My first week

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I've been away for just over a week now, so I'll update you on my adventure so far.

Had a fab flight over to KL via Singapore but when I arrived my luggage had not! Went to my hostel in the heart of Kuala Lumpur where I met some of the people who would be on my volunteer project. Had some sleep then we all went out for dinner.

Got up early the next morning to go back to KL airport to catch our flight to Kotu Bharu, luckily my luggage had been found! So was v happy, checked it in for next flight but once we had boarded we were told we had to get off due to technical difficulties, we waited an hour then got on the flight. We then took a 40 min taxi ride to the harbour where we caught a speed boat to the island where I am at the moment.

We didn't do much for the first few days, we checked in to our small rooms, I'm sharing with Gemma (coincidence as our parents were talking to each other at the airport when they dropped us off) I didn't meet her til I got to KL though. Everytime we get in to our rooms we check for creepy crawlies, Gemma and I have been quite lucky we've only had 1 spider and a gecko, the others have had rats and mega spiders. We have to dodge Barry the bat everynight, he likes to fly around our room, and also the monitor lizards during the day, some are massive!

Went snorkelling after we had unpacked, the first thing I saw was a SHARK! But then I saw some cool fish including Nemo's which I love. The sharks here are harmless apparently!!!

There's not a lot to do in the evenings, we generally just talk, play cards, music and eat our dinner.

On Saturday evening, we learnt all about the journey of the turtle, on this beach they usually only get Green Turtles, we are waiting for 3 nests to hatch and hoping for a turtle to come up and lay as well. Only 1 out of 1000 hatchlings will survive!!! Gemma and I were on turtle watch 1am til 5am but because we were starting our diving course the next day we were allowed to finish early, there were no sightings, however we did think a poacher had come up on a boat (which they do alot) but it was just a member of staff coming back from the main land, in the pitch black it's hard to tell, we are not allowed torches as it confuses the turtles.

We started our diving lessons on Sunday, I'm in a group with Gemma, Katie and Ellie. Katie is my diving buddy so we have to look out for each other. Lots of reading to do and an exam to do after our dives, we set up our equipment and got straight in to the water. Our instructor is an American, Jon, he gives us Oreo cookies after every lesson so we like him!!!! We had to learn skills first so we just walked in to the sea from the beach, We had to fill our mask up with water and then try and get it out by blowing through our nose! V difficult, take our regulator out which gives us our oxygen, then find it agin and replace it, breathe from our buddies spare air source. We saw some Nemo's again, nudi branches and giant clams.
We went to 8 metres.

Monday we did 2 dives, we learnt some more skills, which are all quite scary again taking out our regulator, what to do if your buddy has troubles or passes out etc, went to 10 metres on 1st dive and 11 metres on 2nd dive. Saw Damsel fish who like to nip at you and cleaner shrimps, who give you a free manicure!

Tueday we did another 2 dives but this time we went out on the boat and had to get off it by falling backwards, sounded hard but actually was really easy, went to 16 metres, saw Blue dragons, christmas tree worms ( which were v cool), blue ring angel fish, black tip SHARK, star puffers, blue spotted stingray, crocodile needlefish and porcupine fish. Ellie put her wetsuit on inside out but no one noticed til we got to dive site, was so funny, took her about 20 mins the get in to water in the end.

Last dive on Weds, went to 16 metres again, had some more fun on this one, tired somersaults and hovering handstands, saw a massive Jenkins Stingray, didn't want to get to close, Bat fish, Parrot fish, Sargeant Majors and Damsel fish again.

The one thing we are all hoping to see is a Turtle though, the other two dive groups have both seen one, so our only chance now is to book some more dives or just snorkel around, some people have seen them just snorkelling as they come in very close. Had my PADI exam after dive on Weds, got 96% so am fully fledged diver now, means I can dive anyway to 18 metres, so will be booking up a couple of fun dives they only cost about 12 pounds.

The last couple of nights there have been massive storms, we sit on the beach and watch the lightning shooting across the sky, it's incredible and luckily not too close. Although we heard about a tsunami warning which we were a bit worried about, but it wasn't close enough to us, apparently in KL they felt the earthquake, we didn't feel anything.

Went on a jungle trek yesterday, was bloody hard work, about an hour and a half, saw nothing exciting, except for the biggest ants I've ever seen!!!! Malaysia Royal family have been staying here, they left yesterday.

Anyway, I'm going to go back on the beach now and go snorkelling see if I can see any turtles, we have to do beach clean up every day at 5.30 and we only do night patrols every three nights, so it's really hard work!!!! LOL.

I will upload some photos soon, probably when I get back to KL tho as computers here are very slow

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