Snippets from Hiking at Sungei Buloh Wetland

We went hiking in Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve yesterday, March 21, 2026. We have been there numerous time before, but this time was different.

It was the first time for us hiking there with a large hiking group*. Reconnecting with old friends, acquaintances, and meeting new friends were part of the fun. 

​Wildlife sighting is always a significant part of our hiking there. This time was no different.

Fauna

​The most unique sighting this time was that we saw 3 different species of snakes on the trail ... green snake, Python, and King Cobra.  It was the first time we saw King Cobra in the wild.

This long snake was right by the side of a boardwalk, in the bushes. It was so long, and folded its body back and forth a couple time. It took me a minute to locate its head. Its head moved slowly and quietly. It looked shy, serene and elegant, and gave people wrong impression about it. Fortunately a park ranger was there  reminding onlookers how danger the snake was, and kept them a safe distance from it.

​Like egrets, herons, and storks, the white bellied sea eagles are permanent residents of the wetland. I heard their loud goose-like honking calls when we arrived at the visitor center, and several times later,  We did not see them until we were near the end of the hiking, a pair flying overhead and honk in unison. It was the first time Lily matched their presence with their calls, and finally believed in me about their calls.

​Otters visit the reserve from time to time, usually in family. This day, we encountered a lone otter. It might be a juvenile got lost. Chatting with people with another group of visitors, we joked that it was a lone ranger!

Giant spiders hang around a lot. We saw quite a few of them by the trail side in the webs they weaved. I paid attention to the first one I took picture of, good lighting and its position allowed me to see fine details of the giant spider,  translucent claws, antennas. It was awesome.

A Knight Butterfly caught our eyes. Its layered patterns in brown, white, dark purple colors. It is just shows one more time that the wonder the nature produces. It was resting on a leaf, posed perfectly for a photo shoot.

As we were approaching the parking lot - a few birds were right ahead of us - a couple of olive backed sunbirds were flapping their wings like a humming bird. Then a magpie robin flew into sight to perch on a bare branch - sharp black and white plumage and wing, a melodic song... It stood out in the colorful world.

​Flora

The flora world has its own wonder.

An ​orange mangrove flower with a young seed stood out among the other blooming flowers on the tree. It was the first time we noticed a seed in a mangrove flower.

​

There were many monitor lizards at Sungei Buloh today wandering around. A log in the pound by visitor center looked like one of them. 

Just like the Magpie Robbin's black and white, the green fruit Ambarella immersed in a green world, was just refreshing.

Ambarella, aka Kedondong in Southeast Asia

Notes

* around 80 people joined the hike from three universities' alumni 

** at Sungei Buloh, herons, egrets, storks typically stand at water's edge or in the shallow water, they perched on trees near noon time - it was high tide time!

*** Python wrapped on a tree branch high p in a tree, I did not get very picture of it.

A python on a tree - in sleep? 

**** hanging bat - there used to be many bats hanging in the ceiling of of resting area. Only two when we were there.

***** Crocodile was around 

Prevention is Better Than Cure

“Prevention is better than cure” is a familiar proverb. It reminds us that it is far easier to stop a problem from happening in the first place than to repair the damage after it occurs. This idea has guided much of my adult life, especially when it comes to health.

Over the years, a number of small experiences have reinforced my belief in this principle.

Athlete’s Foot

A recent episode of athlete’s foot reminded me how important preventive habits can be. I rarely suffer from it, but a few months ago I developed a flare-up: large itchy patches appeared on the tops of my feet, soon spreading to both sides. The skin became scaly, cracked, and blistered—exactly as described in medical textbooks.

My usual treatment is simple: applying rubbing alcohol to the affected area, which has worked reliably for me.

More importantly, I focus on prevention. I change socks regularly—every other day or immediately after exercise. I also make sure to wash my feet thoroughly with soap and warm water each day before showering, cleaning not only the soles and tops but also between the toes.

