Everyday I learn something new - from how to tell the difference between a corallimorph and a zooanthid, to the body shape of a “little” poisonous jungle viper. I’ve spent hours underwater being shown the difference, first hand, between fish species, coral types, and algae thickness. I’ve seen how to properly mount a fellow diver, and have been shown what not to do to when you see a sea snake. I’ve contributed to the systematic murder and mutilation of a sea star simply living its life (Crown of Thorn Starfish, of which there is a plague on Tioman), and sung a song about its death. All this knowledge and all of these experiences (along with the great number of facts too numerous to list off here), which I have gained both above and below the calm surface of the South China Sea, is enough by itself to surpass any luxurious beach holiday in which only a sunburn and gut is gained. However, my argument does not end here.

On how many beach holidays does one get to meet a motivated, intelligent, funny, sociable, and diverse group of people? …Perhaps a few, granted. But on how many of these beach holidays does one get to live and work with these people everyday - trusting to them your safety and well-being under the water during the day, and sharing a cold a drink and a laugh at night? On how many beach holidays can you trek into the heart of the jungle, camping amidst a cacophony of insects noises, and wake up to a smiling guide, ready to lead you up to the summit of the island and gladly point out to you all the poisonous plants, thorny branches, slippery rocks, and unbeatable scenery? On how many beach holidays can one wake up in the morning and be absolutely certain that today you will laugh, smile, sweat, itch, be tired, see something brand new, float weightless 20 meters below the surface of the ocean, be hungry, be full, and thoroughly enjoy every moment of it?

Granted we, as volunteers, do have certain “chores,” but even these, with the right mindset, can be more enjoyable than sipping a Mai Thai by the pool. Raking the beach at 8AM may sound less than fantastic, but when you walk out of your room in the morning, step out on to the beach, look out over the unbelievably calm water, listen to the small waves gently lapping upon the shore, and soak in the warmth of the early morning sun on your face - you begin to realize that at that very moment, there is nowhere else in the world you would rather be. Why would I want to be on a beach holiday when even the chores bring a genuine smile to my face?

Week 6 and the final week on Tioman sees the last dive for the volunteers as a group, the ‘harder than hell’ jungle trek and the premature departure of the two hunks of the expedition. Needless to say the eye candy will be sorely missed by the girls.

The trek, well what to say…? I think the best way to sum it up is to mention the fact that Katie has never been on it and asked for our comments and complaints BEFORE we went. I have a feeling those talks may have gone very differently had the trek been earlier. The trek itself was 5 hours walking the first day, 8 hours the second day and 5 hours on the last day, many leeches and bugs and some rather unwaterproof tents. On the second day the walking took a rather more difficult turn and hands and knees were muddied and scuffed as fall after fall occurred, especially to myself, Christopher Webb Esq. as I decided to go for style over substance and wore indoor court shoes, despite the rest of the group wearing either proper trainers or walking boots.

After 4 hours difficult trekking on the second day, we had to haul ourselves up a tree to get to see the view. At least that would make all the effort seem worthwhile… Except that the beautiful views were covered by trees. Imagine going all the way to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa and finding that it’s covered for restoration. It’s there but you just can’t see it.

And then there’s the leeches, horrible blood sucking fiends that they are. In typical fashion the quote of the week came once again from Sandra: ‘don’t leeches only bite short people because they can’t jump very high?’ Apparently not is the answer as both myself and Liz, the two tallest members of the group received the most leech bites and myself gaining a rather uncomfortable friend in the shape of a leech in the belly button. But needless to say it wasn’t all bad, there is a certain amount of satisfaction having completed the trek and despite a last miserable night in the rain soaked tent, the walk home was relatively easy going and leech free. Also Swiss Cottage seems like absolute 5 star luxury on return which is a bonus.

And now each will be going their own way. Myself and Coups are off to Thailand (though i’ll be back for the next expedition), Jo off to South Africa, Sandra back to Beijing and then onto America for University, Yu Lin back home before another expedition and her dive master course and Liz back to Belgium after a short stay in KL and Singapore.

So now it falls to me to say a big thank you to both my fellow volunteers for making the stay really very enjoyable, even when covered in leeches, and to the staff of Swiss and in particular the staff of Tioman Dive Centre and Blue Ventures for being both brilliant mentors and excellent friends. Finally to sum up the expedition: Roughly 200 beers, 4 bottles of spirits, multiple cocktails, only a few bottles of suncream, (which brought about…) multiple bottles of aftersun, 60 dives each, over 100 fish learnt and countless laughs later sees the end of the road for the intrepid explorers of Blue Ventures volunteers number 7.

