Seatru - Part 1 Hello Chagar Hutang

Hooray !!! So let's talk about something special today..ok la, at least is special for me :P

We joined the SEATRU Volunteer Programme early this year. SEATRU (Sea Turtle Research Unit) is a volunteer programme organized by Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT). It is a turtle conservation programme located at Chagar Hutang Beach, Redang Island, Terengganu, Malaysia. It is an annual programme started around March until September, where each slot of volunteering duration is of one week time (from Saturday to next Saturday).

Our slot is from 30th March 2013 - 6th April 2013 (Slot B). So excited as we are going to leave the hectic city, and spend a whole week on an island, with no mobile phone connectivity, not to say internet! Simple, leisure, meaningful life :)

We took night bus from KL on Friday night and reached Kuala Terengganu town early Saturday's morning. Haha, still have lots of time for us to loiter around KT town and looked for some local breakfast at Chinatown :)

Early morning at Kuala Terengganu's Chinatown :)

Oh yeah~~ we found this accidentally :P I love Penyu too :P

It is a small, narrow street between buildings, with creative presentation of turtle conservation message and turtle-image-wall art lol :)

We reached our gathering location around 10am, met the Seatru personnel and had some briefing :) We helped them to move some food (which would be our food during days on the island) to the ferry. After around 1.5hours, we reached Laguna Jetty at Redang Island and Si Penyu is waiting for us !!! ^^ Hopped onto Si Penyu and we are one step closer to lovely Chagar Hutang Beach :)

Actually I didn't know where I am until I saw this lol... Ok, Chagar Hutang is situated at north part of Redang Island. 

Hooray !!! We are here !!! When we are about to reach, spotted a pair of sea turtles mating on the sea surface, what an awesome welcome to us!  :)

Only turtle is welcomed !! :P

Those chairs are facing the awesome beach !! Here became one of the place that we spent most of our time during that one whole week. Daydreaming facing the sea, chatting, eating snack :P

Welcome to Turtle Cafe :)

This is a simple cabinet beside the kitchen for us to store the food, need to be closed all the time to avoid attack from monkeys :P

Volunteer's quarters :) Which is our bedroom :)

Kampung style, a fresh experience for me :) Mat is provided, please bring your own sleeping bag lol. No fan here but don't worry, it is not hot at all :)

After settle down, it is dinner time :) Staffs here all are excellent chefs, we just help them with some simple jobs..and yummy nasi ayam was served that night :)

When the sky turned dark, we started our night patrol on the beach :) Hehe, stay tuned for the next post ya :P 

Seatru is a meaningful volunteer programme, felt so grateful to be able to join this programme. So what are you waiting for?? Mark your calender now! Volunteer slots for year 2014 would be opened early next year! Priority booking would be opened on 1st of January while normal booking would be started on 1st of February. 

For more information please click here: http://seatru.umt.edu.my/

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