With these habits, my feet recovered quickly and the infection did not return.

Fingernails

I did not realize I had particularly healthy fingernails until a visit to a university clinic many years ago. While examining me for a fever, the doctor casually remarked that my fingernails looked excellent—full length, smooth, and with a healthy color.

That comment surprised me, but I had always paid attention to how my hands looked. From a young age, I noticed many people cut their nails very short—sometimes even shorter than the fingertip. I never liked that appearance.

When I began trimming my own nails, I intentionally left a small free edge beyond the fingertip. This simple habit helps protect the nail bed and allows the nail to recover more easily from minor injuries. Over time, it seems to have contributed to overall nail health.

For full fingernail health coverage, please refer to Mayo Clinic website. 

Flat belly

Abdominal obesity—often called a potbelly—is widely recognized as unhealthy because it indicates excess visceral fat around internal organs.

Even as a young person, I disliked the appearance of a potbelly, which made me conscious of maintaining my own fitness.

For many years, I did sit-ups before going to bed. Today I no longer do them as regularly, but I maintain a consistent exercise routine: walking about five kilometers daily and running five kilometers weekly. Combined with mindful eating, this has helped me maintain a flat belly even now—much like when I was in college.

Staying active helps keep both body and mind feeling young.

a photo from last year :)

Maintain HDL heathy high level

Soon after entering corporate life, an annual physical showed that my HDL cholesterol—the “good” cholesterol—was below the recommended level.

HDL helps carry excess cholesterol back to the liver for removal and protects against heart disease. My doctor advised medication, but warned it could have side effects on the liver. He suggested exercise might help, though he doubted it would raise my HDL enough.

I increased my jogging, but for several years my HDL remained slightly low.

The breakthrough came unexpectedly while I was coaching my son’s youth soccer team. Running and playing soccer with the kids every week significantly increased my activity level. During that period, my HDL finally rose to a normal range.

Unfortunately, after I stopped coaching, the number began to drop again. That experience convinced me to resume regular running. The results were remarkable: my HDL rose again—well into the healthy range. My doctor was surprised, and I was delighted.

Regular running has kept my HDL healthy ever since.

on Hiking trail at Hongkong Island

Cold sores 

Cold sores are small, painful blisters around the lips caused by the herpes simplex virus (HSV-1). They are often triggered by stress, fatigue, or excessive sun exposure.

After experiencing two outbreaks, I began paying attention to the early warning signs—tingling or itching around the lips. Whenever I feel those symptoms, I immediately wash the area gently with soap and warm water.

Medical literature often states that washing alone cannot prevent an outbreak, yet in my experience it has been surprisingly effective. At most, I might develop a single small blister rather than a full outbreak.

Of course, avoiding triggers—excessive sun, stress, and fatigue—remains the best preventive strategy.

A1C and blood sugar

Despite regular exercise, a healthy BMI, and early dinners with moderate portions, my glucose and triglyceride levels gradually crept upward and eventually became borderline.

When this first happened, I chose to address the issue through diet rather than medication. I reduced several favorite foods: no more daily bananas, no more chips after work, and no more daily ice cream. Instead, I increased healthier options—large salads, fruits and vegetables, whole grains, high-fiber foods such as nuts and beans, and heart-healthy fish.

The results were striking. At the next annual physical, my triglycerides had dropped to about half their previous level, and my glucose level was twenty points lower—both solidly within the normal range without medication.

However, maintaining a disciplined diet proved challenging. Whenever my habits relaxed, my A1C began to rise again. My endocrinologist occasionally suggested medication, but each time I tightened my diet and the numbers improved.

About a year ago, I decided to take prevention even more seriously. For weekday lunches I eliminated rice and prepared my own salad with protein five days a week. This year I made another adjustment—avoiding red meat during the week.

Two consecutive tests have now shown my A1C decreasing.

Diet control is perhaps the hardest preventive effort I have undertaken, but it works—and it allows me to avoid diabetes medication.

