Kusu Island During the Pilgrimage Season

I had originally wanted to visit Kusu Island last week, just to see how things were like on the island during the Kusu Pilgrimage season. However, the trip was cancelled as LK was busy. Since I was on leave today, I decided to drop by the island since the season would end tomorrow.


Located about 5.6 km to the south of mainland Singapore, Kusu Island has a Chinese temple housing Tua Pek Kong (basically a man named Zhang Li [张理] from the Hakka clan who landed in Penang in 1746) and the Goddess of Mercy, and a Malay shrine to commemorate a pious man (Syed Abdul Rahman), his mother (Nenek Ghalib) and sister (Puteri Fatimah) who lived in the 19th century.

According to local legend, a magical tortoise changed into an island to save two shipwrecked sailors - a Malay and a Chinese. The name supposedly means "Tortoise Island". "Ku" means tortoise, but I have no idea which "su" is it.


The island also has a "tortoise sanctuary", which ironically houses many of the alien Red-eared Sliders, but I did not see any of our native terrapins. Interestingly, the climber growing over the shelter is a native mangrove climber, Maiden's Jealousy (Tristellateia australasiae).


And here's the Chinese temple.


Childless couples hoping to have their own children will hang talismans on the branches of this tree in the temple.


Here's the Malay Shrine from a distance.


There were lots of talismans being hung on the trees also. When I approached the shrine, I could here some devotees shouting "Huat ah! Huat ah! Huat ah! Heng heng ah!". Probably gamblers wishing for good luck...


There was a Pasar Malam, but only a few stores were opened. I guess the rest will only open during weekends and public holidays during the pilgrimage season.


The food court was opened too, and I had a "humful" laksa, oyster omelette and a coconut there :P


A small boy found a Sand-sifting Sea Star (Archaster typicus) in the lagoon, and brought it all the way up to the Pasar Malam. When I saw it, I quickly told him to put it back into the water, or it would die. Fortunately the boy followed my advice and returned the sea star to the lagoon. When I last saw it, it was burrowing into the sand, so I guess it should survive.


The tide wasn't very low, but the water in the lagoon was quite clear. There was unfortunately an algal bloom though, and hence it was quite hard to spot things. I could still see a number of little crabs and fishes though.


At the edge of the water, I saw this long, white-coloured worm which I have not seen before! It looked like a ribbonworm, and was coming out of a burrow.


It was really flat though, and looking at its front end, it actually looked somewhat like a flatworm. So is it a ribbon worm or something new altogether? Hmm...


As the tide wasn't very low, I only managed to look at the animals higher up on the shore. Like many of the shallow lagoons on our various islands, there were lots and lots of Creeper Snails (Batillaria zonalis).


There were many Chameleon nerites (Nerita chamaeleon) too.


I also saw several other Sand-sifting Sea Stars, including one with only 4 arms.

Too bad tide wasn't low enough for a proper exploration. Guess during the next Kusu Pilgrimage season, I must find a day which has low spring tide and pay this island another visit! :)