Pengerang Sea Shore

Access to Pengerang (2): Via Sebana Golf Resort

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:22:00 +0000

Noted: i am currently at North America/ Europe, not likely to come back until next year. i do not intend to abandon this blog, but updating it can be tricky since i do not have the latest pictures or inputs. i would appreciate if someone is kind enough to share his/her pictures in Pengerang with me. Merci.

The marina of Sebana.
Many visitors do not know about the Ferry service between Sebana and Singapore Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.
From Singapore Bedok or Tanah Merah MRT Station (i don't quite remember now, check SBS service), take shuttle bus to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.
Take note that, taxi will apply a surcharge like in Airport.
From Sebana to Sungai Rengit (the biggest town in Pengerang area), transportation can be tricky.
Somehow, you do need to arrange a pick up either with Sebana or local Sungai Rengit taxi driver. It probably costs you a steep RM 50 or so. (A 20 minutes drive.)

This is how the ferry looks like.
The ferry actually takes a detour towards Tanah Merah direction.
So eventhough the speed is definitely faster than the bump boat, but the journey time is around the same. An hour or so.
The Malaysian side immigration is easy and casual (the immigration is only for Sebana ferry passengers only), but the Singaporean side is kind of tedious.
Sometimes, there are long queue and Woodlands custom kind of immigration, due to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal is also used by Indonesia-Singapore ferry services.

Since it is far from the town, the journey takes around the same time as the bump boat, more costly (far more) and possible of nuisance immigration, so why should someone takes a ferry?
The only reason for local like me to do so is: The ferry service is until late evening at 7pm and it got a fixed schedule.
So if you do not want to stay overnight at Pengerang and want to hang out until late evening (since the bump boat stops the service at around 3.30pm), then this can be your option.

http://www.sebanacove.com/ferry_service.htm

Sebana provide the best accommodation at Pengerang area. (In my personal opinion.)
Resort or hotel kind of room with facilities such as swimming pool, restaurant, sports ...
If you are willing to pay and do not intend to stay at a small RM 30 motel in Sungai Rengit, then you might want to check it out.

http://www.sebanacove.com/accommodation.htm

Not to forget, you can see many mangrove monkeys around the ferry areas.
Obviously somebody has been feeding them as they are not 'that' scared with human beings.
Please do not feed them, so that they won't grow to expect food and when they don't get it, they eventually attack people for food.
They have sources of natural food around, so don't worry about their diet.

Mangrove: source of food and breeding ground for many marine creatures such as fishes and crabs.
It is also the habitat for some mammals, such as monkey and reptiles, such as monitor lizard.

Shore Behind of Yok Poon Primary School (5)

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:12:00 +0000

May be, i won't be able to update this blog again for months ...
i will on the road again soon and this time, i do not know when i will come back home again.

Banded bead anemones in the rock crevices.
When out of water, they retract their tentacles and look like beads of jelly.
In the pool, they extend their tentacles and filter feed.

This is a community of sand bubble crabs.
This kind of small crabs eat the coating of detritus on the sand grains.
Processed sand is discarded in little balls.
The tongue structure of the crabs is actually on their legs.

This looks like an elbow crab to me, with its relatively longer pincers.
During the talk with Dr. Dan, he shared about how crabs mate. The male organ of crab will go into the female's body. They can mate for ten days and up to 12 hours continuously for a day. The male will inject around 2 little of sperm into the female!

Barnacle is crustacean, or in simple words, the relative of crabs.
To continue the sex story, barnacles have the longest pennis for animals, relatively to its body size.
They can switch from male to female or vice versa.

Venus clams are normally found under the rocks.
When i was young, picking clams at the shore is a kind of family activity and source of extra-dishes.

Limpet is a kind of snail with the shape like a hat.
They lift their shells and crawl around the rock to graze algae.

Top shells are abundant at the shore. They are a kind of snail which graze on algae.

Shore Behind of Yok Poon Primary School (4)

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:07:00 +0000

i always like to explore this this small island. Most part of the island is submerge during high tide and it is only accessible during low tide. This island is right behind of the school and when i was young, during the art lesson, the teacher even asked us to sketch it.

The red tall building is a Sungai Rengit Malay Primary School. Beside it, it is Yok Poon Primary School.

This Soneratia alba mangrove tree (Malay: Perepat) is almost and icon of this small island.
Its circular leaves may be eaten raw or cooked and the ripe fruits are edible.
It is the host tree of fireflies.

i found this red color nerite particularly beautiful.

Nerite is a kind of marine snail and it has one of the strongest shell structure.

A beautiful blue hermit crab is hiding in the shell.
i used to think collecting shell at the beach is something romantic. :)
But since i become a nature guide, i realised that, shell collection is depriving hermit crabs from their houses.
At the same time, those shells selling by the shop is probably by first killing the snails first, in order to get their beautiful shells.
(Hermit crabs don't kill the snail in order to get the shells. They just used the one which is empty and suit to them.)
i remember Ria said something like: How long are you going to look at the thing if you bring it back home? 3 minutes? and then you just leave it there and eventually forgot all about it.
Then, why not do a good act to just leave the shell alone. A shell in good condition can become the house of a hermit crab and the broken shell eventually become the sand.

Onch is a kind of sea snail without a shell. Its thick skin prevent it from drying out.
It is so well camouflage with the similar skin color and texture with the rocks that, i almost step on this one.
It breathes air through its modified gills at its backside.

The left side is just a shell of an oyster while the right side is an oyster alive. i was actually surprised to find even one live oyster as the residents here are coming to the shore from time to time to harvest free seafood.
Oyster is a kind of soft body animals with 2 shells. They feed by filter the organic particles in the seawater during high tide.

These are my favorite animals at this shore.
They are colonial anemone. They are a kind of animals (not plant) with stinging cells like coral or jellyfish.
They get their food from photosynthesis of the algae living with them and filter feed organic particles in the seawater.

