1st STOP- China Town in Kuala Terengganu
The Arch in ChinaTown
The children loved Turtle Alley best of all. It's a wonderful work of mosaic art in progress, headed by Prof Chan Eng Heng, a world renowned turtle expert and conservationist. Here are the kids, pretending to watch Turtle lay eggs. They really loved this particular piece of art. :)
Beautiful plaques telling a story about turtles line the wall of the alley
For some reason..the kids just loved running in the alley
We had to buy these..angry birds lantern! It's amazing how many things were going on in this little town. There's National Celebration flags, lanterns sold for the upcoming Full Moon Festival, Bazaars for upcoming Hari Raya celebrations, and people burning offerings because of the Hungry Ghost festival. It was wonderful that our children got to observe all these preparations and celebration in KT.
Playing with the reflection of the lanterns
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2nd STOP - Kampung Pulau Duyung
Watching how boats are made. Guess how long this father and son team take to make a boat? Answer: One WHOLE YEAR! I wonder how long did Noah take to make his boat then!
Another boat making industry. This boat's almost done. It's HUGE!
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3rd STOP - Turtle Conservation Center's mini turtle museum in Setiu.(Mangkuk)
My children were definitely more excited about meeting Pelf again rather than learning. haha.. Sorry Pelf they also got distracted by the little stools and aloe vera outside in your garden and the goats! Here's the main exhibition of skeletons found in the museum. I have to say, I learnt a LOT! and surprisingly though the children ran around a lot, they could tell and recall lots of info later. Guess they were somehow listening to bits here and there.
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4th STOP- Ramadan Bazaar
Since me and my older girl are following the church's 40 day fast and prayer program, we decided to head towards the bazaar in the evening and Manir to break fast. Oh my...such awesome food!! We couldn't decide what to buy, and bought like how gluttons would! This is a sweet food made of palm sugar cooked in bamboo.
Nasi Kerabu!! MMMMMmmm..too delicious! This was from Aunty Bee's, we also liked Fauzi's Nasi Kerabu very much!
We also headed to the famous market near the jetty where we spent a lot of time (and money) purchasing lovely batik clothing. After that we took this trishaw back to our hotel.
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5th STOP - Suria Cherating
Based on recommendations by Pak Su, we obtained this WONDERFUL deal. RM 100 a night at Suria (valid only during Ramadhan month), which has a lovely, BEAUTIFUL beach front!
Lots of water fun!!! Woohoo!!! :)
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6th STOP - Firefly Watching at Cherating Village
At 8pm we headed towards Cherating Village to watch fireflies. It was an incredible journey. They took us on a boat ride into a really dark mangrove. At some point we saw just sooo many fireflies flickering in the trees. Our guide shone a red light, which attracted the fireflies, causing them to fly all around us. Magical is the only word to describe the experience of seeing these delicate creatures surround us. We caught some, very gently and the children just absolutely loved the experience, though they found the boat ride a little scary and rocky because of a fidgety passenger in front.
This is all I could take during the firefly watching. After that, it was pitch black, camera was useless
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7th STOP- Turtle Watching at night
We headed out to Mak Nik beach, and met up with Pak Su, our guide. In the beginning it was a little like a wild goose chase. We got to one, and it was done had covered up its hole. We saw two more that came up and turned around and went back to the ocean. Finally Pak Su told us, "Get into your cars, we going a short distance to see another one." So in great excitement, we packed the kids in and drove to a destination nearby. The turtle had just started digging a hole. It was a pretty long wait, and so worth it!!
While waiting, it threatened to storm! A few raindrops fell, but somehow stopped. Prayers work. :) Well, I was testing my camera to make sure there wasn't flash, and got this random shot of the lightning that jolted the whole sky. As Pak Su said "Someone above is taking a photo of us!" haha..:)
Here's the beauty that we saw. Amazing....see, this is my second time seeing this, and I'm still as awed as ever. I've included a video below.
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8th STOP -MakNik Beach in the Morning
We decided to visit the same turtle beach in the morning to show the children what turtle tracks look like. We found several, some which had made Uturns. Found some fishermen there too.
Mak Nik is really a very beautiful beach even by day. I just love the rocks there, very beautiful. Just be careful as there are steep drops!! Definitely NOT for swimming.
Finally here's the video of our turtle laying egg. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did! :)
Video 1- laying eggs
Video 2-covering up nesting chamber (the smaller hole) with hind flippers
Video 3- Covering larger hole with front flippers.
For more information on Turtle Conservation in Malaysia go here
http://www.turtleconservationcentre.org/
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14 comments :
Wow Martha, I love your post and your adventures! I'm glad everybody enjoyed themselves, I can see that the kids loved playing with water! :D
We lived in Costa Rica for a time and one of my favorite places there was tortugero; a reserve set aside for the sea turtles to come lay eggs. I loved going out on night trips to watch. Amazing how long the process took!
Martha, next time I'm going to refer to your postings whenever I go to KT one day. Maybe you should include the map next time? hehe. That father and son team took a whole year to build that boat? You sure they didn't take their own sweet time building it? lol. You stayed at a chalet? No pictures on the fireflies? I was so thrilled to see the video! Thanks for sharing your experiences to us..:)
Carolyn: go soon..deal in Cherating and Terengganus is good now. Well..the boat is very huge..about 10 feet tall and very long. The father worked hard..even though fasting, we saw him work non stop. As for fireflies, no pictures lar..so very dark! no way unless I have special camera. Glad you enjoyed the videos.:)
How cool to see the turtles. Looks like a fun trip.
Can I join you for your trips next time? So much fun! You were very lucky to catch a turtle laying eggs. It's hard to come by these days. I was there with WWF once and couldn't catch one laying eggs. We did see one come to shore, only to see it make a U turn back into sea. I just had nasi kerabu for lunch today - that one looks delish! I wonder if they sell the angry bird lanterns here - they're cute!
What a healthy life you having with your children in the way you are very lucky lady Martha.
I can seen your children enjoy having the angry bird lanterns:-).
I really enjoyed look at your all photos.
Thank you for sharing us,
Michi
thanks Michi. I like living this way. :)
mom2kiddos: will let you know when it's season next year ya so you can go enjoy it :)
you mean we missed the turtle watching season already?
you can still try, but chances are now 70% left. You could stay a few nights, if none lay eggs, try the next night.
With the pictures that my wife took, I realized she has great talents. Now I saving up to get a better camera for her to take even better photos. Keep it up!
I am going to KB via KT in March. Will follow your itinerary. Do u think turtle is already ard by this time or is it too early? Any chance i can get the contact details of Pak Nik?
I' m going to KB via KT in March. Do u think turtle is ard already? Or is it too early? Any chance I can hv Pak Nik's number? TIA.
Turtle season has begun. Goes till about august. Pak su can be found on fb. Turtle conservation society is also running tours for terrapin n turtles . Do contact them.
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