The research and surveying is the main reason why we’re here, to add to the ever growing database about the waters surrounding Pulau Tioman. Not only is it nice to utilise the mass of knowledge we’ve accummulated during the past few weeks but it’s gratifying to know that our prescence and work here is helping to conserve the beautiful surroundings.

This week oozed productivity with the ‘Waste Management Campaign’ really stepping up a gear.  By the end of the week we were close to completing a proposal to be sent out to local businesses, authorities and influential people on the island.  But work hard, play hard. Cue the ashes. Mere metres from the Tioman Dive Centre pavilion and bounded by the warm waters of the South China Sea is the Blue Ventures beach cricket arena. Step forward the English chaps, assemble team of international (one aussy hence Ashes) misfits. This was a game though not to be remembered for it’s classy cricket rather a humerous mis-hap from a certain batsman, me. In my peak cricketing days (under 13 prep school) I would dispatch full-tosses with an elegant and poised hook through leg side, delighting in the sight of the ball racing over the ropes. What I, and certainly Paul (our leisure diver physcologist friend from KL), did not expect was the bat flying out of my grip gyrating directly towards his head. Smack. Ouch. The damage, a knick square between the eyes, what a relief! Needless to say I walked.

Other notable going ons during the week.  A fantastic BBQ down at the staff’s house, accompanied by Katie’s dad.   Kick off to World Cup 2010 in SA!

Finally, quote of the week comes from Sandra.  Her response to the question, ‘does anyone know what the natural wonders of the world are?’  …..”the great wall of China”! Hmmmmmm.

A thing that everyone already had noticed, during the dives and snorkeling on the house reef, was the huge amount of bleached corals. The results of the surveys were just shocking. Hopefully the seawater temperature will decrease, or all those once so colorful hard and soft corals and anemones will die.

At the end of the second week we did our first night dive. Not that scary at all, so do not believe all those stories that they tell you. We saw some amazing things, a sleeping turtle, nocturnal fishes, polycheates and even some copepods were passing the light of your torch. The top act (for me at least) was the bioluminescence, when we covered our torches and waved, just amazing how many tiny little lights you can see.

In the third week we went for 3 days to Mukut, a little village in the south of the Island. After a wet ride with the speedboat (thank you Katie for the wet t-shirt!), we arrived in Mukut, where we all stayed with the same guest family in the `Hilton-hotel`-house of the village. A very colorful house, especially the decoration on the ceiling was an eye catcher. The real Malay food, mainly the fish was a nice variation on the diet of chicken and rice. Eating with your fingers (only right hand) was another challenge, especially the soup! But beside this, everything was just delicious.

The school had 18 children between 7 and 12 years old, and 10 teachers (almost private lessons), it was amazing how well equipped this little school was. We started with the hilarious train-game and an alphabet game, it was surprising how well they could spell the words and how helpful the older ones were with the younger ones. After some games to practice their English, time for some marine linked lessons, the function and the rules of a marine park. In the afternoon some more fun things by painting the mural that Sandra and the 2 Chris’s had drawn on the wall. The mural is the alphabet with marine linked words and figures, beginning with Anchor, Beach, Coral,… (easy) and ending with Zooxanthellae (hmm).

The second day some more ecology lessons, now about the symbiosis and the function of different ecosystems and how they are linked to each other. In the afternoon there were no lessons, because it was the beginning of the school holidays. With no children in the school, we decided to walk to the waterfalls. After the recent rains, it was an impressive the power of water. The water wasn`t that warm, as you could see in the look on the swimmer’s faces, when they touched the water!

After 2 days of no diving, everyone was impatient to get back into the water. The site we went to (Bahara) was just stunning, so clear and colorful, just like on National Geographic and Finding Nemo!

This fun dive was fantastic to end our, third week on Tioman. I`m having a great time, and I think the other volunteers are feeling the same way.

That’s not to say all our experiences have been of the studious kind…not at all-loads of new food in a variety of friendly local restaurants, meeting the locals at the shops and at Cabana Bar-imagine a ship wreck on a beach full of funky seating, entertainment and soooo chilled out-the perfect place to end a day’s diving.

I can’t believe how lucky I am to be able to see so much wildlife right here in Tioman-not just on the reefs but outside our rooms-minor birds, squirrels, monitor lizards, beautiful butterflies and birds of paradise, fishing eagles, monkeys not to mention the cute feral cats, mozzies, ants and spiders!

On the reefs we’ve seen turtles-Hawksbill and Green, Black reef tip sharks, Moray eels, Banded Sea Kraits, Trigger fish, Scorpion fish and loads of other reef fish.

