Thai Muang Turtle Release Festival

Ahhhhhhhh, Thai Muang.....  and the Turtle Release Festival.... 

So.... a bit of background.....  at the end of January, 2013, my son and I travelled to Thai Muang, Thailand, to do some teaching in a couple of the local schools.  We were in Thai Muang for a total of four and a half weeks, and I have to say it was wonderful.  For one thing, as you can see, they have a fantastic beach.  Next, it's a small town, set in the midst of some beautiful surroundings, which appeals greatly to me.  Add to that wonderful, friendly, people, and then, to top it all off, enthusiastic students.  What more could a person ask for?  For someone who likes quiet, and who likes to share learning, it was ideal.  But, of course, all things end, and after four and a half weeks it was time for my son and I to leave.  Nicely enough our last day in Thai Muang overlapped with the first day of the annual Thai Muang Turtle Release Festival, and it turns out that this was a wonderful way to finish off our stay in this town. 

Olive Ridley Sea Turtle

Thai Muang beach is a nesting area for both Leatherback and Olive Ridley turtles, who lay their eggs between November and March.  As is the case with other species of sea turtles population levels of both Olive Ridley and Leatherback turtles are in serious decline.  Around the world steps are being taken to try to help these and other species of sea turtles renew their numbers  In Thai Muang this has been realized by the patrolling of the beach during nesting times, the creation of a turtle conservatory just outside of town, and the removal by conservatory staff of eggs from the nests on the beach to the conservatory for incubation, hatching, and eventual release back into the ocean.  For more information on the turtles of Thailand, and a little bit about those at Thai Muang in particular, click here.

Every year around the beginning of March there is a festival celebrating the release of the Thai Muang turtles.  The festival starts on a Friday, which was convenient for my son and me since we didn't teach on Fridays.  This meant we didn't need to rush through any good-byes to get to the festival, or miss any of the festival to accommodate good-byes.  And we certainly didn't want to miss any of the festival, from what our host told us it was a pretty big event, transforming a small town of 8000 into one of about 30,000.  I believed him, from what I had been able to tell so far turtles were fairly important to the Thai people, as was any reason to celebrate or socialize.   Put the two together, and,well, I wouldn't be surprised at a a big event!  And this one looked promising.... on the Tuesday, when my son and I were down at the beach having a good-bye lunch with two of the teachers from one of the schools we had been teaching at, the beachside was teeming with construction activity... 

Our participation in this wonderful event started on the Friday afternoon when our volunteer organizer Anders led us down to the turtle release area.  The suggestion of the Tuesday afternoon was realized, what a change in the environment!  We had regularly visited this area for our beach trips, when typically we had the beach almost entirely to ourselves and could pull over anywhere on the side of the road to park.  But not this day.  The traffic was constant, there was nowhere on the side of the road to park, and, in fact, we couldn't even get to our usual parking area since the road was closed off!  Instead we had to take a detour up a side road to an official parking area that had been set up on a large open area of grass.  And in this parking area there were more vehicles than I had seen in Thai Muang, ever.  We even had to pay to park our vehicle, and get a ticket which we would need to present in order to remove our vehicle later.  In Thai Muang!


Not only was the parking and traffic situation vastly different than what it had been, the entire landscape had been transformed.  In the closed off area of the road what before had been a quiet road lined with open air restaurants on one side, usually with a quarter or so of them closed, and open beach access on the other,

The transformed road leaving Thai Muang

was now a pedestrian only walkway packed with stalls on both sides selling everything imaginable, from furniture to watches to food.  And a brand new road, running parallel to the beach road, but a little further in, had just, well, appeared.  I swear it hadn't been there before!  This road also had all sorts of stalls, (although no furniture ones that I noticed), as well as whole bunches of fair activities, such as dunk tanks and concert stages.  Since the entry to this road was opposite the exit from the parking area we started our explorations here, with Anders pointing out his favourite activities, such as the dunk tank.  The activities weren't open yet, since we had arrived even before the parade, but the food and market stalls, especially on the closed down main road, were in full swing, causing me to feel as though I had been suddenly transferred to small-town America on fair day.  That being said there was a distinct South-East

Fried bugs anyone?

Asian quality to this fair, for example, I have never seen fried bugs on the menu at American fairs, while here there were fried bug stalls at regular intervals.  I passed on trying those, as did my son, but I did have some very tasty fried chicken skins.

After wandering the stalls for a little bit we headed down to the beach, which had also been somewhat transformed.  Usually the beach was a very quiet place where frequently there was nobody in sight other than ourselves, exactly as in the picture up top, and no boat traffic.  Today there were boats
stationed just offshore,

Boats off the beach

I believe to provide lighting to attract the turtles to the open ocean, as well as flags in the sand, a holding area for the turtles

Turtle holding area

to be released, an information centre manned by individuals from the Turtle Conservation Centre, and... people!  Lots of them, even though you can't really see them in these pictures.
Over at the turtle holding area we noticed the turtles all had numbers written on their shells.  These were to identify them for those lucky individuals who were registered to release a turtle.  Yes, you read correctly, the turtles were to be released by private individuals, nice, hey?  Unfortunately I was unable to find out how, or if, we could register to be a turtle releaser, so my son and I would just have to be content with watching!

After thorough exploration of the information centre and the staging tubs our host managed to drag us away from the turtles long enough to see the start of the parade come by, but we didn't last long.  We were eager to see the turtle release itself, and didn't want to risk missing it.  So after seeing the big turtle float

 

Big Turtle Float

and a few of the kids dressed in various types of outfits and playing various instruments, we excused ourselves and raced back to the beach.

Speech?

Not too long after our re-arrival at the beach, and certainly before the parade was finished, the formalities for the turtle release started.  People collected their turtles and, except for a few stragglers, congregated together to hear some sort of speech in front of the beach flags. 

We attached ourselves to a few participants who had left the main group and were heading down to the water, appearing as though they might release their turtles - how exciting!

Water! Water!  I sense water!

Now you are probably wondering about the turtles..... they were adorable!  They were maybe about a foot in length from shell tip to shell tip, with their heads, flippers, and tails poking out beyond that.  When they were brought close to the water they would start flapping their front flippers as if they couldn't wait to get out into the ocean.

After some waiting for something, I don't know what, the participants began the process of releasing their turtles.  Bringing the turtles down close to, but not in, the water, the participants placed the turtles on the sand and gave them a gentle nudge towards the water.

Ready, set,

  Those flapping flippers now dug into the sand and propelled the turtles onwards towards.....


















freedom!  Well, eventually......

go!

and keep going....

Gone?

Not quite.

  Try again....

Success!

Although we were not releasing any turtles ourselves, my son and I were kept highly involved by watching various releases probably for close to an hour.  When possible we kept to the outskirts where we could see the releases more closely, but we did also delve into the "crowded"

The crowded turtle releasing area

section at times.  When the majority of the turtles had been released my son and I headed back to the holding area where there were a few turtles left in the tubs.











And then...  BANG!  BANG!

Fireworks!  Fantastic!  The excitement was never ending!  Or so it seemed.  Eventually, however, it did quiet down, and by dusk the beach was quiet once more.  At this point my son and I decided to forego the excitement of the streetside festival and found a nice quiet spot on the sand where my son could engage in his sand creativity and I could contemplate the beauty of the evening on this, our last evening in Thai Muang.

Love you Thai Muang!