July 6, 2026
Fun day in the waters of Tioman Island, Malaysia snorkeling with friends. Life is good! It was nothing fancy, a boat & captain, who spoke minimal English and barely interacted with us, for roughly 7 hours. We started the outing spotting a group of dolphins and was quickly at anchor drop 1 of 6. The distances between the 6 snorkel spots was minimal, which gave us lots of time in the water (at least 45 minutes, at each spot) with an added stop for a lunch break at local restaurants. Even the restaurants were fast and efficient, definitely used to catering to the boat crowd.
Spot #1 was small island called Pasir Panjang. Lots of other boats out doing same thing - we saw several other ship people! Spot #2 was Bato Masano just off the beach. It was a Large boulder cropping - one of my favorite stops of the day. It was fun going in and out of all the rock crevices with the swirling current. Spot #3 was Teluk Genting. Lunch was at Salang Wday. No signs at stops 5 or 6.
There was little coral in theses rock cropping, so the fish where eating off the crustaceans on the rock faces. This video shows how aggressive the Parrotfish (which are such pretty colors) are in pecking away, at the coral and marine life. Their constant pecking acts as vital biological maintenance. By scraping away dead corals and microalgae, they expose limestone surfaces and open up new real estate for coral polyps to settle & thrive, excreting what they eat as white sand.
Holly became the favorite guest on the boat when she whipped out a bottle of coconut rum and shot glasses between snorkel spots!
Below are some of the other highlights! I missed the turtles other saw and while I didn't see anything new, it was still a fun time.
