Day 1 -2 | Cherating | Road trip | Turtle, baby turtle | Firefly | Residence Inn | B12 Villa Cafe | Duyong Restaurant | Mama Knows Cafe | Kow Kee

Brayden 9Y3M24D

Bevlynn 5Y20D

Day 1 : Started our journey. We took the train from SG -> JB; collected the rental car and drove to Cherating Malaysia. On the way, we stopped at Ah Koong Yong Tau Foo Restaurant and Marrybrown (it was such a remote place and the children only wanted a playground).

When almost reaching Cherating, the dark night sky was filled with flashes of lightning. The children counted more than 150 lightnings. We were worried that we could not catch the turtle activity due to the sudden bad weather. We checked into Residence Inn, our room balcony faced the pool, I loved it.

Lucky by then the rain had stopped, Hub messaged the ranger to ask if we could still make it. 

The ranger said, "Yes, the turtle has just started to dig the hole on the beach".

Hub drove up quickly to Kemaman beach. It was so dark, no lights were allowed. 

We could see the trail on the beach the Mommy turtle made. And there we saw the Mommy turtle laid her eggs. There were 71 eggs altogether. The Mommy turtle age was about 50-60 years old; the ranger picked the eggs immediately after the Mommy turtle went back to sea. They needed to protect and incubate the eggs. 

Day 2 : We had breakfast at B12 Villa Cafe. Right in front of the cafe was the beach. The children wanted to dip in the seawater and catch the small fishes & tiny crabs. They caught none, the fishes were fast. There were some board games at the cafe, we also played together the congkak, matching card games. I enjoyed the family moments.

We had dinner at Duyong Riverside Restaurant. Very near to the restaurant, we saw 3 boys climbing a tree and jumping into the murky river. They swam so well; they were oblivious to a monitor lizard swimming so close to them.  

We went for a swim in Cherating beach nearby. Bray kept finding sand dollars sea urchin - which were alive.

We went to Kemaman beach again before sunset. We were releasing some baby turtles - 9 turtles. There were many people there that day.  It was like a baby turtle competition - hundreds all heading down the beach. They were so active and cute. The children were very excited and released them one at a time. Bev even walked very near to the baby turtle - to "escort" them back into the sea. 

When all the turtles were released, we saw 4 other baby turtles, not moving at all. They were lazy and just wanted to sleep on the sand. Finally with the help of the rangers, the turtles went back to sea.

After that, we rushed to the firefly watching. It was dark on the river. We were the only family on that boat. There were some trees filled with fireflies. The captain used a red light and whistled. The fireflies started to fly towards the boat. They floated so lightly; it felt like snow with lights. How amazing was that? After awhile, we could see lightnings from a distance. We decided to head back.

Such a wonderful experience.  

Day 3 : Bray wanted to wake up early to catch sunrise. The sky was too cloudy and we were unable to see much of a sunrise but we saw several monkey families. 

The children went for a swim in Cherating Beach again. Breakfast at Mama Knows Beach Garden Cafe. 

By lunch time, we were already on our way to the next destination National Park Malaysia (Taman Negara). Another ~4 hours drive. We stopped for lunch at Kow Kee restaurant.