the newly opened admiralty park
















the newly opened admiralty park does not have much to offer to nature lovers at the moment. at present, what is available to the public is the 7-hectare recreational park which comprises a 400-seater amphitheatre, a fitness station for the general public and one specially tailored for senior citizens. there is also an activity plaza.















the 400-seater open-air amphitheatre















the fitness station for senior citizens















the fitness station for everybody

the park shaped like a river valley is located next to the republic polytechnic - which has adopted the park - on riverside road.

when fully completed in 2009, admiralty park will cover an area of about 27 hectares, making it the largest park in the north-western part of singapore. the nature park will incorporate the exisitng mangrove swamp, including sungai china which drains into the straits of johor.

another three palms found in s'pore

sealing wax palm - one of the most beautiful and sought-after palms in the world. the sealing wax palms are highly tolerant of flooding and can be grown in standing water (like this clump at the symphony lake in the botanic gardens).

it is not easy to grow this palm in temperate countries because it needs high humidity. it also likes a well-drained soil and it is not tolerant of drought or wind. it grows well in both full sun or part shade.

bismarck palm or satra palm - another beautiful and desired palm. it is named after a german politician. this palm can reach 16m or more in height and is topped with gorgeous metre long and wide, stiff, waxy and bluish grey leaves.

macarthur palm - one of the most common roadside trees in singapore. it is a small palm noted for its multiple, slim, ringed grey trunks which are topped with soft green, feathery, flat broad leaves with tips that appear jagged and torn.

the macarthur is able to reach 10m although most palms are between 3 and 5m in height with a variable spread. the branched flower stalks hang below the crownshaft throughout the year and contain small, white blooms. these blooms give way to bright red fruit which ripen year round.

talking to k2 children

for the whole of last week, i was moving from one pcf kindergarten to another in this area talking to k2 children. k2 children are aged between 5 and 6. and pcf stands for pap community foundation. my job was to talk to the children individually. i had to cover four centres, with the number of children at the centres ranging from five to ten.

i spent between 15 and 25 minutes with each child. the interview took place in different places. at one centre, the supervisor moved out to let me conduct the interview in her office. at another centre, i used the printing room. at the other two centres, i was allocated empty classrooms.

i could have completed my assignment in two days but because there were absentees at every centre, i had to make return visits. at one of the centres which had two absentees on the appointed day, i had to make two separate trips because the two decided to be present on different days.

it was quite fun talking to the kids as most of them were quite focussed on the task except for one or two; one was easily distracted and the other was hyperactive. not all are local born children; i even had the opportunity to talk to a child from myanmar, who came to singapore when she was five.

toa payoh lorong 4's kuey chap

the name of the stall is simply 'kuey chap' and there's no need to double guess what it sells. don't go there in the morning or the afternoon, you will not get to eat any kway chap. the stall is open from 6.00 p.m. to 12.30 a.m. every day except monday.

today, we were there at about 6.10 p.m. there were already ten people in the queue although it was not ready for business. waited until 6.25 p.m. before the first one in the queue was served. when i got my order, i noticed that the queue had grown longer.

besides its opening hours, the stall is a bit different in another way. when you order your kway chap, you have to let the lady know the individual items that you want to eat with it. i ordered big intestines, kong bak, tau pok, white fish-cake, tau kuar and preserved vegetables. the total bill was $6.40.

although it is a kway chap stall, you can eat the items with rice. i saw someone who had rice to go with the cooked items.

over the years, i have eaten kway chap from many stalls but still cannot find one to equal the kway chap from the former blanco court stall. have tried the garden street kway chap (the one from blanco court) at the serangoon garden food centre. but, it does not taste as good as when it was at blanco.

the screw-pine (pandanus utilis)




















the screw-pines in these pictures belong to the same family as the common pandan plant (panadanus latifolius), the fragrant leaves of which are used in cooking and also for warding off cockroaches, especially in singapore taxis. it actually serves two purposes: repelling the cockroach and at the same time, giving off a nice scent.

the screw-pine is not a pine, it is actually a tropical tree. it is best grown as a free-standing specimen with plenty of room. this tree grows to a height of 8m but also grows as wide. its habit is to branch in tiers with its top in a pyramid shape.

