Sengkang Floating Wetland and Riverside Park

The name of Sengkang Floating Wetland attracted my attention, I wished to see what it really is since I was made aware of it. We actually passed by it during our Lunar New Year coast to coast hike, but could not see it clearly at night.

Today we visited this floating wetland and the riverside park by it. We started from parking spot on Anchorvale Bridge, crossed the river from west bank to east bank via the wetland. We returned via Sengkang Riverside Bridge, a pedestrian bridge

There is a pedestrian bridge connecting either river bank to the floating wetland. Great views of natural growing trees and plants by river banks from the bridge. Tall apartment buildings surround the large green zone formed by the river, the park and other parks, from about kilometer(s) away from the wetland. Despite no shade, the breeze over the river brought comforts.

The trails in the park are well shaded, and there were many birds there, we saw sunbirds, ash tailor and woodpecker, water hens and others. There are also several ponds on the west side of the river in the riverside park.

It is a neat small place by and over Sungei Punggol.

floating wetland

trail in the riverside bank

View from water level

a waterhen

woodpecker

A sunbird flapping its wings

a pond 

Note:

1. there is a free carpark, which was full when we got there. Fortunately road side parking is available on Archovale bridge, both ways. 

2. Sungei Punggol - River Punggol. Punggol means ""hurling sticks at the branches of fruit trees to bring them down to the ground" in Malay

3.  It should take about 1 hour to walk around, and 2 hours if bird watching.

Kayaking to Mandai River

We kayaked at Sungei Simpang, Sungei Jelutong at Pulau Ubin, Pulau Sekudu, Sentosa , and Keppel Bay near Sentosa. There are a few more places to kayak around Singapore, one of them is Mandai River.

Kayaking to Mandai River has been on my mind for some time. I investigated a little bit, check what features it has, where to launch kayaks. Checking on the map the best launching point is Kranji Park Carpark A. I checked the carpark last week on our way to and from Sungei Buloh Wetland. 

Today we kayaked to Mandai River with Michael and family from the carpark.

The launching place

It was a beautiful morning and we arrived at Kranji Car Park A around 8:30am. This carpark is right at the edge of Kranji Reservoir dam, there is no beach, but rocky bank. Putting kayaks into water is more challenging than other places we have been to. Further more there are two discouraging signs, one stated that there is crocodile sighting, don't get into water! second sign is that state property no trespassing. In fact one fisherman told us that there was a crocodile by the shore on the right hand side of the shore. 

Before we started inflating our kayaks, an otter appeared in the water,  eating a fish!

We knew that it was the best possible launching spot for this trip, so we went into water and paddled toward Mandai River.

Rocky bank made launching difficult

warning sign

another warning sign

Otter near Car park A in the water

Kayaking to Mandai River

The launching spot is about 2 km from the mouth of the Mandai river. We kayaked eastward in leisure pace, and trying to spot the crocodile in vain. Quickly we found out that the water near shore there is really shallow. In fact our rudder scratched water floor a couple times. We had to paddle away from the shore more than we liked. On the way back, due to lower tide, we had to be further away from the shore to avoid being stranded. No wild life but beautiful reflections of white clouds in water. We could also see Kranji Costal Nature Park more clearly.

kayaking trail

wooded shore

White Bellied Sea Eagle on top of a tree

The eagle - close up

Johor Strait is like a lake

Kranji Costal Nature Park - we spotted a crocodile by the Fantail Pod

Mandai River

The mouth of Mandai River is beautiful with many birds, great herons, grey herons, night herons, and egrets, collared kingfishers, pacific swallows, . . .in wetland and/or trees. We lingered in this area for sometime, enjoyed the sighting of birds, and the scenery. 

Egret at Shallow water

A pair of collared Kingfishers

night heron

A pair of Herons

A Pacific Swallow

The initial section of Mandai river was pretty beautiful, but due to noise from nearby construction, there was no bird any more. There were fallen trees in the river here and there partially block water way. A few places the water was really shallow, our rudder scratched river floor a few more times. About 1km into the river, after we passed a yellow bridge, the river became a concrete drainage, and river bank was bare, no more trees, so we turned back.

