Free Day--day off

I used our free day to relax a little longer and listened to the NCAA basketball play-offs on the internet—the local internet speed was too slow to watch the video. Then off to shop and ramble. The bus and subway (MRT) systems make it easy to get around the city and even the countryside—a taxi can be used when in a rush. My favorite places to go are Little India and Chinatown. In each setting, I found Indian temples in the midst of the districts. Historically, when the British brought in workers from India to join workers brought in from China, they all lived initially in the same area of Singapore (probably intentionally clustered to allow better surveillance and control by the British). Later, the Indian population settled another area of their own—hence active Indian temples in both settings. One of the photos shows the contrast of old—older cultural/religious heritage against a backdrop of moderninity and secular development.
Singapore holds a wide range of religious heritage and active practice. That reflects centuries of melting together of many cultures. There are frequently encountered places of worship scattered thru the city including on area of worship and prayer alongside our local bus stop. Here people of Buddhist faith burned money—“Hell notes” that were sent by burning to ancestors for use in the afterlife. There are many Christian churches reflecting strong missionary presences thru past centuries.
I searched for items to bring home to family—Singapore has everything you could want to buy and probably always cheaper. I find it hard to find items that reflect the region without being touristy—because Singapore’s identity is really a mixed identity of cultures. The citizens seem proud to be Singaporeans but there is no craft or item that reflects Sg that doesn’t more strongly reflect some subculture of Singapore.
I found the equivalent of a “flea mall” or grouped individual salesmen at tables set up within a mall. The items were enticing just like a visit to such a sale back home. I limited myself to the purchase for Dr. Dan of what the salesman said was a “new species” and included a rubber rat stuffed into a tortoise shell as a jest. I thought that Dr. Rittshof deserved the right to discover a new species and become famous. (The shell was held in the cupped hands while praying in the Chinese faith—coins were rattled inside during the prayer and then tossed to the floor where they were “read” to foretell your future.
A dinner in an upscale Chinese restaurant closed the evening and early to bed.

Trip to Malaysian Rainforest

Yasmin and water snake

Prof. Dan lets a leech hang out for a photo--he thinks they are the neatest creature in the rainforest--the rest of us were less joyful to meet them. In reality, they itch/sting like a local mosquitoe.

Dan and Gary chat at a rest stop.

