More details, you ask? Why, I'd be glad to fill out my story for you. Be warned - it is longer than a barnacles manhood...
Location One - Penarik Inn, Terrenganu
So, this inn. Beautiful place, right on the glorious white sandy beach. Tons of sand dollars, great food, and coconut trees (which, by the way, are quite freaky to walk under. It only takes one close call to instil a deep, irreversible, "no-councillor-could-get-me-through-this" fear of death by head-coconut collision). However, the best features were the wee turtles. This beach was run, in part, by the World Wildlife Fund, which meant that just down the coast was a turtle hatchery. The first night at Penarik, we got to do a release. Of baby turtles. OH MY GOSH!!!! It was so amazingly fantastic...we stood in a "V" formation, sort of a reverse funnel into the ocean. Right near my feet was a little bozo who had a bit of trouble turning left. Plus, when he finally reached the ocean, instead of jumping in like all of his brothers (they were all male due to the temperature at which they were incubated), he walked along the shore. Luckily, he eventually got in to the ocean, only to be flipped about by the current. Poor little guy, had a hard first few minutes.
Alongside the turtle-times, there were also copious amounts of beach volleyball times, beach cleaning with WWF times, going to market and haggling down the locals (heck yes) times, and "guitar with the locals" times. I quickly learned that I am lousy at guitar. I'll catch up to you someday, Kide...you guitaring fiend...
Note to readers from another student along for the trip: Peeing on the jellyfish sting does indeed decrease the duration and severity of both the sting and inevitable itchiness. So there ya go.
Location Two - Mak Kepit, Pulau Reddang
Alright - this is where it gets crazy good! Pulau Reddang is a relatively isolated island off of the East coast of Malaysia, near the north. Getting to this island proved to be a bit difficult. Not in terms of geography, however, more in terms of whatever the USM people thought we ought to see on our way. After a short bus stint, we hopped onto a small boat. Accompanying us was a group of scared, relatively wary highschool students from various areas around the state of Terrenganu on a mission to better their English skills. It wasn't an entirely successful venture.
A half hour on a wee boat passed before we stopped over at a painfully tourist-oriented marine park. For an hour. Of bored wandering. Woop de dooo!!!!!!!! Followed by a lunch stop over hosted by the education board of Terrenganu - at which we served both as guest and oggle material. Something about being a 6' female with short red hair attracts attention around here...
ANYWAY! REDDANG!!!
- Private beach? CHECK!!!
- Turtle tracks every morning? CHECK!!!
- Becoming aquainted with the local fauna? CHECK (in fact, too aquainted. A giant terrestrial hermit crab took a solid chunk out of my finger after arrival. Another scar to add to the collection!)
- Sleeping outside on the glorious sand beaches? CHE...well...sort of.
Anyway, so we slept inside that night. On the cement floor. In one room packed with 15 people where there was no need to have 15 people. Yeah. Not so hot.
Day 2: SNORKELING! Yes. Excellent. And exploring the washed up coral along the beach. SO AMAZING! The snorkeling was awesome - saw so many fish species, plus wonderfully healthy corals of lots of genera. The classification "Private beach" should be renamed to "hey, look, the coral is HEALTHY AND STUFF!!" Plus, blacktip reef shark. Yep. I said it. Neato times were also had in the laying of a transect to determine the coral damage index of the area.
Let me tell you something about ecology students. Put them in a coral reef with a task, say, doing a coral survey, and they might get started an hour after entering the water. Fish are so darn distracting! And don't get me started on giant barrel sponges...
Night 2: I slept outside on a cot. Fortunately for my sleep, there was no rain! (Un)fortunately...well, there was a turtle.
Long story short - a female green turtle (Chelonia mydas - sorry, it's a force of habit now) decides that right next to my cot is PRIME LOCATION for baby turtles. Wonderful, right?! Well, yes, but sand in the face is a rough way to wake up at 2am. (To be honest, I immediately thought it was my friend sleeping next to me.) Anyway, this girl is huge and gorgeous - like 1 m long and just digging away like crazy, throwing sand at me. No matter, after watching for a bit exhaustion takes over and I sleep.
About 2 hours later, my cot shifts, startling me awake. Imagine this: you wake up with a start to find yourself falling out of a cot, covered in sand, onto a turtle. Luckily I managed to hold on to the cot, but there she was, using the sand directly under my bed to fill the hole she laid her eggs in. The hole that oh so recently contained the sand covering my body. Not that I'm upset - let's just say that I got all of about 3 hours of sleep that night...which in retrospect is totally worth it in exchange for a near turtle-ride.