this tree wants full sun. it is not fussy about soil content and it is also salt tolerant. screw-pines can be found growing along the sea-shore.




the roots are significant with many brace roots increasing in number and size and width over time.

according to my friend, the prop roots, which anchor the tree firmly onto the ground, look and work like screws, hence the name. however, according to another source, the name comes from the fact that the leaves emerge from the stem in cockscrew like arrangement.













the fruit which is a bit round is edible. it can be eaten raw or you can have it cooked.

the pictures of the screw-pines were taken at fort canning park and botanic gardens.

who say playing with cards is bad?

as a boy, i picked up card games like pak kow, si kee puay, teo hee and buan lak (when i was older, i learned its english name is blackjack). cash was normally not involved. our stakes included stuff like picture cards, glass marbles, bus tickets, kuti-kuti and rubber bands. the only time when we played with real money was during the three days of the lunar new year. of course, once it got started, it was a bit difficult to revert to gambling with play items.

pak kow or pa kau is known as daun tiga (three cards) in malay. it is a very straight forward card game. each one is dealt a hand of three cards. the best hand is three 10s or three picture cards. normally, if the sum total of your cards adds up to 10 points, you have a winning hand. for example, if you have a 4, a 5 and an ace, you have 10 points. you also have ten points if you have a 3, a 8 and a 9, as the total is 20 ( 2 tens). the worst hand is one where the sum total ends with 1. for example, if you are holding a 4, a 8 and a 9, it means you have the lowest point - 1.

this card game helped us to count in 10s. i believe it also enhanced our development in mental arithmetics. one look at the three cards in hand was enough for most of us to know if we had a strong or a weak hand.

the game 'teo hee' or 'fishing' also involves counting in 10s. so, if you have a 3, the corresponding card you have to look for is a 7. if you have a picture, say a jack, then you have the look for another jack. in this game, only the diamond and the heart have value. the spade and the clover do not count. it involves some thinking and planning ahead.

buan lak or twenty-one is a card game where each player receives two cards in the initial round. the first card is open (faces up) and the second and subsequent cards are closed (face down). you can stop at two cards or you can play up to a maximum of five cards. however, when you have a buan lak (blackjack), you have to declare it by showing both cards.

what did this card game teach us? it taught us how to strategise, but more importantly, it also taught us how to apply the law of probability. even though at that time we were not aware of such a subject or topic of study, we were already into guessing the chances of getting a small value card and a big value card. we also had to guess the uncovered card of the dealer, to help us decide whether to stop at a certain point or to go for more cards.

the other card game is si kee puay or chi kee pai. in malay, it is known as daun empat (four cards). this card game incorporates a bit of poker and a bit of everything. you received four cards and then you placed them in sets of two. the first must not be stronger than the second set. it required thinking and strategising to present a hand that would be stronger than the dealer's.

i feel, after all these years, that my card playing days had helped me in developing my mental arithmetics to some extent.

wild cinnamon tree - common roadside tree

i often wondered if cinnamon, the spice, comes from this common roadside tree. we all should learn how to identify this tree as it is one of the most common trees found growing in singapore. the other common cultivated trees include the rain tree, the angsana, the macarthur's palm, the khaya senegalensis and the jambu ayer laut.

the scientific name for it is cinnamomum iners. the malay name for it is kayu manis hutan. the malay name implies that the bark or wood from the tree is sweet or fragrant. found out that it is the cousin of the ceylon cinnamon (cinnamomum zeylanicum). the famous spice comes from the ceylon cinnamon.

the wild cinnamon tree is easily distinguishable from other trees as the young leaves are reddish-pink and tender. the mature leaves are dark green. because it is a very leafy tree, it is a good choice for a shade tree.

the oil extracted from the leaves of the wild cinnamon is used for a variety of purposes, one of which is aromatherapy. the roots have been traditionally used for the treatment of rheumatism and fever.

beware of the geese!

we were at botanic garden's eco pond admiring the black swans, when my friend tye thong reminisced about his encounter with the geese during his kampong days, more than fifty years ago.

