Walking to Kekek

Finally found time to put up my entry today! Been terribly busy for the past few days, some more kenna food poisoning after the Ubin trip. Suspect it's due to what I ate on Friday night, since I've been feeling funny since Saturday morning.

Anyway, it was a really nice and sunny morning when we reached Ubin last Saturday, and we were really taking our own sweet time looking at the beautiful flowers and insects along the way while walking to Kekek Quarry. Here's a lovely flower which I don't know the name.



We were going at such a slow pace that I jokingly told Luan Keng that soon we might see Chay Hoon catching up behind us. Chay Hoon just woke up just 15 min before we board the bumboat. And indeed, she showed up after a while :)

There were lots of kampong plants along the way, including many banana plants on both sides of the road. The one below was flowering.



A banana plant is actually not a tree, but a massive herb. It doesn't have the woody trunk that trees have.

We also saw this sea canon ball tree (Xylocarpus granatum).



When we reached one of the little kampong house that sells drinks, and the friendly uncle enthusiastically told us that he wanted to show us a "Guang Yim". Was he referring to the Goddess of Mercy, Guan Yin, or was it a mispronunciation of "quarry"?

Just as I was discussing with Luan Keng, he brought us to the nearby quarry.

Oh, so is was a mispronunciation of "quarry" after all.

But... surprise, surprise!

On the other side of the quarry, there was this huge rock that looked just like a statue of the Buddhist's Goddess of Mercy!



According to the friendly uncle, he had been staying there for many years, and the statue only appear like 2 weeks ago!

Anyway, we soon left the friendly uncle and moved on.

And here's a cute little green lizard we saw.




And apart from green lizards, we saw a green caterpillar too! Here's an atlas moth caterpillar munching off a leaf. Just compare it with Chay Hoon's finger! It's HUGE! The caterpillar, I mean, not Chay Hoon's finger :)



I also found this reddish ladybird..



And this reddish nutmeg...



And finally, we reached Kekek Quarry!



Robert couldn't resist the cool water in the quarry lake, and immediately took off his shoes to soak them inside.



There were many fishes in the lake, and we started discussing whether these fishes can perform the fish therapy that can be found at Sentosa!



Ed commented that he used to feed the fish at Sungei Buloh with simpoh air flowers, and so I tried to lure them with a flower between my toes.




But alas! It didn't work. In fact, the fishes simply refused to go near our feet. Even the terrapins in the lake refused to go near our feet. One of them was swimming towards us, and then suddenly, it turned and swam away in the opposite direction in double quick time!

Sigh... did our feet really stink that badly?

Anyway, it was a wonderful trip, with all the Semakau kakis. Thanks Luan Keng for organising the trip :)

Do check out the following blogs for more about this trip:
- Manta Blog
- Colourful Clouds
- Where Discovery Begins