A Week in Paradise

Our weeklong escape from campus, with only a little biology involved, was heavenly. As with my previous vacation, I will set this up day by, with some pictures attached.

Day 1 (Friday April 25):

Travel from Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang to the state of Kelantan Malysia on the East coast side of the island. It was a long, hot bus ride. Once we made it to Pasir Belanda resort, it was all worth it. This tiny resort in the middle of a Kampung has cabins in the traditional Malay style, but with AC and the nicest bathrooms we’ve had all trip. There is food cooked for us, and an infinity pool to swim in. You would never guess this place was here, and we have rented out the entirety of it.

Day 2 (Saturday):

After a delicious traditional breakfast served on the terrace overlooking a little pond and some cows, a bunch of us rented some bicycles and cycled around the area. It was a nice way to see the area, and further experience the always-fun stares and catcalls that come with being white in Malaysia. Never have I ever had so many children (and teenage boys) yell out from their small, poor houses, “hello hello!” We found a beach, practically deserted, with water that was almost too warm to be refreshing, but the prettiest blue. We made it back to the resort hot and sweaty, ready for a nice swim. Later in the afternoon, three of us took place in a traditional kite making class. They are decorative kites, not made for flying, and I’m quite proud of how it turned out! I’m skeptical about bringing it home though, so this picture may be the only thing I have. Directly after the kite making, I treated myself to a traditional Malay massage in my cabin. Oh my god heavenly. It was an hour long, and she hit every single part of my body. Exactly what I needed. After dinner, we watched the Notebook before bed. Probably one of my favorite days ever.

Day 3 (Sunday):

Another traditional Malay breakfast on the terrace this morning before we bussed into town. We stopped at a nice silversmith shop where they make the jewelry in the back room, and then sell it out front in the showroom. They got a ton of business out of us! We then went to the main market, and wandered around both the wet and dry portions of it. Mangos were delicious but the lunch we got in the food court was overpriced and pretty average. It was too hot for life though, so I was glad when we loaded up the bus to go back to the resort. I had an ice cream, and spent an hour and a half in the water at the pool and together they were day changers. Feeling refreshed, we went out to dinner as a group at a fancy restaurant. This was the best meal of the day, by far.

Day 4 (Monday):

 Western breakfast! Delicious. Then we bussed out to a secondary school in rural Kelantan, close to where our professor used to teach in the Peace Corps. We were the main event of the day, and the school pulled out all the stops. I call it the “Malaysia Red Carpet.” While the afternoon ended up near the top of top 5 sweatiest times of my life, it was also a really fun experience. We got to listen to speeches, view local handmade kites, mats, baskets, and shadow puppets, and were fed a traditional lunch while a group of students played music for us and sang. The funniest part of the whole thing was that we were the first white people most of them have ever seen, so they were absolutely enthralled by us and couldn’t stop staring. However, when we tried to take pictures with the guys, they all ran away. We were like Moses parting the seas, and always had a clear radius around us. It was quite comical how they ran. We managed to get a few pics with the guys, and the girls were much more willing, and it was an enjoyable, if hot, time by all. We continued our journey east, and made it to a small resort on the beach where we stayed the night before catching a boat to the island in the morning.

Day 5-7 (Tuesday-Thursday): Our home base was a small private beach, inhabited only by a few men who live there for about 7 months out of the year doing turtle patrol. That means every night, they watch for turtles making nests on the beach and mark the nest and the turtles, as well as data on the hatchings for scientific data. We slept in tents, for the 4 nights we were there, and spent our days snorkeling, both for pleasure and biology work. We had to complete transect and quadrant analysis of the coral reef directly in front of our beach and then write a report on our results. It wasn’t incredibly difficult, and I absolutely adore all things water so snorkeling was a real treat.

This coral reef was teeming with life, and while the coral itself wasn’t as bright as “Finding Nemo” led me to believe the fish themselves were incredible. I found Christmas Tree worms that would suck back into the coral if I got too close, and clams with brightly colored lips. My favorite was the green anemone that housed some clownfish. It was hard to find those clownfish, but such a treat once spotted. The highlight of my snorkeling experience was the two Green Sea Turtles I saw swimming gracefully in the water. The first one I saw was probably less than 10 feet away, and startled me. The second was a little further, but so beautiful swimming in the blue water.

Other than snorkeling, the other main highlight of Mak Kepit turtle beach was the turtles! The first two nights, my tent mates and I woke up to a turtle in front of our tent, using her strong front flippers to dig a nest. The second night, the turtle even tried to walk into our tent, before realizing that was a bad idea. One of the mornings, a straggling mother turtle was still digging her hole so we got to watch as she finished digging, laid her eggs, and covered them back up. They lay 80-120 ping-pong ball sized eggs each time they nest, so this poor turtle was exhausted by the time she finished all that work. It’s amazing how big these turtles are, over a meter long and half a meter wide, and how awkward they are on land compared to the water. Baby turtles though, are the cutest things ever. Another night, a nest was hatching so we watched as about 50 baby turtles emerged from the sand and scrambled their way down to the ocean… where a few sharks were already circling in wait. Only about 1 in 1000 Green Sea turtles makes it to adulthood, so they have terrible odds. I’m hoping for the best for the one I got to hold though, he’ll be the lucky one. Side note, while watching the turtles that night, I also got to watch the sky, and the distant horizon line over the ocean. There was some heat lightning lighting up the sky in the distance, and flashing gorgeous colors. Not only was that a brilliant site, the sky itself was the prettiest I've ever seen it. With so little light pollution the thousands of stars were literally glimmering. Incredible. 

The last thing we had the opportunity to do was transfer turtles eggs. There is another beach close by that the turtles also nest on, but that beach isn’t protected so poachers could potentially use it. The men on Mak Kepit watch that beach every night, and every morning they bring back the nests that were laid that night, and re-bury them on Mak Kepit. We got to help with three transfers!

Day 8 (Friday):

Free day! We paid some ringgit to get a round trip boat to the tourist beach area on Pulau Redang Island, and spent a lovely day eating, swimming, and soaking in the sun. Coming from someone who loves to be busy, it was nice for me to accept the fact that there were no plans and nothing to do and just enjoy the laziness of the day. This area had the most gorgeous water and sand beach I’ve ever seen. Pictures don’t even do it justice. The best part is that while I was laying on a tropical paradise beach, my friends back home were probably doing pre-final homework on their Thursday night. Sorry guys :)

Day 9 (Saturday):

Breaking down camp is never fun, but we were efficient and got everything done quickly. The hour long ferry back to the mainland was sad. I hate to leave the water, and the island, but I was excited to get back to a real (well as real as I have in Malaysia) bed and my friends on campus. It was a long, bumpy bus ride back across the peninsula to my home island of Penang, but we stopped at one stop that afforded us an amazing view of the country.

Overall, cannot complain one bit. My favorite trip within a trip by far, and I was sad to see it come to an end. I mostly have finals work to look forward to now.