Rantau Abang

every few months, the South China Sea ocean tides will bring in debris from all over to the beaches of Rantau Abang. the debris that decorated the red-sand beaches go on for miles...

i looked on in disbelief when i got there on early saturday. the eight others with me were volunteers who responded to an email a week ago --- to a beach cleaning project.

amongst us there were biodiversity conservation specialist, MNS (Malaysian Nature Society) members, freelance photographer, backpacker, forestry department official, ex-journalist, etc. we were spoilt to the max the entire weekend with finger-licking good home-cook food by Mariam, the resort's owner, Razali's wife. the deal was: lodging and food on the house while we helped clean up the beach area at the resort.

the topics were authentic local food, chinese dialects, environmental projects, grandma stories, remedies for sun-burn skin, birding...and other beach-cleaning conversations.

the kayaking on sat morning left me with screaming pain in the arms for the rest of saturday. four Panadols saved the day.

the cleaning work only started at about 5pm because the group rested the whole afternoon right after lunch, catching up on the loss of sleep the night before (we drove all night from KL). armed with wimpy plastic garbage bags, we collected about 20 bags of:

1. mineral bottles
2. shoes (slippers, heels, sport shoes, sandals...)
3. perfume bottles
4. fishermen floats
5. light bulbs
6. text books
7. glass bottles
8. tee shirts

we went back to the beach on sunday morning to bag the glasses separately. we played in the sea again after breakfast. and guess what, there were hot pancakes and iced tea served after we came back from the beach. Mariam was out to spoil us all.

finished two rolls of films, color and black & white. must remember to send some to the `German poster-boy' Rolf, (the forestry-specialist who fancied wearing sarong and smoke roll-up tobacco who couldn't stop sweating the whole weekend) who posed for me.

Ja is planning the next clean-up already, a group of fifteen volunteers each time will be nice. the next one should be in March, after the monsoon. let me know if you are interested...it's really nice work, in exchange for a little vacation down at the beach.