A Simple Principle

These small experiences all reinforce the same lesson: Prevention is better than cure.

The first step in prevention is awareness. Annual physical examinations provide an important early warning system, allowing small problems to be detected before they grow into serious ones.

Combined with attentive daily habits, prevention remains the most powerful form of healthcare we have.

Roman Holiday - Biking on Appian Way

Our Roman holiday last November was more than churches, ruins, we also went biking, outdoor, on the Appian Way, on the last full day Rome. 

The Appian Way (Via Appia) is one of the earliest and most strategic Roman roads, built starting in 312 BC by Appius Claudius Caecus to connect Rome to Brindisi. It was designated as UNESCO World Heritage site. Today, at least portion of it near Rome serves as a park, an open air museum and bike trail.

After visiting the Forum at Rome, we took a bus from city center to the outskirt of Rome, and rented Bikes at Appian Way Tours & Bike Rental. I rented an electric bike, the rest of the group, mountain bikes. In total we biked about 2.3 hours for 10 miles (16km), including stops at a Castle, ruins, and waiting for a herd of goats to cross the trail,

Right out of the rental shop, there is a long uphill road - Lily did not gain initial speed when entering this section, she had to push the bike up. I, on the other hand, with the assistance from the electric motor, had no problems, easily passing everyone

Lily had to push the bike up 

Mausoleum of Maxentius

Passing through the regional Appian Way park, the first stop was, Mausoleum of Maxentius,  an open field with some ruins in it. We snapped a couple pictures and moved on. The trail then, becomes cobble stone paved, uneven, but not too bad. The second stop was Mausoleum of Cecilia Metella,  which is a Cylindrical-shaped mausoleum for a Roman consul's daughter decorated with a marble frieze. We got off our bikes, and paid for the entrance to go inside to take a look.

There is continuous playing a documentary in the basement of the tower. The daughter in the documentary told her story in the documentary. We then looked at the other side of complex. There is a basement there, where the consul's tomb is, and a documentary is playing continuously as well. It is the consul to tell his story, how he rose up in the rank, became top official for the area, and his eventual demise.

We also watched a VR movie about the history of the building complex, and Appian Way.

I don't remember any details.

stop for a museum

Our third stop was another ruin, we planed to visited. Unfortunately, it was closed for renovation,

looking inside through a bar wire fence

Beyond that point, the trail (road) becomes very rough, the fillers between cobble stones were washed away, the surface is so bumpy, we avoided the roadway, and biked on the walk path formed on either side of the bumpy road. 

By now, we were in rural area, open land on both side of the Appian way, trees, meadows, and some farmland.  When road surface was more manageable, at one point,  we were stopped by a herd of goats crossing the road. This was a welcome break for me, a change of activity from cycling to watching, from active pedaling to stand still.

When we reached 5 mile distance, we decided to turn around, in order to return the bikes before the rental shop closes. Right then I heard pleasant bird chirps, I looked and looked, finally spotted the small bird on a stump, it was an European Robin!

European Robin

Rough trail, open space, fresh air, and wildlife, it was a respite from staled air, mummies, tombs in the churches and ruins. 

Bird Watching Notes

 Some interesting things to note about bird watching recently.

New Bird Species 

In addition to a new species of bird - straw headed bulbul, 200th bird species on my bird watching list, whose chirps intrigued me for a few years, I added two more new species to my list since.

One was Asian openbill stork, which I saw and identified on Thursday evening, during the beautiful sunset at Echo lake. I saw this waterfowl before, but mistaken it as juvenile painted stork. 

Asian Openbill Stork

Another bird of mistaken identity from me was Yellow bittern, which  I thought was nigh heron for some time, even though I noticed that it was somewhat different from night heron. On Thursday, yes, the same day as that for Asian Openbill Stork, I used Google lens to check its identity, and found out what it really was.

yellow bittern

These two are 201th, 202th bird on my list respectively.

