Tioman is the third largest Malayasian island, off the east coast of the peninsula. The island is about 38 by 19 km. There is a road which extends about 3-4 km past the airstrip and ferry terminal and acouple of km either side. The coast is a marine park area with a limit of 2 miles offshore for commercial fishing, though this is not effectively enforced at present.

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Getting to Tioman and Where to Stay

You can get to Tioman from Singapore and from Kuala Lumur. From Singapore there are two ways to get to Tioman. We flew with Berjaya Air from Seletar airport in Singapore, which is a 35 minute flight. The weight allowance though is only 10 kg per person, so only do this if you are prepared to hire the diving gear on Tioman. The cost of a return flight is around 280 Singapore dollars, around £90. Berjaya Air also fly from Kuala Lumpur.

The alternative is to take a bus or taxi from Singapore to the Mersing Ferry Terminal in Malaysia, and then take the ferry. There are a variety which take between 1 hour and 3 hours to get to Tioman.

There are a number of dive centres on the island. From the internet, we picked Tioman Dive Centre. The centre is owned by Julian and Yeen, and currently managed by Andrew and Rosarii, who are all keen on making Tioman a sustainable diving location.

The dive centre itself is on the beach within the grounds of the Swiss Cottage Chalets, which provide low cost accomodation suitable for most divers. A little more luxury may be found at the Babura Hotel complex about 50 meters along the beach. For those who also need a golf course, the Berjaya Resort complex is a short taxi ride further out along the road.

We stayed in a beach front chalet which has a double bed, optional single extra single bed, and a toilet and hot shower area. Tioman Dive Centre can arrange accomodation and airport or ferry terminal pick-up for divers. The village of Tekek extends along the road from the airport area to Tioman Dive Centre, so there is a good choice of restaurants within a couple of minutes walk, as well as shops selling beer, liquor, cigarettes, basic toiletries, sun creams, mosquito repellant etc. Located between the tropical forest and the sea, there are mosquitos, but not malaria, and sand flies from the beach. Simple precautions will help minimise the number of itchy patches on exposed skin.

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The Diving

The diving around the Tekek area of Tioman is typically between 15 and 25 meters deep, and being normally flat calm with limited currents, the diving is suitable for all grades of qualified diver.

The season runs from early February to the end of October, the out of season time is associated with unpredicatable weather during the monsoon.

Typically visibility is between 15-20 meters, but sometimes drops to 5 meters for no very obvious reason. Dive sites (with the exception of the outer islands) are only a few minutes boat ride away from the dive centre, so 3 50-55 minute dives per day is the norm with Tioman Dive Centre.

There are a few small wrecks of wooden fishing boats, which provide a focus for fish life, and lots of coral. Turtles are frequently spotted, but sharks are less common. There are black-tip reef sharks around but they are shy, and there are also some Coral Cat small sharks. The area is an excellent place for nudibranch spotting, and for other invertebrates.

On our visit we dived at:

• Tom Yam wreck (depth 22 m) - lots of fish life including lionfish on the wreck and a school of juvenile barracuda patrolling above.
• Ringgis Island (depth 12 m) - dived here twice, saw 3 turtles and a black-tip reef shark (twice) and some fully grown barracuda
• Pirate Reef (depth 12 m) - very close to the dive centre, brief glimpse of a turtle
• Sawadee (depth 26 m - although the seabed is at 30m) Here there are 2 wrecked fishing boats close together. The visibility was very poor, more UK than tropical, so we stayed on just one wreck. There was a large stonefish resident and large barracuda above the wreck, and many other shoaling fish
• Soyak Island (depth 10 m) - about a 15 minute ride in the boat and is a very scenic dive
• Timok Island (depth 12 m) - again a 15 minute ride from the centre, excellent for nudibranch spotting.
• Soyak Wreck (depth 25 m) - another fishing boat just out across a sandy bottom from the island itself
• Ringgis Wreck (depth 22 m) - by now the visibility had improved considerably so we were able to lots of fish life and many nudibranchs on and around the wreck.
• Hidden Reef (depth 16 m) - A reef complex close to Ringgis Island, but on this dive covered by a current. We came across 2 lost commercial fishing nets caught on this reef, showing the 2 mile fishing limit is being ignored. We understand that these nets will be removed by Tioman Dive Centre in the near future.
• Tekek House Reef (depth 10 m) - just out from the dive centre, this shore dive is very scenic and interesting. Dropping to 10-12m out on the sand most of the site is at around 8m. There are turtles that are often present, and a whole variety of corals and fish life.

We greatly enjoyed diving with Andrew and Rosarii during our stay, and we think they have done an excellent job during their year in charge, but we understand they will be continuing their travels after the 2006 season. We hope that the next managers of the dive centre will be able to carry on the good work and keep the dive centre both an excellent and efficient base for diving but also an ecologically aware one.