We arrived at the A’king pier on time, and about ten minutes later a boat arrived and a series of people staggered off, vomiting. We waited for a while, and then one of the staff came over and asked us if we were sure we wanted to go to the island. The GF, who had been feeling a little unsettled of stomach, was lying in a corner, so I went to consult him feeling that he would have the final say, being a little more fragile this morning than I was. We were told that this weather was unusual, it was a cyclone.
The idea of sailing to an island through a cyclone instantly perked up the GF who, unlike me, also has experience of heavy seas and seasickness. (I am normally convinced that I can feel no such weakness anyway so it would take seeing my guts on the floor to persuade me that I have succumbed).
Anyhow eventually we decided to go, and so got on a small boat with the boat’s captain and several days’ worth of groceries, most notably a large and smelly sack of peeled garlic.
The waves were indeed quite big, significantly higher than the boat, and instead of the usual 50 minute journey it took an hour and fifteen minutes across open seas with no horizon, only mountains and valleys of water. There were any number of times when we could see an immense wave approach, roll over with it and come crashing down. There were watermelons rolling about the deck, and huge canisters of fuel tumbling about. There were crashes onto the water that felt as though surely the boat must break apart. Most ominous were the moments when the captain saw a huge wave coming at us and cut the engine, so the boat soared up in silence, hung suspended for a moment, and crashed down. (Eventually he became better at timing this and cut the engines so as to soften the landing).
Neither of us were ill, though I certainly felt unsettled by the smell of garlic and diesel, but I don’t think there was actual sea sickness.
It says something about the remarkable places we’ve visited that both of us, on seeing Pulau Tenggol, thought ‘very pleasant’ rather than ‘this is paradise on earth’. There is a curving beach with jungle covered hills behind, turquoise water, everything you might hope for. But after some of the places in Timor Leste and Flores, it was merely pleasant.
We received our room, a wooden hut up the side of a hill with all mod cons but the sea view is blocked by tinted glass (we did eventually find a little balcony). In the afternoon we joined a snorkelling boat, which could only take us out to the mouth of the bay as the waves were too strong beyond. We bobbed around for about an hour, over rather a lot of bleached coral, but some very big and interesting fish. So not the worst snorkelling ever, but far from the best.
My brown tinted lenses are horrific. They look like an attempt at a doll’s painted eyes rather than human eyes, and because my natural dark brown is visible in the centre, it looks like I have abnormally dilated pupils. Awful, but at least I can snorkel.
Meals are surprisingly palatable. THey are served buffet style, and are rather bland, but generall well cooked. For lunch there were quite tasty fried prawns, and at dinner they fried up beef steaks of which I found a particularly well marbled piece and enjoyed it. It’s particularly good if one gets to the food as soon as it comes out (ie arrives at the stroke of the meal hour) as it’s then fresh and hot and less buffet-like.
Other than that there are only two other groups of people staying here, of whom one is a set of divers so unlikely to be seen much. We have the stretch of beach mostly to ourselves and can bag the hammock and the slightly odd plastic lounge chairs.
There are sand creatures here, some sort of wasp that doesn’t bite, but burrows underground. We saw one solemnly cleaning out its bore, depositing little piles of sand outside. It should be a pleasant couple of days.