The Elephant, Frog and Pig...

Hey peeps,

Alright, I did promise some out-of-the-usual shelling posts, and so I will. Exams ended like 3 weeks ago so I managed to squeeze in two trips to Pulau Ubin during the marking days... :D Legend has it that 3 animals, a pig, an elephant and a frog, once challenged each other to swim across the Johor Straits. To cut the story short, they all failed terribly... and drowned. eventually, the pig and elephant formed the two main islands of what we now call Pulau Ubin. The frog, despite being a water-borne creature, eventually also died and formed Pulau Sekudu, or Frog Island. (Fyi, Pulau is the Malay term for "Island") So yea... Anyway, Sekudu is out of reach by the public and hence, we only toured the Eastern and Western Island. :) A ride around the entire island, on a bicycle, would take about 6 to 7 hours, which is of course dependent on how many breaks you choose to take. Shelling wise, I would have to apologise. I INTENDED to shell on the first trip, but tragically it rained when we finally reached the Jetty... :( And on the second trip, we had almost no time to shell... :( But anyway, the short 5-minute shelling experience was an eye opener for me... so stay tuned to find out why!

 We proceeded westwards... Which is usually unexplored. Here's a little stream to enjoy... You rarely find these on mainland Singapore. No shells here though. :/

 And the first river... Lined with numerous mangroves. Did I ever mention that despite being that little red dot on the map, Singapore hosts half of the 51 recognised, true mangrove species in the world! So protect your mangroves S'poreans!!!

 Right in the middle of the tidal river... This ecological formation is unique, in the sense that the river is filled only during high tide...

 On the top of Ubin Hill... Almost NO ONE was there, as no one was interested in climbing up 100+m... But the view is breath-taking... How often do you see this in Singapore? :D

 And to end off the day... a break by this lovely pond... :) Anyway, these photos are just snippets of where we went. We also visited the Bike Park at the far west, facing Punggol and Yio Chu Kang. We TRIED to visit Mamam Beach but it was CLOSED due to coastal erosion... Real sad eh? And to top things off, I had a great fall that left me with 12 scratches on my right leg and 1 week of humiliation from my friends (They gladly assumed that I was engaged in a cat fight... -.-" )

 And the Jetty... Low tides like these make me sooooo happy... :3

 And if you look closely, you'd find SHRIMPS in this tidal pool! (The spoon probably came from one of the restaurants nearby...)

 And a MELONGENA SHELL!!!

 Ok, so quickly, these are some of our finds: CHAMELEON NERITE

 WAVED NERITE

 BUTTERFLY/SURF CLAMS

 ONE-TOOTHED TROCHUS

 TIGER MOON SHELL

BLACK MUSSEL and DUA TOW

SO there you have it! Have an enjoyable weekend! :D

Sun, Sand, Shopping, Swimming (and Haze...)

Hello!

     Today marks my day of liberation! That's right! My finals are OVER, which means NO curriculum till February next YEAR! :D Alright, I assure you there would be more blog posts coming up but in the meantime... Let me share a little about a recent trip to... BATAM! Ok, Batam isn't the first place anyone would think of when you mention the word "Shelling" but hey, it was worthwhile... with the exception of the stupid HAZE... -.-" Anyways, for those in Singapore, you'd probably experienced worse, surviving under a higher-than-my-PSLE-score PSI reading for 3 consecutive days... So here it is...

 So... The ferry terminal is located somewhere upstream of a river, with its banks lined with rows of MANGROVES (Rhizophora sp.), as seen from their distinctive prop roots... Apparently, they help in maintaining the concentration of salt within the plant and BREATHE when exposed to air during low tide... Amazing...

 Batam Meowmeows... :3

 The view from our resort... Would have been spectacular if not for the 100= PSI HAZE... The chain of rocks close to the shore was apparently placed there to prevent the reclaimed white sand from being swept into the deep by currents... :/ (P.s. was a little disappointed to find out it was an artificial beach... Few shells... :( ) although I did manage to find a mini INDIAN BABYLON WHELK... haiz...

 BUT! The resort was heavenly... this is the sea-facing third storey... LOOK! Facing the... Singapore straits... :/ Alright, the view is worthy of a decent applause...

 AND a PRIVATE POOL, Facing the sea and a beautiful sunset!!! This is life at it's best... EXCEPT FOR THAT DARNED HAZE... -.-

 And yea, ignoring all PSI readings, I did manage to sneak a short visit to the coast on the eastern side and was not let down...that much...

 The usual residents on Sandy Shores, the RIBBED VENUS CLAM can also be found in huge numbers along the eastern coast of Bintan (Trikora). Collected some of these to create mini pieces of shell art...

 A CHAMELEON NERITE and a random crab shell.

 and two LAND HERMIT CRABS, no longer than half the length of my thumb...

