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
Friday, 1 July 2011
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Rest & Relax @ Pulau Lang Tengah! (Day 12-14)
By the 11th day – 26th 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 27th 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
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| Jetty @ Pulau Lang Tengah |
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| One of the swimming pool @ Pulau Lang Tengah! |
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| A scenic shot by Violet! |
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| Project Orion III (except Hamida) S-N-O-R-K-E-L-L-I-N-G! :) |
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| (Left) Gladys and Sharon (Right) under-water :D |
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| 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 29th 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
Sunday, 26 June 2011
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.
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!
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| Hamida's Pose! |
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| Tira's Pose! |
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| Abang Bi's Pose! (Rocker) :D |
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!
Saturday, 25 June 2011
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.
Friday, 24 June 2011
Project Orion 3 - Day 9
Today, we woke up early at 0630 for mangrove replanting. Abang Lan was tasked to fetch the few of us from the Pink House to Kuala Baru. Upon arrival, we saw the rest of our team mates who were out since last night for beach patrol. We had the company of the Pewanis Group and the Malaysia Scouts and Brownies to join us for this activity. First we had to unload the mangrove plants ‘Bakau’ from the lorry before transferring to the planting site. Each plant was wrapped in a black plastic cover at the bottom which we had to tear it off before planting. Then, we planted the mangrove plants along the stretch of Kuala Baru and each plant was well spaced apart with a distance of about 1m. The procedure was to dig a hole using a spade and place the plant into the hole and tie it together with a supporting wooden pole. The kids were having so much fun by helping us to carry the plants around. After planting all the mangroves, our team leader Eddy decided to dig for clams. The rest of the team joined him and never did we expect to bring back a full bag of clams for our supper. We headed towards the gazebo to enjoy our sumptuous lunch which was prepared by the Pewanis group.
The first process is to skin off the banana. Next, we cut each piece of banana into thin slices.
Then, we coat the banana slices with rice flour, sugar, honey, and salt. Lastly, we deep fry the coated banana slices until it turns golden brown.
After clearing up all the mess that we made in the kitchen, there was some time for all of us to relax till dinner time.
After dinner at Kah Tar’s place, we made our way to the boat jetty. It was our chance to see fireflies on the boat. Even though it was raining, we tried our best to keep a look out for them. At the end of the boat ride, we headed back to Kah Tar’s place before getting a lift back from Abang Lan.
Thursday, 23 June 2011
Day 8: Happy Happy Day!
Hello folks! Hope your day has been awesome! This is Gladys here! Day 8 has been a great and sunny day for Project Orion III! The weather today was sunny and big fluffy clouds filled the sky with occasional winds which cooled the air. The team finished the work needed to be done at Hatchery! In addition, we gave the Pink House a new coat of paint and it looks so bright and even pink-er now! :P
As Gladys, Shawn, Violet and Jian Hui had beach patrol last night and hence they rested till lunch time. As for the rest, they headed to the Hatchery to complete the work to be done which includes painting the Singapore Scout Association logo as well as World Wildlife Fund (WWF)’s logo.
The entire team gathered at Kak Ta’s place for lunch and after which, we head back to the Pink House for house painting. The girls cleaned the walls and the guys gave them a fresh coat of paint. The house now looks really superb. We managed to give all walls a new coat of paint but the frames of windows and doors are yet to be re-painted as the color has yet to be decided. Nonetheless, we had an enjoyable afternoon painting the house while singing along to songs played on fellow team members’ music players (:
Before dinnertime, the kids came over and we played some games with them since we had already finished painting the walls by then. One epic moment of the day was I lost a badminton match with Asyraf by the score 0-15. That mischievous boy ended every single serve that I made by hitting the shuttlecock down on the ground at my feet and then happily announced each score with a huge smile on his face! He was still gloating at his triumph and never fail to remind me whenever I see him throughout dinnertime! :D
That is not all though…Today is team member Hamida’s birthday! The team feigned ignorance to this special day for her and none of us wished her at all. However, we were hatching plans in our mind as to how we can surprise Hamida and celebrate her birthday! In the end, we decided to catch Hamida by surprise by throwing flour at her when she makes her way to Kak Ta’s place for dinner! The kids joined in the fun and Hamida and gang arrived at Kak Ta’s house with flour all over their face and clothes! :P In addition, we surprised her further by presenting her with a cake after dinner and everyone in the house sang her a birthday song! Hamida then made a wish and cut the cake with well wishes from Kak Ta and family, Ah Bang Bi & family as well as members from WWF who were all present at Kak Ta’s house. We all shared the cake and had some fun when we went around applying chocolate cream onto someone else’s face! :P
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| POIII wishes you a Happy Birthday, Hamida! (: |
Last but not least, Violet, Shawn and Jian Hui will embark on their final beach patrol and let’s wish them all the best in seeing turtles tonight! Meanwhile, the rest of the team will rest for tomorrow’s exciting day ahead which will include mangrove re-planting too! Stay tuned for more updates! J
Sweet dreams everyone! (:
Gladys
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