being part of the mangrove group, by hook or by crook, we have to visit the mangrove every morning by boat. it wasn't an easy an comfortable trip, but we sure did learn a lot. the tide changes every six hours and low tide being at 8am everyday, we had to get up at 0630, get ready by 0730 and leave for the mangrove which was about 500/600m away. the boat didn't have any seats so we had to use the roof, and with every sway the unbalanced craft threatened to throw us all into the sea--bags, valuables and all. but none of this really happened, i believe as God has been watching over us.
the first trip to the real off-shore mangrove was an eye-opener as we have never been in such a place before (Sungei Buloh is more of a NATURE RESERVE and you don't really get access deep into the mangrove areas). right there was the thick of it--the foilage, the sand, the animals. one couldn't have found something more natural. right where no one has treaded before, you get to see everything that happens. every single bit of detail--the red ants scurrying about, the crabs retreating into their burrows, the occasional bird having its morning breakfast and the fishes swimming in conjunction with the waves.
our task was to plot a 4m by 4m square/quad of plastic string and observe the wildlife that happens to be in that area. it included the plants & animals, leaving out the minors such as houseflies and mozzies. however, we left late that day and we didn't get to do any research as the tide had already risen and the wildlife had retreated. we ended up touring the mangrove and observing whatever DID happen on the unaffected parts of the island, mostly the tropical-rainforest area where the water did not manage to reach. treading on leaves and dead branches, we ran into mostly ret ants (there were huge nests, probably the size of lamp shades), bees and flies. we decided to mark out our spots for the quads so it would be easier to set up the quads for the next day. the water level had reached waist level, so we were more careful with our cameras and belongings. eventually after spending about 2 hours in the mangrove, we had to return to base for the other activities. apparently mr. balaji was not exactly happy with our group for taking our time to get out of bed. but it's understood--our group never really got stuff done on time. there'd always be a group of people who get to the destination on time while the others take their own sweet time, but i won't mention names. what's done is done, and neither do i regret any part of the trip that was affected by this.
we were heading back to the docked boat when i realised that i had cut my boardshorts on some object which i guess was a plant. it was quite bad, about 4cm long and i was extremely lucky that had the plant been a few inches higher everyone would have seen my a**. nonetheless we reached back on time for lunch, then we carried on with our afternoon programme which was snorkelling.
i had no qualms about it since we were already wet. right after our meal we plunged into the sea with the equipment to feed the fishes. i was initially scared of underwater creatures but finding out later that they were angelfish i eagerly jumped in (i seem to have a liking for almost anything with the word 'Angel' in it). it was no joke, we were really swimming among the fishes, no holds barred (other than the kelong fence). it felt good. a few minutes later, we were laughing at each other at how idiotic we looked in snorkelling masks. yvonne as usual was giggling at every slightest thing and stuffing dead fish into amos' hair. i was enjoying myself until sean was so smart as to fling dead bait fish into the area we were swimming in. one of them hit my face and i swear i smelt the pungent and slippery fish for a few minutes. i was thoroughly pissed and left the area. i saw no point in staying there to be the victim of someone's fun (i have grown out of that long ago).
right after the otherwise-alright evening was dinner yet again. i realised actually that we had been eating sotong for almost every 3 meals for the past two days, cooked in different ways. well, it was their catch, it was fresh, and they had cooks who tossed up interesting meals so i didn't mind. i liked sotong anyway. unless it was chilli-infused or something similar.
astronomy was the highlight of the night. quiet, calm, dark and interesting were the words to use. we were told about the various stars that occurred at certain times of the day, including Orion's belt, Cassiopeia, the Star Signs, and some orange-coloured one (i couldn't remember the name). well according to the the astronomer the glow from the stars we see is the glow that occured a few million years ago, as stars are suns of other systems offset from the Milky Way. but without a doubt it was really interesting to see that there are always stars we can use to navigate ourselves. it's like a natural compass, sitting in the sky, not only nice to look at but havea practical use as well. then dinesh, pope and i started crapping about Star Wars and dinesh jokingly asked the astronomer if "A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, whether star wars really did occur." "it was up to our imagination", came the reply. but i swear i have to interrogate George Lucas about the sound of the X-Wings, Y-wings, A-Wings and whatever chicken-wings that have lasers that produce sounds in outer space which is supposedly a VACUUM?
we had quite a bit of free time right after that so we paid a visit to the girls' dorm to play uno. their dorm has quite cool lighting, especially the washroom which comes in a pink neon. it made the room seem like a club. we played some music and played a few supposedly 'endless' games, which brought quite a bit of laughter as for some people it was just not their day. lights out came again, and it concluded the second day.
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