Gemma Knight- My Malaysia Career Break
Added to website: 22 December 2005
After an exceptionally bad day in the office, I joined Coral Cay for a career break. I opted for the combined reef and forest expedition based in the Philippines but was transferred to Malaysia following problems in the Philippines. I couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome, I loved every last minute of it.
The whole experience taught me a new side to both life and myself and gave me some amazing friendships.
The reef site was based on Palau Payar, a stunning island off the West coast of Malaysia, which was home for nine weeks and is where I learned what seemed like a million Latin words for every conceivable shape of Coral and saw some amazingly colourful fish, which I proudly can still name (some!) one year on.
The isolation of the island was replaced by Benting Lintang for the forest expedition, a quiet fishing village on the East coast which provided me with an entirely different perspective on Malay life. The staff and volunteers became the local celebrities, which at times was admittedly hard work.
Snorkeling around coral and fish quickly was replaced by trekking for hours with heavy kit bags and learning a passion for the stunning bird life of the area. Yes, CCC has turned me into a birdwatcher! The locals were great in taking us to their hearts and made us incredibly welcome into their homes and this was one of the highlights of my whole experience.
Following my seven weeks of the forest site I remained for a further four weeks as Science Officer before leaving the amazing group with some of the best memories of my life, from holding a threatened bird (White Rumped Shama), to being invited to spend Hari Raja (Muslim religious festival) within the locals homes.
-Gemma Knight
