We landed in Tioman Island's tiny airport and I was bursting with excitement to know if we were actually going to Japamala or another resort. Then two men wearing Japamala t-shirts came to take our suitcases. Whhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

Japamala is a boutique resort in the beautiful Tioman Island. It is the kind of place you would go to just get away from it all. There is nothing to do other than rest and relax. It is not the type of place you would want to bring a child (and your child would be extremely bored with the lack of children friendly activities) and also the honeymooners would not be too pleased with your crying baby. The water is crystal clear (though plenty of dead coral) and all the rooms are tucked away in the wilderness giving each villa complete privacy. If you are one who doesn't like sitting around doing nothing all day, then this is definitely not the place for you. As it is a secluded resort, you are limited to whatever the hotel provides you, including the choice of only two restaurants - which, if you're on a budget, would not be too friendly on the pocket.

Before I go on, I would like to say that I am going to give a very fair review with the pros and cons. It would be easy for me to point out all the wonderful parts of the resort and what a great time we had. But, for a resort of this stature and price, bad points need to be pointed out too. People are very forgiving with minor bad points. Nothing is perfect. But if it is bad enough to affect your holiday mood, then yes, it should be pointed out.

1) Food prices - which we knew already and don't mind paying. But food MUST live up to price expectation.
2) Flies at breakfast
3) ANTS and bugs

I will elaborate on these as I go along.

For the first night, we stayed at the Treetop Chalet. All the rooms are built around nature to minimize any environmental impact. No rocks were moved and no trees were cut. As such, each room is unique and different from the rest. Nature is all around you, and unfortunately, so are the bugs (more on that later!).

It was a nice and sunny day so after a bit of exploring, we got changed and hit the beach!

After soaking up the sun all day, we went back to the room to find some sundown snacks waiting for us at the verandah. Every evening they would bring us an Asian sweet snack which I thought was a lovely touch (though they forgot our snack on the last day! Maybe cause our next room was at the highest peak and the dude was lazy to deliver it?)

To truly get us into the holiday mode, we went for a scrub and massage at the Samadhi Spa which is built high up on the hill over looking the sea. The spa session was divine! They scrubbed every inch of our body followed by a relaxing aromatherapy oil massage that left our skin feeling baby soft. I highly recommend the spa!

That night we had dinner at the Tamarind Terrace. If you've been to Tamarind Springs or Tamarind Hill in Kuala Lumpur, this is the same - serving Thai, Indo-Chinese & Malay cuisine.

Food was very good on the first night and we absolutely over ordered.

Our room had a little dining area on the balcony so we got breakfast delivered to us on the final morning. No flies!! Nice!