JTP (Day One)

(yawn~) Welcome to JTP

Daily Board Meeting (assign task to do)

On your first day of arrival, you will need to do swim test with JTP staff to make sure you will be able to go for boat patrol, as sometimes might require you to swim to the beach when the boat couldn't reach the shore when low tides.  

Boat patrol at 7:15am

Here we go looking for fresh eggs!

There are one highlight daily activity from Monday to Sunday:

Monday- Hiking

Tuesday- Recycle+Gardening

Wednesday- Cooking
Thursday- Beach Cleaning

Friday- Free Day

Saturday- Turtle Day

Sunday- Clean JTP

                          

We're so lucky to see the birth of extremely rare albino turtle in the evening same day of our arrival. The last time they saw albino turtle was 10 years ago. It has now been released into the sea, but survival rate is apparently not so good due to their inability to camouflage. 

Got rushed out from the shower to see albino turtle

Tourists and volunteers were so excited to see them

Releasing baby turtles into the sea at 7:15pm

Dinner time! 

We're actually quite free after lunch at 12:30 noon. You can go for snorkeling, kayak, jetty jump, swimming etc as long as you finished your tasks of the day. Sometimes, you may need to do night patrol at 10pm along the beach. If not, you can lying down on the beach and look at the night sky full of stars, you may get to see milky way too! SO BEAUTIFUL! 

Turtle is very sensitive to light, only red light is allow at the beach

You feel like want to have beer 1 or 2 at night?

Sure, you can find it! There is a resort right next to JTP and Pondok Cafe which selling Tiger in can. But not too much, because you might need to wake up very early to do beach patrol or boat patrol on the next day.

Juara Turtle Project 2016

Me and my friends volunteered ourselves to join Juara Turtle Programe in Tioman island during end of July this year. We had a great time (natural welcomed me well with different kinds of bites) with friendly JTP staffs, making many new friends as volunteers from all over the world, enjoyed the sea breeze, sky full of stars at night, interesting water activities and most importantly to know more about Sea Turtle.

Juara Beach

Newly hatched baby turtle

Let me tell you things you NEED to know if you wish or you're preparing to go soon. 

How long were we there?

1 week. Min 4 days is required.

How much do you pay?

RM80 per pax for Malaysian. You may check JTP website for foreigner rate.

How do you get to Mersing Jetty?

From Kuala Lumpur, you may consider taking flight to Johor Bahru (Senai Airport) or by bus which take you about 5 hours journey or more depends on the traffic. I decided to fly with Malindo air (50 mins) because I can't stand more than 4 hours ride in a captured space. 

> By flight, you will still need to drive to Mersing about 2 hours from Johor Bahru. Spend a night in Mersing, so that you can catch the early ferry at Mersing Jetty only at 6am OR 9am.

>By bus (estimate RM41.50 one way), you can travel straight to Mersing and spend a night there to catch the ferry on next morning.   

How much is the ferry ticket?

Advise to purchase ferry ticket online earlier from here (RM77.00 inclusive tax for round trip). Pls try to be there 1 hour before departure time because ferry often depart earlier than scheduled time to avoid low tide. And, you will see many local and foreigners especially in family crammed in that jetty.   

If you ever suffering from motion sickness, remember to pill before that. It gonna take 2 hours journey to Tekek. 

How do we go to Juara once we arrived from jetty?

Don't worry about that. Local people will come to you as soon as you come out to offer you a ride with 4 wheels drive. That's the local taxi! (RM25 per head count) Juara Turtle Project is on the other side of the island in Juara Village, you will need to hire a 4 wheels drive to drive you over the hill in about 35 mins ride. There is no ferry direct to Juara yet when we were there, but heard from JTP's staff, there will be ferry to Juara starting from 12th August 2016. 

You will be greet by friendly JTP staffs once you get there and direct you to your room. After you settle down, there will be a daily board meeting to assign your preference daily task and of course, round table introduction to the new family! 

Juara Turtle Project

Our dormitory

I will share about What We Do As Volunteer in my next post  :)