Malaysia « My Itchy Fingers

Faces of Death

August 10, 2011 at 12:22 am | Posted in itchy fingers | Leave a comment
Tags: Animals, Environment, Life, Malaysia, Nature, New Zealand

Words of Caution: The following posting contains graphic imageries not suitable for those who are faint-hearted. Read at your own risk or come back again when we have more family-oriented or children-friendly posts…hahah... 8)

“One more!”

“Another one!”

“Oh gosh…one more! Can I go down and see?”

Itchyfingers were driving in New Zealand during our first road trip overseas and we kept passing by roadkills along the way. I was curious as to what animals they were, so I kept pestering Tisu Boy to stop the car and check them out. But he would always refused because it was dangerous to stop, unless the road was sufficiently wide enough for us to pull over. Of course there was also the morbid and gross factors involved as they were dead animals afterall.

One day,Tisu Boy finally gave in and stopped the car as it was a relatively quiet and wide stretch. At last we confirmed our guess as to who were these poor victims of the road….

A possum…It looked like it was killed not too long ago…There was barely
any blood but it could be on the other side of the body or perhaps it died
of a deadly internal injury

Look at the prehensile tail…The Common Bushtail Possum (Trichosurus
vulpecula) is a native from Australia but was introduced into New Zealand
in the 19th century

Like many other introduced species, these possums create a problem for the
adopted environment. They are considered a pest as they love the native Rata
tree. We saw many shops selling products like gloves, hats, scarves etc made with
possums’ fur. They called this “eco-fur”, as the animals are a threat to native flora
and fauna. By culling/harvesting them from the wild, the authority are thus
controlling their population. The products feel reasonably soft and warm,
but I find the thought of using fur products repulsive if animals need to be killed
to keep us warm…It was especially gross whenever we thought of the numerous
possum roadkills…not that they used them to make into scarves lah…haha..

Similarly, we also saw many roadkills when driving along the Malaysian roads, especially those lined with oil palm plantations. This day, we happened to drive past one roadkill which looked quite complete…er…meaning it was not squashed beyond recognition…Again, I had to keep pestering Tisu Boy before he finally relented and stopped the car for me to take a quick look…I was not obsessed with animal carcasses lah…was just curious about the kinds of wild animal that lived out there…

Goodness.. Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) or Toddy Cat, is also
called Musang in Malay. This is the animal used on the Raffles Museum of
Biodiversity Research (RMBR) logo. It looked so bloated that we didn’t dare
to scrutinise too closely or stay too long in case it exploded due to the built-up
pressure… Palm Civets like the palm fruits and this one probably got killed while
trying to cross the road…So poor thing…have not had the fortunate to see a wild one,
especially when this uncommon animal is nocturnal

It is never a nice experience to encounter roadkills since it usually means that the wild animals are driven out of their native habitats in search of food. It is even more unpleasant and sad when the dead animal happens to be a rare species. There has been reports of roadkills like the pangolin, banded leaf monkey and even otter in Singapore! Certainly hope that these animals will find a safer haven when the bridge across BKE (Eco-link) connecting the nature reserve on both sides of the expressway is completed!

Also see related post:
> The Smell of Death
> New Lease of Life
> Alien vs Natives
> Close Encounter with an Otter

Du! Du! Journey on Track

July 26, 2011 at 12:48 am | Posted in itchy backside | 2 Comments
Tags: Architecture, Cats, Food, History, Malaysia, Uniquely Singapore

Itchyfingers had intended to take a day trip to Kluang as our last ride from Tanjong Pagar Railway Station before it ceased operation but we couldn’t get tickets online cos of some technical issue on the site. Tisu Boy had to go down to the station personally but was told that tickets to Kluang could only be purchased on the day. But there would the risk of not getting any tickets on the day we preferred, so he decided to purchase tickets to the next station, Segamat, upon recommendation by the ticket officer. Er, that was the first time I heard of this place.. :p

Wow…not very cheap hor? $21 for one way..Our train rides in Bangkok cost
only a few cents! But it was an air-conditioned coach and the ride would be
about three hours..and we were travelling overseas, although Malaysia is
just next door…hahah

We reached the station earlier to have some brekky. But not all stalls were opened…Seemed like not fated to eat the Nasi Briyani liao…Ended up buying from the same stall I bought my Mee Goreng on the other night…

Er, first time I eat Mee Siam from a bowl, normally they are served in plate…
I hate these disposable styrofoam bowls…

Itchyfingers with our brekky…Strange, same stall but Tisu boy’s Mee Rebus
was served in proper plastic bowl…

People were already checking in at the opposite platform for the next train
while others were busy taking photos on this side. They put up the ugly red
plastic tape to warn people not to jump down the track to take photos,
which many did on the previous night we came

Long queue was formed at the ticketing counter for any last minute tickets.
It was five days before the 30 June deadline…

Long queue was similiarly formed for the next train’s departure. We were
still taking our own sweet time taking photos…hahah…

