International Coastal Clean Up Day falls in September this year, so to mark the occasion the Sea Gypsies (namely Tam and Richard, aka Mr. Awsome), struck out for Tanjung Leman in a boat made of rubbish washed up from the beach on Sat, 23rd September.

Video of the endeavor (and the following party boat) has been put up on Youtube and Facebook (simply search for Sea Gypsy Village) as proof of the trip's success (along with all of the dehydration, aching muscles, storms, near misses with boats, and general misery of the lads).

Money raised from the adventure will go directly to the sustainable green projects of Kampung Duku mentioned below. So, if you do have anything to spare, please go ahead and donate, and know that your cash is going to a good cause.

Everyone visiting Sea Gypsy since 1992 has heard of the small village at the other end of the island, Kampung Duku. The villagers are some of the friendliest you will ever meet and mostly work as fisherman, or on one of the several resorts around the island. The Malaysian Government are actually very good about funding things for the islands, hence the enormous school, for only a handful of students. Thereby hangs the problem, what is actually wanted and required isn’t always what is provided, the bods in KL know far better than the islanders, apparently.

Consequently, many years ago, the Sea Gypsies started the Kampung School Fund to provide what they did want and have funded school trips, excursions, sports & music equipment, computers, uniforms and much more, with the help of our lovely guests and the schools that come to visit.

We’d now like to go one step further and help raise awareness of the environment and teach the villagers how to tackle the problems on their own. The Sea Gypsies has devised a number of projects to be undertaken around the Kampung, including:

• a recycling scheme

• vermikompost creation and maintenance

• use of compost for growing fruit & vegetables

Anything that you can give would be greatly appreciated, and will help the people of Pulau Sibu Besar in the uphill battle that is the fight against climate change

• building an incinerator for non - recyclable items washed up on the beach