those days, most families, besides growing some crops like sugar-cane, tapoica and sweet potatoes, also reared poultry like chicken, ducks and geese. the goose was not as popular as the other two birds. geese are, however, quite intimidating - they still are - as they were bigger and nosier. they seemed to be more aggressive too. because of their size, their bite can be quite painful.

in our impoverished state then, as small children, we often went about minus our clothes. totally naked, we were not shy about moving around, with mucus streaming from our nostrils. we did not feel embarrassed because practically every child in the village (kampong) was doing it.

but, we were scared of the geese. a gaggle of geese would go about foraging for food. they fed on grass and whatever crumbs they could find lying around. sometimes, they would go to the stream and its banks to forage for worms. so, when they saw this worm dangling from the front of the child, they would not hesitate to attack the 'worm'.

geese can live up to 20 over years, provided they do not end up on the dining table. obese geese tend to have a shorter life span. you can tell the sex of a goose by the size of the knob on its head. the one with a more prominent knob is a male. when they are babies, goslings can be mistaken for ducklings as they are similar in look.

some palm trees


on my walks, i have come to notice that there is actually a great variety of palm trees growing in our humid nature reserves and nature parks.

a palm tree is basically a trunk with leaves emerging from that trunk. there can be one or multiple trunks. the leaves or fronds can come off the trunk all the way from the top to the bottom, or just be at the top of the trunk.

here are three common ones.





















the licuala peltata, a palm with serrated leaves are common in our nature reserves and our nature parks. this one was seen at bukit batok nature park. the leaves will appear to have been trimmed by someone using a special pair of scissors with zig-zag blades.

it belongs to the same family as the fan palm. this palm prefers a moist shady position but once established can tolerate dry periods.




















this is a fan palm. there are quite a number of species of such palms. the fruit undergoes changes in colour as it is ripening. first, the fruit is green, the it turns orange and finally, when it is ripe, it becomes red.




















the ripe and unripe fruit of the fan palm. not all fan palms have fruit of the same colour. some have blue or purple fruit.




















the fishtail palm is a common palm found in tropical rainforests. it is the only palm with leaves that are subdivided twice. the shape of the leaflets give it its name - fishtail.

fresh milk - right from the cow's udders

in the 50s and 60s, you could get fresh milk right from the udders of the cows on the streets. along cambridge road in the 50s, where there was this big patch of grass near the wet market, i used to see some indian men leading their cows to graze on the grass. i think, right up to the 80s, the milk man was still doing his trade in certain outlying parts of singapore, like somapah in changi.

there was also a dairy farm around the base of the bukit timah nature reserve. i think it was called the vishnu farm. today, this farm can be found at lane 8 lim chu kang road. however, things are mechanised and you do not get to see the farmer using his hands to work the teats.

in those days, you could also have the fresh milk delivered to your doorstep by the indian man who would come around on his bicycle with a canister of milk secured to rack at the back of his bicycle. he would also have clear bottles filled with milk, carried in a canvas bag with pockets on both sides, to be sold to ready buyers. later on, he progressed to using a motorcycle to make his daily rounds.

you could buy milk, fresh from the udders of the cow, right at your doorstep. the dairy farmer led the cows to wherever he could find buyers of his milk. then he would use his bare hands to squeeze the teats so the milk went right into a pail before transferring in into a bottle. if i recall correctly, he would sit on a stool and using his two hands worked on the teats until the milk flowed.

today, we may find this practice unhygienic but in those days it was the better-off people who would buy the fresh milk from the itinerant cow-men. people like us had not heard about the benefits of fresh milk then, so we settled for the blue cross brand of condensed milk instead.

we had to be extra careful where we trod or stepped as we could end up landing on a mass of dung deposited by the wandering cows.

goli panjang - childhood games from our kampong days

kampong life was all adventure and play. when we were not catching spiders or catching longkang fish in the monsoon drain or canal, we would be playing games like goli panjang, hatam bola, modified soccer with mini-posts, five stones and many other ingenious forms of play making use of everyday objects like the discarded bicycle wheel, tin cans or even bus tickets.

i will try and describe one of my favourite childhood's games - the goli panjang. two persons can play this game but the more, the merrier because the winning pool gets bigger. it is usually played on a sandy patch, which was not a problem to find in a kampong.

