The Greatest Adventure Is What Lies Ahead: Zombie ants and flying monkey cousins (Tioman Island)

With the new realization that our time in Asia is sunsetting, we decided to binge travel. Monique and Dave have been amazing travel friends starting way back at LegoLand in November. (Amazing friends generally, as well!) Before they headed back to Holland for the summer, we scheduled a quick trip to the beach.

Tioman Island is just a 90 minute ferry ride from mainland Malaysia off peninsular Malaysia's east coast. We drove from KL over to the east coast port city of Mersing. The 4 1/2 hour drive went by quickly -- again I'm so grateful the kids have grown into excellent travelers. If you are planning a trip to Tioman, note that the ferry is a pain. The irregular schedule (it changes with the tides) is unpublished. To find times and get tickets, you need someone local such as a ticket broker, to assist. Arriving at the ferry, before boarding, you need to wait in line to get tickets, wait to pay for tickets, queue up to register, wait again to pay the marine park fee (they take iPass for the local rate), wait again to get the marine park fee stamped, and then fight an amorphous mass sometimes referred to as a "line" to pick up boarding passes. Then shove into the gate to try to get seats. All that said, these logistics worked fine and all 9 of us made it aboard. And the ferry was only 30 minutes behind schedule, which I hear is stellar.

We stayed at a wonderful little resort, the Melina Beach Resort, in their beach-front cottages. Across the board, Melina was a fantastic place for a family holiday. There are a couple things that stand out as amazing. The beach is isolated (you boat in from the ferry dock), with natural boulder barriers on each side of the stretch of sand. We were able to give the kids freedom to run and play and just be kids. They spent hours and hours in the sea, on the boulders, in the fresh water stream that trickled out of the rain forest. The team at Melina was also fantastic. The kids fell in love with Aimee at the front desk (She also makes a mean Dark and Stormy). A biologist researching the island's monkeys works onsite and she was alway game to show the kids an animal or answer their many questions. She also took us on a night hike during which we saw the island's colugos, a mammal that climbs palm trees and when threatened glides down in the air using its skin flaps as a parachute. We were super fortunate to see one in flight! Awesome! Clearly, the biologist does not have kids. As we were ending the night hike she told everyone about the zombie fungus that infects ants' nervous systems and makes them climb to the top of a tree before the spores explode from their heads! She even showed the kids pictures. She did tell them not to worry because it doesn't infect humans. Surprisingly all the kids slept through the night.

http://www.melinabeachresort.com/

Melina faces west. Gorgeous sunsets every night!

A major highlight of the trip was an island hopping/snorkeling trip. The seas were a bit rough, but after a not so fun boat ride, our boat driver found a white sand beach to rest our bruised tail bones. We later hopped back over to another sheltered island for amazing snorkeling. After rolling into the water amid hundreds of fish, Violet spotted a huge moray eel. Tyler later saw a reef shark! Vi, Ty, A, and J were amazing snorkelers. Violet and Ty both mastered diving under the water and clearing their snorkels! A and J had never snorkeled before, but were pros by the end. Beautiful 2-year-old V rigged out in a life vest and water wings bobbed along as we snorkeled! We tried to put a mask on her, but she'd get so excited about everything she was seeing underwater that her elated squeals resulted in sucking up mouths full of salt water.

The adults capped off every night with cocktails and boardgames on our porch. With the sound of the ocean as background, we had great times and lots of laughs with amazing friends.