Day 4

Today after an early 8 a.m breakfast we left Melina beach and took an one and a half hour boat trip to the various coral reefs across Tioman. The first site we visited was the mangroves in which we jumped into the sea and swam onto the mangroves which held many animal species, Including a goat fish which expands its head to fit in the roots during the high tide, We also got stung by the stinging plankton which caused some mild pain. We then swam into the mangroves which were quite difficult to swim in and learned about their roots and the way they work as well as why they are such an important ecosystem. We then took the boat to a highly disturbed coral reef area in which most of the corals had suffered from coral bleaching and died. We carried out surveys of the different types of fish and sea animals found in this reef and drew a sketch of the basic coral reef.

After that we swam to the beach and eat our lunch which consisted of chicken,rice,apple’s and watermelon.We then took a short break and swam back to the boat which took us to another coral reef about 10 minutes away. Once we reached the other site we found that many students had been either stung by the plankton or even the jellyfish and many were suffering from sea sickness. The undisturbed site was more rich and diverse in fish and coral and had many types of coral variety including table coral, brain coral, stag horn coral and soft coral. A couple of our teammates such as Raziq had to get out of the water because of a slight sting by a jellyfish, many students were also sick of the boat rides and felt dizzy and only a few kept on swimming under the circumstances. The next stop was a free snorkel zone which was also not disturbed and contained a even richer variety of coral and animals and many of us were able to see rays, sea turtles and even reef sharks. Then we took the trip back into Melina beach and reached the hotel at about 5 p.m we then took a shower and completed and evaluated our results, for the next 2 hours we had free time and got ready for dinner and the bonfire. Dinner consisted of BBQ burgers and sausages as well as chicken, after dinner we played team building games and had a bonfire in which we cooked marshmallows and had free time. Albeit it was exhausting it was a memorable experience and a nice ending to our Tioman trip.

EXCELSIOR.

Day 3

Schedule, 1st of June 2011, Wednesday, Day 3
Time	Events	Comments
8.00 AM	Breakfast	The apples were awesome!
8.30 AM	Getting Ready	Chaotic Rush (Worse than diner dash)
9.00AM	Tracked to Genting Beach	Walking in flip-flops: Scratches Everywhere!
9.30 AM (Syafiq, Maxwell, Zahir)	Started our coastal zone surveys in managed site:  (a) Point Intercept Transect- Estimate the habitat in a particular area (b) Beach profile- To find out the gradient and steepness of the beach (c) Longshore Drift- Test the direction of longshore drift and the speed.	It was actually a very interesting spot since there's both destructive and constructive waves.  The areas near the headlands are causing erosion while the middle ones are depositing stuff.  According to Pete, this is caused by the human interference (is. boats).  The survey for longshore drift was also quite a failure since they got stuck in between some choral rubbles. When doing the point intercept transect, Bryan Chung Jin Howe kept on complaining getting his underwear wet, which I must agree; wet underpants are so not fun, but tmi anyway. We found a coconut washed up by the sea and picked it up to play with as a rugby ball.
11:00 Am	Preparing questionnaire about the coastal zone	Literally adapting almost everything from the rainforest questionnaire! We even got a break to buy some refreshments, but some of the items sold were rather more expensive than usual.
12:00 PM	Interviewed locals	It's when the Malay language came in handy :) We even managed to spot an ongoing conservation project in relation to the coastal areas.
1:00 PM	Lunch	Awesome spaghetti and pizzas.
2:00 PM	Coastal survey at Melina Beach Resort (unmanaged site)	We did our coastal surveys as we did at Genting. The art students had the opportunity to draw some interesting sketches of the coast. The refreshing water was practically crying out to us for a nice swim!
4:00 PM	Simulating activities- Building model dams, agriculture channels and shrimp farms to study the human impacts in a river area	Team work was clearly shown. Climax - Fight between the shrimp farmers and the Las Tioman (dam builders) manager.
7:00 PM	Dinner	More awesome apples plus yummy salad!
8:00 PM	Presentation by the Las Tioman manager, cucumber farm owner and shrimp farm worker to debate their respective pros and cons.	Informative, funny and really enjoyable looking at others' masterpiece :)
9:00 PM	Was shown a depressing video about how our dams and farms were destroyed.	A warning - Never fight mother nature :)
9:30 PM	Free time at the beach	There was a circle of truth going around at the beach, and some other learners lying on sarongs, looking up at the sparkling stars in the sky; and others sitting at the restaurant doing their blogs; it was just so calm and peaceful!

Overall, it was an exciting and fun day.  We truly enjoyed learning outside the classroom with real situations and case studies.  The stimulation activity might be the best part throughout the day.  Of course, we also did get a kick out of having fun and swimming in the sea. 

Peace out!

Superior 7,

Jia Yi, Kai Song, Nicole, Wen Wen

Day 2

Tioman blog

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Day 1 :)

Tioman here we come!  Who could believe that after all the months of planning and preparation it was time to go on the trip.  8 of us flew on the 0800 Berjaya Air flight and the the remaining 23 on the 1120 flight.

The flight flew us over Malaysia, showing us lots of the national geography.  What a sight, as we banked over Tioman and had our first glimpse of the lush volcanic island, surrounded by palm fringed beaches.  We landed at the tiny Tioman airport and were met by our EcoField Trip staff; Tara, Yana & Pete.

As soon as we collected our bags we were ready for our transfer to the Melina Beach Resort.  We went to the jetty for our boat transfer, put our life jackets on and were ready to go!

The boat landed and we strode onto Melina beach.  Well, some of us jumped, stepped or fell onto the beach!!!  It was hot and humid and we were all sweating even though we hadn't done anything yet!  Obviously we did the most important things first - we were all starving so headed straight for the buffet lunch.

Both groups were re-united and we listened to the EFT (EcoFieldTrips) instructors tell us about the expectations, groups and info about the resort. When we finished we had some free time and moved our suitcases into our rooms.

Once we'd settled in we had our snorkelling introduction.  We were told to get a 'buddy', had a briefing on what to do, and off we went to explore the reef right outside the resort.  It was really cool, we saw lots of fish and coral, swam for some time and returned. It was very interesting and fun.

After our snorkel we dried off, got changed and went for an introductory walk through the rainforest.  We saw different types of rainforest plants that can be used for medicine, explored a disused coconut plantation and were introduced to some of the local wildlife :)  Although it was only a small walk we came back sweaty and wet!

To finish the day we had 3 hours of free time.  We showered, talked, and basically had fun together.  Some of us even went for another swim!

At 7pm we ate dinner which was very good and waited for the presentation on rain forests and mangroves.  The presentation gave us an introduction to our learning tomorrow, the key ideas and what we would need to take.  Finally we all chatted and hung out until our curfew. Overall it was an amazing day.  Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Simran, Hasmah, Lisa, Jasmin and Mia Sarah

Tioman Trip

30th May - 3rd June 2011