The name of this snail is drill.
It gets it name from its way of feeding. It can use its tongue like structure to 'drill' a hole at barnacle to feed on it.
Its hatched eggs turned into purple color and the yellow color eggs are the unhatched one.

Others: Accommodation and Bicycle Rental

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 08:22:00 +0000

The New Immigration Building in Operation

General Election of Malaysia.
Different party flags by the bridge in Sungai Rengit town.

i feel like this blog is getting like a tourism site instead of about the seashore. :)
Hope the below information is helpful since some of you have been asking.
i have never ever use their service before, so i have no idea of the quality of the service and others.
If you intend to visit the town during weekend, it is better that you call them and make your reservation.
Try to speak in Mandarin or other Chinese dialects when you call.
By the way, i do not gain any benefits from putting up their name cards here. :)

Accommodation

Chop Let Seng is almost the first hotel (more to a motel) in the town.
The owner said, every room is with attached bathroom and TV.
Room for 2, RM 40
Room for 3, RM 50
Room for 4, RM 65

i have no idea on Seng Huat Hotel. But it has been there for a while too.

Hotel Hiap Hwa is kind of brand new. Started last year and managed by the family of the ex-village head. Simple room range from RM 68 - RM 108.
My sister's friends and family had stayed there last time and they said it was clean.

P/s: The town is so small that the location of these hotels is basically not an issue. These three can be reached in 3 or 3 minutes walk from each other.

Bicycle Rental

i asked some Singaporean cyclist who i saw in the bumb boat.
They said, they rented the bicycle at Changi for SGD 18, 2 days.
Just ask at the bicycle shops near to the hawker centre.

If you prefer to rent the bicycle in the town, call and make reservation.
Kwong Hwa Heng is near to the bridge and the rate is RM 14 for one whole day and RM 2 for an hour.
i have no idea on the condition of the bike.

Other alternative, call 07-8265888
This is another bike rental shop in the town.

Sea Almond tree. This one is near to the jetty. The branches look like a pagoda.
The fruits look like almond and the nuts are edible.
The leaves change color during dry season: Red, copper, gold.
Currently, this one looks red.
The tree Sheds all its leaves twice a year in January-February and July-August.

The new jetty. Going to complete soon.
There is a marina for the yachts, like the one in Tioman.

The new immigration and passenger waiting building.
It has not yet been completed completely, but already in operation.

Leisure Pengerang (4): Lunar New Year Fireworks

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:25:00 +0000

If you like to see fireworks, undoubtly, Sungai Rengit is a place for you to see it near and without crowds during Chinese New Year.
Supposingly, fireworks are banned due to safety reason, but in fact, many rich households in the town disregard to the law and had their 'private' fireworks.
Thanks to them!

Special Feature (2): The Rape of Sungai Pulai, Johor

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 03:56:00 +0000

Leave the Seahorse at Sungai Pulai Alone!

As a Johorean, i don't even know where is Sungai Pulai until one day that, someone from Team Seagrass Singapore forwarded one email regarding to Sungai Pulai.
So i did a small search on this.
I myself won't dream of to see seahorse in Pengerang, but to my pleasant surprise, near by (kind of) around Pontian, there are seahorses!
I almost couldn't think of any places in Johor where there is a wide public known of rich marine lives.
(If you are thinking about Tioman, then, come on! Tioman belong to the state of Pahang! :P)
Please let other know about this place so that there will be at least someone to speak for the place.
All of us can play a role.

Photo from SOS gallery.

What is Seahorse?

Seahorses are a genus (Hippocampus) of fish.
Seahorses and pipefishes are notable for being the only species in which males become "pregnant".
The female inserts her ovipositor into the male’s brood pouch, where she deposits her eggs, which the male fertilizes. The fertilized eggs then embed in the pouch wall and become enveloped with tissues.
Most seahorse species' pregnancies lasts approximately two to three weeks

About Sungai Pulai Wetland
http://www.wetlands.org/malaysia/en/articlemenu.aspx?id=5bc18f0e-b793-4967-9fb2-e9236b055b23

About Save Our Seahorse
http://www.sosmalaysia.org/home.html

The nightmare for the seahorse and Sungai Pulai has finally show up.

A proposed development plan which involve the clearing of 2255 acres (913ha) of mangroves at Sungai Pulai (near the Ramsar Site) for petrochemical and maritime industries has its EIA open for public reviewing.

The types of industries proposed are shocking. They include the manufacturing of industrial gases, synthetic resins, paints, varnishes, petro refinery, shipbulding and repair, chemical incinerator and harzadous
waste, fertilizers and pesticides, rubber remilling and latex processing
etc.

This is the intended rape of Sungai Pulai.

The EIA is open for public reviewing and comments starting 19 July 2007.
Please send in your comments by the end of the month. The EIA executive summary is attached here. Also attached is my general comments. Alternatively you can also download the EIA report from the DOE website.

Your comments can make a difference. Pls spread the words as far as you can to the like-minded people.

Please prevent the rape of Sungai Pulai.

Sincerely Yours,
Choo Chee Kuang
Save Our Seahorses

Below are the some people whom you might want to send in your comments
(email, fax, post letter, cc whatever - the more the better)
............................................................................

