I opted to leave the site earlier, because I had another trip planned - the trip was being rescheduled, I left earlier nonetheless because I'd my air ticket booked.

It wasnt easy to have to leave the place, and the people that I started falling in love with. The routine that I had got used to, and the simple life that I had been enjoying, it all came to an end. Gary sent me to the jetty early in the morning. He didnt spend too much time with us because he was on leave most of the days when we were there. So of all the 4 workers, he's the one that we didnt know well enough. We thought he's quiet and he didnt like all the noises we made and crappy jokes that we cracked. But I guess he's a nice guy. At least he told me quite some stuff as he sent me off to the jetty ;)

Kampung Redang - I think it's called so ;p So it's the village that almost everyone in Redang came from.

It's been quite an experience for me - and I really thank God for His protection and favor, throughout.

For Adi, Mann, Fifi, Gary and Kak Nur - thanks for taking care of us throughout the week, and bearing with us, despite all the noises that we never stopped making. Thanks for teaching us the wonderful lessons about the nature, and most of all, about turtles. Well, seriously, thanks for making fun of us all the time. Haha ;p We were really willing to be your entertainment. Haha!

For the 7 other slot F crew - thanks for the fun that you brought. Thanks for the tolerance and patience - and that we managed to get along well - which had made a huge lot of difference to this entire experience. Thanks for always being so helpful when it came to chores. And thanks for being able to stomach all the teasing ;p Wonderful friends^^

For Prof Chan - my highest respect for pulling this off for over a decade now. I especially love the fact that you are educating the younger generations through this programme. I believe this has changed the lives of many, in ways greater than you could have ever imagined. Thanks for all your dedications and time being put in to save the turtles ;) This is one of the most meaningful work I've ever seen. Keep it going, and I believe we'll be getting more and more support over the years.

I'm going to miss all the nights that we lied in the beach, counting the bright stars. And also the moments when we tried so hard to spot the turtles that landed. All the crap talks that we had, and the card games that we played for the whole day. Most of all, I am gonna miss the times in nature - adoring the beautiful creations of Abba Father.

So, after so much talks about turtles, I havent quite uploaded any pictures of the turtles have I? Haha ;p The mother turtles will land at night, from 8pm onwards. And we couldn't take any pictures of them because it's so dark at night and we can't on the flash light.

She's just done laying eggs

Camouflaging

The crew

And we didnt want to let her return to the sea!

This nest was attacked by ghost crabs. So we had to do relocation - that is, carefully take all the eggs out frm down under, and bury them in somewhere else.
After the eggs were being laid, we're not supposed to rotate the position of the eggs in any ways. It'll make the baby turtle dizzy - haha, that's a joke. But really, we have to hold the eggs and put them the way they were like before. Otherwise it will harm the baby turtle in it, apparently.
So in the afternoon, we went to climb the Turtle Rock. It was really dangerous going all the way up there - and Fifi, who led us, was bear footed all the while! That's just unacceptable. We had to put on runners to protect our feet frm being cut by rocks, branches, and also ants, etc. We stopped at 5 different spots, and I love the 4th and 5th the most ^^
5th spot - so this is the Turtle Bay at Chagar Hutang - our beach! How gorgeous. And look at the rocks on the left, it looked like a crocodile ;p

So this is what you'll wake up seeing ;p Gorgeous beach that we have! Haha!

So today we were left all by ourselves at the site, cause all the staff had something to do in the city. And Adi especially reminded me to keep us all away frm having fun in the sea, since most of us couldn't swim.

And JiaXing volunteered to cook for us. He took 2 hours to decide what to cook, and changed his mind at the very last moment, yet again. So women aint the only undecisive creature on earth apparently. Though the rice dough looked pretty, weird, it tasted alright, seriously. I thought the rice was decent, except for the fact that it looked like paste. Haha ;p
I got to read for a fair bit, listen to music, and I thought I should be more friendly ;) So we played card games. Really, I missed all those card  games. We literally played over hundreds games throughout. We nearly broke the cards into 2 ;p We played Lami, Chor Dai Tee, Bluff, Bridge, etc. So what's the one thing that you must bring if you're joining SEATRU? Cards. A few sets of cards ;p Chinese chess was one of the games that kept us occupied.

This is Pokemon. The cutest squirrel I've ever seen. It's so adorable and it eats a lot. Somehow I thought it looks like a mouse instead of squirrel. Look at the tail, it's so beautiful ^^
The diamond ;) So gorgeously shining all day long. I especially loved it here because we had plenty of time to do our own stuff. Many of times, living in city keeps us so busy, and we hardly have any time to do things that we love. Like I said before, we often forget to slow down the pace to enjoy the beauty that surrounds us.
So, this is what you've got to do to the new nests. We have to measure the distance from the 2 sectors that bind the nest, and the distance frm the nearest plantation (aka any tree/leaf). I still dont understand why do we need the measurement for the plantation ;p Anyways, after we've recorded the measurement, we'll mark on the stick-

"nest no. | dd-mm-yy | mother's left tag | mother's right tag "

That's the format if I'm not mistaken. So as you can see each turtle has got 2 tags, on their left and right flipper. The tags will help the researchers identify the identity of the turtles.