It was a nice kayaking trip with friends in a leisure pace. Before we knew it, the 3 hour, 4+ mile (6.8 km)  kayak trip was over, and we did not feel tired at all!

A new building at the river

Three kayaks in our group

green moss on a tree from high tide

A bridge over Mandai river

Note - 

1. Need to kayak to Mandai river at high tide. Otherwise, for big kayaks, like our tandem Emma, the river's navigable section will be really limited. Here is the tide table for Singapore.

2. We encountered police again at the end of our kayaking (last time was near Sungei Simpang). Two policemen were standing on the dam near the parking lot, with binoculars. They did not talk to us at all when we debarked from our kayaks, but left shortly when we got to land.

Seventy Eight Degrees Fahrenheit

I was made aware of a US department of energy recommendation  about setting thermostat at 78F for summer from discussions on this recommendation on LinkedIn. Apparently this recommendation has been around for many years, and was brought up recently on how to reduce expense on electricity for summer.

There are plenty of mockeries about this recommendation.

I don't set my thermostat according to government guidelines. Incidentally I do set my air conditioners at 78F during summer when I am home, set my heater at 68F for winter for last 20 years and continue to do so, which are exactly what were recommended. We were among the most energy efficient households in a 1000 household subdivision. 

We reached these numbers from general common sense practice of wearing less when it is hot, and wearing more when it is cold, as well as consideration of being comfortable for any season.

Thermostat is usually set too low in most commercial/public establishments in summer

In offices, the thermostat is set so low, more than half of the employees have to put on jackets, long sleeve shirt while going to work in polo shirts, short sleeve shirt.

In supermarkets, not necessarily high end stores, the thermostat is set so low, e.g. Walmart,  it is cold for almost everyone, who wear shorts and T shirts.

In airplanes, especially international flights, the temperature is set so low, airlines prepare blankets for passengers!

In hotels, they still have heavy quilts in summer, and consequently low temperature for thermostat.

In schools, in universities, on buses, or trains . . . 

What a waste of energy!

Set thermostat  2-3 degrees Celsius  higher in summer, so we don't need to put on jackets in offices, we can be comfortably shopping in supermarket, airlines don't need to prepare blankets for customer, . . . several billion kWh of electricity is saved.

Low thermostat setting in commercial/public establishments make it hard to set home thermostat properly. When people get used to low thermostat setting at work/school, they consider that setting and the feel cold in summer is normal, and they do the same at home! More waste of energy, more expense on energy without making life more comfortable.

How to set thermostat properly at home

The thermostat should set be at a temperature that when you watch TV, or read a book for 30 minutes or longer without feeling cold/chilly, otherwise it is too low.  Considering our body temperature is about 98.6F (37C), 72-78F (22-25C) should be a good range. For those with high metabolism, the temperature may need to set lower.

One issue we had was that when kids came from school, they complained that it was hot at home because they did not feel the cold they felt at schools. What we did was to let them have popsicles, frozen fruit or shower first when they got home. 

Wear shorts instead of long pants

Cover ourselves at sleep with bed sheets instead of blankets or quilts in summer

Setting thermostat a few degrees higher in summer compared to common practice now, is an easy way to save energy, lower CO2 emission.

Note

1. In Singapore, we set thermostat at 25C during days at home, and we turn off  ACs at nights.

2. my previous blogs on global warming related topic

glaciers, ice ages and global warming

what are the root cause of global warming

Unexpected Bird Watching at Pulau Ubin

We went to Pula Ubin again today and toured the island on a tandem bike, our primary focus was the Chek Jawa Wetlands, which we did not visit the first time when we visited the island on foot.

One highlight of the day was hiking on Chek Jawa trail which has two sections, one is boardwalk in the sea, and the other section is boardwalk over intertidal area. We biked to trailhead and hiked the trail. Beautiful shoreline, sea breeze and period of Sunshine made the hike really pleasant.

When we got to the boardwalk, we saw a white bellied sea eagle soaring in the sky, and later, 2, and then 3 eagles. 