Admittedly these two birds are not new even to me, I just mistaken them as other birds. The true new birds species are Common Hoopoe, and Straw-Headed Bulbul.

Birds outside my window

It was raining on Chinese New Year's day. I heard bird chirps and looked from my window, and spotted a few blue throated bee eaters. I saw the birds before quite a few times but not around my home. I took out my big lens and captures a few interesting photos. With the big lens, I took sharp and high resolution photos of the bird!

One photo showed two blue throated next to each other, seems to be double vision of the camera. In fact, it was purely a coincident. I was trying to have a flying bird and a perching bird in the same photo, and pushed the shutter release button a fraction of a second late!

Blue throated bee eater - look carefully, you might see streaks of rain drops

Double vision?

Photography technique improvement

Using continuous shooting for moving object is a common practice and I can now use it intuitively. Here is a gif made from continuous shootings

Manual focus was a technique I practiced on at home.  I got a chance to use the technique at the moment of the need.

A couple weeks ago, when we walked at Echo lake area, I saw a couple of photographers aimed there cameras at an area with fallen leaves. One person told me there were two night jars in the area. One was close to the trail path, the other was deep into the woods, and hard to focus on. After a few tries, I decided to use manual focus, and got a good shot! I was very pleased with the outcome, and pad myself on the back.

Can you see the night jar?

Straw-Headed Bulbuls

During this morning's run at Singapore Botanic Garden Gallop extension, I heard this uniquely beautiful bird song, I hear it many times before, but have never seen the birds. So I stopped running, and looked to the direction of the sound, I saw 3 or 4 birds in a tree. One of them, a bit smaller, was a yellow vented bulbul, the other three I could not tell. They were hopping from branch to branch. Two of them flew away shortly. It was hard to take picture, so I just aimed my phone camera (3x zoom) at the birds, and took a few pictures.

One bird was bigger, another was a bit smaller. I assume the bigger one was male, and the smaller one was female or a juvenile. The features of the birds I saw, brownish plumage, stripped chest, white throat, dull yellow head, and greenish tail.

Straw Headed Bulbul - male

Straw Headed Bulbul - female or juvenile 

They turned out to be Straw-Headed Bulbul - initially IDed with Google Lens, and cross checked with eBird and Birds of Singapore. 

Straw-headed bulbul, is a species of songbird in the bulbul family,  critically endangered songbird prized for its melodious song, faces heavy trapping in Southeast Asia. While populations in neighboring regions have declined, Singapore remains a vital stronghold. Globally the population is ~ 1700, and Singapore has 1/3 of it. This explains why I heard Straw-Headed Bulbuls songs frequently.

The straw-headed bulbul is the 200th bird species of my recorded sightings. A mystery solved, a milestone reached on this Sunny morning. 

Notes

1. Some of the other pleasing bird chirps at the Botanic Garden include -  magpie robin, yellow vented bulbul, white crest laughingthrush. In fact it was the first time I saw the white crest laughingthrush at the Garden.

2. Sometimes I mixed up the chirps by white crested laughingthrush  and that by Straw-headed Bulbul. That's I mistaken straw-headed bublbul's song as white crested laughingthrush's

                                                                Magpie Robin 

Yellow Vented Bulbul Song

 White Crest Laughingthrush song

                                                

Sanya of Hainan Island

Sanya, located on the southernmost tip of China's Hainan Island, is a tropical resort city. We went there at the end of January 2026 for 3 full days,  joining my siblings and families, as a pre Lunar New Year trip. We primarily visited 3 major attractions there - West Island, Sanya Nanshan Cultural Tourism Zone, and Luhuitou (aka Deer Looking back) Park. I also watched bird when chances arose.

We stayed at the well-known, and maybe also infamous, Big Tree Residence Hotel, which by itself, is a tourist attraction. The hotel complex has 9 buildings, all in the shape of giant trees, standing by the Linchun River. They look unique and beautiful, especially when we looked at them from a short distance way from a bridge over the river. Close up look was not shabby either. That's the end of the good things we can say about it. 

