Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve

Been to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve a few times but not been able to get some decent pictures until this latest outing. The real purpose was to catch a glimpse of the 3 metres long crocodile but unfortunately after covering almost 2/3 of the place, all we sighted was this creature and its siblings. 

Me think it is the year end holiday seasons and the croc which Npark said came overseas from Johor and is therefore a FT, had took leave and gone home for the holidays.

No crocs but plenty of birds. Managed to took some nice photos although I don't know what birds they are other than the general description.

I think these are plovers. 

An egret?

A heron?

A yellow billed stork?

A white collared King Fisher

Common Redshank?

M also spotted this caterpillar. I am still amazed at how she can see things like this. I could have walked past without a second glance

And these caterpillar has a Chinese Dragon like feeler. Amazing!

And these lot. I think they are a bunch of caterpillars but they look more like a tarantula.

This was the most productive trip to Sungei Buloh so far. Hope to come back soon with a little bit more time and cover the rest of the other route and take more pictures.

Grub

I think the last time I had a burger was like 2 years ago. So when I was looking for a nice place to eat and came across this place, I decided I must go and check it out. The setting at Bishan Park was of course the clincher.

We reached before 7 pm but it was already packed. Signs that the food is good? We were asked to key in our particulars on a tablet at the entrance and we will be contacted via sms when our place was available. The staff said about 40 minutes wait. Bump:( but we were at Bishan Park so we figure we could kill the time by walking around. But 5 minutes and 50 metres away from the entrance, while we were admiring the natural filtration pond, we got an automated call that our table was ready! Lucky we never change and went for a run instead. 

The place is quite smallish. A small air condition section and another equivalent size outdoor area. We were given a table outside which was fine with me since it was a lovely evening.

From what I read in the reviews online, their speciality is burger so we each ordered a burger. I had the pork burger while M had the cheese burger. Both look identical and comes with a side of fries. 

The bun looks a bit artificial. Maybe we are used to the soft buns from Mac and Burger King. It was a bit too hard for my liking. But the pork patty was good. It comes topped with apples and some sauce called chimichurri. At $13.00 for a burger, this is to date the most expensive burger I ever had. 

But one burger for me certainly wasn't enough. Luckily, I also ordered something else that was highly recommended online. The slow roasted pork belly. 

That the pork belly on top of mashed potato and a mango sauce. This cost $15.00. I have no doubt the pork belly was well roasted. It looks good and taste good but it was totally fatty meat and even me a pork knuckle lover had to back off after half of it. M took only 1 small cut of it. Maybe that the way it is supposed to be?

Anyway, according to Grub website, the place offers responsible eating and sourcing meaning they source the ingredients from green and environmentally friendly producers and they cook their food with only natural ingredients ie no msg, preservatives, flavouring etc which explains why the bun looks and taste like that.

They have a wide selection of interesting looking beers but unfortunately since I was driving, I had to desist :(

A cool place to hangout if not for the small place and crowd which means it won't be nice to sit, drink and talk cock while there are many hungry people waiting for a table.

Prego

I heard of Prego for many many years. But I just didn't feel like paying big bucks to eat pasta and pizza when I can have the same at much lower price. But I was curious to know how it survive for so many years when a lot of other places had came and went so finally we made a trip down.

It was a mid week lunch time and we didn't make any reservation. I didn't expect the place to be full. After all, I passed by a few time and the place look very big. But I was wrong. It was fully booked! The apologetic staff asked whether we mind sitting at the high chair area. So okay we thought we gave it a try. We quite like the view from the high chair so when the staff came and told us there was a cancellation and she could move us to a proper table, we decline the offer and choose to sit where we were. And so we managed to take this photo of the place.

I like the setup very much. There was a big long bar counter and an antipasti bar. And many many tables all of which were occupied. The food has to be good!

The cheapskate trio of us ordered a soup, a salad, a mixed platter of meat and 2 pasta. That was it. But it didn't come cheap though. These 4 items set me back by $150.00. I could have the same thing at a hawker centre for a fraction of that but of course it was the atmosphere and the Italian cook's (I think) skill that we were paying for. And the super polite and friendly service. Service incidentally was a bit slow - I guess maybe due to the crowd.

The platter of mixed meat comprising 3 different type of cured meat. I must say I like the Parma ham very much.

This is the Paccheri which is actually lobster meat in some sort of tomato sauce. The kid had this though so I didn't know whether it was good.

I had the Fusilli which was crab meat, asparagus in seafood sauce with Basil. Which remind me that I don't like the strong taste of Basil leaves. I didn't finish this dish.

M had the soup (sorry no photo - a soup is a soup nothing great to look at) and this interesing salad. Misto alla Griglia - eggplant, pumpkin, capsicum, walnut and rocket salad. Very unusual and interesting combination.

Overall I like the place especially the service. But I think I won't be back any time soon. There are places where I can have the same thing for much lesser but if anybody want to impress a date over a causal lunch or dinner - this is probably the place to do it without being very formal.

Parking Idiots

This is a parallel parking lot but this joker either don't know how to do parallel parking or decide it is easier to do a reverse parking.

Langkawi Food Street?