Director,
Department of Environment
Ministry of Natural Resources
Level 1-4, Podium 2 & 3,
Wisma Sumber Asli,
No 25, Persiaran Perdana
Precint 4, Federal Government Administrative Centre
62573, Putrajaya
Tel: 03-88712000 or (2200)
Fax: 03-88891973
Fax (Director General Office) : 03-88891036

Pengarah
Jabatan Alam Sekitar Johor Bahru
Tingkat 1&2, Bangunan Hasil,
Jalan Padi Emas 1, Bandar Baru Uda,
81200, Johor Bahru
Tel: 07-2356042
Faks: 07-2356071
Email: johor@doe.gov.my

Prime Minister
Prime Minister's Office
Federal Government Administration Center
Bangunan Perdana Putra
62502 Putrajaya
Malaysia
Tel: 603-88888000
Fax: 603-88883444
Email: ppm@pmo.gov.my

Dato' Haji Abdul Ghani Othman
Menteri Besar Negeri Johor
Pejabat Menteri Besar Negeri Johor
Aras 1, Bangunan Sultan Ibrahim, 80502 Johor Bahru, Johor.
No. Telefon : 07-2244148 / 07-2234789
No. Faksimili : 07-2230867

Seaport Worldwide Sdn Bhd (Project Proponent)
Attn: Miss Susan Chiang
Level 5, Wisma Kontena, PO Box 151,
81707
Pasir Gudang
Tel: 607-2535888
Fax: 607-2522507
Email: susan@johorport.com.my

Hijau Sekitar Sdn Bhd (EIA consultants)
Ir. Dr. Wee Ka Siong
124A, Jalan Lembah,
Taman Tasek, 80200
Johor Bahru
07-2453388 /235 3322
Fax: 07-2355666

Y.B. Dato' Haji Abd. Latiff Bin Yusof D.P.M.J., P.I.S
SUKJ( Cawangan Jurutulis / Majlis Mesyuarat Kerajaan )
Aras 1, Bangunan Sultan Ibrahim, 80503 Johor Bahru, Johor.
No. Telefon : 07-2239780 / 07-2769780 / 07-2241957
No. Faksimili : 07-2246359

Unit Sains Teknologi dan ICT Negeri Johor
Aras 2, Bangunan Sultan Ibrahim, Jalan Bukit Timbalan, 80000 Johor Bahru,
Johor.
No. Telefon : 07-2238239 / 07-2215030
No. Faksimili : 07-2234269

UPEN (Unit Perancang Ekonomi Negeri)
Aras 2, Bangunan Sultan Ibrahim, Jalan Bukit Timbalan, 80000 Johor Bahru,
Johor.
No. Telefon : 07-2241768 / 07-2241698
No. Faksimili : 07-2241323

Tuan Haji Abd.Rahman bin Mohamed Dewam
Jurutulis Dewan Negeri Johor /
Majlis Mesyuarat Kerajaan Negeri Johor.
07 - 2239780 / 2244203 ext. 108
Email : - arahmanmd@johor.gov.my

Y.B. Encik Freddie Long Hoo Hin
JAWATANKUASA PELANCONGAN DAN ALAM SEKITAR
Aras 1, Bangunan Sultan Ibrahim, 80503 Johor Bahru, Johor.
No. Telefon : 07-2239780 / 07-2769780 / 07-2241957
No. Faksimili : 07-2246359

Y.B. Datuk Halimah binti Mohamed Sadique
JAWATANKUASA KERAJAAN TEMPATAN DAN KESIHATAN
Aras 1, Bangunan Sultan Ibrahim, 80503 Johor Bahru, Johor.
No. Telefon : 07-2239780 / 07-2769780 / 07-2241957
No. Faksimili : 07-2246359

Photo from Chay Hoon, but this is from Chek Jawa Singapore. :)

Choo's Comments on EIA Executive Summary

The EIA Executive Summary has 20 pages. If you are interested to read, please email me and i will send it to you.

Tanjung Pengelih Shore (1): 4Nov07

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 13:28:00 +0000

It was a pleasant surprised to see so many soldier crabs near to the jetty. Roy ( :P )said, there are 'tonnes' of soldier crabs at Cyrene Reef, Singapore. But Cyrene is patch reef and not as accessible. i have never seen the soldier crabs army before, so i think this is my birthday gift from the shore. :)

When the tide goes out, hoards of Soldier Crab emerge from their sandy burrows to ‘march’ across the sandy shore. Their ‘armies’ can range from a dozen individuals to hundreds, moving over the sand flats like an undulating carpet. (This is why they are called soldier crabs. They troop about in large numbers.)

Soldier Crabs are fascinating creatures to watch, as they swarm over the flats. Systematically, they pick up parcels of sand that are placed into their large and complex mouth-parts. The sand parcel is revolved around the mouth-parts where small pieces of organic matter are extracted and consumed, the sand-pellet is then dropped and the crab picks up another parcel of sand and the process is repeated. It is interesting to note that these crabs move forward on their stilt-like legs, not sideways like most crabs.

When disturbed, the crabs burrow sideways directly into the sand, a process that takes less than two seconds. Its bizarre to sit on a sand flat and watch a hundred crabs just disappear into the sand, then a couple of minutes later, they just pop up out of the sand and carry on feeding, a great anti-predator defence.

This is not a good picture...
Anyway, i think you can see a shrimp!
It hides under the rock and normally if you flip over a rock during low tide, you will see many life forms.
(Remember to flip back the rock gentlely after that.)

Shrimp are distinguished from the superficially similar prawns by the structure of the gills. There is, however, much confusion between the two, especially among non-specialists (like me :), and many shrimp are called "prawns" and many prawns are called "shrimp".
For most people, the difference between shrimp and prawns is based on size, with larger shrimp being called prawns.

A young Avicennia mangrove.
This fellow just simply grows too near to its mother tree and this could be a disadvantage to grow under the shade of the mother tree.
The pencil roots can be see clearly.
Since mangrove nud is poor in oxygen, the pencil roots help the tree to absob oxygen from the air.

i am not sure what kind of palm tree is this.
It grows by the coastal hill by the main road of jetty.

Unknown butterfly.
Take note with the shinning blue patch near to the edge of its wing.

An ant nest!

Sungai Rengit Mangrove and Festival: 7Oct07

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 13:44:00 +0000

Home sweet home! i have finally returned from my months of overseas trip. One of the good things about to travel is, i learn to appreciate what surrounding me and what i have. This is of course something that everyone said when they travel, but i can really feel this from the bottom my my heart now. If you have forgotten the last time you just look up to the sky and enjoy the sunset, then please do so. The purplish, orangish and reddish colors in the sky are just amazingly beautiful. You don't have to even go to the seaside to do so. Just look up eventhough you are in the bus or car!
Do enjoy the pictures below. These are some findings in my warmth hometown.

