Prik Ki Nu

Japamala is truly paradise on earth. We’ve been to several magical beach spots before - Peter Island in the BVI for our honeymoon, Ko Surin in Thailand etc. But Japamala takes the biscuit.

Read on for more…

We flew to Tioman island just off the coast of Malaysia. From there, we were greeted by Jay from Japamala resort who walked us across the street to a boat dock where we took a small boat for a half hour to the other side of the island. There are no roads into Japamala, access is either by boat or bush-whacking through the Jungle.

As we approached, we could recognize the location from pictures on their website - the distinctive sea-cliff dwellings and the rickety old dock stretching out into the water. The dock is not your typical 4×4 pressure-treated timbers, but rather a bunch of big branches dragged out of the jungle and lashed together with bits of vine. It sure felt like that too - as it wobbled from side-side as we walked along it.

Upon arrival, we were given delicious iced lemongrass-ginger drinks. Theresa is excited to make this at home for dinner parties on our patio this summer.

Japamala is a tiny resort. They currently have about eight rooms - some are garden side ‘villas’ set back in the jungle behind a pool. Others are ‘tree top chalets’, which you have to climb a rickety old stair case up to in the jungle, and the last type are ’sea cliff chalets’ which are set on wooden posts sticking out of the massive boulders of the cliffs. We stayed in a tree top the first night and them moved to the sea cliffs with breath taking views of the beach and dock.

The rooms are beautifully decorated and well equipped. They have air conditioning and huge French doors that open onto the deck, with a to-die-for view.

The resort has only been open a couple of years. Prior to that, the property was owned by the Malaysian royal family. They are currently undergoing some new construction, adding a new dock with a bar at the end and a spa area. They are also going to add some beach front rooms, bringing the total up to fourteen rooms by 2009. I can see why it takes them so long - everything is done very slowly by hand. Bags of concrete are wheel barrowed into the resort every so often from a supply boat. The construction is very low key, and we have barely been disturbed - not even a single hammer blow the entire time we were here.

The crashing of the ocean waves and the tranquility here is enough to set one into a deep coma of relaxation. A great time to reflect on the year that just went by and do a little intentional thinking on the years ahead.

Right, enough about Japamala for now, I’m off to get another big fruity cocktail.

by Brett

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 6th, 2006 at 1:59 am and is filed under World Trip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.