Tisu Girl having her ticket punched at the departure gate. With Itchyfingers
on this trip were our friends here – their beautiful faces were digitally
masked out to protect their identities…hahahaha…

As mentioned on the previous post, taking a train from Tanjong Pagar
Railway Station was unique as we had to clear Malaysia custom first before
clearing the Singapore side. Sadly, this would be history now that both
customs are housed under the same roof at Woodlands

Special queue for those with trolleys…

Tisu Girl fooling around at the Malaysian custom. This would not be
possible and tolerated had it not being the last days of the station, as I don’t
think photography was allowed at any customs…hahaha…

Tisu Girl clearing the custom…Passports were not chopped at the station
for some reasons…all along they never do, which left us with no memories
for this date on our passport…

But they chopped it on the white card, which would be taken away when
we returned. Would love to keep this!

It was ten minutes past the departure time…But no one was complaining…

Our previous train rides to Malaysia were not as comfortable as we were in
non air-conditioned overnight coach. Couldn’t sleep well as the seats were
hard and uncomfortable. These were much better

It was the first time we travel by day on train, so we were rather excited to
see the view, especially when the train passed by my old house at
Commonwealth and my friend’s present place at Buona Vista…not sure
where was this though…hahah

The train came to a halt when we reached the Bukit Timah Station. There were many people taking photos of the track and station and of course, the train.

Not sure what do you call this thing in front of this section of the train
that was not in operation…Should have jumped down and check it out
and take some photos of the station but we weren’t sure how long our train
was gonna stop there…

The old sign. We were heading towards Woodlands

8.50 am. We reached Woodlands checkpoint! Here I didn’t dare to take
photo of the custom since Singapore side should be stricter…haha

The journey continued twenty minutes later. To kill time, we chit chatted and had a second round of sushi brekky with apples as dessert…

The tv was finally turned on…But a lot of information on KTM…in Malay…

The ladies decided to check out the food coach for some kopi. We ended up staying there till arrival as it was much cooler and we could play some games there…hahah…

We had two sets of tangram games to compete against each other…This one
took me quite some time and needed some help to get it right…

Kluang station. Our original plan was to visit Kluang, a more popular day
trip destination. Of course we could still choose to alight here instead of
going further up to Segamat, but that would mean we were paying a higher
ticket price to Kluang. So we decided to stick to Segamat

Finally after 3.5 hours, at about 12.30pm, we reached Segamat!

Segamat! Here comes Itchyfingers!

Before going to Segamat, we did some research online and found that the place is famous for its durians. Though Itchyfingers are not great fans of the thorny fruit, we didn’t mind trying it. However, walking on the street, we didn’t see or smell any durians. Some sites suggested going to the salons at Segamat, but we weren’t very keen on that. There were really quite a number of hair salons on the streets we explored…

Three salons so near to one another…Very old school signages…

The not so impressive Segamat River…should call muddy river…

It was a Sunday but the town was quiet. Many shops were closed…

Quiet street…

Meow meow…

The weather was very hot and we managed to find some coffees shops and decided to settle at one for lunch. We certainly needed some ice cold drinks! When the lady asked us if we would like some homemade 红豆水 (red bean water), we were puzzled what was that. But we ordered some anyway…

So it was just the usual red bean soup but more watery lor and less beans
lor…hahah…I asked for extra ice cos it was really sweet…

My shredded chicken noodle…not bad

The rest of the gang ordered wantan noodle. The extra meat were added by
Tisu Boy soley for photography purpose…just like what photos on food stalls
would always show their servings as much bigger portion…hahah

After lunch, we explored around to digest our food before having some desserts…hahah….

Old but charming

Nearby was this rusty old car that looked like it was gonna fall apart any
time…Being Itchyfingers, I tried opening the door and…it opened! Er, I think
no one would want to steal this antique, so there was no need to lock it… :p

Opposite street was this Ah Pek touching up the paper scrolls…Nice
calligraphy but a bit too scribbly to make out all the characters.. :p

The rest of the afternoon was spent at a pet shop selling exotic animals like Tarantulas and Leopard Geckos; lazing around in MacDonalds eating ice-creams, some junk food and reading papers as well as shopping in the one and only more happening shop selling cutey stuff (hahah) before heading back to the station to catch the train back…

Our train was supposed to arrive at 5.30 pm so we reckoned we could have a late dinner back at Singapore since we had been eating non-stop here. Then there was some announcement in Malay. Luckily my friend understood some simple Malay and said it sounded something like train delay. A check at the counter confirmed that it was due to some technical problem at Butterworth and the staff gave the assurance that our train would arrive at 7 pm. Well, guess we would have to spend more time at Segamat…maybe we should try to look for the durians again?

Still no smell of durians…But we managed to find the famous Nan Yang
Coffee Shop!