But what am I like-I’ve forgotten the folks!

Here are 6 volunteers on this, the 7th expedition for Blue Ventures in Malaysia: 3 Brits, a Belgian, a Malaysian and an American-3 boys, 3 girls.

We live in the long houses 30m from the sea in traditional wooden houses. We are rubbing along fine together-and the residents seem to be friendly-just kidding they’re great and have made us feel very welcome.

I’m looking forward t next week as we start surveying the reefs properly-for bleaching as the water temp is 30 degrees!!!

After six weeks, the first group were waved off and expedition number two moved in. A smaller group this time, soon got stuck in to their science training and video making. This time, the video was focusing on responsible snorkelling, as this group of tourists can be particularly damaging to the reefs and many tourists to Tioman Island do not dive, but snorkel. BVM volunteers also joined Reef Check Malaysia for a school program supported by the corporate social responsibility team of a large business in Kuala Lumpur. Socio-economic monitoring was carried out by the UKM students to investigate the knowledge and perceptions of coral reef conservation of local people and tourists. Expedition number two also began the first BVM campaign, to raise awareness to visiting and local boats to use the mooring buoys instead of dropping anchor.

Arriving in July, expedition three was the biggest group yet. They took up the anchor campaign, developed various amusing slogans and made t-shirts to distribute. They also began a wider ‘responsible tourism’ campaign and made leaflets to distribute to tourists explaining the dos and don’ts of responsible tourism. Their video focused on how to be a responsible diver. After science training was completed, the group quickly collected the target number of PITs, fish belts and IBs. The visit to Mukut had volunteers playing games with the kids to practice their English.

Expedition number four arrived in August. The group of three brought a sudden calm after the frenzied activity of the previous group of twelve. After completing their Open Water and Advanced Open Water courses, the group began their science training as usual. Their video educated divers about how to achieve perfect buoyancy, very important for conserving air, avoiding damage to the reef and looking like a pro! They continued to collect Crown of Thorns and a huge net was released from the reef saving further damage to the precious coral there. They left leaving Tioman Dive Centre’s wooden boat looking much shinier than when they arrived!

The final group of the year, expedition five arrived in October. As three of them had previously been with Blue Ventures in Madagascar, science training was quicker than usual and surveys were started almost instantly. This group also began identifying fish species on a site-specific basis to allow a diversity index to be calculated per reef. The final video of the year was drawing divers’ attention to the less glamorous but highly important cleaners of the reef and encouraging divers to leave the marine life undisturbed.

Over the year, 567 Crown of Thorns were collected from reefs, 53 bags of rubbish were picked up from beaches, 7 school education sessions were run, large fishing nets were picked up from Bahara and Sepoy, 3 green turtles were seen laying nests, 435 turtle hatchlings were released, 6 pilot whales, 8 common dolphins, countless Green and Hawksbill turtles, numerous napoleon wrasse and several bumphead parrotfish were spotted, 29 new species of fish were added to existing fish species lists and 113 fish belts, 220 Point Intersect Transects and 220 Invertebrate Belts were completed by BVM volunteers.

But, it wasn’t all work for the group of budding conservationists. Taking part in Fasting (Ramadan), going to local weddings, drinking from water melons, learning to fire poi, sampling Malaysian food, wearing silly hats, painting boats, jungle trekking, cursing the expedition manager for the jungle trekking, jetty jumping, boat roof diving and visiting the island clinic made the experience even more rich and unforgettable. Many memories were made as well as photos and videos! All the videos in the responsible diver series, plus a few more, can be found on Youtube and the Tioman Dive Centre Facebook page. Photos can be found on the Tioman Dive Centre Facebook group page and on the Blue Ventures Malaysia website.

The final volunteers of 2009 left on the 12^th of November, after a challenging, exciting and ultimately successful first year. Next year, BVM plans to continue this monitoring as well as introducing new research and outreach programs, work more closely with national and international universities and the Marine Parks of Malaysia and continue to work on the Green Fins program. The BVM team would like to thank all volunteers, staff and partners for all the help and support over the year, you all left your unique mark on the project. Don’t forget Tioman, it won’t forget you! Now, the team looks forwards to a new year, new volunteers and the further development of Blue Ventures Malaysia!

