The first stop was the Sungei Bulah Wetland Reserve. There does not appear to be too much truly open and untouched land in Singapore. In fact, the reserve may be the only such parcel (although it has certainly been touched by man) remaining in the city-state.
At the reserve, we saw a few monitor lizards. The one in the pic was the medium-sized one we saw that day. I am not good at determining lizard lengths but i'd say nose to tip of tail of the largest one had to be 8 ft. Maybe more.
In addition, we saw some mud skippers and a variety of birds, including some herons and egrets.
I'm not sure if the wetland reserve qualifies as a "rain forest" but we did experience a good downpour.
Here's a small mud skipper:
A Monitor lizard and some wet tourists:
After leaving the wildlife reserve, we went to a goat milk farm. No goat cheese to be had -just milk at about $7 or so for 1/2 liter. we did not buy any.
We did buy some grass to feed to the goats. We missed the miracle of birth of two kids by only minutes but we did not miss the miracle of the mother goat EATING the afterbirth.
One of the kids was up and about, more or less, fairly quickly; while the other kid did not seem to be moving as much. A worker assured us that the non-moving goat was just tired. We left without knowing whether the second goat would make it. Although we were not there long, it did not appear to me that the farm worker would step in to aid the second goat. But as I know very little (nothing?) about goats, I should not judge on their care.
The mother goat and the kids seemed to be in a pen with other pregnant goats. (Again I am no goat expert but the others appeared to have extra large bellies.) The kid that was moving about got separated from his mom for a bit and wandered towards the other goats. Those mom-to-be goats wanted nothing to do with the youngster. As the baby goat approached, all other goats backed away. It was quite interesting. I don't think it was a fear response; rather I think it may have been that they didn't want the youngster to try to take any of their milk.
Any goat experts out there?
After leaving the goat farm, we stopped by a koi fish "farm". Koi seem to be a very expensive goldfish/carp-type fish that are much sought after in Asia.
The "small" (6 inches) fish can go for $100+ and large ones with good coloring, can fetch $1,000's. In the in-ground tanks at the farm, we saw many different sizes; including some fish that may have been 6ft+ long. They were not choi and we did not inquire as to the price. With fish here as with jewelry on 5th avenue: if you have to ask, you can't afford it.
After that tour, it was off to an outdoor food court for a later afternoon lunch of a Thai roti prata, which, to the westerner, resembles (knda sorta) a crepe. Good eats.
If you go out for roti prata, i recommend the egg with cheese. At S$3, it is a bargain here.
A good time was had by all.
bjm 10.09.08
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