Near to the river mouth, this area used to be a rich mangrove. But nowadays, it left only a few mangrove trees and hardly even see the mud lobster mound.
We still got a fat monitor lizard though!

Monitor lizard eats insects, crabs, dead animals and anything it can catch. It 'smells' the air with its blue forked tongue to track down carrion and small animals.

Climber crab. It feeds on mangrove leaves and scavenge for meat.

Archerfish. It feed on insects near to the water surface. The interesting thing is, archerfishes have elongate mouths to forcefully pumped out water to knock down the insects near to the water surface. But they have to practise and learn to be accurate over time.

Needle fish. Normally found near to the water surface as it eats small surface-dwelling fishes. It has a pair o long jaws with sharp teeth.

Calyx of bakau, a kind of mangrove tree.

Monkeys are common along the river near to the mangrove. You can easily sighted one at Tanjung Pengelih Jetty.

Oysters and alive! Oysters are molluscs with two-part shell. They stick one of their shells firmly to the rock with a strong glue.

It was the 'birthday' of the guarding deity of my clan, "Sim" (沈). The Teochew chinese opera was one of the yearly events to celebrate the birthday of the deity. i was surprised to see the Chinese electronics sub-title by the stage. i almost feel like i am in Singapore Esplanade Theatre! :) Nowadays many young people are not able to speak or understand Chinese dialect, not even to mention be able to appreciate the opera. This sub-title was really useful for the young people to understand the performance.

Offerings to the deity.

Fire cracker!

Shore Behind of Yok Poon Primary School (3)

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 08:47:00 +0000

Finally, i bought a new camera to replace my lost one. And i was lucky enough that, it was low tide when i got back home. So, i dragged my friend to go to the shore with me. :) There were nothing much at the shore though. The tide was not low enough, so we did not see the black sea cucumber. However, we saw a tiny elbow crab and i think my friend now knows that, why we should always visit the shore with a guide! :p

i will be away for another few months, likely until September. So, it is not likely that i will have anything to upload here until then. However, i think i should still be able to do the Q&A or comment stuff. :)

Like usual, we were greeted by the Friddle Crabs near to the Sonneratia mangrove tree. Male Friddle Crab has one big pincer and one small pincer. The big pincer is so huge and heavy that it is bascially no practical function. It is used to attract female, to show that i am mascular! (In the animals world, manhood is equally important. :)

There used to be abandance of oyster around the shore area, but due to over collection, there isn't as many now. Oyster is two-parted shell softbody animals. One of their shell stick firmly on the rock. When the tide comes in, the other half of the shell will open and it started to filter feed. It filters organic particle in the sea water. So if the water is polluted, either by heavy metal such as mercury or human waste, then these toxic is very likely to remain in the body of oyster. When you eat the oyster, these things will transfer to your body!

The things which look like a hat and stick on the rock is a kind of snail called limpet. It can shape its shell to suit to the uneven surface of the rock. This snail can lift up thier shell to move. So it is not stationary.

This volcano looked creature is called barnacle. It is the close relative of crab, so it is a crustacean. Barnacle is a pest in shipping industry as it will stick at the bottom of the vessle and hence causing the additional used of the fuel to drive the now heavier ship.

This is a tube of a tube worm. The tube worm is living in the tube under the ground and the tube is made from both mucus and sand. This species of tube worm like to attach a piece of leaf to its tube. It is believed that, the leaf will help the worm to better sense the vibration and hence, predator. Some fishermen would pull out the tube or dig the worm out as fishing bait.

i flipped over a rock and saw this tiny little crab, around 1cm. It looked like just another ordinary crab to me but when i took a closer look now, it looks like an albow crab to me. Its pincers are obviously longer than other ordinary crab.

Ok, this animals become my favorite in my hometown shore. There are always there and they look beautiful! This is colonial anemone. Anemone is called "sea sunflower" in Chinese. You can see the one opened and the one closed in this picture. The open one does look like a sunflower right? The have stinging cell, so they are cnidirian like jelly fish.

We saw these two stranded jelly fish on the way back. They were likely dead or going to die...
Some jelly fish will swim up-side-down to have their tantacle facing up. This is because there are sometimes symbiotic algae staying at the tantacle. These algae will produce their food from the sun and eventually the jelly fish gets its share too.

This is a simple and basic crane used by the fishermen to upload their catch from their boat to the jetty.

The black color dots that you see were all flies! There were tonnes of them flying and stopping on the fishes left on the ground. When i asked the fisherman were these to sell at the market (i asked in my horror, although i myself don't eat) ? To my relief, he said, no, these were to sell for making pet food.

Sungai Rengit Simple Town Map

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 05:38:00 +0000

A simple map as i can recall.
May be i will come out with a 'better' map later. :)
Anyway, hope this helps.

Accommodation

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 04:19:00 +0000

This is the hotel or guest house that my family will book if we have friends or relatives come and couldn't occupy all in our house.

It is situated right in front of the taxi station. The hotel is apartment like. You may choose to rent the whole unit with 4 rooms at around RM 200 per night (if i am not mistaken) or just a room at around RM 50 or 60.

The apartment or room is clean, with kitchen, TV and air-con.

The receiption of the hotel is at the grocery shop beside of this beauty salon.

The owner of this grocery shop used to work in the grocery shop of the owner of hotel. Eventually he opens his own grocery shop but continues to work for his previous employer by taking care of his hotel business.

By the way, if you are looking for some inexpensive and reliable facial or others, this beauty salon is quite a good choice. The owner is a local used to work in Johor Bahru but she came back and opened her own shop when she got married. She has a diploma in beauty kind of thing (couldn't remember what is the name already).

i got this news when i went back during Chinese New Year 2007.

