Visiting Big Sister's Island

The Big Sister's Island was reopened late 2024 as a marine park after 3 year enhancement. The key feature to the park is the coral reef and marine life.  We decided to visit the island and the marine park on Sunday, April 20, 2025 because low tide would occur at 9:30am, which is great to visit intertidal zone.

The day started with a beautiful sunrise at 7am.

sunrise at Singapore

After a quick breakfast, we took subway to Marina South Pier for the day's first direct ferry to the island by Marina South Ferries. We arrived at Marina South Pier around 8:20am for the 9am ferry.

We boarded a smaller boat, with capacity of 12 passengers, and left the Pier ahead of schedule at 8:50am.

The day just got better, sunny with high white clouds, clear in all directions.

Looking back to the city on the speedy boat, the city skylines were so clear, with blue sky white clouds, and green ocean. It was a gorgeous view!

view of Marina Bay area from the ferry boat

view of the sisters islands from the ferry

Shortly the sisters' islands were in sight.

We arrived at the Big Sister's island at 9:15am, the first group to land on this island on this day!

8km in 24 minutes 

Instead of walking into the island, we turned to walk on the floating boardwalk. A lucky turn for us - this was the best place to see coral reef and colorful fishes...

floating boardwalk at the big sister's island

needle fish

corral reef

damselfish

school of damselfishes 

We then went to the small tidal pool lagoon and then the big lagoon. The view was beautiful but we strained our eyes to find corrals or intertidal marine life. 

small lagoon at the big sister's island

large lagoon at the island

A little bit disappointed, but we kept moving to enjoy other parts of the island.

We hiked the Coastal Forest Trail - a 230m short trail, going up and then down a small hill through coastal forest. It was shaded, and a good view of the ocean at the hill top deck.

view of the floating boardwalk from the costal forest trail at the hill top

Now we were back to the float boardwalk, but walked in the opposite direction when we walked on it the first time, and back to the walkway from the pier into the island. In addition to the corral nursery and colorful fishes, I was exited to spot a brahminy kite, a type of eagle, in the sky. But I did not get a good photo of it.

A clown fish sculpture made from biodegradable material caught our eyes.

clown fish sculpture made from biodegradable materials

Another interesting finding by reading a sign was that there were man-made collared-kingfisher burrows on the island. We did not know that collared kingfishers burrow, and went on to look for the structure and were misled by security patrol. When we left the island on the return ferry, I spotted the man-made burrow structure, which was behind the public restrooms.

man-made collared kingfisher burrows - the small structure by the dike and under the trees

During the stop at Kusu island, a brahminy kite soared overhead for extended time, and I finally got a good photo of it, and 187th bird species on my bird watching record.

a brahminy kite  over kusu island

 

Monitor Lizards in Singapore

We see Monitor Lizards around Singapore frequently, at Botanic Gardens, ay Sungei Buloh Wetland, among many other places, some big some small. We thought that the small monitor lizards are just juveniles, and did think about it twice.

Last Saturday we saw a monitor lizard high up in a tall tree at the Botanic Garden. Not really a surprise, we saw monitor lizards climbing trees quite a few times before. Comparing all the monitor lizard photos I took, I saw more monitors in the water than in the trees. I was curious to learn more about this shy but fearsome animals.

Clouded Monitor Lizard at the Botanic Garden

It tuned out that Singapore has 3 different species of monitor lizards: the Malayan water monitor, the clouded monitor, and the Dumeril's monitor. The Malayan water monitor is the most common and largest in size, it can grow up to 3 meters long. The other two are smaller in size, with Dumeril's monitor rarest, and easier to tell due to the dark and white strip colors on its body  

Dumeril's monitor

The Malayan water monitor, the clouded monitor are common, but hard to tell the difference, unless they are in the same location. The Malayan water monitor is much larger than the clouded monitor.

Here are the main differences between them according to internet search.

