Article originally published by: 

Wednesday July 20, 2011

The saviour of the terrapins

By FARIK ZOLKEPLI
farik@thestar.com.my

Family passion: Arbi and his son Ashraf checking the turtle eggs at the hatchery in Kuala Baharu Selatan.

SETIU: It is a wild, wild life for forest ranger Arbi Ngah whose “resume” includes being chased by a wild boar and wrestling with monitor lizards.

“I was once pursued by a wild boar whose snout reached my waist. I had to climb a coconut tree to avoid being gored but I could only climb a few metres as a fellow ranger had already climbed the tree before me,” he said.

Despite such a “macho” job, 41-year-old Arbi has a soft spot for the critically endangered painted terrapins.

Arbi patrols Kuala Baharu Selatan, a sanctuary for terrapins. He safeguards the terrapins' eggs from poachers and wild animals.

*Full story in The Star today

Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=%2F2011%2F7%2F20%2Fnation%2F20110720065042&sec=nation

Turtle volunteering on Perhentian Island, Malaysia

Dear readers!

The following is a website that engages holiday makers with turtle conservation work as well. Why this is being shared is because WWF-Malaysia @ Kampung Mangkuk is being mentioned as well as the local women's group which we know is the PEWANIS. These two groups of people worked very closely with Project Orion III during our two weeks at Terengganu and are still fondly missed :D

Website: http://www.responsibletravel.com/holiday/5589/turtle-volunteering-on-perhentian-island-malaysia
from 'responsibletravel.com'

This is one organization who provides volunteering trips for people like you and I. The following paragraph is taken from one of their webpage:

"We provide training and education to locals on conservation, ecotourism and English skills, enabling them to develop useful skills and encourage them to protect their environment. We work in joint partnership with the local government and community to build long-term relationships based on trust and mutual respect. Our projects are long-term, helping to secure a sustainable livelihood, create local pride and avoid dependency in the local community. We contribute volunteer costs to local conservation projects, and raise money for them. Our local presence and cultural understanding allow us to create volunteer cultural awareness amongst volunteers and allows us to be welcomed into the host community."


May this be something new for some of us to learn or use as reference. Please feel free to leave comments or questions in our chabox if you would like to and we will get back to you.


Have a pleasant weekend ahead! :)


Best regards


Project Orion III

Home Sweet Home!

Project Orion III returned to Singapore only on the 1st July, instead of the 30th June due to an unforeseen circumstance. We arrived back to Singapore safely in the morning of 1st July. The team went to HQ first to sort out what needed sorting like Logistics who were counting the merchandise that were brought back as well as the distribution of Banana Kerepek amongst members.

From the bottom of our hearts, we thank each and every one of you for your support and encouragements during the expedition project. We may have returned from the expedition but this blog will still be updated with information about Turtle conservation articles,etc.

Once again, thank you very much for your support and do feel free to leave a message or question for us in our chatbox and we will get back to you as soon as possible :)

Good day ahead, everyone.

Yours sincerely

Project Orion III

Last Night @ Kampung Mangkuk

Tonight is the last night the team will spend at Kampung Mangkuk and we have been packing since we arrived back at the Pink House this late afternoon. Project Orion III has thus been successfully carried out and we are happy yet reluctant to leave this place after such meaningful two weeks.

Dinner at Kak Ta's place was the livest of all nights where most of the rangers and their families as well as members of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) whom we have been working closely with, were present. All of us ate together and spent quite a bit of time chatting with one another, knowing that this is the last night we have at Kampung Mangkuk. After which, we headed back to the Pink House and retire for the night.

Rest & Relax @ Pulau Lang Tengah! (Day 12-14)

By the 11^th day – 26^th June, Project Orion III completed all objectives of this expedition project! After the huge BBQ meal graciously prepared by PEWANIS, the team retired for the night to prepare for the next phase of the trip- our R&R at Pulau Lang Tengah!

We departed on the 27^th June and arrived at Pulau Lang Tengah after a 45 minutes Boat Ride. We had lunch shortly after we arrived.  The resort was truly a treat for the team and we even attempted Snorkelling on the second day we were at Pulau Lang Tengah. The following are some photos of the resort as well as our Snorkelling activities! J

Jetty @ Pulau Lang Tengah

One of the swimming pool @ Pulau Lang Tengah!

A scenic shot by Violet!

Project Orion III (except Hamida) S-N-O-R-K-E-L-L-I-N-G! :)

(Left) Gladys and Sharon (Right) under-water :D

Violet coming out from the waters, back onto the boat!

