Hello Everyone!!!
Finally! Thank blogger for fixing this technical glitch. Apparently, I couldn't upload any photos for approximately 2 months and thus the long silence on the blog... :) My apologies. Anyway, I can assure you that this post is certainly worth all the wait and patience! Why? You're about to find out!
So, as usual, my ddearest and most lovely parents would bring me on a major shelling expedition every half a year, during the months of June and December. So... the question on everyone's lips: WHERE DID I VISIT?
*Drum roll please...* :D
BALI!!! Yes, the Island of Gods! A wonderful and spectacular island situated right in the centre of the archipelagic nation! Of course, not only did we spend all the time soaking up the sun and shelling, but we also did visit numerous majestic and amazing landmarks/historical and cultural sites of Bali. However, I would like to start of this blog post with one of the most spectacular of them all... THE BALI SEASHELL MUSEUM!!!
So here we are! (That refers to my dad and I) At the Bali Shell Museum. The museum charges entrance fees of 70000 rupian per person, or SGD$10. Not too bad considering the amount of amazing seashells that we were going to see!
The museum is split into 3 levels: the first dedicated to the sale of wooden handicrafts, dried fish specimens and certain rarer seashells. The Second level is for the fossil collection. Upon arrival into this room, we were awestruck! Look at the number of trilobites in this fossil stone! And the best part is, this is just one of the many fossil specimens around there! there were others such as fishes, sharks, squids etc. WAH!!! :D
Ancient Amonites... Have seen some of these at Feng Shui Shops in Singapore. :P
The best is alwats saved for the last, for the third and final level showcases over 10,000 sepcies of shelled mollusc! I mean, comapred to my 300 plus species, 2-cabinet displays of shells, I almost fainted when I entered this room! I mean, IT IS SO AWESOME!!! Just the Sheller's Paradise! By the way, the shells on the left are Australian Trumpet Shells and the ones on the right Australian Baler Shells.
Tons upon tons of scallops! Royal Cloaks, Jewel Boxes etc... :D I'm in heaven!
And the huge array of Thorny Oysters! And all variant colours are displayed!
My mum's favourite: The Lion's Paw... Gorgeous...
And my favourite mollusc family: THE MUREXES!
Spiny ones....
Weirdly shaped ones... (btw, the ones with the long tail are the Snipe's Bill Murex)
And a lovely pink one!
Just asmall portion of the thousands of species here...
Rock shells! Never would I imagine that those unassuming and dull snails would turn out to be such beauties!
Triton family...
CROAK! These are the Frog Shells (or toad shells if I were to name them?! :P)
Melongena Shells!
Haiz... this family really stirs up the nostalgia within me... :) Why? Because the first ever shell in my collection was a COMMON SPIDER CONCH or Lambis lambis! I Still have it!
Amazing pink ROOSTER TAIL CONCHES from the other half of the world...
CONES! LOTS OF EM!!!
Volutes...
Haha! Finally spotted this baby! For our Floridian viewers, see how flawless this specimen is! The ultimate JUNONIA! Really the centrepiece among the rest... :)
And Wormies! (Haha Pam, specially uploaded this picture for you! :D)
"Little Sea Pigs", otherwise known as COWRIES...
COWRIES again...
This one's a treasure! Look at it! SLIT SHELLS!! This is my first time seeing this family so I was so super excited that I had to take 3 photos just to get a perfect focus on the shells! :P
Freak out! For these are the extraordinary FREAK SHELLS!
MITRES and HARP SHELLS...
CARRIER SHELLS! I can never seem to find any of these on our local shores... Wonder why...?
BUBBLE SHELLS and PAPER NAUTILUSes... 3 out of the 6 species are represented here.
And for the Chinese, these would probably be your favourite amongst the rest: ABALONES 鲍鱼!!!
And don't look down on that slow, boring old garden snail that you are planning to step on... For this is what some of their relatives look like...
TOTALLY AWESOME!!! A wonderful cornucopia of colours!!! Couldn't take my gaze off them for 5 whole minutes when I first saw this display...
Look at them!!!
Some more!
And MORE!
And not only does thi museum display seashells, I also has an amazing collection of WRACKLINE WEIRDOS such as these crabs...
The LAZARUS JEWEL BOX: The diamond within the family of Jewel Box shells...
Hope you've enjoyed each piece of eye candy presented in this blog post. Would really love to show you guys all the photos that I've taken but it is just too many! over 300! If you would like to see more, do feel free to leave a comment! So, i hope I've not let you down on this blog post. Have a great weekend and stay tuned to the next exciting blog post! :D
