I must profess that for me city life is monotony in passing, it is fast yet tedious. It has the charm of technological splendor, man-made architectural marvels, and the definite feeling of days blurring into one another, but above all it has a steady character of pragmatism.However, as charming a life in the city maybe, often the urge to run away from it descends on me and that is precisely how I find myself vacationing (NB: incase vacationing is not a word , kindly take it as my contribution to the english language)
The nature of the vacation depends upon the person concerned. Some prefer to rejuvenate themselves by lavishly spending time in therapeutic relaxation, some try to soothe their distraught nerves by visiting metrosexual cities, others try adrenaline adventures, SB and I try to loose ourselves in the animal planet(no no not the channel in reality!!). Normally we spend two or three days amidst forest splendor or animal rehabilitation marvels and let nature sooth our city melancholia, once our heads and hearts have healed we come back and jump into the city life with vigor.

So naturally when we answered the call of the wild (Wild being Sabah-East Malaysia) with our steady insect repellent, this time, we didn’t expect to leave a part of our hearts behind.
Sabah is not unexplored; it is explored (obvious for me means stating it!) and well adapted for tourists who like the wild in safe measures (like me!). However, since we have come back our usual enthusiasm towards city life has diminished considerably, we are now trying to delude ourselves into accepting this situation, bidding the time when we can return and claim ourselves to be a part of the enchanting Sabah...

Our journey to the enchanting lands of Borneo began on 30th May, 2010. Our excitement had doubled because we had two wonderful friends traveling with us this time (Asthana and his wife Sweta). We traveled by air from Kuala Lumpur (Thanks to Air Asia for the cheap tickets).

Journey into Borneo:
We reached our first destination Sandakan Airport at 8.50pm. The airport was small and quaint with a lighthouse to ensure safe landing for the chariots in the air. The yellow lights emanating from the airport created a surreal image of a ghost buster movie. We collected our luggage and moved out of the airport to secure a taxi which would take us to our hotel. Ironically our hotel’s name was London...I never figured London would be in Sabah but then I am geographically challenged. As the taxi drove through the dimly lit wide streets, and darkened surroundings, our foremost thoughts were on deriving a solution for the hunger pangs which evidenced the fact we were among the living in a ghostly surrounding. A brewing discussion on where to find food at this late hour (late hour?? It was only 9.30 pm) was promptly quelled by sudden brightly lit restaurants coming into view. Our cabbie stopped in front of a dilapidated building opposite a garbage truck letting us know we had arrived. My sensitive nose pinched as a faint stench reached it, but apparently I was the only one getting it. With trepidation we reached for the door under the sign “HOTEL LONDON”. The door opened up to a series of steps rather like a stairway to heaven. Half way up the steps to heaven a small reception area opened up. Huffing and puffing with the suitcases in hand we all trooped in. We were in a small but clean reception room, the owner of the hotel checked for our bookings, and then gave us two rooms. Our rooms would not be called luxurious, but it was clean (had towels, soaps, and toilet paper, air condition and cig holes in the bed), the sheets on the bed were fresh, the toilet flushed; you get the drift? For 55MYR (Rs. 748) I think the place was a steal!! Anyway we freshened up and met each other after ten min, in a quest to find food. Our receptionist told us to find a sea food restaurant called Bistro Café. And we eventually landed up there. Now if you are a food aficionado Malaysia is the place to be, but hands down for the sea food in Sabah. We gorged on fish (steamed), crabs, prawns, chicken and rice and the view of the open sea...

Next day (that’s 31.05.2010) we were dressed and ready to depart for the Turtle Island Park in Selingan by 9 am. After a breakfast of bread, lukewarm tea, banana and unrequited wish of eggs we met our chatty guide Bakar Bin Lurintee (we had our mouthful with his name!!) from Megah Travels at the London lobby. Thanks to his thoughtful nature, or maybe his distaste of mispronunciations he said we could call him Mr. Baker!!

After the initial introductions were completed (Bakar later confessed he didn’t remember our names!!), Mr. Baker drove us to the Crystal Quest Jetty, for another round of transportation. After awaiting for a few mins ( it seemed like hours, days, months to me!!) say about 15 mins we boarded our streamer and off we went into the sea!( I felt like Jack Sparrow in a skirt !!)

Selingan: We were told it will take around 2 hours to reach Selingan but the agility of the streamer, the wind on our backs and the drivers skills enabled us to reach there in one and a half hours (10.30am we were there!). I was quite content to see the surrounding islands, but the view of Selingan from the streamer took my breath away. Picturesque is the word that comes to mind when you look at Selingan .

White sand island surrounded by clear blue sea (Sulu Sea), Selingan is the 3rd largest marine Park in Sabah and it is the only one among three islands in Turtle Island Park (Bakungan Kecil, Gulisan are the other two incase you are interested) which has the capacity to house tourists like us!

As we jumped from the streamer onto the island, and walked towards the reception (a beautiful wooden chalet), we were greeted by a monitor lizard. Ah! What a beauty it is to see its majestic gait as it walked across the resort yard in its checkered skin and sniffing tongue!!