Day 3 - Snorkled over 1km to an adjacent beach looking for the Crown of Thorns starfish - a coral eater - and managed to find a shocking population of ZERO! At least the snorkeling was neat. Amazingly, we managed to spot a group of anemone fish living in a similar area. They are so amazing - isn't symbiosis so cool!?!? (The answer, in case you weren't sure, is yes.)
Night 3 - Lecture again interrupted - this time by a 1.5m long banded krait. Cute, but deadly. No big deal. During the night night, we went along the beach to see a female laying eggs (old news to me), when suddenly baby turtles at our feet! EVERYWHERE! Going the wrong direction! Because the females don't mind having lights shone on them after they have begun to lay (apparently - I'm not 100% sure if I believe this tall tale), it was like Las Vegas on this turtle. And as baby turtles are drawn to light, well, all of a sudden it became a screaming "oh, sweet heavens, the turtles are all going to die" fest.
Luckily, no casualties, just a lot of very stressed out yelling people getting mad at the rangers for not getting out the way or getting the highschool students to stop taking those gorram flash photographs! Turns out the baby turtles weren't ready to hatch yet - their nest had been invaded by an ant colony - and had to be reburied elsewhere. After tensions diffused, it was sleeping time. Outside again, and due to no rain and no turtles, I slept like a dream!!!
Plus, unicorn fish. Heck. Yes.
Day 4 - SCUBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Around the island, three others and I went for an optional diving trip through a resort thingy. All in all, 2 dives cost us each ~$70 CDN...which...I can't even. What is this country of Malaysia that a boat and diving gear is so cheap?! Man oh man. Can I just stay, please? And never leave the water ever?
Note to past self: you know all that time you spend underwater? That is most likely the reason you now have an ear infection. Nothing is without cost.
Note to past self who just wrote that note: I REGRET NOTHING!
After returning to Reddang, just hung out and played President. I am pleased to say that I never showed my true ability and played as ass or vice ass for the entire game. You are all welcome. That, and I chased a mouse deer through the woods. Don't worry - I didn't catch it because it was too adorable to frighten.
Night 4 - Last night at Reddang, so we decided to sleep on the sand. Eventually, everyone except Tim and I wimped out. That was, however, until the rain started. Then we accepted our fate and ran for the hills. Erm, the balcony. Luckily, on my way I snagged a cot! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!! THE COMFY BED WAS MINE FOR THE TAKING! NO MORE CONCRETE FLOORS!!!!!!
Day 5 was leaving the island and going back to USM, a drive that took 7 hours. Best part was - I finished Game of Thrones book 4. Now, would everyone else just hurry up and read these books because I need to discuss the plot points with someone who is not in danger of spoilers!!!
BRIEF USM TIMES AND EXPLANATION OF LATE BLOG POST:
Okay. So, I wrote a critical paper about orangutan genetic divergence in response to geographical barriers to gene flow. In 18 pages. Over two days. While my computer's hard drive died in front of me. Yep. So stress? You bet!!!
Meanwhile, I also had to prepare a 20 minute seminar based on the paper I just finished writing, and study for the final exam of this course while putting the finishing touches on my scientific field journal.
Phew. Luckily, that's all over now! Exam went well, paper was pretty good (if I may say so myself), and the seminar was...well...seminarish! Worst part was that I was last and had to wait in agony all day long...gah! To those who do not know me well: I hate waiting. Patience is NOT one of my virtues, nor has it ever considered joining the ranks.
So, post exam - went to a mall (ew, right?!) but don't worry, I didn't go shopping. Instead, me and a few others went to see Batman - Dark Knight Rises. YES! IT WAS AWESOME!!!! Then off to a bar for a few celebratory Tigers. Just an aside - when you are dehydrated and hungry in a hot country, beer travels directly to your brain. 1 or 2 is enough for some good old tipsy times.
Further International-Office-arranged activities have been had since we returned to USM, namely the Butterfly Gardens (as a bug lover, I was pretty darn excited for this place), temple Kek Lok Si (beautiful and utterly amazing - look it up!), the Botanical Gardens (I was excited by the monkeys, the plants were simply plants...), and a giant mall. Which I wasn't a fan of. Luckily, LG had set up several stands in the courtyards of the mall and were playing Tangled on a 3D TV. A solid hour of my mall time was spent sitting on short stools with Chinese toddlers wearing 3D glasses smaller than my face could accept. But, it was more entertaining than shopping...
Sorry about the length of this one. Wowza. Seriously sorry. But one last thing...so very vitally important...tomorrow the name of my blog will become fully realized. For tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen, there will be orangs at Bukit Merah.
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