Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The Teluk Ketapang Story Part 09: The Reunion

As the boat approached the jetty at Teluk Bahang, we could see our families, friends, villagers and pressmen waiting at the beach. Of course it was an emotional moment for some of us especially those who had waited and worried over us for one whole night but the reunion had to be cut short as we had to talk to the police first since a police report was made as suggested by the park rangers.



After some questions were posed to us by the police and we gave our side of the story, we were released and the missing persons report cancelled. As we were thanking all the parties involved in the search and rescue team, a reporter from Guang Ming Daily approached me and requested for an interview which I granted. I related to him all that transpired in the past 24 hours and the only two inaccurate things in his report were the location (Monkey Beach instead of Teluk Ketapang) and the purpose of us being there (conducting research instead of leisure). None of the other newspapers which carried the story interviewed us. Even if they listened in to the Q&A between the police and us, at no point did we mention that we were conducting research at the Penang National Park. So, there wasn't even a chance for us to be misquoted as they didn't even get a quote from us.



Although we had thanked and apologised to all those who were directly or indirectly involved in this matter, we would still like to take this opportunity to thank them again for all their selfless efforts in locating us and their many prayers for our safety. We would also like to apologise for all the worries and inconvenience caused by this incident. We do really appreaciate everyone's concern about our well-being including the nearby villagers and the love and care shown by our families, friends and colleagues. For those who still think we got lost at either Pantai Kerachut or Muka Head just based on reading the inaccurate newspaper reports, you're entitled to your stupidity.




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