Last Thurday, intrepid BV volunteers Roger, Nuria, Jane and Willem joined Katie on an overnight trip to Mukut, in the south of Tioman.  Accessible only by boat, this promised to be a glimpse of more traditional village life on the island.  Katie’s boat cruised us gently southwards, passing scenery ever more lush and dramatic, until the famous twin peaks, the Dragons’ Horns, came into view, towering vertiginously above the sleepy village.  All was quiet on our arrival, as the villagers had spent the day on a community project, cleaning up the rivers and streams which pass through the village.  Mukut has a splendid, high jetty, slightly too large even for Katie’s bum boat!  Apparently the round-the island ferry doesn’t stop here, so the jetty was presumably built for a grander future when cruise liners might steam in packed with tourists eager for the delights of Mukut! Happily, tourism doesn’t seem to have arrived here yet, and the many holiday chalets dotted around the village lie empty.

Mukut certainly has an air of civic pride.  Apart from the sparklingly pristine rivers, we also enjoyed wandering through the village admiring the flowering hedges surrounding villagers’ properties.  Children were enjoying team games in the open spaces provided, and later in the evening a lively village meeting took place in the bar next to our huts. We, meanwhile, learnt how to eat kampong-style in the village café – eating without cutlery using the right hand only, not so easy when dealing with bony fish and gooey sauces.  Roger learnt the art of betel nut chewing from a local granny, and spent a few hours brushing his teeth to remove the red stains!

The following morning we approached the village school with slight apprehension.  How many children would we be teaching?  Would they understand any English?  Were the activities we had planned suitable?  Would we run out of things to do?   Happily the morning went well, and our students, girls and boys from 8 – 13 years proved to be no different really from kids back home.  Probably the part of the morning they will remember will be the inevitable “Heads, shoulders, knees and toes”  and fun games we played to let off steam after more serious stuff, learning about coral reefs.

Our conclusion from the morning – it would be nice to be able to spend a bit longer in Mukut, and deliver a more structured programme to the students there.  It would certainly be a rewarding exercise for the volunteers, and Mukut boasts the added attraction of several walking trails into the beautiful forested hills behind the village.  We rounded off our trip with two amazing dives off Bahara and Jahat.  Beautiful soft corals and multi-coloured gorgonians, AND  CJ saw her sharks and beamed all the way back to Tekek.

Willem, Jane, Roger and I have been in Tioman for 20 days now. As we’ve been regularly doing since we got here, this morning we got on the bum boat and headed out for a couple of dives, which usually come with lunch and tea or coffee, and of course with a few dips in Indo-Pacific waters.  Our dive plans for today were the following: Willem, Jane and Roger would do a 20 meter population count of crown of thorns, while I would do some more fish point outs (FPO) with Katie, the boss, since it seems like I have stumbled upon the most prepared class of volunteers in Blue Ventures.

So, after a while of FPO, where I was getting them all right, by the way , the most beautiful scene occurred. A group of about 30 squid, males and females, were performing a series of unusual movements. We first saw them down at ground level where the females were hiding eggs under some hard coral, while the males were hovering right on top of them in what seemed to be a protective position. A few minutes later, they all swam up near the surface, and each and every couple engaged in the most sophisticated courtship dance. They would move back and forward, barely caressing each other, and then they would swim vertically while intertwining tentacles to share genetic information. After another few minutes they went down to the coral again and continued with the egg laying task.

Katie and I were bedazzled by El Squid Tango for a while before we realised we were running out of air.

I got here to Tioman Island, just off the east coast of peninsular Malaysia, about a week ago.  My routine goes like this: up at 7am, swim in the warm clear water, 8am breakfast in the restaurant next door to my room.   Scuba dive, 2 tanks in the morning, lunch on board the boat, then return to base by 2pm for study sessions on corals, fish species, other reef critters and Malay language.  Dinner at any of several local restaurants - delicious seafood, veggies and noodles, rice, flatbreads, curries, chicken, beef - no pork, as this is a Muslim country. Chat until about 9pm, maybe see a reef video or review the pictures we’ve taken during the day’s dives, then crash under my mosquito net (not that I’ve really needed it) with a good book until I fall asleep anticipating another day.

On today’s dive trip we saw a pod of pilot whales which followed the boat for a while, then dove around a nearby small island removing the pesky crown-of-thorns starfish which prey on the branching corals of the reef.   Their only natural predator is the triton trumpet shell, which has been virtually eliminated worldwide by the shell-curio trade, so the starfish are very numerous.  Our 4 teams of divers removed nearly 100 from the reef today, and it would have been more except that many were deep in the coral and would have required destroying what we are trying to save, in order to remove them.  I got a few coral scrapes, and one or two small pokes from the starfish (they are toxic), but no big deal.