Days eleven to thirteen—off to the Malaysian rainforest at Endau-Rompin Selai named for the indigenous village near its entrance. To get there was an adventure in itself. The train station, trains and tracks are still owned by Malaysia though surrounded by Singapore. We arrived at a station that showed its age but was decorated with cultural murals. Some Singaporeans feel it would be nicer if controlled by Sg. We went through customs/immigration sensing heightened alert by officials as they search for an escaped terrorist—his picture is in every window—on every wall. Then we commenced our early am train ride thru Johor (a modern looking city/Muslim culture) and into countryside of thick vegetation although much of it obviously has had native forest replaced by widely present palms for palm oil. We were met at the station by Gary and his crew of guides and went for an adventurous, muddy ride to reach base camp. At one stop, Gary introduced us to Guava fruit—native here—and I prefer it to apples. Later, when we had to stop for roadwork, Gary got coconuts and opened them with machete for a refreshing drink for all.
(Incidentally, since I’ve been watching for shorebirds, I saw a white egret in the river near Mandai mangroves as we neared the border and a great heron in the same area on return—some of the sparse shorebirds seen here).
At the base camp there were cottages with elevated sleeping platforms, rough toilets, and wonderful local cooking by a local family. Malaysian culture includes six meals a day-breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon teas, supper and midnight snack—they all seemed like full meals (I started skipping some). The park ranger met to tell us the history of the park which still holds rhinoceros, elephant and many large animals. Two areas are set aside for recreation—we were in one----but all the rest/ 80% is off limits except to research and occasional poachers. They are very protective of preserving this habitat. In this area of parkland, indigenous people, the Orangasee, are often used for guides. They are a gentle, peaceful, likeable group who still lives much or solely from the land—the rainforest—harvesting rattan, hunting for meat, guiding, etc.
Our exposure to this environment includes a walk to the falls (I was the only one to fall into the river at a washed out bridge—it cooled me down—always the klutz). Two night walks netted us looks at two flying lemurs, deer, a civet fighting a water snake (the snake seen above in hands of Yasmin), frogs of many types, black scorpion, firefly larvae looking like dark brown millipede with glowing tails, small fish and freshwater eel.
I won the prize for getting the most leeches—over twenty on my first walk of 35 minutes (photo of one above on Dr. Dan’s finger). They respond to your approach—human, elephant, whatever by moving rapidly with inch-worm motion almost jumping to meat your shoes on the trail—standing erect to make contact, then climbing to a good spot over a vein, boring in and going to town. I was bleeding this afternoon again from a bite 24 hours ago—they possess a strong anticoagulant. They start the size of a large pencil lead and gorge themselves to the size of a medium earthworm. The discomfort is about like a Cedar Island mosquito and less than one of our local marsh flies. I was looking at the bruises all over my feet and ankles at the bus stop tonight when Dr. Dan and I realized it was the same bus stop at which he first informed me there would be leeches in my future. We had a chuckle.
This experience was quite a striking contrast to urban Singapore—but not that long ago, much of Singapore held this same biodiversity that is now gone and Malaysia is trying to preserve. This side trip gives me a sense of what a rapid and widespread loss of nature has occurred as result of the developmental path /Singapore has previously chosen—tho now apparently re-examining.
I asked Gary who has worked for 15 years in this field of guiding or environmental field work—and in these geographic areas-the same question I have asked others—which group of animals, plants insects, etc. is showing he earliest signs of impact from environmental degradation. He believes the large mammals are hit the worst in the rainforest and next the reptiles—based on hi experience and observations.
We were able to see the wide biodiversity among trees and rainforest plants especially and at night got s taste of mammals, reptiles and amphibians that stay well hidden during the day.
Three events I do not want to forget: when we arrived we were greeted by the sounds of cicada so loud it could seriously mistaken for the jet engine sound of a plane taxi-ing down the runway//second, the afternoon rain, thunder, downpour so strong it brought limbs down off trees including the one over our roof, and third, the sound of the gibbons playing out of sight in the treetops as we were preparing to leave, One more thing, the shy and soft song sang for us as a gift by our Orangasee guide the night before we left. \
Now back in Singapore, I appreciate clothes that are dry or can dry out at all, the soft mattress, the A/C, and walking on flat level ground. And it was tough trying to keep up with young folk 1/3 my age.

For park info: http://johorparks.com/

Semankau day10

Second trip to Semankau—this time we went to Senakau at daybreak and low/incoming tide along with the Commonwealth Group (representatives from Asian commonwealth countries in Sg studying environmental issues. Additionally, we were joined by the Naked Crabs, a friendly and efficient volunteer group committed to study and preservation of coastal nature areas and focused also on teaching/guiding.

After a mudflat walk, we went to the end of the island for a look and back to the processing plant where they offload incinerated waste—2 million tons per day/down from 7. This their only landfill will last till 2030 at which time the country is committed to zero waste—zero landfill—thru reuse/recycling/and reduced consumption.

I did see a collared kingfisher, a flock of heron (locally/in Beaufort-- they seem solitary), an egret and a peurple ?heron. I saw a couple types of brown forest birds. The island is clean, green and has wonderful mudflats and mangroves. There is interest in replacing and refurbishing local destroyed reefs just now gaining steam.

Back to Sg for a dinner at little India after peicking up train tickets for Malaysia. No internet in the rainforest so future blogs will be delayed 2 and half days—slow internet in our inn prevents attachments till then –away in 5 minutes.

St. Joh's Island --day9

St. John’ Island is south of Singapore city proper and houses the Tropical Marine Sciences Institute and AVA which is an aquaculture/fishery enterprise, but the island has also has had its prior holdin facilities upgraded to be used as a holding area for potential terrorists, etc.—previously lepers. We walked thru fences topped with barbed wire to reach TMSI. TMSI does research on a variety of marine issues (such as Dr. Rittshof’s project on anti-fouling sgents) , restoration of marine habitats, environmental monitoring, and regionally specific research.

The government aquaculture enterprise studies efficient production of fish for the people of Sg==currently producing 3-5% of the needs of the growing population that utilizes fish as a main food source. They also monitor food safety and other issues. We toured the facility but no photos were allowed. We saw production of algae and rotifes as food sources and growth of fish from specks to grouper the size half as big as I am. The also grow Pompano and /snakehead—commonly consumed fish.

I did see two shorebirds—nidentified—fly to the rock jetty and a raptor flew overhead twice. I did see a common myna (not so common now that it is replaced by the Javanese myna in many city habitats—it parallels our sparrows.