Avoid Tai Hoe Hotel right opposite to the bus/taxi station. The owner was caught and under bail for getting her Indonesia "maids" to provide "special service" in her hotel.

What to Buy at Pengerang (1): Local Made Pastry

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 01:48:00 +0000

If you are looking for some 'real' local products, this is the place. This pastry shop has been there since i was a kid. It is runs by a family and the bussiness been past down from one generation to the next.

This shop is situated at the row of shop houses near to taxi station. You are not likely to miss it!

You can find many kind of traditional Chinese pastry here. However, nowsaday, mostly are 'imported' from the other state or district. The only real local produced and local famous pastry is "Lao3 Po2 Bing3" (direct translation to English would be "Wife Pastry").

Making of "Lao Po Bing" on the spot.

We used to call it "tua bia" (Hokkien) or "Big Pastry" in English. The size of the pastry used to be around 15-20cm. However, it has shrinked to slightly around 10+cm now. May be that is why they called it "Lao Po Bing" now.

The pastry tastes sweet, mainly making from flour and sugar. i am not sure about the oil they used, but i assumed it to be vegetable oil (it just doesn't make much sense to use lark to make this kind of pastry).

One piece is RM 1.50.

That is how a Lao Po Bing looks like.

Remember, only this is local made!

All other kinds of 'imported' pastry and cracker.

My brother-in-law like the chestnut pastry. However you might be able to get it some where else too.

Leisure Pengerang (3): Ostrich Farm

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 02:54:00 +0000

i hadn't been home for the past two months. Partly was due to my frequent oversea trip and the other reason was i lost my passport. :( So i was trapped in Singapore for one month while waiting for my new passport to be done. Fortunately things went out smoothly and i managed to get my new passport.

This time in August, i went back with two of my friends. i am glad that i brought them with me, as they let me see the other perspective of 'going back home' and highlighted something in my hometown that i have never appreciated at much.

However it was high tide with very strong wind when we was at the shore. So we did not walk at the beach.

There is an Ostrich Farm just some where near to the town. We did not go there but a few of my ex-colleauges went there last month. They were kind enough to share some of their pictures in the farm with me.

Nursery of the baby ostrich.

Unfortunately, their ultimate path of the ostriches are being one of the source of food.

Feeding corns to the ostrich.

You can have an ostrich ride if you wanted to.

You are allowed to stand on the huge ostrich egg too. The egg has very hard and thick shell.

As far as i can remember, you need to pay either RM 5 or RM2 as entrance fees to the farm. However my friend said they paid for RM 6 or RM8 for entrance and tour. i am not very sure about this, may be they have local and tourist rate. :P

Other than Shore (2): The Guan Yin Temple

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Sun, 07 May 2006 09:54:00 +0000

You won't miss this temple between Sungai Rengit and Sungi Buntu, if you are coming or going to Tanjung Pengelih Jetty. It is right beside of the big corner of the road. It used to be a small and 'plain' temple. But as many other temples in Pengerang, it got renovated in the good will of some devotees and now it is still small but eye catching - too colourful if you ask me.

The Guan Yin temple is built facing to the sea. Like usual, the fishermen hope the protection from the Goddess and wish for a good catch. Every 3 years, there will be celebration which devotees escort Mazhu Goddess in Sungai Rengit to this temple. It is a big celebration and festival for a small town like this. The next celebration is 23th March of lunar calender in year 2007.

Dragon is an auspicious animal in Chinese belief. Although Guan Yin is a Buddhist Boddhisattva, but this temple is a typical mixtual of Buddhist belief and Taoist. In fact, the temple is very much Taoist as you actually see many other deities and a stove to burn paper money. (Buddhist temple don't burn paper money.)

The lion symbolized lion's roar, the authorative of the teaching .

Two buddhist's dhamma guardians, Skanda Bodhisattva (looks younger) and Sangharama Boddisattva (the elder one) , are found on the left and right of Guan Yin statue.

The stove to burn paper money.

Shore Behind of Yok Poon Primary School (3)

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 13:02:00 +0000

i don't know why. Every time when i go back home and wanted to take photos at the shore, the next thing i know when i arrived at the shore is, it rains. You can see from the picture above that, the sky was cloudy and dark. It was around 5pm and just after a very heavy rain. I was already at the shore when it rained and had to took up a shelter to wait for the rain to stop. Fortunately, the rain did stop after half and hour, so i could continue to take photos.
The buildings that you see are located at the main street. A market used to be there as well, however it was relocated to the inner area few years back.

Doesn't it interesting? A hermit crab climb onto the pencil root of the mangrove.

Oop! Distrub! A love corner. Mating nerites. Nerites are hermaphodrite (have two genders) and they have external fertilization.

This nerite is even smaller than my finger tip. If you pay a little bit of attention to your surroundings, then you will see a lot of interesting things that you never even notice before.

This pool has many opened up banded bead anemone. They look like small flowers. When you go to the shore, look into the pool to see many interesting life!

Can you see the sea slug? It is a snail without a shell. It has thick skin to prevents it to dry out. It has similar color with the rock, so most of the time it will be overlooked. Camourflage (same shape or color to blend in surroundings) is the common way for animals to protect themselves.

Well, this is actually a collared kingfisher. It is blue in color. It hunts for small crabs, prawns and fishes during low tide. It is normally in pairs.

Gobbies feed on smaller animal. Some of them are toxin and some of them are staying with shrimp in a symbiosis relationship (both sides gain benefit).

A tiny little crab hide itself in the sea weed. It would grow up and many be end up on your plate.

Fruit of the nipah palm or atap chee, what we normally find in our ais-kacing. This one has obviously floated in the sea for quite a long time until it becomes black.

This is rose apple or in Malay language, jambu air. It tastes slightly sweet and juicy. It is seasonal and home grow to many of the household.

