Post turtles!

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Back in KL for 1 night after my time on the Perhentian Islands. Unfortunately, no turtles. The beach we were to be based on with the nests was infested with red ants which eat the eggs so they had to be moved to the Government hatchery on the other island. Disappointing? - yes! Stayed in the village house for the 2 weeks helping to get it a bit more comfortable to live in. The project managers Al, Hayley and Pavin with the help of Charlie and other volunteers have only been there over the last 3 months and loads had already been done, we were just doing the finishing touches. This will be the base for all subsequent years where the project has moved to being more community based, using education as a tool for helping the turtles. I did some great snorkelling though. My first time in years it was like swimming in an aquarium, the variety of fish was unreal and the water was as warm as bathwater. Did lots of sewing and painting the house but the highlight was the last snorkel tour we did the day before I left. We went to 4 different dive sites and although they were all great the 2nd and 3rd were the best for me. On the 2nd I was just floating admiring the different fish and an adult black tip reef shark swam past. As one of my ambitions has been to swim with sharks for some time I can now tick that off my list, although technically I wasn't swimming with them I was in the vicinity at the same time time as it swam past but it was great - and my first instinct was to go after it not swim away but it just moved too fast towards some rocks. The other highlight was on the 3rd dive, we were in between the 2 islands which has sand and seagrass which turtles feed on. I got in the water and was towed by the boat until a turtle was spotted and she swam right underneath me about 10 - 12 feet away, it was awesome. I have to say getting back into the boat wasn't the easiest thing to do and in fact I fell in once - I have some nice bruises to prove it. Overall it was a great experience even without the turtles, all the people at the house were awesome and really helped me have a great time, we had lots of laughs - most of which at me and things I said after a few vodkas but let's not go there! Moving on tonight to Thailand and 5 days on Ko Tao with hopefully some more good snorkelling.

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