We also saw several huge bumphead parrot fish, a small school of squid, lots of beautiful butterfly and angel fish, spadefish, small barracudas, large groupers and sea bass, acres of live hard and soft coral of hundreds of varieties, and other weird and wonderful creatures often grouped as the “spineless wonders” - sea cucumbers, urchins, shrimp, crabs, shells, giant clams, gorgonian fans, basket stars and on and on.

Last weekend we went on a hike through the rainforest to the other side of the island, and saw amazing butterflies, mouse deer, fruit bats, pottoes, types of birds I’d never seen before, and gorgeous trees, vines and shrubs of all kinds.

Tioman Island has been a National Park under the protection of the Royal Family since the mid-1990s, with a total no-touch, no-take policy for fishing or collecting of any kind, within 2 miles of shore.  The resident population of the island is 3000 people, most of whom earn their livelihoods directly or indirectly from the tourist trade, but there is only one “resort” in the American sense, on the island.  Most visitors stay in small single story local hotels, eat at the village restaurants, and come to snorkel, dive or hike.  The fact that most of the people speak at least some English makes being here very easy - no chance of getting lost or not getting where you intend to go.

But it’s not just about having fun! We are taking an active role in the Blue Ventures Malaysia program too, doing assessments of reef health and risks, developing a series of educational videos on responsible boating, diving and snorkelling practices, working with the local dive and boat operators to insure sustainable practices in their use of the reef, and developing a definitive photo library of fish and other creatures found on the reefs.  We will also assist in teaching English in the local schools, do reef and beach cleanups, and, of course, the crown of thorns monitoring and removal.

By the end of this week our training in fish identification will be completed and my current team of volunteers (me, a British couple in their early 60s, and a young Ph.D. scientist from Spain) will begin contributing to the collection of reef health data.   Our group is rather unusual since most volunteer teams have 6-10 members and often in their 20s and 30s, but we try to make up in experience what we lack in youthful energy.  There is no lack of enthusiasm, as we all look forward to seeing things we’ve never seen before on every dive.

As evening is falling, I am looking out through the palm trees past the tree squirrels and the plumeria trees, wondering how many of the ripening mangoes will wake me during the night by falling on my roof.  The sea is nearly flat calm, with a gentle wave-ripple at the shore that makes falling asleep really easy anytime.   We’ll lay out tomorrow’s schedule before heading off to dinner, perhaps at the seafood barbecue shop just down the main street.  Wish you were here. Don’t you?

After the torture of the jungle trek at Juara first of all the entire team had to relax again. For that Friday a BBQ and a hat party were scheduled. The guys from ‘Swiss Cottage’ seated up a couple of tables and chairs at the centre of the resort and started to create a great dinner on the BBQ. In the meantime everybody from our group was busy with creating their headwear. Especially the female expedition participants showed their amazing sense for creativity and handwork and constructed – only with natural building material – the most wonderful hats.

Afterwards we made our way to the ‘Tioman Cabana’ - as usual. There Brian showed us once again his unbelievable skills in playing with the fire-poy. Christian tried it out as well, which did not stay completely without consequences…

The next day, we plunged back into surveys and research.

While everybody who had not done this already was working on passing their fish tests, everybody else started to decorate the dive shop by painting it. Mother Nature was the model.

But for the entire week there were many other activities that kept us busy:

One group continued working on the campaign ‘Don’t drop your anchor’, preparing T-shirts with the appropriate motifs on them. Other volunteers created posters and leaflets which shall inform tourists about the interesting marine live in the waters around Tioman along with advice for how to conserve it.

In addition to those activities, Thomas and John made some video editing for the ‘How to be a responsible diver’ video based on the clips taken on previous dives.

For two days a delegation of BVM-volunteers worked together with the Tioman Marine Parks and other dive centres of the island on testing and introducing the Reef Watch programme. The goal of this project is to create and improve a method of data collection for tourists who are interested in getting active for environmental conservation. We tested the survey methods, collected the data and reported back to the Green Fins team with thoughts and suggestions.

At the end of the week, everyone had finished their scientific training. Thus, we could start to practice the surveys, because next week the actual data collection will start…

Friday evening something very special was planned: Swiss Cottage provided our dinner in Tupperware boxes and we made our way on to the dive boat. We motored around to Monkey Bay, a quiet bay north of Tekek where we moored on to a buoy (Don’t drop your anchor!) and had dinner. The ambience was great, the mood high and the food awesome. It was great fun for everybody.

Way too early our excursion found its end. But the night was not over.

Back at Swiss, we lighted up a bonfire on the beach, gathered around it and laughed until the dawn came.

And then – way too fast – another week with BVM was over.