While Sb found out about the sleeping arrangements, the rest of us snacked on some ice cream,in front of the turtle sanctuary, listening to the history of this Sanctuary from Mr. Baker. With the ease of a practiced tongue he said “The Park is famous for its green turtles and hawksbill turtles which lay their eggs on the beaches of the islands. The Park covers an area of 17.4 km². The name Turtle Islands, however, refers to 10 islands, 3 of which are part of Turtle Islands National Park of Malaysia, and 7 which belong to the Municipality of Turtle Islands, Tawi-Tawi, Philippines.” (Too much information.. where are the turtles??). Noting my impatience, he gave me a quelling look and carried on with his history lesson “The turtles come ashore nightly, not only during certain seasons and thus one is virtually guaranteed to see those ancient mariners. During the peak season (October) up to 80 turtles come ashore to lay eggs.”(He sounded like the wikipedia...Or did the wikipedia sound like him??) Looking directly at me he said “However, park rules and regulations are strictly enforced and visitors are not allowed on the beach from sunset to sunrise so as not to disturb the turtles.” I squirmed a bit under his accusing glare mentally revising my earlier plan of a walk in the beach at night!! Before he could go further with his warning, we were saved by Sb dangling our room keys and Mr. Baked..Oops sorry Mr. Bakar noting his polite dismissal told us lunch would be served at 12.30 showed us the island map and snorkeling area, giving us free reign for the afternoon.

Our rooms where beautifully crafted wooden chalets (room number:d1/d2) . Typical Malaysian design, however the turtle-step printed curtains stole my admiration (I know, I know, vanity..).

Dumping our luggage, we went to fortify ourselves with snorkeling gear. After 4 pairs of masks and snorkels, 2 pairs of fins, 1 beach mat, 2 towels, 4 life jackets we were more or less ready to win a war..I mean hit the sea. We were going where the sun shines brightly, we were going where the sea is blue, we have seen it in the movies and we know that it was all true!!

The entrance to the beach was covered with long and bushy trees, me thinks it was done purposefully to have a jaw dropping effect once you actually reach the beach. The blazing sun on white sand has a mind numbing effect against the blue sea, I actually pinched myself (dreams are often more beautiful than reality!!). I need not have bothered pinching; the hot sand beneath my naked feet would be enough to jar anyone if they were sleeping. Skipping through the scalding sand, and a long trek (grumph!!) we found a shaded tree on the farthest end of the beach (in this case jaw-dropping scenic beauty came with calloused feet!!). We posed for photographs so that we could prove that my tendency for exaggeration had met its end..

Not waiting for the others I impatiently jumped into the sea, and was immediately transported into the world of “The Little Mermaid”.. clown fish bobed up and down, while brown corals of different shapes and size breathed through the sea water, schools of fish passed me by, with naught a care, small jelly fish floated eerily through the water. And I thought so this is what “Nemo” missed when he was caught! If I could have grown gills and lived on sea food diet (well “gills” would be the main thing, “Seafood” normally in my case is “See” food diet) I would have left behind the human world in a flash, alas the growling in my stomach put a stop to if’s and but’s. Feeling a little guilty for not bothering about the others for nearly an hour I took my head out of the water to look for them, and to my amusement I saw all of them on the beach sitting, awaiting me patiently. Asthana and Sweta were both relatively new to snorkeling so had a tough time as the sea currents were very strong. We endeavored to come back after lunch, the food; we agreed would give us the strength to fight the currents.

Lunch was simple yet delicious, veggies and eggs (my unrequited eggs at breakfast finally came during lunch!) and rice, with fruits for desert. After lunch I was informed of the need for rejuvenating sleep by the gang, before braving the strong currents. So while the others snoozed, I went prowling around the island for our Monitor (lizard) friend, met him too, but he was busy munching on a poor four legged creature, so I did not stop for a friendly chat. By the time I got back everyone was up and about all ready to go snorkeling. So we once again lost ourselves to the wonders of the underwater. This time the sea obliged us by being calm and we ended up seeing a whole lot of more marine life than before. While all of us were busy with our own appreciation of the underwater world seeing their unperturbed life as an observer from the snorkeling mask, a black checkered fish was swimming directly beneath me gazing intently at my out stretched hand. It seemed to play a game of “I- Spy” with me, darting among the corals as though it was an amateur sleuth following me around, when my wandering attention was set on a school of multicolored fish , my pursuer ( the black and white fish..pay attention now!!) stealthily swam up to my hand to investigate further. Involuntarily my fingers flexed and it dashed away either because it realized the indignity of it all, or I just plain bored it … I really do not think I frightened it (at least I hope I did not, I swear I did not open my mouth!!) After three or four hours of uninterrupted view of the amazing sea-world, we were shooed out of the sea by the coast guard.
We reluctantly got out of the sea. All four of us were proudly flaunting our sun-burnt skin and discussing with mile-wide smiles about what we had seen , after that we went to freshen up and then to await at the reception chalet for our main visitors - the turtles!!