This is the good work done by the monitor lizard. Monitor lizards could smell it if  there are eggs around. So they can easily dig down under, to reach for the yummy-eggs.
The mother turtle's track. They are huge, and heave. So they move really slowly. The whole process of them laying the egg, frm the moment they land the beach to the moment they go back to the sea, it takes more than 2 hours. Amazingly patient huh, turtles.

This amazes me. It's the forecast released by some governmental department- the height and time of high and low tights, for everyday. And the readings were pretty accurate, apparently.

So today we did the round island tour in the morning- yes, we literally went round the Redang Island, clockwise. The map below is what I thought the names were, and what I thought the route was. Haha!

As shown on the map, we snorkeled at couple of places. This was in Pulau Lima. The schools of fishes were fed with the bread which wasnt edible in human's context. Fishes are, stupid, really. Totally loved the sea water that was crystal clear :D
That's the Adi that brought all of us out^^ Of the 7 of us, only JiaXing and I swim. So he had to keep himself strong to be able to take care of 5 non-swimmers ;p
This is absolutely gorgeous- and I think it's called Pulau Kerengga. The sands were white and sea was blue in color, literally.
It'd hurt quite a bit if you didnt have your slippers on here. We're sitting/lying/falling on dead corals, it's a bed of dead corals. Nonetheless it's awesomely beautiful.
Our mighty boat Si Penyu. Adi and Kak Nur were waiting for us on board- the beauty of the place is nothing to them, perhaps, it's something just so common, something that they live with.
PPS: Pulau means island in Malay.

PPPS: The Pulau Pinang on the map doesnt refer to the Penang Penang. It really does have another Pulau Pinang in Redang! Haha ;p We found it really fascinating too when we first found out!

Thank God for the beautiful weather and also the protection all along, we got back safely, reluctantly though. So after mighty fun that we had around the island, we're back to our site and resting in the afternoon. This is one of the best place with shade and nice view of the beach.

And then we're back to work again! This is Mann, another tall charming man. Unfortunately he's no longer available, according to gossips. He's really a good man, a nice man. He has shared a lot of things with me, stories and experiences.
And hey, these hatchlings were not ready to see the world yet ;p So whenever we checked on them, we would see the level that the hatchlings were at - if they were already close to the surface, we'll keep them save and release them at night, like what I said in the previous post. However, if they're still in low or middle level, it means they'll take couple of days to crawl upwards themselves until they are ready. So, we would cover the sand up again, and they would do the crawling.

This is what we call, "buat bodoh" - in English, just do something foolish. Ha.
We actually spent the earlier part of the day snorkeling in our territory - which is known as the Turtle Bay to the tourists. Pictures were in JiaXing's camera, and I havent got hold of them yet. I saw a turtle swimming away really quickly, and schools of fishes and corals which were really beautiful.

Something really funny happened. So Adi brought 8 of us out to the sea, and we're in our life jackets and masks. In the sea, you don't quite know who are your people, who are not. Every snorkeler looked the same- everyone was in this bright orange jacket. When we were swimming back to our shore, someone else actually thought we were his friends. So he followed us, all the way to our beach.  Keep a long story short, we did everything we could to let his friends who were on the boat what was so far away from the beach know that the random stranger was stranded here on our beach. And he was saved, after being stranded for close to an hour? Ha.

So back to business, we had to do nest checks under the hot sun, and that's the spirit of it. Even though the nicely tanned body of Adi didnt seem like a reward to all of us, it was absolutely exciting to see turtles, hatchlings!

Adi's trying to dig a hole, as deep as the mother turtle did -to reach the eggs, to check if they're fine. They arent always fine. They face threads and dangers from the very first moment  that they were being laid- stupid damn fire ants, monitor lizards, ghost crabs are 3 of the most common attacks.

This is the 27th sector. The whole stretch of beach is divided into up to 31 or 32 sectors. (I can't remember the exact number, but it's 30-ish) This will help us locate where does a turtle land and lay egg at, and where each nest is.
The nests - each stick will have some information written on it for us to identify different nests. And it's being covered by a net to help keep monitor lizards away.
Welcoming this hatchling to the world.
Baby turtles- if they're already crawling up and reaching the land during day time, we'll keep them safe, and release them at night. This will help them improve the chances from being eaten by other fishes- because, if they crawl across the beach and swim into the sea, there are many many fishes that may just eat them up during day time. At this point of time, they do not have the power to defend themselves yet.
The track of the monitor lizard
Adi joked that this is the bicycle. Ha ;p It's not. It's the tracks of hatchlings. When we see this in the day, it means there were hatchlings that made it back to the sea last night!
When the night comes, it's time for the peaceful wait for the mother turtles again. Do you see the turtle eggs down there?

From all that I've said, all that we did was to help the turtles - to give them a better chance to survive. However much that we do, a turtle's life is still very fragile, and is subjected to many, way too many threads in this world. For what it's worth, this is going to make a difference.