When you're not a botanist/zoologist/ornithologist, you are surrounded by other generic living things termed 'trees', 'monkeys' or 'birds' (just to name a few). But thanks to our nature walk tour guide (the resort offered a free nature walk within the resort premises, home to many diff species of plants & creatures) I was reminded of the rich variety of trees/plants & animals in our midst. And I witnessed the cool 'flight' of flying lemurs for the first time! And observed that they had flaps of skin sticking out from their butts... But yeah, felt rather ashamed of my ignorance and oblivion to the natural environment. Perhaps it's also a consequence of years of living in a concrete jungle, but yeah... will KIV such close-to-nature trips in the near future :)
The following are some "creatures" I encountered on this trip...
It took me a while to realise that this hideous red thing belonged to the banana plant. Ok, Ms Wong and I both guessed that it had to be a banana flower, but yeah, it seems to me a strange alien outgrowth from the plant leh. And for some strange reason, I have this impression that banana flowers are white (though I've never seen one...)
This was another plant that caught my eye during my afternoon walk... In contrast, I thought it really pretty. Esp the leaf in the middle-- the leaves were all quite equally spaced out! Have no idea what this is, but I have named it the wheel plant, for its pretty radial leaf spokes... :)
Catch me if you can -- one of many miniature transparent/sand-colored crabs I met along the beach. Before I left office my neighbour ycc had shared with me abt these; and how he used to catch them in bottles to play with them. He must have been a very agile kid; cos whenever I tried to go near these crabs, they just scuttled away really quickly. It also helps to have eight limbs when you need to dig a hole. It was quite fun though to chase after them, despite never managing to really keep up.
A family of... macaques (feels proud for being able to name them properly, instead of just 'monkeys' :P) loitering along the road. The tiny one right in front is nibbling on a piece of bread our taxi-driver threw out of the window. Miss Wong commented that their behavior was so similar to that of humans.... Indeed, with the hand-holding and hugging.... and the ever clingy babies. Notice how the third monkey from the left is holding on to the arm of another monkey? Another strategy to keep track of your fidgety offspring is to grab hold of their long tails. Thank goodness I have no tail :P
Ah, time to sit down to scratch my itchy toe...
These are supposed to be langurs... and according to our guide, one key difference between these and macaques is that the latter are capable of walking well on all fours...
A black bird walking on this floating deck by the beach. The floating deck is actually a 'launching point' for ppl interested in doing water sports, eg. skiing, banana boat etc etc. But the coast was free and Mr black bird cleverly used it as a platform for scooping fish from the waters. From time to time, it also took its evening stroll....
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