Ok I be frank. I didn;t found one on my recent visit. Not something like Jonker Street in Malacca, Gurney Drive in Penang or even Jalan Alor in KL. But we did stumble upon a street in Kuah where there there a number of seafood restaurants which was as close to a food street as we could find. Maybe like Seri Selera Seafood Centre in Kota Kinabalu or the Top Spot carpark in Sarawak.  Most of the people eating here are locals. So they can't be wrong. Right?

We ate there on both nights ordering seafood from different restaurants each night

The restaurant where we had our dinner on our first night

Place where we had our dinner on the 2nd night

What did we ordered? Seafood of course and prices were very decent. The following photos are what we had for the 2nd night and they cost us less than RM150 and that is including drinks and beer.

Mixed vegetables

Black Pepper mantis prawn

Cheese crab

Steam egg flower Crab

Squids

I think the seafood wasn't fresh fresh but it was good enough. For the price we paid, I really cannot complain.

Pulau Payar, Langkawi

The highlight of the trip to Langkawi was the visit to Pulau Payar, a marine park off mainland Malaysia. To get there, we had to sign up with one of the many tour companies specialising in the visit there. The 3/4 day trip include the pick up from the hotels, ferry ride to the island, lunch, snorkeling gear and life jacket. There are unfortunately no bathing facilities on the island.

This is the main part of the beach where the tourists get to hang around and swim with the fishes and have their lunch and rest there too.

Although the tour guide said no feeding of the fish, they nevertheless still handed out bread to us to feed the fish. It was rather fun watching all the fishes fighting to eat the bread although I think it shouldn't be encouraged.

But the real purpose was of course to swim with the fish and that we had plenty of opportunities as there were fishes everywhere. The water was relatively calm and clear and we could see right down into the water.

But of course the best part was swimming with the fish and we don't even need scuba diving gear for that. But the beach do drop off quite sharply and it was overhead just mere metres from shore. So having life jacket on all the time is recommended for those who are snorkeling but it does make it more difficult to go deeper into the water to look at the fish.

And the Princess managed to took some amazing shots of the fish.

 Yes a shark!

 A puffer

Certainly this was more interesting than Redang Island which was much more rocky and the current was stronger. Definitely the highlight of the trip!

All photographs were taken by the Princess with the Nikon AW110 a wonderful little compact camera which can be used underwater!

Sinpopo Brand

Came across this quaint looking place at Joo Chiat and finally decided to walk in and sample the fares.

But first something about the place. It was designed to look like a place from the Seventies. Even the music that was playing were Chinese music from that era. Incidentally, the name Sinpopo if my memory serves me correctly is more well known in Geylang than Joo Chiat.

Draft Master Plan - Our Future Our Home

I really excited about the draft Master Plan by the URA. For one, golf course is no longer untouchable. The gahmen has announced that it is willing now to let the leases for the golf courses expire if the land are needed for other purposes. But what got me more excited is the attention that is being given to "nature" which comes under Recreation.

Here are some highlights of what the public might expect:

1. 2 new nature areas.

I must admit I have no idea where is Jalan Gemala and Pulau Unum & Betting Bronok but if it means new place to explore and run, I am definitely going to track them down, where ever they might be.

2. A more accessible Kranji Marshes

I have not been here before even though I been to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve many times. Somehow I can't seem to locate this place but hopefully once they make the access easier, I can go there more often. 

3.An extended Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve

Has the new extension been completed? The poster seems to suggest it has. I going there soon. Time to check out the place again!

Langkawi Wildlife Park

Went for a short trip down to Langkawi, Malaysia. Purpose was to see the Princess who is doing her internship there so first stop after check in was her place of work, the Langkawi Wildlife Park. 

Now coming from a place where there is a world class zoo, a unique Night Safari and a brand new super duper River Safari, the small little Langkawi Wildlife Park pales in comparison. But what it lack in size and the quantity of the animals, it more than made up for it with its super service fully justifying the Certificate of Excellence awarded by Trip Advisor.

We didn't announce our presence as one of their staff's parent. We paid the usual admission fee and strolled in. What hit was most was the sheer small size of the place and the exhibit. Frankly in term of exhibits, there was nothing much. Some birds, mostly parrots, macaws, parakeets and budgie, peacock and some fowls. There were 2 crocodiles, admittedly one of them was super huge, 3 donkeys, some snakes and monkeys and some smaller mammals. Nothing much but what bowled us over was the friendly zoo keeper. They were so friendly and they freely chit chat with the visitors and during feeding time, invited the guests to help with the feeding which is how we ended up with these:

M feeding the peacocks

Mum feeding the Cassowary with tomato

The Kid having a swell time feeding the rabbits

We also got to feed the donkeys and the ostrich and also got to handle the Oriental Whip Snake. The amazing thing was we were handed the snake by a teenager. We found out later he was the boss' son and it being the school holiday, he was there to help out.

But what we found most amusing was the many signs place all over the place. I can imagine that if they can come out with cute fun signs like this, the Management are definitely on the right track to make the place a truly must visit attraction in Langkawi.

We found 2 similar theme things and I thought it be fun to post it here. Can you see what are the 2 similar theme in both pictures?

And this is no photoshop image here. The monkey really has blue balls!