Migration and Turtles

The day had come, it was our last day at Jippe The Villa. We enjoyed an early breakfast, then Kalle came and picked up Juni and we packed everything (yes – it’s something new that we’re trying out) and took a Tuk-Tuk to our new place of residence – Star Holiday Resort. Well there we quickly dumped our stuff and met up the others at the beach.

Full speed ahead towards the waves

It was stronger sun today, but not unbearable so we played a lot in the water with Juni – she met new friends who wanted photo-ops (reminds me of Japan). Kalle had a lust for that Schnitzel at Harbour Mona tried the other day so we took a late lunch there. Yours truly went for Deviled Prawns which was OK – however I will never understand why you need to peel of the shell yourself while it’s also covered in spicy sauce.

Mona explains to Juni about the turtle who were damaged by sharks

After that it was Tuk-Tuk back to the resort, where we unpacked a few things and met up with Deepti who had arranged for a car so we would go visit a turtle hatchery some 30-40 minutes north up. The hatchery was apparently something more organized and focused on the health of the turtles than others – but from our perspective there is a long long way to go. It could be the philosophical divide from “Life is Suffering” Buddist stance but I don’t see anything noble or kind about keeping a turtle alive in a tank not many more times than it’s own size without company or scenery for decades – to me that sounds like extended torture. In general the attitude against hurt animals that suffer in pain until they die (unless pain can be mitigated, then they do so of course – they are not cruel on purpose) are something I have a hard time agreeing with.

We saw some turtles that were unable to dive since they had swallowed plastic bags with air, making the turtles unable to hunt for food themselves. Juni when given the explanation on what was wrong with the turtles suggested that “but can’t we remove the plastic from inside the turtles?” – which was considered impossible unless they threw it up themselves according to the guide.

Juni was very also quite interested in the sharks that had some infection that was treated and then would be released. Around the time we were about to leave Mona told me there was a snake in a tree, I managed to see the small yellow snake disappear in the green and went to pick up my camera for a proper photo. Another family wanted a picture from their phone and I obliged. This meant that I missed to have the camera ready when some guide pushed down the snake from the tree with a broom and it fell down a few meters from Juni. What I had seen was the very end of the tail, the snake was likely two meters and black and caused more than a few of the guests to curse and hastily move away as the guide shooed it away.

Left side conveniently was only 50-60cm deep – evening the odds considerably

After these adventures we headed back to Star Holiday Resort and Juni acquainted herself with the other kids in the pool – and concluded that this was a very good place to stay at.

Kalle had bought some nice cold cut meat earlier and invited us to dinner, so we went by the fruit and vegetable market as a detour and bought ingredients for a nice salad to match. Next to the market in a store we even found some feta cheese – likely the first item that is on par if not over Norwegian prices, but it tasted really nice. Everyone was a bit tired after a long day so we headed home quite early after finishing the dinner.