegerol. Szoval oveket becsatolni, indulas!




Having the up coming Friday a National Holiday our intention is to escape from Singapore ASAP, especially me.
Mike has his english club, which is holding us up till Friday morning when we tend to reach Tioman, it will not be an easy deal as we missed the last couch tickets which
would have taken us to Mersing, the ferry terminal.
Instead we will have to fight through the stressful way of getting there.

Taking local transport till the border, getting to the malay side, then get a cab and navigate to the correct bus station then fight to get on the first bus to Mersing (malays have their own ideas of schedules, rules and English speaking).
So if that is done, then 2-3h of bus ride to Mersing where we have to fight to get return tickets to Tioman island, that might be a challenge.

I dont know because once we get there maybe there is no accommodation...? I booked one but who knows, it is Malaysia???

So questions:
-will we get to Tioman?
-Will we get out of tioman on Sunday?
-Will we have roof above our heads?

Well we will see! :) The adventure is still better than spending 3 holidays in raw in town doing nothing, or not much?!

Mike's 33rd Birthday!!!

On Mike's post birthday celebration everything happen to make him happy and feel good, so we slept in, as first success element then our first "meal" was some happy hour great beer, our favorite in town at an American Microbrewery down the river's club district. It was pretty fun and I gave him my present - a book - not surprising.
Then we had an awesome lunch at a special Indian restaurant... hmm we were seriously full, I had difficulty walking... lol

I was just wondering if this is the feeling of being pregnant because if so then it will be a very uncomfortable 9 months once...?
Those who are experienced... feel free to comment here.

Then we walked by the river and went to look for some training shoes for him as 2nd part of his present, but no success this time... we found ourselves all over the mall, as mattress covers, the remaining pieces from 2009.

Then a huge ice cream for the celebrated One!

Now some movies... I hope he had a good time! :)







Tegnap este Mike talalt egy uj magyar nyelvtankonyvet kulfoldieknek, es ennek apropojan probara tette tudasat a pelda szovegen es feladatokon. Igen ugyes volt, bar a tobbes szamban es mult idoben a ragozas itt ott vicces volt, de be kell vallani irto nehez lehet valakinek, kivulallonak megerteni, hogy miert "tunk", "tu"nk" "tatok" "tetek" stb

Mike egyszer egy ragozassal nem bodogult: "What a f** can it be" magyarul kb "mi a sza** lehet ez"
..hm a konyvet megvesszuk nyelvtant helyretesszuk! :)






















Birthday ice cream and cappuccino!













Meglepo, de meg mindig hasznaljak a majd 2 eve keszitett marketing anyagot a matrac keszitok, ma lattuk ezt kiallitva. Nagyon tetszett az eladoknak, mikor rajottek, hogy nem matracot szeretnenk venni, hanem elvezzuk a helyzetet, hogy a kepunk millio egy helyen ott figyel a kirakott arukon!

We were pleasantly surprised to see that the mattress company is still using the marketing products with our face on them. The shop assistants were quite happy to realize us being the "models" of their selling products. We were surely enjoying the funny twist of being exposed o=in such a silly way!





Ice breaking moment is Singapore history, the most known and beloved Hungarian delicacy is now available in the shelves of Singaporean supermarkets, it is a bit pricey as 1 kg sells for $120 (19,000HUF) but hey at lease it is here! thanks to Viki! :)

Pick salami juppppy


Karen & Imola


Viki one really great friend in town!


Karen, our witness, almost 2 years ago on our wedding we were joking to have a baby this year as it is the year of Tiger and that sounded like a cool thing to us. Well her plans worked out, she will be a mom in less than 48h, (thanks to C section we know it properly.)

This was in interesting toy, "re-build-able" hot dog which you can fix on to the baby car, seems like something which is doomed to failure.