Program Reviews

Ecotourism: when a trip leaves an imprint on the common good

We are passionate about travelling and discovering new places. We are passionate about trying to understand de world, from the different perspective of each culture. We enjoy, specially, the nature and its beauty, and the challenge of understanding its operating mechanisms, balanced perfectly from millions of years of evolutions. In fact, everything is nature, and the world we know is not possible without it.

For this reason, we support the idea that the maintenance of all our ecosystems, most of them endangered, are the key for the common good of the humanity and for its continuity in near future.

For all these reasons, the trips that enriched us the most are the trips that we are in contact with the nature, awesome landscape in harmony with flora, fauna and native culture. Always with this idea we have undertaken a long round the world trip during the year 2015, which will bring us to discover the most beautiful and interesting places of the Australian, Asiatic and American continents.

Our trip will be based on ecotourism principles. We want to discover destinations, activities and local programs always environment-friendly, worried about the conservation of the common cultural heritage and fostering local economy.

For this reason, we contacted ECOTEER, and the Turtle Conservation Program in the Perhentian islands. We joined the team as volunteers for two weeks in a just started program in early 2015. The assessment of the experience has been excellent in all the aspects; we will point to the main three

1. Interest and scientific approach of the conservation program.

We consider that the technical management of the program, led by experimented biologists in the field of marine conservation and marine turtles, has focused a project based in an unequivocal identification strategy of each individual turtle. Implementing a non-invasive methodology, based in a photo identification technique to better understand the resident, transient and nesting population of hard shelled marine turtles.

A part from the identification, they work together with the fishery department looking for turtle nests, avoiding poachers and keeping the eggs in the hatchery. They are also developing an awareness campaign in order to inform tourist and local people, how to juggle in a sustainable way the environmental preservation of the islands and tourism.

In parallel to this project, and to add efforts, they work with another team of ECOOTER, who lead the Community Project. Placed in the village and whose aim is to teach and support the islanders to caring for their habitat.

2. Humane treatment

We want to remark the friendly staff who lead both projects. Our warm welcome, the integration to the project and the day work, make us feel as being among friends, they also gave us the opportunity of sharing experiences with local people as in the Malay dinner, a real immersion in a Malay family.

3. The beauty of the Perhentian islands

The last but not the least important, the landscape of Perhentian islands, with vast potential. We did ones of our best snorkelling in there, a part from enjoy the jungle and swim in beautiful coves.
For all these reasons, we strongly recommend, to live this volunteer experience with ECOTEER.

Highly capable animal keepers . Lots of animals in need of care. Your involved daily with the enclosure cleaning, feeding and enrichment of the animals you're responsible for on that given day - one day you'll be birds, orangutan etc.

What this place needs is financial backing. This place has taken on that many animals in need there isn't enough enclosures to suit each amimals natural habitat.

More help is needed to acquire release sites. This place does a great job but could be making an exceptional difference given the funding.

i had an incredible time on the Perhentian Islands last year and the Blue temple house was the perfect base! Located in the local village, the house allows you to interact with the local children and experience the Malay culture! Neil and Sabi are Incredible, going out of their way to show you all the amazing dive sites and island experiences! The House and hosts leave you feeling relaxed and welcome for your entire stay! LOVED every minute of my stay, i'll definitely be back!

I stayed one month volunteering for the Blue Temple Project, allying conservation of the coral reef trough surveys and awareness campaign. It was the best holiday I ever had. A lot better than a simple hotel, I had the opportunity to live in the middle of a Malaysian village, see how they live, learn a bit of their language to communicate with them but also play with very cute kids. I really felt that everything was made for the volunteers the enjoy their stay. Food was very good, the house and the bathroom were clean, the equipment, of a very good quality.

There, the mood was awesome! being with other volunteers from many countries in this amazing "marine conservation mood house" managed by Sabi and Neil, the owners, has been a real pleasure!

I first thought I was going to dive! I quickly realize that there, diving is a unique experience! Diving with Blue Temple is very different from "normal diving" you learn about what's around you, you learn how to recognize the different species of fish, invertebrates and corals which makes things a lot more interesting. Sabi and Neil, the owners, are instructors and you will learn so much diving with them. I felt my skills improving a lot there! Indeed I trained to control my buoyancy in a very precise way. Also, I really enjoyed diving with the same people during a month, you take habits, learn to communicate together, you joke under the water, well... that was really cool, and I miss it!

I couldn't leave the place without thinking I would be back, too hard! I'm still pretty sure I will! So... See you there maybe!

Thanks to Sabi and Neil for this amazing experience!

It is fantastic to see the wealth of knowledge and effort that has gone into making this project what it is today. Seh Ling is a fantastic project manager with total dedication to conserving turtles; The facial recognition software which she hopes to implement will not only increase our knowledge of the local green turtle populations in the Perhentians, but will also aid further research elsewhere. All in all this is a brilliant project which everyone I know would love to be part of. It is one of the few projects with meaningful research behind it that will hopefully aid the understanding of these fabulous creatures.

I had an incredible experience during my time volunteering at the Perhentian Islands Marine Research Station in Malaysia. A typical day could involve any combination of diving (or learning to dive), underwater surveys, participation in environmental awareness campaigns, beach clean-ups, engaging with the local community and eating delicious local food. The hosts, Neil and Sabina, are amazing teachers when it comes to progressing your diving skills and qualifications. Their passion for the marine environment is infectious and I learnt alot from them during my time on the Perhentian Islands.

I was fortunate enough to be involved with this project just as it was getting started, and I can say there is little to fault! The islands are truly stunning, the people are really nice and supportive (plus know a lot more than I did on arriving!), and the local food is delicious. On other programs it's easy to feel just like another tourist, but here you can easily taste the traditional island life and meet the local woman (who make amazing donuts: 3 for 18p!!), as well do all the usual stuff like diving/snorkelling. But doing it with the research program has been a lot more informative and hence I think you get so much more out of the experience, as well as the opportunity to give something back and to make a difference. Overall, wonderful experience and I look forward to going back in the future to see how it has progressed!

We weren't sure what to expect when we visited this project. We took a cargo boat to the village and were met by one of the interns. The village is small and full of very very friendly people. Really nice environment and it is clear that the project leader is well respected in the community.

We arrived at the start of the rainy season, so our diving was limited unfortunately, but we did get to do some challenging dives, setting up and moving some of the artificial reefs as well as a couple of fun dives.

The project has been very good for the community, improving waste management (incinerator) and helping in the school with a new water storage, playground and teachers house.

We got to create our own reef pods for the new reef, and helped build up the school house a bit. The accommodation was really nice, small wooden bungalows, with squat toilet, bucket shower and bunkbeds. Nice social area, but only electricity between 6pm and 11pm.

Great fun.

Previous intern with Ecoteer, their project there is awesome especially their project leader, Seh Ling is the key person behind. Patrol every night with professional guidance, learn a lot from hands-on!

Earlier this year, I had an incredible experience on this program. The overnight turtle watch was definitely something I will never forget. If you love nature or, more specifically, turtles, this is the program for you.