Leisure Pengerang (2): Kampung Jawa (Tou2 Wan1)

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 08:18:00 +0000

Kampung Jawa is a very small fishing village. There is only one street in the village and the street itself is the main street then. The whole village is built along the coastal line. During high tide, when the villagers open the back door of their house, they see only the sea. Most of the catch from the villagers are sell to Singapore, especially the big tiger prawns and lobsters. The smaller catch like shrimp is sell to the local fish mongers.

The backyard of a villager's house. See, the house is right connected to the sea during high tide. The fisherman will examine their catch to determine which are to sell to local and which are to sell to Singapore.

The tiger prawns need to be kept in the tank before they are transported to Singapore. Of course, the fresh one will definitely give a better price.

Lobster and mantis shrimps. The local water is still rich with big catch. The mantis shrimps are as big as the lobster. However the fishermen said, it is getting harder for them to catch big fishes due to water pollution and over-catch.

To talk about the pollution. Well, this is a toilet. Due to lack of the proper sewage and sanitary system, every waste from the villagers, including organic waste, household rubbish, dead animal body... are all throw into the sea.

A goose is kept as a pet in a villager's house.

i know this is gross and cruel. But this is a fact and part of the life for some of the villagers. The sea condition is not always suitable for the villagers to go out. So some of the villagers either hunt wildboar in the secondary forest or slaughter widlboar for the hunter.

The teeth and the tusk of the wildboar. Obviously the wildboar was a huge one.

Dried fishes for their own consumption.

Special Feature: Pulau Hantu

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 02:14:00 +0000

Recently there are talks that, some organizations in Singapore wanted to turn Pulau Hantu (an island in Singapore) into to huge aquarium (as per my understanding).
If you are interested, you can read more here:
http://www.wildsingapore.com/places/hantunoah.htm
http://reefwalk.blogspot.com/2006/03/first-step-to-create-marine-sanctuary.html
http://www.finsonline.com/forum/showthread.php?t=G79

i would like to share some of the pictures i took during my visit to Hantu. It would be a lost to all if this place is destroyed.
(err... This pictures might make our local Pengerang shores look a bit bored though :)

Coral, coral, coral. The best thing about intertidal is, you can see a lot of marine creatures without getting wet. See, you don't need to be a diver in order to see the coral.

A nobel volute (snail) was laying eggs (the white slimmy things)!

Flat worm. The way it swims was just beautiful! The flat worm is so flat that oxigen can just diffuse its entire body .

This was a real huge sea cucumber (as i remember, around 30 cm long!) Sea cucumber will vomit their innards to repel their predator. The innards will be reproduced, but they would starve until then. (So, please don't make them do it!)

Fan worm is a segmented worm with feathery fan on its head. The fan is used to gather small food particle and send it to mouth.

It is a shy animal. If you wanted to see them, just stand still and wait for a while. Eventually it will come out from its tube.

Common sea star which is not longer common now. It can liquidize its tissue to right itself if it was overturned. Their body is supported by sea water, so it will be very stressful to them if they are out of water for too long.

Leisure Pengerang (1): Teluk Ramunia Beach

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 03:18:00 +0000

I thank Alyce (a Check Jawa volunteer guide) for her kind words and feedback to this blog. She visited Pengerang with her friends and they stayed in the chalet at Teluk Ramunia for their last day of Year 2005.
Robin (a Check Jawa volunteer guide also) and Grace (Alyce's friend who i have never met before) are also kind enough to allow me to upload the photos they took.
They rented bicycles in Pengerang and cycled all the way from Tanjung Pengelih to Teluk Ramunia. i believe that, it took around them around 2 to 3 hours.This is something not very common to do for a local people like me. :)

The chalet beside of the beach. The beach at this area is rather flat and shallow. You enjoy quite a peace ambient too, as it is not very near to the main town.

Horseshoe Crab

Scientists believed that, they exist since dinosaur time. Their tail is often mistaken as weapon but in fact it is used to right themselves if they were overturned.

The sunset for the last day of Year 2005.

The very fresh and relatively cheaper seafood is the greatest attraction in Pengerang.

In fact, due to its location which is so near to Singapore, the cost of living in Pengerang is high for a small town like this. The price of seafood is also not any cheap to the local people.

Local fruits. Probably freshly picked from tree!

A honey dew farm near to the chalet.

If you cycle or drive along the road beside of this honey dew farm, you will pass by a boring resettlement. After that, you reach another beach called Batu Layar, which i prefer more than the Teluk Ramunia beach. Batu Layar is more secluded and the beach has many big and small rocks in different shape. However i heard rumour that, there are crocodiles there. After Batu Layar, you will reach the famous Desaru Beach.

Access to Pengerang: Via Tanjung Pengelih Jetty

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 02:49:00 +0000

From Singapore Changi Point Ferry Terminal (the same jetty you used to go to Pulau Ubin).
Submit your passport to the boatman outside the immigration. They will copy your details in passport and return the passport to you later. The boat will only leave when they get enough of 12 or 13 persons. Each person is S$8 and pay the boatman on the boat.
Remember who is your boatman and get from him his boat number. All people in the same boat will have to queue up together for immigration clearance.
The journey is around 1 hr 5 minutes and sometimes the sea can be turbulent.
When arrive at Tanjung Pengelih Jetty, just go by yourself to the immigration office for immigration clearance.
You may charter a taxi (RM 16) or share with others (RM 4.50) to go the biggest town, Sungai Rengit. The taxi won't leave without 4 persons.
The last boat leaves at 4pm. If you don't intend to stay in the town, make sure your taxi leave Sungai Rengit by 3.30pm. The return boat fare is RM10 before 1pm and S$8 after 1pm. (However there are cases that, during public holiday or weekend, due to massive crowd, the boatmen stop taking late comer as early as 3pm. So the boat system is a bit uncontrolled.)
During your return, submit your passport to the security guard at Tanjung Pengelih. They will pass your passport to the boatman and the boatman will get your passport stamp and return to you on the boat. Before the boat departs, check you passport to make sure that they did stamp it! Inform the boatman immediately if your passport is not stamped. Pay the boat fare on boat.

