Pulau Tioman

Our next stop after Singapore was Tioman Island, a small island off the Southeast coast of Peninsular Malaysia. This is the same island where Billy had a summer internship and got his divemaster certification 2 years ago.

While on the island, we went on four dives together with Billy's old dive shop, Eco Divers. The dives were really fun and beautiful. They were the first time that we dived together, and of course, we managed to stay entertained at all times by goofing around in the water, as we had done all the time growing up. Billy showed Julia his skills of blowing rings in the water and Julia proceeded to pop the bubbles. Billy went on two more morning dives, which required waking up at the butt-crack of dawn to dive before 6am as the sun was rising.

The island itself was beautiful. Although the reef is pretty, it used to be much more lush and live. El Nino, divers, and boats have killed much of the reef, and sadly, there are plans to put in an airport that will run across the ocean and kill even more of the reef. There has been some new development and construction on the island, but other than that, not too much has changed since Billy was here last.

We met Billy's old friends, Anita and Norita who work at Nazri's a local hotel/restaurant. Anita actually now owns her own Pizzeria/bar called Sunset Corner. They remembered Billy and it was fun introducing Julia to his old friends. Norita has two new baby boys and her oldest son Akmal is a real handful, as Billy had recalled.

One drawback to the island were the mosquitoes that made it hard to sleep at night, even with mosquito nets. Julia's ankle swelled up to the size of a tennis ball from a probable spider bite. The bugs won on this trip as even our DEET couldn't stave them off.

-Julia and Billy


Sunset on Tioman


Billy, pre-breakfast


Instant nice person, just add coffee


Divemaster Billy


Tioman, a little piece of paradise


Trying our hand at Batik painting


Norita and her son, Hazik


Akmal, the handful


Anita, Billy and Norita


Julia, after kayaking to Monkey beach
BTW, Kayaking is the best test of any relationship

Singapore, Asia for beginners

After we got over our jet lag, we were able to enjoy a little bit more of Singapore. The main activities in Singapore seem to be 1) Eating and 2) Shopping. Since whatever we buy will just add weight to our backpacks for the next few months, we decided to check out the food instead. Singapore has a little bit of everything. Malay, Chinese, Indian, Western food...you name it, Singapore's got it. We especially enjoyed the hawker centers, which are food courts with tons of stall selling cheap, tasty treats.

After stuffing ourselves with chicken satay, we decided to visit the zoo. We'd heard good things, and they were true. The Singapore zoo is impressive. They have tons of different kinds of animals and many live in large, sectioned off areas of jungle habitat instead of cages (they do, however, have some fences between you and the more aggressive animals). Julia thought that the Komodo dragons were pretty cool, and Billy was particularly taken with the cougars.

We also had a chance to sample some of Singapore's night life. We met up with one of Julia's friends from college, Ahmar, who was our own personal guide to Singapore's party scene. We had a great time, but it did make the bus ride the next morning a little rough...

Ahmar called Singapore "Asia for beginners". We found this to be true minus the fact that Dengue fever had reached epidemic levels as we arrived. Thank goodness for Deet!

-Billy and Julia


Singapore's Little India


Billy, hanging out with some of the zoo's big cats


Julia and Ahmar


Billy and Julia

First Stop: Singapore

We have arrived in Singapore. Our journey began on Monday morning in Eugene, and ended on Wednesday morning when we landed in Singapore at 5 am. We used Julia's airline miles to buy the tickets, so we got to fly business class on Singapore Airlines. This was a total treat; the seats were comfy, the food was delicious, and there were 80 movies to pick from (very important if you are on a 17-hour flight). We were welcomed onto the plane with a glass of champagne..Billy was stoked.

No Martin family journey is without it's hiccups, but fortunately ours were minor. Dad managed to delete the music off of Billy's Ipod before leaving home. We found this out when Julia went to check out exactly how many songs a 30 GB Ipod can hold, and found out that it was zero. Billy was devastated when he learned of this, 17 hours on an airplane is a long time to go with no Johnny Cash. Fear not dad, we are confident that we can download some more music along the way.

We also had an interesting time getting a room with 2 beds. Since we have the same last name and don't really look all that much alike, people seem to assume that we are a couple, which is a pain and slightly awkward. They also seem perplexed that two siblings would be traveling together without their parents. We anticipate that this isn't the last time we'll encounter this misunderstanding.



So far, we've only had one (very jet lagged) day in Singapore. We attempted to keep ourselves awake for the entire day, but Billy took a nap in the morning and then tapped out for the day at 7 pm...only to wake up again at 3:30 am. Jet lag sucks.

-Billy and Julia


Shhh! You woke the bears! Billy, napping at the airport.


The weary travelers land in Singapore at 5 am. Billy's quote of the day: "traveling in business class isn't too difficult."