From viewing jetty on this trail we could see Pulau Sekudu from land really close. The tiny island has special meaning to us since we kayaked around it in April, 2022, when it was low tide. This morning it was high tide, and the wetland, and many boulders were submerged. The high tide made grey herons, great egrets stay on top of trees instead of shallow waters.

Pulau Sekudu ...surround wetland was submerged in water due to high tide

 As we walked away from viewing jetty, I looked back and I saw many grey herons and egrets were landing on big trees on shore. Pacific swallows were flying in and out of woods by the shore, one perched on the boardwalk rail for a few seconds. Huge airplanes were approaching Changi airport for landing one after another.

Herons and Egrets

a pacific swallow

An airplane approaching Changi

After lunch, we biked to the west side of the island, and stopped at Pekan Quarry for a photo, herons and egrets stood at the water's edge as usual and then I saw a blue feathered bird flew into a tree, thinking it was a white collared kingfisher. When I got closer, I found that it was not a kingfisher at all. It was a yellow collared lovebird! 

yellow collared lovebird

After the stop, we continued to Ketam mountain bike park, stopped at Ketam quarry but did not continue on the blue trail in the bike park - the tandem bike was not for the mountain trail.

On the way back to Pulau Ubin Jetty, we went to Butterfly Hill. There were many butterflies in blooming flowers. We rested in a gazebo. We heard the oriental pied hornbills chirping then a pair of hornbills flew to us and landed on a tree nearby, preening themselves.

A couple minutes later, another pair of hornbills landed on a tree just outside the butterfly hill. 

What an exciting end for our day at Pulau Ubin!

Note

It seemed that we had special connection to oriental pied hornbills on this day. When we returned to the main island, we did a bit looking around for kayaking launching place at Changi beach park. A oriental pied hornbill came into sight followed by Mynas. The hornbill ignored them, and the pesty birds stopped making noises.

Phi Phi Islands

 Phi Phi islands are an island group between Phuket and Straits of Malacca Coast of Thailand. They are about 40 kilometers southwest of Phuket, and have limestone mountains with cliffs, caves, long white sand beaches and crystal clear water. 

Boat tours to the islands are day long, and include visiting beaches, snorkeling, swimming and lunch.

It was cloudy with periods of sunshine the day we visited Phi Phi islands, the sea was calm like an inland lake, the speed boar ran at full speed, and I did not feel motion sick.

The first stop was Monkey beach - what attracted my attention first was the emerald green sea and the steep limestone cliffs with dense plants. The fine grain white sand beach was impressive as well but the beach was under water due to high tide, we could only feel it walking in the shallow water.

Phi Phi island - typical landscape

Monkey beach does have a troupe of monkeys

Our second stop was snorkeling at an area where there are corrals. Most people stayed close to the speed boat, I swam a round a little. The fishes at the corrals are well camouflaged by water refraction of lights  - one can not see any fishes from the boat. With snorkeling, we can see a totally different underwater world! 

I was the last to get back on boat.

Snorkeling at Phi Phi islands

After lunch we went to Pi Leh Lagoon to swim and enjoy the vista. There was no colorful fishes there even though the seemingly the same emerald green water as the snorkeling place. But the view above is great, especially if you swim backstroke, blue sky with white cloud, and lime stone mountains with greenery. We swam into a gap between cliffs, and along the mountain foot. Later I put on life jacket to swim to far side of the lagoon from where our boat was anchored, alternating between breaststroke and backstroke to enjoy the view all around. I was again the last to get onto the boat for next stop.

Pi Leh Lagoon

The last stop of our Phi Phi island tour was Maya bay.... large white sand beach, shielded from open sea by mountains, beautiful but swimming or wading in knee high water is forbidden due to marine life conservation - it is a place where some small sharks breed.

Maya Bay

Phi Phi island is a beautiful place worth visiting multiple times; we may stay on the islands for a few nights, and enjoy true wilderness in the ocean without tourist crowd.

Note 

The last stop of the tour was Khai Nai Island, where snorkeling condition was marginal, it has less than pristine water due to heavy crowds because all tour providers use this tiny island as the last stop. But Nicholas enjoyed jet skiing for the first time after 5 minute training.