Khatib Bongsu

Indeed, like what Samson mentioned in his blog, there are just too many things to see at Khabit Bongsu, and so I'll be havng a part two as well :)

We reached the dirt track which led to Khatib Bongsu around 7 plus in the morning, and the view was really stunning.



There were lots of native and exotic plants onboth sides of the dirt track, but being not much of a plant person, I can only identify some of them. Hopefully Luan Keng or someone else can help me to ID after reading this :P

Here's the fruit of the Simpor Air (Dillenia suffruticosa).



The leaves of the Simpoh Air were used to wrap food or made into into shallow cones to contain traditional food.

Can't remember the name of the trees below, though I understand it's an introduced species. The canopy was really pretty though.



We also found an eagle's nest (see below). Can't remember the species as well.



On the grasses and trees on the two sides of the roads were lots of insects and other little animals. Will cover them in my next entry. We walked all the way in and finally reach the mangrove area.

One of the first mangrove birds we saw this shy night heron. It's quite well-camouflaged though, but if you look carefully, you will be able to find it among the prop roots below.



Walking on, we reached one of the old kampong house which had been torn down. There were lots of lokan (Polymesoda expansa) shells on the ground among the broken tiles. Wonder what they were used for though. Or was it that the residents who used to live here ate a lot of lokan and just any how threw them around?



We also witnessed the tearing down of another kampong house. Kind of sad actually when you think about it actually. Many of the resdents are quite old and they have lived here for many years, and now, they have to move to some where else. Definitely won't be easy for them to get use to their new environment.



Another fish farm was still operating when we're there, though we knew its fate was already sealed as well. Soon, the residents will have to leave and the buildings will be demolished.



There were plenty of wild life here as well. We saw many fishes, inlcuding this giant mudskipper (Periophthalmodon schlosseri) below.



There were lots of mud lobster (Thalassina anomala)mound as well. The one below was still quite new, since it was so short. The mud looked fresh as well, so probably the mud lobster had just emerged from its burrow a short while ago to push out the mud.



When we walked towards the edge of the fish farm and looked across the river at the stretch of mangroves - it was a beautiful view. It just felt so peaceful and quiet here. We saw a few purple heron and a grey heron. They were too far away for me to take any photos though.



Finally, we decided to turn back. But even on the way back, we had a nice surprise waiting for us on a tree by the dirt track - a lizard.



This is probably a changeable lizard (Calotes versicolor), though since I'm no lizard expert, I also can't say for sure :P

Anyway, we eventually made our way over this shaky wooden bridge and headed back for Yishun.



But, that's not the end of our adventure for the day. After having our lunch, Samson brought us to this pet shop, and I was quite shocked by the things they sold there.

Colourful sea cucumbers, sea stars (including several archasters and 2 knobbly sea stars), lots of tube worms, moon snails, marine fishes, and even several nudibranchs (2 species of chromodoris, a jorunna, and another 2 which looked suspiciously like spanish dancers)! I even found a white-coloured egg ribbon in one of the tanks!

Very depressing to see them in a pet shop actually. Sigh...

I just hope that after our various talks and walks, more Singaporeans will be aware of the conservation issues and stop keeping marine animals as pets. Then hopefully these marine pet shops will have to close shop.

Back to Onch Kingdom

It was a misty morning when we returned to Sentosa for my second recce (Check out the entry on my previous recce here).

I was in Andy's car on the way to the meeting place when Lahiru called me.

"Hi Ron. I'm on a cab in Sentosa now. How do we get to the meeting place?"

"Oh, it's near Fort Siloso."

"The cab driver doesn't know where is Fort Siloso."

"It's near Underwater World."

"Eh... The cab driver doesn't know where is Underwater World."

"It's just outside Rasa Sentosa."

"Eh... The cab driver doesn't know a single place on Sentosa!"

"What??!!??? What kind of #$%@&^* cab driver is he? Doesn't even know a single place on Sentosa??!!??? What will happen to the tourist taking his cab??!!?? What's happening to this world??!!?? A cab driver doesn't know the tourist spots on Sentosa??!!??"

"Eh..."

"Ok ok. Imagine if you are facing Indonesia now, you should head right all the way. Just look for the road signs..."

And so, this was the little episode that woke me up, despite me only having less than 3 hours of sleep for each of the past 2 nights.

When we reached the meeting point, we saw Lahiru and his friends getting off the cab. At least in future this cab driver should know how to get to Fort Siloso, Underwater World and Rasa Sentosa.

Some of the Team Seagrass gang were there already. We were on different missions though, they would be monitoring the seagrass, while my gang will be doing a recce.

Soon, the rest of my gang, which includes Ley Kun, Alyce, November and Vilma, arrived. We said goodbye to the weaklings who were going to the intertidal area via the easy route, as my garang gang would be going there via the more adventurous route.

"Don't call us halfway to save you," shouted Alvin.

"What??!!??? We are the garang gang, you know??!!??"

Hmmm... I just hope my garang gang would not let me down and become gabra gang later.

In any case, everyone made it down the little slope to the coastal area safe and sound. On the other side of the sea was mainland Singapore, and what we see below was the site for the future marina.



This was my second time here, but yet I was still overwhelmed by the number of the onchidiums around me! Basically, they were here, there, everywhere on the rocky shore!



There were just so many of them, that I felt like I was in Onch Kingdom! We had to keep nearer to the cliff on the sandy area to avoid stepping onto them.

But of course, the onchs were not the only wild things you would see here.



We found a poor little seahare (top left) wriggling on the sand. We managed to pick it up and put in back in the water. We saw lots of sea snails - topshells, turban shells, dove snails and also many cute little nerites (top right).

We were also really fortunate to have November and Vilma with us this time round, who enlightened us on the geology and plants in the area respectively.



Can you see the beautiful vein of quartz cutting across the rocks (top left)? And the dramatic rocky shore partially eroded by the waves (top left)?

November also told us that the caves we found were natural caves. Due to wave actions, the softer rocks were eroded and thus the caves were formed. To prevent the cliff from collapsing, concrete was used to strengthen the mouth of the caves (bottom left). However, at some places, the damage was done before the preventive measures were taken, and thus we got something like the Broken Soul Cliff (bottom right).



And as we moved on, other animals greeted us - corals, fanworms, sponges, anemones, gobies, crabs, even a black sea cucumber (bottom left) and carpets of zoanthids (bottom right).



But apart from the animals, we saw many interesting plants too!



There were several patches of Raffles pitcher plants, with their dangling fruits (top left), cute little pitchers hanging like little jugs (top right), and lovely flowers.

There were bushes of native resam ferns (bottom left) as well, which reminded me of my army days when we had to bash through them.



And what got me quite excited was the tongkat ali (top right)! Ahem, not that I'm interested in it's medicinal value, but this is something that we have lots of interesting and sexy stories to tell our visitors :) Have seen it in the Central Nature Reserve and on some of our southern islands before, but really didn't quite expect to see it here. In fact, I got so excited about this that I forgot to take a photo. The above photo was from Ria. Thanks, Ria! :P

And apart from the greenery, we had a number of other colourful encounters too!



Vilma spotted this lovely wild orchid (top left), and the pretty wild ixora (top right).

And guess what, all the above plants are native species!

Just a quick recce and we found so many interesting wild things. Sentosa certainly has a lot to offer nature lovers!

But how many Singaporeans know this? When people are paying big bucks to see pitcher plants, corals, rock formations, and other nature things that are actually readily available at our door step... I would say, sadly, not many...