(Daniel) The sounds of the sea greeted me when I woke up today.  I had stopped in the dark last night, and not really looked at my location.  But woke up this morning to a view of the sea lapping gently at the beach about 20 feet from my tent window.  I couldn’t see anyone else about, so I got up and had a wash before banging on Lawrence’s door.  A fitting revenge for his rude awakening of me yesterday at the cabin! 

Lawrence stirred inside, after a few seconds the door opened and he appeared.  We got our stuff together and were about to go for breakfast when his friends appeared.  They invited us to join them for breakfast, apparently one of the other residents in the small seaside hamlet was taking them out.  We accepted, as Klaus came back in his car, he got out and introduced himself.  Apparently, he was up in arms over local residents who had been patrolling their private beach at night looking for turtle eggs.  Klaus drove us out to a local street restaurant for breakfast, and sat with me to tell me more about his problem.

Apparently Klaus had discovered that a sea turtle had come onto the beach outside his house two days ago, it had managed to find it way past his fence and into his garden area where it had laid it’s eggs.  Turtles usually lay between 150 and 200 eggs in a sitting.  The local people can get $3.50 for each egg wholesale at the market.  The eggs are sold to people who eat them raw for $5.  He explained that turtles stopped visiting this area about 12 years ago, but this was the first sighting since.  I remembered that Irene, Leos wife from Kuantan, had just opened a turtle sanctuary on Gem Island, and gave Klaus her details.  He mentioned another sanctuary that had been set up further down the coast, their first attempt had been flawed, as they didn’t separate the eggs into different temperature zones, thus they had a full hatch of males!

He explained further that his problem was the police, they didn’t see the turtle eggs as serious business.  His own answer to this had been to put a steel cable across the beach.  The locals who patrol on motorcycles had not said anything, but he told me that the second night of putting the cable out, a huge clatter had woken him up, as a man had gone straight over his handlebars!  I remembered that in Batu Rackit the man who seemed to have all the influence was the local Muslim Holy man, Pak Uda.  I asked Klaus if perhaps a word with the religious community would help.  With this He really seemed to pick up, and said what a wonderful idea that it was.  I hope that he has had some success since then!

After breakfast, which consisted of curry and bread.  I told Lawrence that I would pick him up tomorrow, as I had to get back to Batu Rackit and pack up the vehicle.  Not to mention clean off some of the mud from the Jungles and fishing trips that I had been out on recently!  Then he and I would drive back down to Kuantan, hopefully getting a chance to see Leo, Regis and Irene before driving back across Malaysia to Kuala Lumpur.  I said thankyou to Papa and his son, and wished Klaus luck.  Then I Jumped back into the Wolf and drove out onto the highway, following the satnavs ability to back-track it’s journey.

When I arrived at the house an hour later, I found that several large trucks were parked in the garden.  Andrew and his film crew were up to their old tricks.  I could see that they were filling the café next door.  I opened up the cabin, and waited for someone to come and move the vehicles.  After a while a young Chinese guy walked over, I called to him but he blatantly ignored me.  I thought of the café owners tales of woe at the hands of the Chinese crew and the way that they played the villagers off against each other.

Angered at these thoughts, I walked into the Café.  Andrew sat at a table in the back, surrounded by his staff, he called out when I walked in.  “Hello Daniel!  How are you today?”  “Well actually..” I replied.  “I am not too happy.  You see, I told you, that if you wanted to park on the land you would have to pay.  But here are your vehicles, parked on the land which I pay to live on, and I don’t think that the owner or I will see any money for it.”  “I see.”  Said Andrew, looking a little confused.  I could see that the café owner and few locals in the place were paying very close attention.  So just for them, I turned around and said “No Andrew you don’t see.  Because if you did I wouldn’t have three lorries parked in my garden would I?!”

Andrew became quite apologetic, and told his boys to come and move their vehicles immediately.  Afterwards a few of them came to talk to me.  Obviously sent by him.  They were young Chinese movie stars, but I didn’t have a c;ue who they were.  They were interested in the truck, and asked about it before they were called back to film.

I went back to packing my stuff, but as it got dark, a old man from the village came to the door.  He didn’t speak and English, but sat out on the porch as I made him tea. After a while another man came and sat with him.  The two men chatted about my equipment and strange tea as I packed up the Wolf.  After a while the first man left, replaced by the café owner, who had just closed up.  I realized then that after all the time I had spent here, trying to break through the barrier that these people had put up.  On the last day here I had finally done it.  The locals had accepted me!  The men went home then, and I made noodles for dinner then went to sleep, unable to watch a movie or listen to music with my laptop needing a brain transplant.  I know that it doesn’t sound like much for the respected locals in the village to have come to see me like this.  But there have been times while I have stayed here that I have really despaired. The people decided before I tried to communicate that they would only embarrass themselves, and so gave me a wide berth.  Now finally they had seen past that and I had been accepted among them.

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