Feature	Clouded Monitor	Malayan Water Monitor
Size	Up to 1.5 m	Up to 3 m
Color Pattern	Cloudy, marbled blotches	Dark with yellowish bands/spots
Tail Shape	Slender	Thick and compressed
Nostril Position	Midway on snout	Near snout tip
Habitat	Forests, arboreal	Aquatic, urban areas
Behavior	Shy, elusive	Bold, often seen in cities

In my monitor lizard photos, typically a single monitor in a photo, the nostril position is the best indicator to tell the two monitors apart - clouded monitor has nostrils midway on its snout, Malayan water monitor has nostrils at the tip of its snout. We saw both species of monitors at both the Botanic Garden and Sungei Buloh wetland.

The monitors also wander about the residential area, one day we saw from our window, a monitor resting on the top of a chopped pine tree next to the apartment building!

a clouded monitor lizard climbing a tree at Thomson Nature Reserve

a Malayan water monitor resting on a tree at Sungei Buloh 

Malayan Water Monitor

Malayan Water monitor at Sungei Buloh

clouded monitor at Sungei Buloh

a clouded monitor resting on a chopped pine outside an apartment building

Monitor Lizards are solitary reptiles. The only time I saw a pair Monitor Lizards together was a few years back when two Lizards were fighting. 

So it was a big surprise to us to see two monitor lizards tangled together on a wooden platform near the entrance to the bridge over Keppel Wetland.  Quickly we realized that they were mating. I would like to see if they would quickly part their ways after mating. So we lingered around for a few minutes...but they remained tangled.  They might need hours to mate and then stay tangled to rest after intercourse. 

Less than 20 minutes later, on the way home, we were astonished to see one clouded monitor lizard followed another clouded monitor lizard from a tree canopy down to the ground,  and mounted on the latter. Another pair of monitor lizards copulate! 

From not seeing monitor lizards copulation to seeing two occurrence in a matter of 30 minutes !

Serendipity!!

Nyepi - Day of Silence at Bali

We went to Bali for a long weekend from Friday March 28 to April 1st. On the way from airport to the hotel, we were surprised to learn that Saturday was the day of silence at Bali, or Nyepi.

Nyepi is a Balinese holiday held every Isakawarsa ("new year") according to the Balinese calendar. The observance includes maintaining silence, fasting, and meditation for Balinese Hindus, starts at 6am . Although Nyepi is a Hindu holiday, non-Hindu residents and tourists are not exempt from the restrictions. Although they are free to do as they wish inside hotels, no one is allowed onto beaches or streets, and the only airport in Bali remains closed for the entire day. Tourists who violate these rules can face deportation.

Nyepi eve is eventful, Nyepi day is really silent!

Walking in the streets at Sanur, Bali, in Friday, we noticed many statues at various locations, by the streets, or in a garage with opening facing the street. The statues were typically of ugly and scaring figures, placed on top of carriers made of bamboo sticks.

These statues are called Ogoh-Ogoh, representing demons, symbolising negative elements, malevolent spirits, or even characters from Hindu mythology. The ogoh-ogoh will be paraded around the the town, on Nyepi eve, i.e. Friday night.

We went to the street where the parade would be held at Sanur Bali. A giant Ogoh-Ogoh was just moved into the street by a group of young man, some wearing white t-shirts, black shorts and bandanas, others black t-shirt, black shorts without bandanas.

The statue was so tall, the utility lines blocked its path. Two men had to use long bamboo sticks to raise the blocking lines every 10 - to 20 meters so the group could move the giant Ogoh-Ogoh segment by segment.

As night fell, more and more Ogoh-Ogoh congregated into the street from different locations with fanfare. They lined up behind the giant Ogoh-Ogoh. Many locals and tourists crowded the street, snapping photos of the Ogoh-Ogohs before the parade started.

Nyepi started at 6am on March 29. It was a sunny day but we were restricted in the hotel. The gate was closed. Fortunately the hotel has a courtyard, which guests could wandering, a small pool. We had a calm and peaceful day on the day of silence at Bali.

the gate to the hotel was locked

Nyepi day was sunny

yard of the hotel

a shrine

offering table