* Due to the hiking petrol and diesel prices in Malaysia, the boat fare is slightly more expensive now. (As above - updated 10 Apr 06)

* Photo taking near the jetty and custom is now prohibited. So... if you really want to, just avoid to be catched by the security guard. :)

* Updated 1 Sept 06: An anonymous passed this info to me. Might be useful to some of you who are looking for direction or confused.

"Changi Ferry Terminal" is actually another jetty to Desaru.

http://app.ica.gov.sg/about_ica/checkpoints.asp#c9

"Changi Point Ferry Terminal" - This checkpoint serves travellers to and from South Eastern Johor e.g. Pengerang District.

For enquiries, contact: Immigration & Checkpoints Authority, Changi Point Ferry Terminal, 51 Lorong Bekukong, Singapore 499172.

The boats from and to Singapore and Indonesia stop here. The green building is for the immigration and custom. The hill behind of the jetty is the location of Johore Battery, the same structure with Changi Battery (the big gun build by British during World War II to protect Singapore from the invasion of Japanese). While the Singapore Changi Battery is well protected to become a national heritage cum tourist spot, the Johore Battery is left to become a ruin.

A WWII structure left on the hill.

Since the Royal Navy shifted from Woodlands, Singapore to Tanjung Pengelih, there are always news about the government wanted to close down this jetty for security reason of the navy base.

This issue is complex. It involved the rice bowls of the boatmen, taxi drivers and the stall owners who earn their living at the jetty. Many villagers, like me, are working or studying in Singapore and are very much rely on this jetty. Of course we don't want this jetty to close down!

If this jetty does been closed down, then all have to use the ferry terminal in Sebana Golf & Resort, which is 25 minutes away from the main town, Sungai Rengit. The ferry fare is more expensive and so as the taxi fare to access to the resort. Sebana provides their own ferry service, so what will become to the operators of the bumb boat?

* When i went back during Chinese New Year 2006, the boatmen said, the government is not going to close down this jetty already. In fact, some construction works have been carried out to expand the jetty's very narrow road.

Other than Shore (1): The Mazhu Temple

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 02:08:00 +0000

The temple is only a few footsteps away from my home. It used to be a more tiny and decent small temple for the Goddess Mazhu, the protector of the fishermen. When i was still in primary school, the villager renovated it. The sad things when people renovate an old building is, they standardize the design. Chinese architecture is difference in a way that, the dialect group of Teochew, Hokkien, Cantonese, Hainanese... all have their unique difference architecture designs. But nowsaday due to lack of study or lack of people to know in these differences, all renovated temples are follow to the Northen China palace kind of design. Hence the origin of the temple gradually becomes hard to differentiate by the building itself...
At least the roof of the temple not really changed much than the structure i saw when i was young.

The temple is now so prosperous that the committee of the temple built its own building right behind of the tiny temple.

The 'wealth' of this temple is not surprising, consider it is famous among many Singaporean aunties. They either come from Tanjung Pengelih or a lot of time you see them come by chartered tourist buses all the way from Singapore via JB (at least 2.5 hrs).

When i went back home on 11 December 05, it was coincidentally a festive day to thank the Goddess for her protection to the fishermen in the past one year. At the night before, there was a Karaoke singing performance by fellow villagers. This kind of activity has added a little bit of spices to the peaceful and quiet life in the village. Sometimes i would say that, all these activities all more to please the mortal than the immortal.

The temple is near to the river mouth and right in front of the temple is the river.

i think a mud lobster mound managed to survive the 'massacre' of the villagers when they cleared the mangroves and reclaimed the river bank with red soil.

Shore Behind of Yok Poon Primary School (2)

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 09:42:00 +0000

i wonder how many school is blessed with a sea shore as its backyard. When i was studied in Yok Poon, during recess, my two childhood good friends and me liked to sit on the stone chair facing to the sea.

i went back home on 10 December 05. It was an evening and unfortunately very high tide. So i went to the shore in the next morning. The tide was high but the shore is at least accessible. It was raining slightly at that time, so no much creatures were seen. Sea animals don't like fresh water. So i took mostly the pictures of plant.

(The picture is up-side-down. Doesn't it look like a big pineapple plant?)

This is wild pandan or in Malay mengkuang.
It has forward thorns and its leaves are used as the wrapper of nyonya dumpling and making map (tikar).

Sea slater is also call sea cockroach. But, this creature is not an insect. It is a crustacean, which is closely related to crab.

Each of the Barnacle looks a small mountain. They are not molluscs or shells, in fact crustaceans -- closely related to crab.
They grow not only on the rock but any surface, including ship and crab. This made them a pest or parasit.
Ship - they made the ship heavier, hence the ship used more fuel. So the shipping company have to pay extra money to scrape them off from their vessel.
Crab - the barnacle is so heavy that it constraint the movement of the crab and eventually the crab will have difficulty to hunt for food or even move.

The leaves of the sea hisbiscus can use to feed cattle.
The interesting thing is, its flowers open at around 9am and close at around 4pm.
The leaves is in heart-shape. The underside of the leaves produced nectar to attract ants to staying on the tree. The ants protect the tree from other harmful insect.

Periwinkle feeding on algae and lichens.
They are sometimes cooked in soup!

Avicennia (api-api) is a very common mangrove tree.
It has pencil roots (pneumetophores) as breathing roots.
Its flowers in yellow or orange color and its fruits look heart-shape.

The egg cases of snail.

