Tioman Island, Malaysia - a gem in the deep blue sea.

 Tioman Island - the most breathtaking and adventurous trip for me during my exchange studies!

 I went to Tioman Island with a group of four other exchange guys by bus and ferry for a weekend, it definitely took forever (~8 hours) to reach to island, but it worths every enduring moments=))! First we took the MRT towards a station near Little India, where we took the bus to Johor Bahru, you can just buy the tickets at the bus, no need to buy anything in advance. We needed to get off the bus for border control at Woodlands station, it's pretty painless procedure, after which we got on the bus again to go towards Johor Bahru. It took around an hour to reach there, and yeah, the moment you cross the No Man's Land bridge, you can't ignore the stark contrast between the infrastructure between Singapore and Malaysia. 

Despite its shabby and dishelveled appearance, Malaysia, definitely, looks, more authentically Asian than Singapore: less planning, more freedom, more all-over-the-place, but, very Asian I must say. Anw, once we reached Johor Bahru, we tried getting a bus to Mersing, and had some little time to see around the Johorb Bahru bus station. Messy, brim with street vendors, shouting sales people, antique-looking buses,etc rekindled me of the bus central station in Ho Chi Minh City. Something that is obviously non-existent in the well-groomed Singapore.

The bus ride to Mersing was a real exhilirating experience, with two-hour roller-coaster woop on the curvy highway. Which, is teemed with nothing but palm trees after plam trees. Two and a half hour long,phew. Once we reached Mersing, we struggled to find the port for the ferry to Tioman, gosh, in the scorching heat of tropical weather=.= How I longed for the superb signposting system in Singapore at that moment! Anw, by some magical karma, we managed to find the port just in time for the ferry departure, got crammed onto the ferry for 2 hours more, until we reached our heaven destination. The magnificent island looks like an unexplored gem in the deep blue sea, which is fully blanketed with tropical forest. We took the boat to the North of Tioman to do snorkeling near the Coral Reef Island, which is the reputed spot for snorkeling and diving activities. Here comes some picture proofs:)

The crammed ferry to the island

North of Tioman Island beach - so crystal clear that you can see hundreds of fish from the shore!

 

 

 So apparently my group stuck to the budget-is-my-priority rule, we opted for the cheapest available accommodation on the island called Puteri Salang Inn, after asking around a little bit. It was fairly decent, I stayed in the same room with 2 other guys, with our own bathroom, and no bed bugs^^And we paid like 4 euros/person/night - not too bad for a heaven island! Anw, the rest of the day was quite normal, we went to the beach, did a little swimming, and then had dinner at a local restaurant.

The beautiful beach of North Tioman

Now the restaurant and Malaysian food here is quite a disappointment though, price-wise and taste-wise. Some dishes were more expensive than in Singapore even, yet tasted worse. But well, we didn't have much of a choice, there were only like 3-4 restaurants around the North of the island.

The next morning, we book a boat tour to 3 heaven spots for snorkeling, and this was definitely the I-LOVE-IT part of the trip! We paid something like 70RM/ person (~16 EUR) for the tour, including all snorkeling equipments, which is a bargain! It's my first time ever doing snorkeling, and, to add some spices to the adventure, I don't even know how to swim +.+ But I've got such an accommodating friend who helped me out with the equipment and such, and yes, I managed to discover the sea aquarium with my very own eyes, for the first time ever:) F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C! 

The problem was, I felt a bit sick, since early morning of the day: running nose, sore throat, and a bit of a fever. And then, snorkeling for 3-4 hours under the intense tropical sunshine. Without really much food in the stomach saved for the tiny pancake in breakfast. BUT, as if it wasn't dramatic enough, my courageous and energetic gang decided to trek through three mountains to the middle part of the island. Right after lunch. Without much rest from the snorkeling @.@ And that was not a suggestion, it was an offer that I couldn't turn down. Because otherwise, I would be stuck in this Northern part all by myself. And I didn't really know how to go back to Mersing or Singapore by myself. And I was the only girl in the group. SIGHED=.=

OK, well, bear it and grind it, all luggage on, and here I trekked. First time ever through the tropical forest mountain. With a feverish head and stuffed nose. With pretty much no signposts or trekker-friendly route, our only "guide" was the electricity line running through the island forest from North to South. NICE! For the first time ever, I felt like I turned on my survival mode during the entire 3-trekking trip, given the sketchy image of the bumpy mountain route that my not-so-clear mind managed to capture. All I knew was that, if I didn't focus and keep carry on, I'll be left behind in this deserted forest or fell off the cliff to be friends with monkeys around here+.+ Here are some more pictures for your enjoyment! 

Here we started, and I've got like 9kg of luggage on me+.+

Yep, the route wasn't very easy!

Gosh my shoulders were so exhausted with all the luggage!

Yay,we managed 2 mountains already, 1 more to go only!