The reception chalet doubles up as the restaurant and as a visitor’s centre to give an idea about the Green and Hawksbill Turtles that populate these parts of the ocean. Let me state the obvious, a sanctuary is created for endangered species and this was a turtle sanctuary hence...will let you draw the conclusion.

It was around 6.30pm in the evening, the dying sun was struggling with its last few rays, as we walked towards the reception. We were taken through the gallery and then a video about the endangered turtles. The unknown voice of the orator (in the video) explained to us about the two types of turtles “Locals know them as Penyu Karah or Penyu Sisik but hawksbills are so named because of their narrow pointed beak reminiscent of a bird of prey. The endangered Green turtle, or Penyu Agar to the locals, is actually black-brown or greenish yellow but is so called because of the greenish color of their cartilage and fat deposits.” We looked on intently, trying to figure out this docile, yet surviving marine creatures. As we went through the turtle life cycle and habitats, we wondered how these docile vegetarians survived. And then the video took a turn for the worst. It went on to describe how these non-violent ancient creatures were fast becoming extinct. Apart from the predators who relish uncooked turtle eggs such as monitor lizards, crabs, and ants, there are the birds, crabs and host of other more seasoned hunters who crave for the young flesh of the hatchlings. (I am over dramatic sometimes!) But the worst villains in the turtle’s life are sadly the homo-snake-ian’s (oops.. I mean homo sapiens). We kill them for their meat (which is a delicacy now as it is banned), harvest their eggs for our palates, and poach them for their shells to ornate ourselves. For those of us who claim to be of purest of heart, swearing they have not caused the turtles any bodily harm might pause to rethink their gallant gestures. Thousands of sea turtles die from eating or becoming entangled in rubbish each year. Rubbish, particularly plastic bags thrown overboard from boats or dumped near beaches are swept out to sea; turtles cannot distinguish these and jelly fish (which is their principal diet). So when turtles gorge on plastic bags thinking they are jelly fish, they are actually having hemlock instead of wine. I can go on and on about how insensitive we are by expounding on facts like thousands of turtles die each year by becoming entangled in discarded fishing nets in the sea but lets just say it is high time we humans learn to clean up after ourselves and stop causing distress to other beings by looking beyond our individual worlds. (Sorry I got a little carried away, back to the topic on hand now..)

After the informative documentary and early dinner, we sat down with some medicinal tonics (beer of course) to while away time and wait for the turtles. At around 12 am, just when sleep was about to make its check mate, we were informed by the rangers that we could see the turtles laying their eggs.
Dutifully forming a queue we trudged up the beach under the moonlit sky to a place (on dry sand) where a female green turtle had dug a huge hole to lay her eggs, in the chamber of sand.

She had already started laying her eggs by the time we reached .Two or three eggs dropped out at a time, with mucus being secreted throughout the egg laying process (it is not as squeamish as it sounds!).
Because the eggs were flexible, they did not break as they fell into the chamber. She laid 73 eggs in total, as we looked on in hushed awe and no flash on cameras! I noticed that she was crying as though in excruciating pain, but the ranger explained that nesting sea turtles appear to shed tears, but in actuality they are just getting rid of the excess salt that accumulated in her body (And there you have it you silly silly boy's;we females, dont cry we just shed excess salt in our bodies !!)

The eggs were swiftly collected in a basket by an experienced ranger, without her knowledge. Once she was done, unaware of us, she began to bury her non-existent eggs, we were asked to leave her in peace then. Apparently it would take her 2 hours to bury the chamber, before she crawled through the beach back to her sea home. (For some reason, I envisioned a turtle-lawyer all suited and booted sueing man-kind for theft, and malpractise for duping these innocent mother-turtles !!).

The ranger quickly took the eggs into the sanctuary and reburied them with protection around the buried ground, and wrote down the records for future reference.

We then proceeded for release of hatchlings into the sea.

The ranger collected one batch of hatchlings which had just emerged from their eggs.(They say that these cuties need to be released immediately after hatching or their survival instincts in the water diminish ,leading to death)

Once the hatchlings were released, some of them followed their natural course by heading straight for the water. A lot of them however were experimental and exploring in nature. These wayward hatchlings made a mad dash for the sand instead of the sea!! They went in all directions,thus rendering onlookers like me frozen in fear of trampling them.After adjusting to their shapes and movement,we picked a few off the beach to cajole them gently into the sea.There were a few rebel hatchlings who steadfastly refused to go into the water.The ranger collected them and took them back to the sanctuary, to acclamatize them in their own little hatchling's water pool, before they would be released again. By the time we were done and trudging back through the beach, we saw few fully grown turtles gently crawling towards the Sulu Sea.

All in all it was an eventful night, and we were all too excited to go to sleep.
After animated conversation about how, what, when etc, we decided to retire for the night.
We left the next morning for more adventures, with lovely memories and more respect for the giant mariners!!...