The following ‘Eat. Sleep. Dive’ was imprinted on a T-shirt which Eddy bought it at one of the stalls by the roads at the jetty.  Basically what we did during R&R were the above. It summarizes the entire stay at D’Coconut :D

On the 29^th June, we returned to Kampong Mungkuk – The Pink House for the last night of the trip and we will depart from here to the airport tomorrow at 1400 hours.

We are coming home tomorrow! There will be a final post from Seitu, Terengganu before we return. Stay tuned & once again, thank you for reading! J

Day 11 - 26 June

The brown paint has finally arrived today!

Thus, we continued painting the Pink House right after lunch while grooving to the music from Abang Jackson’s iphone.

The highlight of today’s programme was the BBQ night. In the evening while we were still painting, the villagers came down to the Pink House to start preparing for the main event, and bringing along coconuts for us to drink. At the same time, Hamida, Jason and Jian Hui came back from Caltex with the following items – childhood tibits!

While waiting for the BBQ to start, we played with the toy found in the tibits and reminisced about our childhood under the coconut tree outside the Pink House.

The sun has finally set and it was time to party!

All the kids were hyped up, and were especially excited over getting the lightsticks.

On the other hand, the adults were busy preparing the food and drinks. The coconut drink with vanilla ice-cream was simply heavenly. It was soothing on the throat and complemented well with the barbequed food. For main course, we had mee siam goreng (fried vermicelli), barbequed ayam (chicken) in satay marinated sauce and different kinds of ikan (fish).

Ailif was kind of like the centre of attention as most of us were desperately trying to cajole him into returning to his normal self. All of us heaved a sigh of relief when he started his sgnism (pranks and antics) once again.

We had fun taking a lot of pictures with the villagers and WWF staffs in different poses; Hamida’s pose and Tira’s pose to name a few.

Hamida's Pose!

Tira's Pose!

Abang Bi's Pose! (Rocker) :D

It was definitely an eventful night, especially for our Team Leader, who broke his pants while playing with the kids and conveniently used Asyraf to cover up the lobang (hole) in his pants!

The BBQ was a true display of the kampung spirit where everyone just gather together to eat and catch up with one another or simply to relax and enjoy each other’s company for the night. It was definitely a fun-filled night with plenty of laughter from the kids and the team. And I am sure all of us from the team will forever have this memory deeply etched in our hearts for a long long time to come.

Cheers!

Day 10 - 25 June 2011

25 June 2011

Greetings from Setiu!

Look at how fast time flies! It is already our tenth day in Kampong Mangkuk and we had completed 99% of work which we set off to do. The remaining 1% to be done is the painting of (the brown parts of) The Pink House, which we could only do tomorrow when the paint arrives.

As such, the objective of today’s programme was to experience the way of living and culture of Terengganu. Our ever so warm and friendly hosts, Kak Tak and Abang Lan drove us around and took us to our various destinations.

First stop of the day was the Watermelon Farm.

We had freshly plucked watermelon to quench our thirst immediately upon arrival. Everyone, especially the children, were happy to be chomping on the juicy sweet watermelons under the scorching morning sun. One of the farmers taught us to differentiate between the reds and yellows – yellow watermelons are darker in colour compared to the red ones.

After which, the team got down to their hands and harvested half a row of watermelons. As usual, we had fun and joke around while doing work! It is amazing how we went from strangers to good friends in a mere span of a week.

Our next destination was Permaisuri Market, which sells practically everything (imagine an al fresco departmental store)!

The first thing we did was to get a cup of drink each! The ice blended yam milkshake was simply the perfect solution to cool down in the warm weather. As we proceed further into the market, we bought an assortment of kueh kueh, fried fermented tapioca and deep fried potato. We also bought lemon grass, lime and chili padi to prepare the sauce for the clams we dug from the mangrove the day before. Kak Tak’s children, Tira and Makwang, who followed us to the market, also did quite a lot of shopping for themselves. The team took Makwang to buy a fighting fish, where he finally settled for a turquoise coloured one after carefully scrutinizing all the other fishes on display. 

In the market, we came across a stall selling turtles eggs, however we did not see any one buying any eggs from the stalls. Later in a conversation with Brendon (WWF staff), we found out that there are strict laws in place with regards to turtle conservation.

For lunch, we had Laksam and Nasi Dageng, which are both traditional Terengganu food. It was a simple yet sumptuous meal! In addition, we also feast on tropical fruits such as longan, lychee and buah salak.

Food galore aside, we gathered at the Pink House to start our Wau (kite) making session. Everyone, including River, was meticulous in following the instructions of Abang Lan and Abang Zul so as to make a kite that is able to fly. It was a tiring session but when we saw our kites flying up high in the sky, we knew the effort put in was all worth it.