The spectacular beach midway to ABC!

But yes, yes, we made it, and I made it, against all odds I was still alive and kicking, reached the destination without any damages except for the little scratch from a tree branch:) We spent one more night in ABC, and of course, at the cheapest accommodation possible, so we are talking about the price of 2.5 euros/person/night, with similar accommodation as the previous place, though a little better. I must say the middle part of Tioman is a bit more developed than the Northern part, restaurants served better food at cheaper prices, and there are more affordable hotels and inns around here. We reached the place at around 7 PM, then just headed for dinner after settling down and relaxed for the rest of the day. 

OMG, my fever. It just didn't know how to restrain itself. Like the recalcitrant teenager on the run. The next morning, my nose was completely stuck, my throat was so sore that I couldn't really talk properly with others. And my head was seriously hot. And we had to wait like 5 hours, until 2 PM or something, until we got the ferry back to Mersing from here. And then another 8-hour journey back to Singapore +.+

I swear never have I ever felt so jubilant to cross the border control to Singapore, to catch the first sight of NUS. For the first time ever, I was basically rapturous to be on my bed in UTown residence, safe and sound. After all the feverish mumblings and cold shivers on the bus, I made it, back to UTown,phewwwwww!!!

That was  definitely my most memorable trip in S.E.Asia, not just because I was sick and did all those adventurous things, but also because it was a really remarkable island! Tioman, I'll see you again in the near future!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NUS academic system & environment

Ok, so after a few weeks of exposure to the courses, the study environment, etc, here are my personal impressions and accumulated knowledge about NUS academic system.

There's an overwhelmingly intense academic atmosphere among the degree students at NUS. Like. Seriously. The one grand plan since the day they enter university is to get an A in a course. And apparently it's not that easy there, because NUS uses bell curve grading system, which means all students are ranked relative to their classmates. The number of A students could not exceed 5% of the class, in most cases, and professors are supposed to honor that rule. So you can just imagine, if you are in a class where everyone scores above 90% and you get some wherein the 80-range, you'll fail the course?!?!? This grading system, coupled with the already competitive character of Asian students, unfortunately yet predictably, has generated the hyper-competitive relationship between students, to the point that I don't feel it's healthy at all. I've heard many unbelievable stories from my friends who study in the Business School - the supposedly most prestigious and competitive school in NUS, about how some can go to any lengths to achieve an A in a course. Anyway, on the bright side, if you are really into studying seriously, you'll have very serious students to work with =))

Now let's briefly talk about my view on my course selection. So I chose 5 courses, corresponding to 20 MCs under NUS system, which, according to NUS definition, would mean 50 hours of of work a week, including lectures, tutorials, laboratory sessions, assignments, and independent or group study (!). Sounds like WTF huh? Well, as exchangers, why so serious about these estimated required hours? We'll survive by all means, just enjoy the life and traveling=)) I've never heard of a single case of exchangers to NUS who has failed a course, no matter how neglectful they could have been here. Because of the bell curve, only less than 5% of a course participators could fail, so unless you do absolutely nothing for the course, I doubt you could fail one. 

As all my courses are at 3000s level, they all have roughly 40-50 students/ course, from which we will be divided into our chosen tutorial time slots. Therefore, in the tutorial sessions, you will usually have around 10-15 classmates there, which leaves a lot of room for discussion and interaction with the teacher. NOTE that while lectures are not compulsory to attend, all tutorials are, and your attendance will be recorded. This is also how the lecturer assesses your attendance and participation grade for the entire course. Anw, this grading part is the most ambiguous part in the assessment, in the end, no one knows how they are assessed relative to other students, and how active should one be in the tutorial sessions=.=

Ah yes, about course materials, NUS has the most affordable textbooks for their students sold via NUS COOP, at a much much cheaper price than wherever you buy. NOTE though, you guys MUST first check out the IVLE second-hand booksale forum from other NUS students to see whether you required textbooks are available there. In most cases, they often are, especially if you choose a popular course with many attendants. For me, I found my Game Theory coursebook there, looking perfectly new, at only 30SGD, whereas if you buy the book from NUS COOP/ Forum bookstore, it'll be 65 SGD :). I also bought an Econometrics and Math textbooks from some students via the forum, useful for my future studies, since they are such a bargain and they seriously are brand new!

Exams, you may wonder. Most exams at NUS are conducted in two hours only, be it Math course or Essay-based course. That is a bit of a challenge for us Aalto sudents, since we are very used to the four-hour setting at Aalto, where you can just take your time to a certain extent. I run out of time in some exams, especially though that demands some calculations, since the professor usually make the exam really longggg=.= So yeah, you need quite some practice to get your head in the game before you take the exam, otherwise, you'll run out of time and curse yourself afterwards. In the exam, it's just read, think for 2', and then do it, no time for prolonged meditation on any single question!

More to go about NUS campus in the next post!