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 :)