Day One!

First things first, the team apologizes for what will be a lack of long, descriptive posts. Due to the fact that the stars must seemingly align before we get a proper internet signal, it seems loading many images is simply out of the question.

Well then, today was Day 1 of the project! The team met eagerly in the morning at the Budget Terminal for our flight to Kuala Terengganu. High spirits abound as we quickly cleared our check-in and took the first step towards the successful completion of the project.

The airline that took us there was Firefly Airlines. Apparently, none of us have ever taken a commercial propeller plane before so that certainly was a new experience. Despite all the wise cracks about premature deaths, the flight was smooth enough and did the fine job of getting us to our destination.

In Terangganu, we eventually made our way to Kampung Mangkok; the site of the project. After that, it was a whole slew of project administration work to deal with such as the collection of our bicycles (the only mode of transport for the next 14 days), the setting up of our residential quarters (affectionately known as the Pink House) and heading out for an orientation ride of the area.

During the orientation trip, we also stopped by to visit the local Turtle Conservation Centre. There, we were guided on a tour of the centre and all managed to learn quite abit about the river terrapins. For example, difficulties such as convincing the villagers to sell the terrapin eggs to the centre were essentially explained to us. More importantly, it truly enlightened us on how hard such conservation work really is.

In addition, we also paid a visit to the hatchery along the beach. While there were no new hatchlings yet, we sincerely hope that we would see some (the locals assure us that we will) before the end of the trip. That is certainly something we are all looking very forward to.

Following that, it was a full day of sorting out the schedules for the coming days, meeting the locals and making sure our Pink House was well-stocked up. Dehydration and the hot weather aside, everyone agrees that the day has been most fruitful.

Now, I wish we could put up more pictures but as mentioned before, the internet is pretty crappy. As such, we can only ask for your understanding and patience as we seek to provide more updates and images tomorrow.

That's all for now. House-painting tomorrow and we should best get some rest. Till tomorrow!

Chow Wee