an arrow, with a head and a tail, is drawn on the sand. each player contributes a specified number of glass marbles to start the game. the number of marbles is decided by the players. if you have four players and each put out five marbles, there will be twenty marbles. these glass marbles are then placed on the arrow, spaced out, starting with one on the arrow head and it goes right to the tail. if it goes beyond the tail, then the surplus marbles are pooled together at the tail.

a straight line is drawn, four or five metres, from the arrow with all the marbles. the players take turn to try and hit one of the marbles on the line with a rolled marble. the ultimate aim is to hit the one at the head of the marble, then you get to win all the marbles. if you hit, say the 3rd marble, then all the marbles from the 3rd one onwards are yours. however, if you hit the bunch at the tail of the arrow it does not count.

as the game goes on, the pool may get bigger and bigger. how is this so? each time you start from the line and miss, the rolled marble goes to the pool. so, if everyone keeps missing, then the marbles accumulated at the end of the arrow will get more and more.

if you are a champion shooter, you can go home with two pockets full of marbles.

whitley flyover food centre

in the 70s, whitley flyover food centre was one of two our favourite haunts, the other being newton food centre. the proximity of the centre to our workplace was one of the main factors that we regularly gathered at whitley after work or after our riding (on our motorcycles) sessions.

it was a compact food centre tucked under the flyover. there was ample parking space at the car-park next to it, which is still around today. in those days, we either walked or rode our motorcycles to the makan place.

one of my favourite food stalls was the pork porridge macaroni. i liked the gluey porridge that came piping hot. i think this stall, together with the pepper crab stall - tian jin hai - relocated to macpherson's jackson place when whitley flyover food centre was shut down.

i can also remember the fishball noodles stall because the owner was my neighbour in kampong chia heng. today, he and his younger brother are still in the same business. i see him when i go to lavender food court.

i was not particularly fond of the big prawn noodles which is now operating at the novena food court. my reason for not patronising the stall must be that the price was high (for me, at that time) and the other reason was big prawns did not appeal to me. but, it seems there were more than one big prawn noodles which operated at whitley. the other day when i went to the newly renovated old airport food court, i came across another 'whitley road big prawn noodles' stall.

another stall that made its name there was the golden rooster. but, our favourite stall was the mamak drink stall. we could sit there the whole evening and down, between the two of us (kok weng and i), ten glasses of teh.

sports day on the school field

when i first joined monk's hill secondary in 1987, i was surprised to find out that they still held their sports day on the school field. granted, monk's hill had a large enough field to stage a sports meet. but, why hold it on the field when you could rent a stadium and have everything provided for. was it to keep a tradition going, i wondered?

to have it on the school field, you had to draw the lines for the tracks. the straight lines were straight forward matter but the curves needed some knowledge of mathematics and some drawing technique. they had actually buried bricks in the field to mark the spots where the curve began. still, with these aids, it took victor, aman and myself a few afternoons to get the whole 300m track done.

then you needed tentage. sheds were needed to house all the spectators, participants and invited guests. it involved a bit of logistics. students could stand to watch the races but guests and parents had to be accorded proper seating arrangement. to cut down on expenditure, the school's classroom chairs were used. to create the mood, decorations in the form of buntings and flags were put up.

they did not have field events like throwing the javelin, discus, shot put and the jumps. it was a track meet, incorporating some obstacle races. when i took over the reins from mr aman - when he got promoted to a vice-principal - i introduced the some field events as completed events, that means, they were held before the actual sports day.

subsequently, we had our sports day (renamed track and field meet) at a public stadium, either at toa payoh or farrer park. one year, the meet, held at toa payoh stadium, was 'washed out' because of heavy rain.