Four of us ordered the Iced Three-layer Tea 三色奶茶 after seeing the poster
on the wall…I asked what was the bottom layer and the guy said it was
gula melaka (palm sugar) and tasted like chendol…Wow…sounded good…

We were careful not to stir too hard and mix up all the three layers of tea,
milk and gula melaka in case it would be too sweet. So bit by bit, we stirred
to our own preference for sweetness…I ended up with the least amount of
gula melaka in my glass…Not bad!

The Kaya and butter roti were also highly recommended on the internet so
we also ordered some…But I forgot to take photo of it and this was what
was left when I remembered…hahah

Then it was time to catch the train again…

We decided we should take the overhead bridge and saw this old gate

This stretch of road was quite busy, and there was this slope that made
crossing the road a bit dangerous as it was tough to see approaching
vehicle. This was from the overhead bridge

Segamat station

While waiting, we took more photos…

Then the announcement came again…This time, it said our train would be delayed by another one hour again! :O Alamak!

My friend’s hubby showing another friend how to play Angry Bird….
Angry people playing Angry Birds…hahahah….

Din find Angry Bird very appealing so turned to shooting cute cats at the
station instead…hahah…This meow meow looked angry…Angry Cat…

Pretty and hungry skinny little cat….

It was close to 8pm and still no sign of any train…Even the locals were losing patience and decided to come back tomorrow. Of course we had no choice but to wait…but how long more? This time they announced that it would be 9 pm…Gosh…We had expected train delays as my friend’s parents just came back not too long ago from their day trip and theirs was delayed for 1.5 hour. But we din expect to have to wait for more than that…and we weren’t even sure now if it would really arrive at 9 pm after the numerous changes…

We were all so glad that the train finally arrived at 9 pm…By now we were so tired and had no mood to take any photos liao…Good thing we still had some sandwiches left…

When we finally reached safely at Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, it was
already past 1 am! We were all feeling tired…and my friend’s hubby said
that after this ride, the romanticism of train riding is all gone! Hahahah!

But there were still many people savouring their favourite food at the
platform! If we were to arrive at around 8pm as scheduled, we might also
have our late dinner here but now we just wanted to go home! :p

A last thanks to all the loyal customers’ support…

The Tanjong Pagar Railway Station finally ceased operation on the 30 June 2011 after serving people from all walks of life for 79 years. The building will then be conserved and hopefully it will be transformed into another place where people can have easy access and interaction with in the near future.

The Beetles

January 15, 2011 at 12:59 am | Posted in itchy fingers | Leave a comment
Tags: Bugs, Education, Environment, Malaysia, Nature, Uniquely Singapore

Itchyfingers were looking for some birds in Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserves when Tisu Boy pointed to a tree trunk and said he saw something big flew in. I looked through the binos…and what a pleasant surprise!! I didn’t know we have this in Singapore!

A Rhinoceros Beetle! Not sure which species is this one as there are so many
types and Itchyfingers are not experts in insects..heee…Initially it was
partially hidden, and it took a long wait before it decided to show itself.
Males have horns while female do not..so was this one we saw a female?

It was exciting cos being nocturnal, it made it tougher to find them in daytime. We have seen Rhino Beetles in Malaysia but it was the first time we saw it here! A pity it was too high for us to take better photos.

The only time I got closest to one was when we were doing insect
preservation. This is the male Three-horned Rhinoceros Beetle. Beetles have
a wing cover called the elytra as seen here. To fly, a beetle must pull its wings
out from the elytra before flying, hence delaying flight

The Rhinoceros Beetles or Rhino Beetle are a subfamily (Dynastinae) of beetles in the family of scarab beetles (Scarabaeidae). One of the largest beetles, it can grow up to 60cm long! However they are completely harmless to humans because they cannot bite or sting. Remember the timid Rhino Beetle in Pixar’s A Bug’s Life? Hahah…The horns are not used to fight against predators but rather for the occassional battle with another male over a feeding site, which can attract a female. The horns are also used for digging.

A life Rhino Beetle at Fraser’s Hill, Malaysia. Didn’t realise my photo is
blur cos I was blocked and had to bend to take this shot from the top..

At the car porch was this dead but beautiful huge metallic green beetle. No
idea what was it but it was about the same size as the Rhino Beetle…

A poor beetle crushed probably by cars on the road of Fraser’s Hill…a bit
beyond recognition…

But it should be one of these which is quite common in Fraser’s Hill. Not sure
if this should be called Stag Beetle or Staghorn Beetle since we are not
experts…hahah…Anyone care to enlighten Itchyfingers? These guys used
to come into our hotel rooms at night and once I heard a friend caught it in a
plastic bag so that he could photograph it. The next moment, the beetle
had already cut through the plastic with the sharp mandibles!

We waited so long for the Rhino Beetle to move but I guess it prefer the safety of the night. Seeing the Rhinoceros Beetle here just show that though Singapore is so small, we still have a wide biodiversity waiting for us to discover, which makes it all the more important to preserve and appreciate what we have!