The biggest tourist attraction on the East coast is the turtles of
Terengganu. Both foreigners and Malaysian feel curious to see these
sea-creatures which live in the deep South Chine Sea but emerge and crawl up
to the white, sandy beaches of Terengganu which are the
spawning grounds for these turtles.
The turtles crawl to the beach when it is quiet and dark at night to lay
their eggs. So a visitor has to wait patiently at night to see the turtles.
The turtle eggs are white and are like ping-pong balls both in size and in
shape and are enclosed in a soft skin. The female turtles
scoop hollows in the sand before laying
their eggs and cover them with the sand using their flippers. Finally, they
crawl slowly back to the sea and wait for another year when they crawl back
again to lay their eggs, on the Terengganu beaches.
Sadly, the turtles are increasingly becoming a rare sight. This is due to
various acts by man, namely the mistreatment
of the turtles and the theft of eggs. It is up to the government, therefore,
to ensure that these creatures do not disappear completely from the beaches
of Terengganu. |