"A Former "Times Magazine" ..." a Pulau Tioman Travel Page by alvis

From the hype of it being a great island and possibly 1 of the Worlds best islands arriving here was a bit dissapointing. My 1st impression was that we must have got off at the wrong stop, as Salang Beach was said to be the most beautiful part of the island along with it's perfect beaches. I think I had expected paradise from it's great reviews and the bar was set quite high so arriving here, while it is a great island, was well below par.

It really is a beautiful island and there may have been a day where this island had been a lot better kept and beautiful but now what once used to be a thriving tourist resort seemed now to be run down and quite far from it's prestigeous reputation.

As it was, I was actually quite happy with the island because there was not many tourists and those tourists tended to be from South East Asia or back-packers and the Western standards and Influence which once was here has now faded to a more traditional Malaysian Island (Pulau.)

A couple tell tale signs of the fading tourism was after attempting to book the daily high speed boat to Singapore to find out it had not operated in over 2 years. Another sign was the delapodated hut we stayed in which was obviously once a real nice place was now well run down and cheap. Everything seems to be cheap now so it is quite good for the backpackers.

Salang Beach is where I stayed because of its great reputation which though it didn't live up to its reputation I still love the place. If you are looking for luxury or paradise there are moe up market resorts which you can stay with private beaches and i'm sure are going to be better kept than places like Salang, Tekek or ABT which seem to have gone back to local standards.