Yesterday was a very long, draining day. I left for my tour at 9 AM and did not return until 4:30. It was originally going to be some snorkeling and a trip to Mukut Waterfall, but the guide was able to convince everyone to make it a tour around the island, which is exactly what I had wanted!!!
We set out to the waterfalls and i notices immediately that the South end of the island has a lot more rain than the other parts. It was overcast and foggy there and the water was a bit rough. The crew docked the boat and we began our descent into the jungle... Well, not really. There were poured concrete steps. Not very authentic if you ask me. Apparently, some movie called Bali Hai (sp?) was filmed at this particular waterfall. It was very pretty. I'm working on setting up a Picasa account to link to this blog, but the internet connection here is too slow to facilitate quick upload.
People were getting into the water and sitting at the base of the waterfall, allowing the water to pound their heads. I, being not so adventurous in the realm of aquatic activities, decided to climb the waterfall to take some pictures. I got into the water a little bit just to cool off, but it was all over after the guide showed me some fresh water eels. Yuck.
After this, we all jumped back into the boat and headed to a beach on the West side of the island called Juara to get some lunch. This is when things took a bit of an interesting turn. Near Juara Village there is a turtle sanctuary that specializes in collecting, hatching and releasing different types of sea turtle eggs from the island. The tour guide asked me if I wanted to see it. I said sure and jumped onto the back of his motor bike.
Immediately, I knew something was amiss when I had a flashback to my dead grandfather who smelled of the same vices as the tour guide: cigarettes and alcohol. At this point I realized that the tour guide was driving the motor bike drunk. I can speak about this with a sense of humor now because, well, I'm alive!!! We had a very interesting conversation on the way to the sanctuary about the school system. Children on Tioman attend 3 different schools, depending on their age. Once they hit about 16 years old, the kids have to go to the school on peninsular Malaysia and it is very expensive for the families. The children live in hostels while they go to school and return home about every 2 weeks.
We arrived at the turtle sanctuary and were greeted by an American chick from California who was a total hippie. She is on Tioman as a volunteer biologist trying to save the turtles and she started planting a garden so the sanctuary can be sustainable. Right then, I received a phone call from the 60s asking for her to return.
There were some baby sea turtles in a big vat that they had found emaciated on the beach. They brought the back to the sanctuary to nurse them back to health and plan to release them once the next set of eggs hatches. There was also a very large female turtle in captivity there named Jo. The only reason they had her is because she is blind and every time they tried to release her she would just come back. She is 4 years old, but eats so much that she is the size of an 8 year old. She must have been American in a past life.
After the little tour, I jumped back onto the drunken motor bike and learned that the guide is Muslim with 5 kids and number 6 on the way. His wife works for the Berjaya resort also and is originally from this island. When we returned to the restaurant, the guide proceeded to sit down and drink with his buddies for the next few hours until we were ready to leave for our next destination.
All that followed was snorkeling at 3 different location of varying degrees of scariness. I made it about 3 minutes in the water at the first location before I decided that I was indeed having a panic attack. The second location was a marine park which contained many ferocious and hungry beasts. I wish I had had my camera on me for that stop because those fish were CRAZY! And HUGE! They wanted food and every time someone threw some bread in there it was a feeding frenzy. I jumped in and swam to the dock fast enough that I didn't have a panic attack. The third location was not scary and I jumped off the boat several times.
Later that evening, I skyped with Dr. Anderson, who informed me that I would be going to Rome. She told me I would be living on a sofa bed in a one bedroom apartment. Oh no, I will not. I'm currently working on finding some other living arrangements. I am very particular about having my own space and if I must be in Rome (somewhere I don't even want to be) I will not be on a sofa bed (somewhere I REALLY don't want to be). If things don't work out, I suspect I will come home because I will not make it on a sofa bed for several months.
I'm becoming more and more concerned about the status of our exotic beach vacay in Phuket. Everything is booked... except for my airfare at this point. I understand that the university doesn't want me to go back to Thailand, but I am a free adult who can make her own decision. I feel like they constantly putting road blocks in my way. For example, I booked airfare for Rome last night and they administration made me send them the ticket so that they could see it was one-way. What business is it of theirs to tell me whether or not I can by round trip airfare? So what if I did?
I don't know. This is all very frustrating. They're sending me somewhere I don't want to go to live on a sofa bed and they're trying to control how I spend my money. This whole thing doesn't seem right.
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