109 teochew yong tau foo @ syed alwi road

yesterday, had lunch with thai soon and tye thong at syed alwi road. thai soon gave us a choice: laksa at golden mile or teochew yong tau foo at syed alwi road. since tye thong is a teochew boy, we opted for the teochew stuff.

thai soon went for the soup version while both of us ordered the dry type. after you had selected the items and handed the bowl over, you would be given a small number plate to take back to your table. thai soon came back with number 33. when it came to my turn, i mentioned 33 but the lady insisted that everyone had to have his own number even if we were sharing table, so i got 35 and tye thong's was 34.

thai soon explained that they heated up or fried the items again and so each order would be prepared separately. the number was to identify the order, not the table where we would be seated.

the dry version came with the cut items sitting in a shallow bowl of brown gravy, similar to the gravy for lor mee. the soup came in a separate bowl. the condiments were placed in containers next to our table and we had to help ourselves to them.

after a satisfying lunch, we walked over to jalan berseh to check out the stalls. the pig's trotters and shark's meat stall was closed. the stall with a queue was the fish soup stall on left end of level 2. we had 'kopi karsi' from the stall next to the fish soup stall.

from there, we moved on to sungei road thieves' market. after browsing for more than half an hour, tye thong bought a nice picture frame. we had a beancurd drink each at beancurd city before calling it a day.

how to escape speed traps in m'sia

rare is the person who doesn't speed on malaysian roads? open road and 100s of km to go, who is not tempted to go beyond 110m. unless you are like my pilot friend james who switches to cruise control once he hits the lebuhraya. or disciplined like my colleague seow who keeps within the limit all the time.

in my 25 years of driving i have not been caught for speeding. however, i am not one of those who feels that speed is unlimited once he is on the malaysian highway. there are those who say with pride that they dash from kl to s'pore in two and a half hours. i can never claim that. i normally take more than four hours to make the journey from s'pore to kl.

i do speed but selectively and i am always alert for any signal or sign from helpful motorists going in the other direction. i do not speed when i am nearing the main rest-stops or any of the toll plazas outside the big towns. i slow down to the legal limit when i am approaching overhead bridges, underpasses and crossings. i slow down whenever i see that the malaysian motorists are, all of a sudden, driving sanely.

the universal signal for speed trap ahead is the flashing of the headlights from vehicles going past you in the opposite direction. once i see a flash, i adopt a cautious mode and adjust to the correct speed. even if it is a false alarm, it does not matter.

the best thing to do to avoid being booked for speeding is use the cruise control or to keep to the limit all the time.

attempts to retrieve missing shares

today i made a trip to cpf building at jurong east to find out what happened to one lot of share which i had bought with my cpf money in the 90s. since i started getting statements from ocbc, this share has never been reflected. i had gone to ocbc to check and it was they who advised me to check with cpf.

had to wait for nearly two hours before i got the chance to talk to one of the officers. she was very pleasant and she tried to trace the lost lot. she checked the record and told me that as from 2004, there was no record of it and i was told to check once more with ocbc. this time she gave me the account number.

a few days later, armed with this information, i went down to the ocbc bank at upper bukit timah to seek assistance. the bank officer asked if i had sold the shares. she then explained to me that since this record went back some many years, it would take them a bit longer to retrieve the information. i was asked for my contact number and she said she would contact me the moment she got the result of the search.

on the same day, just before 5 p.m., she called to let me know that i had been given a cash rebate of $1500 for those shares and that the amount had been credited to my cpf in 2001.

i wondered how they could have done that without consulting me. then it dawned on me. when i moved to bukit panjang, i had not updated my change of address with ocbc. letters regarding this matter must have been sent to my old address and because i did not respond (because i never got to see the letters), they must have gone ahead with the payment.

at least, now i feel a sense of relief as i know that my shares were not stolen or sold without my knowledge.

owen primary school

the building is still standing, after more than 50 years, but the school 'died' many years ago. i was registered for primary one in dorset primary school - long since demolished - but because there were more applicants than places, i was 'transferred' to owen primary school, a new school in 1955. three years later, i was to move again, this time to another new school, newton boys' school.

i do not have much memories of the school and its teachers but i can still recall how the headmistress at that time, mrs aria, terrorised us. woe betide those who forgot to wear their pe bloomers to school on days they were supposed to have pe. mrs aria forced them to remove their trousers and to wrap newspapers around their waist.

i had a classmate named onkar who lived further down the road from the school. he came from a nice family and i remember visiting his two-storey house once. there was another classmate or schoolmate who lived in the tasek utara estate. his name is poh pheng. a good looking boy, he seemed to have been talented from young.

