It’s a long weekend in Singapore so I’m heading to Tioman Island in Malaysia with some friends for 4 days. It has always been on my radar but I didn’t think it was worth the effort to get there, how wrong I was!

Despite being only 250km from Singapore it took over 10 hours to arrive at my beach hut. We set off on a thursday night at 6pm by car, taking 2 hours to get across the border into Malaysia, and arrived in Mersing to stay for the night at 11.30pm. The next morning we got an early 4 hour ferry and after a 45 minute drive across the island we arrived at the Juara Beach Resort at 1.30pm.

I had intended to explore as much of the island as I could for the next 3 days, but Juara Beach was so peaceful and beautiful, being far away form the busier side of the Island that I didn’t leave.

Tioman island malaysia

I didn’t see more than 20 people my whole stay which I loved, making it feel like the island was almost all to myself. I spent hours relaxing in a hammock watching the tide come in, something I rarely do on a holiday, I am always on the go wanting to see and shoot everything!

Juara beach

As the beach faced the east I woke up at 6am for sunrise every morning to capture it, waiting for the waves to form perfect stepped layers.

Juara beach

Juara beach malaysia

The resort even had it’s own mangrove which we spent 2 hours kayaking around, I didn’t even know it existed and it was the most beautiful I have seen yet. Manoevering a kayak for the perfect composition is not easy!

malaysia kayaking

Tioman island

I didn’t know what to expect of Tioman and I was surprised at how many shots I took here on just 1 beach, adding to both my Panoramic and Fragments collections. I even had some great seafood here, it’s hard to beat the fresh Calamari and steamed fish. It was the perfect long weekend getaway!

juara beach malaysia