The hotel complex is one of the "rotten tail" projects in China, while not officially abandoned in the traditional sense, it faces low occupancy, and is poorly managed. The building A we stayed had a foul smell due to drainage related issue at the basement parking lot, among other issues - balcony was not completed for one sibling's room,  crumbled walls/ceilings in some sections - closed to guests.

View of the Big Tree Hotel from Linchun River Bridge

A close up look

A close up of a building

West Island of Sanya 

It is small island offshore from the main island, about 15 minute away by ferry. The island's east side beach is highly commercialized with numerous restaurants, shops. There are many man made decorations along the beach, which make stroll along the beach more interesting. We basically walked the full east side beach. We were stopped at Turtle beach due to lack of trail going further, that's also natural beauty start to shine.

colorful hat shaped umbrella

After the turtle beach - where there were no wild turtles, but some in a sanctuary, we had to take a shuttle to get to the southern tip through an overpass by the cliff. There is tiny hilly islet, at the southern end of  west island, connected to the West island through a pedestrian bridge. There is a golden ox on hill top, and a paifang (i.e. ceremonial archway). Looking around, rock shoreline, trees and crystal clear water feasted the eyes! Best natural beauty of West Island is here. 

We had lunch at a beach side restaurant with organic shaped open windows, and visited the Library at sea.

windows with views

 

Library at Sea

Sanya Nanshan Cultural Tourism Zone

This zone has beautiful beach, Nanshan Temple and the 108 meter high 3 face statue of Guanyin in the sea. The beach is rocky near the temple, and sandy near the giant statue. The temple was constructed in 1995, the Statue was a recent construction as well, built in 2005. 

Chinese tourists were mostly congregated at the the Giant Statue, there was few people away from it. Fewer people at beach, or in the mountain. So in the crowded tourist attraction, there are small oases here and there to enjoy peace and nature. 

hill of longevity

The right hand of Guanyin

Luhuitou (Deer Looking back)

Luhuitou is a hilly peninsula, facing the sea on three sides, the other side facing Sanya downtown business district - where high rises and nature inspired skyscrapers reside. The hill top is 181 meters tall. After two day extensive hiking, the group decided to take it easy, rented a chauffeured VIP motor cart, which drove us to the top of the hill to enjoy the scenery, and picked us up again when we decided not walk downhill anymore. It also had other perks - free photo shot at the Luhuitou Sculpture, tea/coffee and local snack by the sculpture. It was the first time for us to enjoy such luxury sightseeing.

Bird Watching

Despite going with the group, I managed to spot and to take pictures of birds. The birds were mostly tropical birds which I saw before. I did spot new specie bird to me: I heard a unique bird chirp which I never heard before, I looked at the direction the chirp coming from, and saw nothing. I patiently looked from different angles, and finally my eyes adjust to the tree shads and saw this bird with a large crest, and I walked around and get to its backside - there were color strips on it back - it was a common hoopoe!

common hoopoe @ Nanshan

A family of Geese @ Nathan

magpie robin - same as that in Singapore

Egret at Lichun River

olive back sunbird - Luhuitou

Overall Sanya is a great place to visit especially in winter dry season - not hot during the day, cool at night. Beautiful scenery, variety of water activities  (snorkling, scub diving, kayaking, swimming ...) ...

Not the true outdoor, but more park like - comparable to Singapore.

Notes - 

1. Other notable places at Sanya we visited - Tianya Haijiao - large boulders by the beach, another beaches are Da Dong Hai, Xiao Dong Hai. All have crystal clear water - good for wading in the sea, and watching the sea.

large crowd at the Tian Ya boulder - no difference from other boulder but have the carved words

Haijiao boulder - photo edited to remove people

2. An notable food place is Huo Che Tou Seafood Market- where we bought live seafood to have a restaurant to cook for us