from this cohort who started at owen primary school in 1955, at least six of us made it to raffles institution. onkar and poh pheng were rafflesians. meng tong, who was also transferred to newton boys' school and who always topped the class was another. if i am not wrong, ho pin chan was also from the same batch.

i think the school closed down in 1989 but not before it became well-known for the wrong reason - two of its pupils disappeared and were never found.

today, the building has been renamed cambridge international hostel. it serves as a hostel for foreign students studying in singapore schools. all the rooms are airconditioned and i was told that food is catered.

exciting time ahead for nature lovers

by the end of this year, the highest pedestrian bridge in singapore will have been completed. however, the 270m bridge spanning henderson road is not meant for the ordinary pedestrians. it is specially built for nature lovers and nature walkers. a shorter 80m bridge of the same nature is being built across alexandra road.

these bridges, walkways and footpaths will link the three exisiting parks: telok blangah park, mt faber park and alexandra park. they will serve to connect some 9km of the southern ridges comprising mt faber, telok blangah hill and kent ridge.

nature lovers will not be the only one to benefit from these exciting links. cyclists, too, can travel through the linked passages and the casual visitors can enjoy panoramic views of the harbour and the surroundings from a new vantage point.

the other day when i drove along telok blangah road, i could see the unique pedestrian bridge taking shape.

then, there is the gardens by the bay which will comprise three distinctive waterfront gardens.

the 101-hectare gardens by the bay will be made up of gardens at marina south, gardens at marina east and gardens at marina centre across the mouth of the s'pore river.

the marina gardens will have special areas for garden festivals. there will be open spaces for concerts and performances. there will be water-based activities and beachfront gardens.

however, for this, we will have to wait a bit longer. the first phase is expected to be opened to the public in 2010.

wantan mee @ blk 79 telok blangah drive

long queues are generally a good indication of the popularity of a food stall. but sometimes a queue is formed when it need not be. for example, at aston, there is usually a queue because you have to give your order to the receptionist before you can gain admission into the restaurant even if there are many vacant places available.

at hong ji mian shi jia at blk 76 telok blangah drive, you can always expect a queue. first, the food (wantan and soup) is good and so the stall is popular. secondly, the plates of noodles are prepared individually, so the queue moves very slowly. what normally takes five minutes may extend to fifteen minutes at this stall.

on a sunday afternoon, only 18 of the 30 stalls at the food centre were open for business. most of the other stalls had hardly any customer. it would seem that everyone at the food centre was there for the wantan mee. the only other stall that had reasonably good business was the stall next ot it, a drinks stall.

at $2.50 for a plate of wantan noodles and the same cost for a bowl of swee kau soup, it was well worth the money. the soup was sweet, with a hint of ikan bilis and soya beans. for $2.50, i got a generous amount of noodles with char siew, swee kau and chye sim. the noodles were soft and they did not break easily.

the stall is open from 6 a.m. to about 9.00 p.m. it is closed on fridays.

penang place @ international business park

the prices for lunch and dinner have gone up slightly. it used to be $14.40 for lunch and $18.40 for dinner. now, it is $18.80 for lunch and $20.80 for lunch. on a public holiday and saturday, you have to pay $2 extra per person.

the spread is the same as before and the quality of the food is still above average and quite authentically penang fare. the place is just as popular, so it is best to make reservation as we found out today. we almost could not be accommodated in the restaurant. there were at least two big groups - one was about 40 strong and the other 12 - at the place.

the list of food includes ju hu eng chai, nasi lemak, char kway teow, penang laksa, hokkien mee, lobak, ngoh hiang, springrolls, otak otak, rojak, prawns, rendang and others. you can make your own chendol and ice kachang.

penang place also does catering. minimum group size is 30 and it starts at $20 per person. you pay an extra $150 if you want the char kway teow man to be stationed at your function. they also provide you the equipment to make sure your chendol and ice kachang are fresh.

cosy bar @ tanjong rhu

all this while i thought that the oasis was the only makan place at tanjong rhu bay; today, i found out more. there is a nice footbridge connecting the indoor stadium to the tanjong rhu bay area. apart from the oasis, there is another eating place in the vicinity - it is the cosy bar. i was on my way to the marina bay golf course when i saw this place.