Shore Behind of Yok Poon Primary School (1)

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 10:30:00 +0000

i went to the shore behind of my primary school, SRJKC Yok Poon on 18 November 2005. This was the first time i went to this shore again ever since i grown up. My last visit was probably few years back!
The different of this visit after so many years was, now, i am able to recognise most of the marine creatures i saw! Thanks to the trainees from Check Jawa and Semakau. :)
Unfortunately, i forgot about the nasty sand fries of this shore. i got a few nasty bites during my visit and the bites itched for a week. The scars from the bite (of course i would scratch since it was so itchy) lasted until now, after 3 weeks!
These are only a few pictures that i managed to take. Well, i am not a good photographer ,so do bear with the quality of the photos. Due to time constraint also, i did not wait patiently to take animal such as friddle crabs, mudskippers, gobbies ...
Next time then. (You do see me in need of helper right?)

Soneratia (Perepat)

The nectar from this mangrove tree is the favorite food of a kind of bat.

The fruits of Soneratia. It is edible.

Black Sea Cucumber
There are a lot of them anchor under of the rock.

i like the fact that there are bacteria staying near their anus for an easier source of food. :)

Hey, this is not a rock!
Doesn't it look like melt chocolate?
This is ascidian, an animal.

The baby ascidian in the free swimming larva form has notochord (vetebrate or back bone), but degenerates when it settle down.

Rhizophora (Bakau)

The seedings grow on the mother tree for a better surviving rate in the harsh environment at mangrove.

The timber can be used to construct kelong.

Sargassum (Brown Seaweed)

The air-filled bladders look like grapes!

The extract from the brown seaweed is used to make ice-cream, so that the ice cream taste or feel more smooth.

A clam in the pool of colonial anemone (the dot-like things).
When i was young, i thought these anemone were the eggs of frog. So i always thought there might be a kind of 'sea frog' laying eggs in the pool! LOL

Sea Letuce (Green Seaweed)

Seaweed has no vein, no flower and no fruit.

Red Seaweed

Sushi!

Japanese Nori is actually made from red seaweed.

A red seaweed might not looking red at all.

Sea Grass

On land, the cow eats grass. In the sea, the sea cow or dugong eats sea grass.

The sea grass is not the same as the grass on land. It lacks of a waxy-covering.

It feels slimy to touch.

Snapping Shrimp

It makes the 'snap' sound when you walk at the shore. The sound is to stun prey or intimidate rival.

i used to think the 'click' sound i heard came from the clam opening or closing its shells or a crab opening or closing its pincer.

Drill

It eats barnacle. They can secrete asid to soften the hard shell of barnacle (drill a hole). It takes them probably 8 hrs to drill a 2mm thick of hole!

In the past, people extract purple color dye from drills.

These are the egg cases of drill. The eggs are inside of the egg cases. The purple color one is the hatched larvae.

Hermit Crab

Its soft abdomen attached to the shell. So pulling it out by force will hurt it. Don't do this!

The hermit crab is not able to produce its own shell. So it will have to change to a new shell (shell from dead snails) as its size growing bigger and bigger. Collecting shells from the beach is depriving the hermit crabs from getting a suitable home.

Crab

The crab is in a defensive position.

There are abundance of them hide around the rocky shore. Please let them have a chance to grow bigger before you just snapped them and cooked them as your dish!

(i saw people collecting clam, so i think they might not spare the crabs if they found a suitable method to catch them.)

Dove Shell

This is a very tiny snail. Its shell is only around 1cm. It is omnivore (meat eater) and normally found at rocky area. Unfortunately live animals are becoming scarce.

Nerite

Take note of their streaming lines. The streaming lines prevent it from being sweep by away by the tide.

Oyster

Unfortunately, these were already opened up and harvested.

Oyster is bivalve (mollusc with two-part shells). One of the shell sticks tightly on rock.

A live oyster has rough and uneven shell while a died one (normally because of harvested by human being) has its smooth inner side of the shell exposed.

The Origin

noreply@blogger.com (shenjiaqing) — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 02:18:00 +0000

When i was young, my sister and me liked to go to the mangrove behind of our house to catch thunder crab and catfish. At that time, horseshoe crab and mud lobster were abundant too (although i didn't know the name of these creatures until 2 years ago).

Just these few years, the residents beside of the river had chopped down all the mangrove trees in order to extend their housing compound. It is sad to see no more mangrove trees beside of the river. Without telling, you can guess that the river is going to become shallower as erosion becomes worst. The lose of mangrove also means the lost of fishes or prawn nursery. This can be a disaster to the fishermen.

A lot of development is undergoing in Sungai Rengit , my hometown, and other villages in Pengerang. With these development, we are losing our natural heritage.

Since i graduated from University of Science Malaysia in 2002, i started to work in Singapore. At the same time, i joined the volunteer group to become a shore walk guide at Check Jawa Pulau Ubin and the landfill Pulau Semakau (still under OJT). The efforts put by my fellow volunteer friends in conservation of intertidal in Singapore has really inspired me to do something to the shore in my hometown. So i decided to setup this blog to record the marine lives at the shore in Pengerang. i probably not able to do much to stop our shore from been destroyed or to reduce the lost of habitat of our marine life, but i do hope to make this small record of what we 'used' to have.

i am not a marine life sciencetist, in fact an engineer by profession. I myself is very interested with the scientific facts about these marine creatures. However i think most lay person will be more interested to know about facts that related to them. eg: "Can eat or not?" So i will try to give more interesting facts about my 'finding' instead of the scientific facts (you can actually log on the website of wild singapore for facts). Do you find any errors in my posting, do inform me.

Please help me to spread this blog to your friends either the residents of Sungai Rengit or Pengerang or any other areas, so that people do know what we have in Pengerang.

Should you want to join my effort in recording, do contact me. I will feel happy to conduct a guided walk for you (obviously if you are not a local) if i happend to be in Sungai Rengit at that time.

p/s: From the picture attached, you can see that, no more mangrove... The water used to be greenish and now it is very murky and sedimented.

"We do not inherit this land from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children."