Over the summer I spent three months at the turtle sanctuary on Pulau Redang (Pulau: Island) collecting sand samples from nest sites for my research. During my sampling, I lived almost exclusively on the island at the Chagar Hutang turtle sanctuary. What a magical place! Chagar Hutang is a small base hewn built from dark wood beams. Its open structure and numerous windows encourage airflow throughout the buildings: male and female dormitories, a kitchen, dining room, office/storeroom, bathroom and gallery/game room. Rather than isolating itself from the surrounding environment, Chagar Hutang integrates with it, and because it is so close to the beach this means that many mornings are spent sweeping sand out of the common living areas and avoiding the unblinking gaze of house geckos. Although Chagar Hutang has dormitories, most nights we (the staff and volunteers) would sleep on the beach under a blanket of stars (bintang: star). We would break into teams and patrol the beach all night long, observing sea turtle mothers as they came up to nest and recording information about their behavior. In between patrols, we would take naps on plastic mats we laid over the sand. Some nights we would awaken to the energetic scuttle of hatchlings cascading down our mats as they made their way to the sea and began their journey into the blue.