the structure which resembles a pagoda is four storey in height. the cosy bar serves mainly liquor and beer. you can also get hot and cold beverages as well as some finger food. i understand that you can have your food and drink at any of the three levels of the pagoda.

there is a parking area specially reserved for patrons of the place. the fee is $5 but this amount can be redeemed when you eat and/or drink at the cosy bar.

creatures on the beach

it is never a dull moment when you visit the shore area, especially at low tide. you will be able to see a variety of living organisms in the shallows as well as on the exposed shore. it is always interesting because each time you will see or discover new things.

today, for example, i saw a baby horseshoe crab swimming on its back. i had assumed that that was their normal way of movement but found out later that this was not the case. the crab, the size of a fifty cent coin, was on its back all the time when i was watching it.

scattered over the muddy stretch at low tide were more than twenty dead crabs. they were not flower crabs but swamp crabs. they could have been dumped there by someone. but, why would anyone want to do that? or they could have made their way there from the mangrove swamp near the shore to meet their tragic end?

there was this sea snake which seemed to be feeding on the many mussels found on the muddy stretch of the shore. it was in the same position for sometime until i decided to disturb it by dropping a dry leaf on it. then, it slithered away.

these are the organisms that are visible. there are lots more which are hidden; they have burrowed themselves into the mud or live in the mud.

paper baked chicken @ teck sing restaurant

after our exploration of gunong pulai, we returned to johor bahru via pekan nanas and the pontian highway passing pulai springs and universiti technologi malaysia along the way. when we were nearing tampoi, traffic came to a crawl because of the ongoing construction of the flyovers. it took us about half an hour to clear the bottle-neck.

victor suggested going to taman sentosa for herbal chicken lunch. i assumed that we would be going to the famous bamboo restaurant for our midday meal. instead he suggested the restaurant next door - teck sing restaurant - which also served the herbal chicken but named the dish 'paper baked chicken'.

we did not eat the chicken in the restaurant; we bought takeaway but we did order the noodles and ate them in the restaurant. teck sing is air-conditioned and occupies two shop houses. it offers a greater variety of dishes. there were pictures of sbc stars who have visted the restaurant and, also hanging on the wall, were awards and newspaer features about the restaurant.

as i was leaving the place, i checked the restaurant next door. it was so different from before. there was hardly any customer. bamboo restaurant has outlived its former glory. that's why, i feel that even an eatery needs to continuously upgrade and to offer something new to entice its customers to keep going back.

trapping confused motorists at kulai

we were cruising around kulai looking for a certain dirt track that was supposed to lead to gunong pulai. we came to this cross-junction where the traffic lights seemed to be red in all the sections. finally, the traffic in the opposite direction moved and one motor-cyclist signalled to us, on the opposite side, to follow. thinking that the traffic lights were faulty, we moved although the light on our side was still showing red.

we were not beating the traffic light; we had assumed that the lights were not working properly and had taken the initiative to drive on. a short distance after crossing the junction, a policeman in white uniform signalled to us to stop by the side of the road. we were up to then still unaware that he was using this devious way to nab us. finally, when he said that we had not stopped for the red light, we realised what he was up to.

he proclaimed: i am fasting; i would not lie to you. you have indeed failed to stop for the red light. when i explained that it was also red to my left and right, he volunteered to show me that i was wrong - the traffic lights were in working order. yes, they were working; only the order was not the normal order.

he was taking advantage of the atypical traffic signal system at that particular junction to make a fast buck. locals or those living around that area may be familiar with the system but if you are new to that place or just passing through, you may fall into his money-spinning trap.

he asked for my driving licence and identity card and told me to get into my car and stay in the driver's seat. right away, i knew his intent. to make me understand his intention, he added that the fine for the offence was rm$300.

realising that i was 'trapped' as i have indeed committed an offence unwittingly, i slipped rm$20 into his summons book. so, there goes my unblemished record of not having been made to pay a fine for traffic infringement in my more than 25 years of driving in malaysia.

