day two: Pulau Ubin

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Its still too hot and I'm not getting enough food. The 'free breakfast' at Cozy Corners appears to be limited to cheap white bread and spreads.

Today I went to Pulau Ubin, which is an island off the east coast. To get across you travel on what they call 'bum-boats', possibly because they look like what a bum might use for shelter in an alleyway somewhere, and which seem to be just about as seaworthy. The crossing only took about five minutes which was fine by me. The sea is not my friend, but I had been prepared for the ocean waves by the considerate actions of the crazy bus driver who took me to Changi Village from whence the boats leave. On the way across I spotted a great crested tern. Once on the island you can hire a bicycle for the day. Mine was the reject one. It would only steer in a straight line if going at full speed (no good for bird watching, especially with the creaking noise it continuously made); at a good casual pace it wobbled this way and wavered that way. Also the brakes didn't work: made going down the steeper bits interesting.

First stop was at a small drainage ditch filled with halfbeaks and little mudskippers. A bit later I found some big mudskippers, little fiddler crabs and archer fish. It was a good fish day. The only mammal of the day was a group of wild pigs with stripy baby in tow; these are genuine wild pigs, not just feral domestic ones, so that was exciting. The baby got confused when I spooked them, and ran the wrong way (i.e. at me). Reptiles were all good: water monitor, clouded monitor, many-striped sun skink, and a cute widdle baby green crested lizard (all too quick for me so no photos of any). The birds were awesome. The best would have to have been the flock of oriental pied hornbills; not a first for me but the best I've seen them (out of the two times). Best of the new species were dollarbird, blue-tailed bee-eater and red-wattled plover.

After a hot five hours trying to get the bicycle to behave itself, I headed on the bum-boat back to Changi Village to find some food and try to find some more birds. There's a covered market there in which I chose a dining place by the name of "Sri Bistari, Changi Village, Famous Nasi Ayam Penyet, the first and the original". They had chicken or fish. The fish was fried and whole, so I went with the chicken. Then I headed outside again to search the surrounding trees. There are two introduced parrots famously found around Changi Village, moustached parakeets and Goffin's cockatoos. The moustached parakeets were easy, they're everywhere. The Goffin's were a bit harder. I wandered down to the beach while looking, to see if there were any Malaysian plovers there, but it was Saturday so there were lots of people and no plovers. There were heaps more parakeets down there too. Going back across the river bridge a couple of cockatoos flew across past me, so I headed back and picked out about five in a big tree I'd just walked past. Then back across the river and heard and saw lots more while waiting for the bus to arrive. Its a pretty easy way to see cockatoos (much easier than the job I had finding greater sulphur-crested cockatoos back home, but that's another story!). On the way back to town a young Chinese guy who was a bit 'special' sat next to me (I attract differently-abled people). He spent the entire trip (about an hour) saying "its not tv time, its not tv time, its not cartoon time, hello Elmo, hello Elmo" and pressing numbers on an imaginary cell-phone then talking on it. The bit I thought was interesting was that it was all in English. You'd think if he was raised over here he'd be speaking Chinese. I guess. Anyway...

ANIMAL OF THE DAY: Oriental pied hornbills and Goffin's cockatoos

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Photos

Dragonfruit
This is Malaysian dragonfruit. The Vietnamese one is white-fleshed and yummier and more expensive. Its my favourite fruit

Comments

[Colin]

No Title
I like your sense of humour! Take care, have a good trip.