 The general makeup of this section of the coast consists mainly of rocks, pebbles, driftwood and gravel... I'm suspecting that this was originally a rocky shore or cliff.. :/

 and my first ever collected BITUBERCULATE ROCK SHELL! Yes! this kiddo was hidden beneath a pile of driftwood, rocks, leaves and blah... Felt like the luckiest child on the coast when I found this guy (Well, probably because I was also the ONLY person along the coast...)

 how it looks like... (SEE how poor the air quality is? ...)

 and a DOVE SHELL! Still unsure of it's specie though... :/

Rocks leading to the sea... I presume they were left there to act as headlands to weaken the wave impact along the "mini-bays".

 Name: Beach Disappointment. :(

 The lovely villa...

 Ok, the tides receded REALLY far in the morning and BOY! still few seashells... -.- (You'd understand my hurt... :( ) BUT! they had THOUSANDS OF FIDDLER CRABS scuttling up and down the shore. Don't be deceived though... one accidental step and you would fall into knee-deep mud. Moral of the story: The haze did it... -.- Anyway, my sis and I went down and had a mini-self-initiated project of crab catching so yea... :/

 Checked out of the resort... Felt really sad that I had to finally leave the private pool and HUGE house... and to make matters worse, the PSI was raised to above 200. (The photo above actually depicts a sea and the sky... pathetic...)

 and my lousy mahjong tiles...

 After about 4 rounds or so we were eventually back at the harbour, ready to be deported back to Singapore...

 the Jetty...

 And a white, pristine beach at the river mouth...

and of course, a lovely sunset to end of this trip...

Mixed feeling though... I really loved the Villa and the food at Nagoya was REALLY cheap and delicious... The massage was decent though (Probably cuz I did a Thai massage though...). What I really enjoyed was the shopping, dining (SEAFOOD!) and the resort... Shelling wise, Batam would not be an ideal location but if you're willing to just let yourself loose and just enjoy what nature and luxury has to offer, MINUS THE PATHETIC HAZE, you'd really find it an awesome place to relax and enjoy life's pleasures! Alright, that's all I have for this post! Stay tuned for the following one on a trip I made to the rustic Island of the North, Pulau Ubin! and just to let you in on a little secret, stay tuned to the next few blog posts. I assure you, you'll not regret it! :D

Island Life... Love It :P

Hey Everyone!

     Apologies for the long period of absence... the past few weeks before term end have been overwhelming with tests and exams and stuff... :( But in any case, I managed to find some time to sneak in a blog post or two about a recent (Ok, maybe not so...) trip to the highly-popular, highly-disturbed coasts of SENTOSA! Yes, the fantasy land of the South coast of Singapore! :D Well... It doesn't seem like the first place you would think of when it comes to shelling but why not give it a try? And in any case the school was organising an event called "Take 5" whereby the whole school (YESH! 5000 of us!) would be dumped at the beach to soak up the sun, sand and sea (ok, they banned us from even getting close to the shore but... if there's a will, there's always a way right? ;D) and I had a shelling buddy and non-blood related Brother to accompany me! (Well, my other Tracker Brothers/ Team mates were there but they'd rather play the guitar, snap photos, run around etc. ) So yea... Some photos for you to enjoy. :)

 Ok, so it was a usual gather-by-7a.m. school day... But hey, there was transport provided tot eh island! So no complains... We arrived when it was low tide, so here's a picture for you to enjoy. The returning seawater eventually form mini canyons. :)

 Ah ha! Shameless CCA advertisement! Both Track and Field and Shelling take an equal standing on my obsessions list. :P You guys should try it out too!

 See that pagoda-like tower on the left corner of the picture? Apparently, it is the Southernmost Part of Continental Connected Asia... (Congrats to you guys!)

 And this is the first shell! Not too sure what specie this actually is or I probably forgot...

 There were numerous CHINESE SANGUINS around (Hiatula chinesis)... Double valved specimens are kinda easy to find as well. :)

 And LOOK! A mini DUBIOUS NERITE (Clithon oualaniensis)... Really cute specimen but tragically, i dropped it in the water and it was gone forever...

 There was a BIG BROWN MACTRA CLAM (Mactra mera). This kiddo was still alive so I threw it back into the water. Less the other kids on the beach mutilate it or something.

 The Bridge...

 Me Tracker Brothers! (Told you they were playing a guitar...)

 For local standards, these beaches are FAIRLY high classed. Almost no litter, but sadly with loads of coarse sand...

 Let the fun and games begin!

 And now it's time to go home... *Sobs*

 At the Sentosa Railway.

 Kiki's home. :P

 And here is the bivalved CHINESE SANGUIN.

 Erm... I'll get back to you regarding this guy...

 more CHINESE SANGUINS...

 Same goes for this guy...

Notice the pearl-like bump on the lower shell? Lovely... :D

Well, that's all I have for this post... If you are really interested to shell when visiting Sentosa, try Palawan Beach (This beach!). But for those in Singapore, who's vacation is being ruined by the thick haze enshrouding our lovely island... Akan Datang (Which means stay tuned in Indonesian)... for this is the clue to the location of the next shelling post. (And the location for this major Shelling Expedition! :D) To all Singaporeans, STAY HEALTHY, STAY INDOORS, WEAR A MASK WHEN OUTDOORS AND DRIN PLENTY OF LIANG TEH!