Tioman Island

Tioman has been a landmark for sailors far longer than it has been a holiday island. Its granite peaks, visible from well out to sea, and its fresh water and timber made it a navigation point for Austronesian fishermen for thousands of years, and over the past millennium Chinese, Arab and European trading ships bound for Champa called here; porcelain shards still turn up on its beaches. Malay legend explains its shape as a dragon princess who broke her flight to Singapore here and chose to stay, and the island's name is bound up with that story.

Settlement was small and coastal: fishing villages at Tekek, Genting, Mukut and Juara, part of the sultanate of Pahang, growing coconuts, fishing and trading with Mersing on the mainland. There was no road around the island then and there still is not; the sea was always the connection between villages.

The island is popularly linked with the fictional Bali Hai of the 1958 film South Pacific, though whether any footage was really shot here is disputed, and the Second World War left wrecks in its waters, including the British warships Repulse and Prince of Wales. Backpackers followed through the 1970s and 1980s, chalets spread along the west coast, the surrounding waters were gazetted as a marine park, and duty-free status was granted to encourage visitors. Tourism, and arguments over how much of it the island can take, have shaped Tioman ever since.

The island's permanent residents are Malay and Muslim, and its seven villages function as villages rather than resorts: a mosque, a school, a jetty, a shop, boats drawn up on the sand. Pahang Malay is spoken, with a local vocabulary, and family networks tie the villages to Mersing and to the mainland coast. Fishing calendars, the tides and Friday prayers still set the rhythm for many households, even in places where most income now comes from visitors.

Visitors bring a second, looser culture to the west coast, strongest at Salang and Air Batang, where dive staff, chalet workers and travellers create an informal, largely English-speaking scene from March to October. Tioman's duty-free status means alcohol is available in a way it is not on the Terengganu and Kelantan coast to the north, but it is confined to restaurants, bars and shops, and modest behaviour is expected in the villages themselves. During Ramadan, eating and drinking in public in daylight is avoided.

Conservation is a strong local theme. The marine park restricts fishing and anchoring, a turtle hatchery at Juara protects nests and releases hatchlings, and volunteer groups run reef surveys and beach clean-ups. Plastic waste, coral damage and the strain that new building puts on water and drainage are argued over on the island as much as anywhere.

A few thousand people live on Tioman year-round, spread across villages on the west, south and east coasts, with Tekek the administrative centre and the place with the clinic, the school, the police station, the mosque and the shops. The population rises sharply in the open season with staff from the mainland, and falls away entirely when the monsoon closes the chalets.

Fishing and tourism carry the economy between them. Boats work the waters around the island and sell into Mersing as well as to local kitchens; chalets, dive schools, sea taxis and the duty-free shops provide most of the cash income. Fuel, building materials, bottled water and most food come across by ferry and barge, which is why prices are higher than on the mainland. Electricity, water supply and waste disposal are constant practical difficulties, and power cuts are not unusual.

Days begin early, with boats leaving for dive sites and supply runs; by evening the paths fill briefly as people walk between restaurants, and villages are quiet soon after. From November life turns inward — most businesses board up, many seasonal workers leave, ferries become unreliable, and the villages spend the wet months repairing boats and buildings. Development pressure, jobs for young islanders and the condition of the reefs are the recurring concerns.

Tioman eats what the sea provides and what the ferry brings. Restaurants line the beach paths at Air Batang, Salang and Tekek, and their menus overlap: nasi goreng and mee goreng, fried rice and noodles; nasi campur, a plate of rice with a choice of curries, fried fish, vegetables and sambal, sold from village shops at lunch time; roti canai with dhal or curry in the morning; and grilled chicken or fish with rice in the evening.

Seafood is the centrepiece. The day's catch — snapper, grouper, barracuda, squid and prawns — is laid out on ice in the late afternoon, priced by weight and cooked over charcoal, often with butter and garlic, or in a sweet-sour chilli sambal. Chinese-run kitchens at Tekek and Genting add steamed fish with ginger and soy, and fried squid with salted egg. From the east coast of the peninsula come keropok lekor, chewy fish sausage fried and eaten with chilli dip, and the rice-flour and coconut cakes known as kuih.

Drinks are simple: fresh coconuts, fruit shakes, iced Milo, teh tarik and, because Tioman is duty-free, beer and spirits that cost less than on the mainland. Small shops sell instant noodles, biscuits and water, and the duty-free outlets at Tekek and one or two of the jetties draw day visitors of their own.