"Passing through" Mersing by alvis

KUALA LUMPUR TO PULAU TIOMAN VIA MERSING

When going to the islands i.e. Pulau Tioman etc. you will need to stop off in Mersing. My advice is not to stay over night here unless needed. When coming from Kuala Lumpur we got the night bus leaving KL bus terminal (book in advance or you will miss out) at 23.00 slept on the bus and arrived in the morning. The 1st boat leaves at around 6.30 in the morning and you will need to wait for an hour or so, in which time you should book your boat trip to your desired island.
In the morning time Mersing is quite surreal and as the sun rises over the sea the people of Mersing are starting to appear. There will be aerobics classes 1st thing (05.30) in the morning with locals doing their workout beside the bus terminal in a small park. You will also hear the prayers at the Muslim mosque which is quite close by.
The price of the speed boat was 40 RM and it takes an hour to arrive at Tioman though it will depend on which stop you are visiting, Salang beach was our choice.
There is a cash machine in town which is very advisable to use before departing from Mersing as ATMs are very scarce on Islands.

PULAU TIOMAN TO SINGAPORE

When leaving the islands i.e. Pulau Tioman etc. the cheapest way is to go back though Mersing. We had hoped to get the boat to Singapore from Pulau Tioman but found that this boat no longer existed. The flights were also booked up so we found ourselves making our way to Singapore by bus via Mersing. We were able though to wake up in Tioman do the half day Coral Island trip and get i think the 15.00 boat from Tioman to Mersing. When we arrived in Mersing we found just had enough time to run to the cash machine, pay for our tickets and get on a bus to Singapore.

Getting to Singapore was quite tedious though was also quite fun. We started by getting the bus to Johor Bahru ( the gateway to Singapore ), from here we got another bus toward Singapore again which dropped us off at the border to go through customs and get our VISAs stamped for leaving Malaysia. Once through customs jump on another bus which will take you to the Singapore customs where you will have to go through customs again and get your VISA stamped for Singapore. Once through here you jump on another bus which will take you to the Metro. From here you decide where to go, in our case we went to a hotel51 which are a network of cheap hotels in Singapore. Taxis are metered and all speak good English so there will be no problem getting to wherever you are going.

We arrived in oue hotel at around 00.00 after leaving Pulau Tioman at 15.00 which worked well.