Well, Tioman Island was great if not exactly a popular destination; in fact, it was totally and strangely deserted. The super odd thing was that it had all the infrastructure for tourists - jetties at all the beaches, streetlights, 24 hour electricity. The Perentian Islands had none of these things and approx. 99% more visitors. For the last week I've been traveling with a Brazilian guy I met in Phuket, Tobias, and his friend French friend, Axelle. It's been nice to have a group dynamic, but am happy to be back solo again as well (they left for Bali by way of KL this morning). We asked the locals if Tioman ever got busier and the general consensus was no. We spotted seven other tourists staying in the nine guesthouses on the same beach as us. Puzzling.
The three of us came to Singapore on Thursday and it is easily the most cosmopolitan place I've been on this trip. I had heard that Singaporeans are serious shoppers and 'tis true. Many, many malls full of people doing brisk and serious commerce. I even indulged myself. As I have a "one in, one out" policy re: my backpack there will be some clothing casualties TBD later tonight.
I have made some decisions about the next phase of my trip as well and I'm not going to go to Indonesia and Borneo. I'm flying back to Bangkok tomorrow, spending the next month in Northern Thailand, three weeks in Viet Nam, 2-3 weeks each in Laos, Cambodia and Burma. From Asia, I'll head to Turkey in mid-September then on to Greece and the winter in Africa (this means bypassing India for the time being as well). It's amazing that even with two years it's hard to see everything you'd like to. But it's good to have fuel for future trips!
I'm very much looking forward to getting back to Thailand and seeing more temples and ruins and fewer malls everywhere. I'm sure I'll be missing the Starbucks and KFCs on every corner at some point, but for now I say bring on the pad thai!
