A few sentences and a bunch of palm tree shots in following post. The concrete, traffic and lack of open space in Singapore can quickly wear a nature junkie down. Singapore has since November last year been travel hub for adventures in Asia and I've spent a fair amount of time in the city in between trips to Sumatra, Flores and Nepal. By now I feel pretty done with Singapore so when my friend Adam (also from Sweden, studying in Singapore) suggested a weekend getaway to Pulau Tioman in Malaysia I wasn't hard to convince. Anything but skyscrapers! I joined in on a trip arranged for newly arrived foreign students at NUS (National University of Singapore) which was good fun. Activities were all beach related and involved volleyball, refreshing swims, sunset strolls, barbecues, diving and a beer or two.

Photo above: Prior to a dive on Pulau Tioman. I met Adam Lewenhaupt in South America 2009 when he was traveling with his friends Rasmus and Daniel, all of them from Stockholm. We ventured parts of Brazil, Bolivia and Peru together.

Two photos on the left: It was great being back in water with scuba gear but the damaged reef was a sad and depressing sight. I saw one nudibranch, a lionfish and a few clownfish - I should just stick to Komodo.

Photo above: Bungalows on Tioman Island. 17-18 years ago, when growing up in Singapore I remember doing a weekend trip or two to Tioman Island with my parents and brother. I thought in advance, when going back now, that the island would be a lot more developed with big hotels and restaurants. I was surprised to learn otherwise, Tioman still has a pretty authentic and laid back feel to it.

On Sunday I leave for a new continent and a new bicycle adventure in Australia (see post: OZ). To keep yourself posted, follow THE ESCAPE on Instagram (@theescape) and Facebook.

/Erik