Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Chelonia - Day 12 (9 Oct) Distribution of shelves, R&R at Madu Ganga and Turtle hatchling release

This morning we had milk rice prepared by the aunty...with Zul's mama's sambal! Hehe

After bfast...we proceeded to the temple in Eng wan's car...gg to distribute the shelves we have been building the past few days...
As usual we spent some time waiting...doing nothing...the chief monk had to go run errand elsewhere first...so we decided to wait for him...even our interpreter, Anura, was not ard...Dilupa came instead...

We started the shelves distributing "ceremony" at abt 10am...an hour later then planned...
First the monk gave his speech in singhala language...Dilupa translated to us but I was not listening...hehe...dunno wat he said....something abt us spending the past few days building the shelves in the temple blah blah blah...

Anyway, each villager will produce the "voucher" we issued during our needs survey...then we pass to them the stated no. of shelves...
The beds that some are supposed to get are not ready yet...so they'll have to getbit next week...when we r already back in s'pore...another team will handle that...

After the distribution of shelves, we headed back home for lunch...porridge with ikan bilis and beef floss, and spaghetti with meatball...trying to finish up all the food we have...
I took a nap while lunch was being prepared...din sleep well the night b4 as it rained...and this time my hammock got pretty wet...at abt 4am I went inside to sleep on the floor...w/o any thermarest or sleeping bag ;p

After lunch, nua awhile...waiting for the van to come pick us up for our R&R trip...river cruise at Madu Ganga!!! Wah the van was super late...in the end Engwan made 2 trips to fetch us b4 the van came to pick up the rest...Engwan's assistant and his family was in the van too...joining us for the cruise...

We can't be too late...
Anyway the cruise was abt 1.5hrs...'cos we din stopped at the temple...which is supposed to be one of the oldest...we spent enough time in a temple lah...hehe...actually
It's 'cos we wanted to get back to the TCP by 630pm...wanna catch the return of the turtle hatchlings into the sea!!! Haha...the locals must be wondering wat kind of tourist we r...in such a rush...

Anyway, we saw the smallest island...abt the size of my bedroom...hehe...and the largest one where...according to the boatman...300 families live...hmmm...

The most exciting part of that cruise was having to bend super low when we were gg under 2 of the bridge...din see too many reptiles or birds there...orh...too bad, Hang Chong...

After that, we were in a mad rush to get to the beach...can't miss the little hatchlings!!!!
At almost 7pm, Jasmine noticed a black little thing moving under the netting placed over the nest...ahhh...the first turtle hatchling has come out...after some struggle, it finally managed to crawl out!!!

One of the nest protector guided that lone little hatchling back into the sea with a torchlight...escorted by more than 10 of us...like paparazzi again...except we din take that many photos since it's too dark liao...and we shldn't use flash...

After that first hatchling went into the sea...we went back to the nest...Chanturangga, the scientific officer, dig up the nest to check on the other hatchlings...hmm...their yolks can still be seen....oops...not ready yet...that lone, brave hatchling will be the only one in the sea for today!!!

Then, we went to check out this olive ridley's nest...hmmm...olive ridley hatchlings are really small....and lazy!!! They are actually ready to return to see....but Chanturangga told us they r just too lazy...they bochap us even when they were dug up...unlike the green turtle hatchlings, we saw earlier, that'll start crawling abt...
Wahlau...olive ridley...how to survive like that???

After that we hang ard a bit more...hoping more green turtle hatchlings will come up and return to the sea...
Meanwhile, Hang Chong found his best friend...another bird-watcher...Chanturangga...yup...that scientific officer...haha...they could go on and on with their "bird-talk"!!!

For dinner, we had assortment of fried rice, noodle and finger food from Daniel's Pub...thanx to Engwan who went to buy the food while we were at the beach ;)

After dinner, we started packing up and clean up the house...took a shower...then zzzzzz...

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