The Chek Jawa Tour

The route to Chek Jawa wetlands on the island of Pulau Ubin is a very interesting one, especially in the early mornings. Making it to Changi Village (it seems to take forever in a bus!) and after standing in the queues at the Changi Ferry Terminal, one finally gets to board an old fashioned wooden bumboat. Step into one and metropolitan Singapore is easily forgotten. 

Watching the sunrise as the boat makes its way to Pulau Ubin

Pulau Ubin is a rural village where some of the last kampong villages of Singapore can be seen. It is also home to Chek Jawa, a preserved coral reef area with an impressive collection of marine life and associated ecosystems. Without the pressures of urban development, the island has become a popular tourist attraction where people can relax in the laid back surroundings, cycle, camp and enjoy it's rich biodiversity not too far away from the mainland. There's also a curious family of Pied Oriental Hornbills who've been granted permanent residence in the island and seem to be quite happy with the attention they get from the NParks staff and visitors. Speaking of attention seekers, there are lots of wild boars and their piglets too.

The coastal boardwalk. It is worthwhile to mention that HSBC is a huge benefactor for the conservation efforts that go on here and it has set a good example for the corporate world

I once chanced upon an opportunity to volunteer at the Ubin-HSBC Volunteer Hub (managed by friendly NParks staff) as a guide for the Chek Jawa inter-tidal walk. I liked the place, I had a lot of time on my hands and the job was simple enough; introducing the different marine species and habitats to small groups of visitors. My only concern was public speaking because so far, I have successfully dodged about 98% of situations in life that involved any type of public speaking. It didn't require a biology background, however, mine certainly helped me during training. Training was on the job and we followed experienced guides on their tours and learnt by observation. Reading up was entirely up to us. There were only a few tours during a given month, as it was tide-dependent and most of the marine life is visible only during the inter-tidal period.

Rock oysters (left) and barnacles and limpets (right) firmly attached to the rusted pontoon that even the changing tides don't wash them off them

A very soft carpet anemone (left) and workings of a sand bubbler crab (right)

The relatively small area of Chek Jawa is prized for having six distinct ecosystems (coastal forest, rocky shore, mangroves, sea grass lagoon, sandy bank and coral rubble) lying very close to one other. This makes it an ideal area for researchers to observe and study various inhabitants that occupy these different ecosystems and their associations during varying tides. Experienced NParks staff dubbed "hunters" go early before the tours start and look for specimens on the sea grass lagoon and sandy banks. Their findings are displayed in plastic trays as temporary exhibits for the benefit and education of tour participants. This exhibit is an added bonus to see a larger collection of species that are not always visible during the walk to inexperienced eyes. The staff try to maintain a fine balance between the disturbance to the fragile environment (by human impact) and using specimens for public outreach /conservation efforts. The specimens are released when the tour groups wrap up.

 

A sea horse daddy carries the offspring in his pouch (left) and a sea hare (right). The area is also home to many types of anemones, sponges, corals, sea stars, sea cucumbers, bivalves, fish, crabs, squids, worms, mud skippers, seaweed, sea grass, to name a few - all easily spotted during the tour

Part of the challenge of being a tour guide will be to learn to adjust the facts to cater to people from different backgrounds. The audience can vary from people with a strong science background (more questions to answer!), to those from non-science backgrounds, to children (who have short attention spans) so not everyone will enjoy too much details. During one of my trainings, I was mildly annoyed to see a group of housewives ask the tour guide at each exhibit if these animals were edible and some went on to speak of their memorable experiences in trying out various seafood dishes. Not everyone sees the place with the same level of appreciation but what they all need to take back from the tour is some awareness and initiative to do what little they can to preserve these habitats.

Unfortunately, the Chek Jawa tour was put on hold for the rest of the year as the floating pontoon was due for upgrading, so my training will have to be completed when it resumes in early 2013. On a positive note, I think it'll be quite interesting to see the changes to the species populations and ecosystems when it re-opens after a prolonged period of minimal human impact by visitors to the area. Assuming the upgrading works are done carefully, that is.

Keeping oneself busy

My mornings at work begin with a quick glance through the daily paper. In it, I look for local news in general (I hardly find anything inspiring, and most are depressing incidents), upcoming social events, letters to the editor and cricket news (to do with our team of course!). If I find anything interesting, I would either forward them to to family and friends or to myself, so that I can follow up on it at home.

Yesterday had two interesting social events lined up. One at a local reserve to release rehabilitated marine turtles to the sea and the other a volunteering event for breast cancer awareness. So early that morning, we (my guest and I) set out for a day full of fun activities.

For the turtle event, after what seemed like driving for hundreds of kilometres, we came to the area illustrated in the map mailed out by the event organisers. "7 km after gas station, take a right into security checkpoint". After passing the said gas station, there were no sign boards leading to a reservoir and seriously, who can tell how much 7km is when driving at 120km/h (heck, I can't tell 7km even otherwise). Then there came a small exit leading to a dirt road (no sign of a security checkpoint). I slowed down, unsure, because the consequence of missing an exit can be disastrous on a one-way highway leading to another state; you can't turn back for another half hour of driving. Call it a lucky guess, there came a 4WD with two women (who 'seemed' like the type to like turtles) and they cut right across us and took that exit. I immediately followed them (no time to think and miss an exit)!! Turns out, they even knew their way very well through the dirt roads leading to the reserve (again, without a single sign board). After about 5-10 mins of driving on dirt roads through the desert, we arrived. Now one might wonder, if these people were headed off somewhere else like a desert safari leading deeper into the desert dunes, what might have happended to us?? How could have we navigated back to the main road when the GPS had no coverage in this area?? Or what if they hadn't come in time and I missed the exit? Oh well, didn't have to worry about any of that!

The turnout was surprisingly huge. Nice to know there were so many enthusiasts who came to watch, along with their little ones. The weather here has take a turn for better here and the reserve was situated next to a beach, which was unpolluted. We had to fight to catch a glimpse of the turtles. I fought with the kids to get a chance to touch one, but they pushed me away when I was about two inches away from shaking hands with a little hawksbill.

All that story-telling aside, I do hope the turtles live long enough out there to make it back to the shore to breed. They are among so many amazing creatures shaped by millions of years of evolution to what they are today. Their habitats and breeding cycles have been vastly destroyed as a result of the parasitic menace, that are homo sapiens.

Event number two was more for my guest as she loves all things to do with crafts and sewing. We volunteered at an assembly line for sewing neck cushions for breast cancer patients. Now I am very skeptical if these will actually reach the patients, and if they do, would these actually make them feel better. Aren't there bigger things we can do for them than just sewing bags and cushions? But it was a good initiative to spread awareness and a good opportunity for selfish people like us to forget our lives for a bit and devote a little time for another. We weren't that useful; our line made just nine cushions and that was all the fabric the organisers had for our line. Only one thing hit my mind when I saw the pile of end products; please, let there not be as many patients as those cushions and bags imply.

My travel buddy for the day had fun and it did her a lot of good in terms of cheering her up. She even met a like minded sewing-lover. I overheard a conversation of theirs at a store for crafting items (went something like this):

The friend: OMG, LOOK at all these different colours of thread and fabric!!! [squeals]
The other person: Yes! It's amazing, they have a good collection.
The friend: I mean, it's such a turn on, seeing all this!
[Shu: o_O .... ]
The other person: People who are not into this type of thing won't get it.
[Shu: Hmmm.]

Made me think if I told someone that the sound of starting the Jeep's engine first thing in the morning and hearing its crisp and roaring sound was such a turn on, I'd get that same look (or worse). So yeah, whatever floats our boats!