gunong pulai waterfalls in johor

victor told me that he last visited the place some twenty years ago. we were trying to look for a dirt track located just outside kulai town. many things have changed in those twenty years. kulai town has expanded. the dirt track has been replaced by a metalled road. we took the road outside kulai that led to the north-south highway. just before the toll plaza, on the left is a sign that says 'gunong pulai'.

we took the road and came to a sign that was quite distinct. it says 'hutan lipur gunong pulai'. we stopped to ask for direction from a woman who pointed 'straight ahead'. the village at the base of the mountain is known as gunong sri pulai. we travelled on the road till we came to a sign that says in malay "not open to the public". as we had come all the way, we decided that we did not understand malay and carried on.

what we saw was quite disheartening. it seemed that the project to turn the area into a recreational resort had been abandoned. the one-time office was in a real bad shape - the roof was gone and the place appeared to have been left vacant for a long time. a structure which once served as a lifeguard post was still standing but the one beside it, a pavilion, had collapsed totally to the ground.

there was still a semblance of a waterfall but the volume of water could not be considered rushing. you could still swim but the water was not that clear and also not mountain cool. to venture to the place where there was cascading water, you would have to go on foot.

we actually drove up the steep, narrow and winding road but stop short of the summit because we did want to run into any uniformed personnel and be charged for trespassing a restricted area. at the top of mount pulai is a transmitting station.

memories of old ri @ bras basah road

one of my more vivid memories of my four years of study at raffles institution at bras basah road was this picture of the old capitol theatre. each time i looked out of the classroom, which was often enough, i would see the huge poster staring at me from the front of the cinema building. what made it more interesting was that the poster would be changed each time before they started to screen a new show.

in and out of school, i often heard my better off classmates mention the name of magnolia snack bar in the capitol building. they would go there after school to have their milk shakes and ice-cream and/or to meet up with girls from the nearby convent of the holy infant jesus.

i can still picture in my mind the big banyan tree within the school compound, next to the school's main tuck shop. we had two tuck shops, the larger one was near the canal and the other one was closer to bras basah road. when we were not chasing ball (hantam bola) or each other on the school field, we would play under the shade of the magnificent banyan tree.

one other memory is that of the water in the canal filling up and emptying with the ebb and flow of the tides. the canal ran along the stamford side of the school and it drained into the sea. at high tide, it would fill up and conversely, at low tide, the water level would drop drastically.

in another year, when my classroom was in the other part of the building, i could see the grand raffles hotel and hear the happy noises coming from the exclusive brittania club across the road. i do not remember seeing asians going into the club; seemed like it was reserved for the privileged british soldiers.

my daily pocket money was just enough for a drink and a pau or a roti prata. most days, i would spend my recess time reading school magazines of other schools in the library. on those days when i had spent all my money. i would have to walk home from school, that is, from bras basah road to where the novena station now stands.

euphorbia milii (crown of thorns)

euphorbia milii, commonly called the crown of thorns, is an old pot and house plant. in the tropics and subtropics it has been long used as a landscape plant, valued for its toughness.

this little shrub is a popular house plant. many varieties and hybrids are available varying in flower size and colour from red to yellow. it blooms freely most of the year. it normally becomes dormant in the warm season (summer)… don't throw it away if it loses its leaves. as with the other euphorbias, its sap is poisonous, it irritates the skin, and can cause temporary blindness if it goes in the eyes.

usually euphorbias continuously lose their bottom leaves, so they have bare trunk with bunches of leaves at the ends of branches. it is normal for old-fashioned euphorbias. lately new hybrids of euphorbia milii do not lose the bottom leaves and grow into nice looking bush sprinkled with bright-coloured flowers. this type of euphorbias need a bit more watering, otherwise it will lose the leaves too.

my sister, yew kim, gave me a pot of this plant. in fact, she wanted to give me more; however, i told her that my place/corridor was already like a jungle. i nurtured it for a few weeks and now it is 'flowering'.

she told me that propagation is quite easy - you just break off the thorny stem and stick it into the soil. a new plant will grow from it in due course. actually, it is not as easy as that. you have to dry the stem before sticking it into a pot and the soil should not be too wet or too dry.