Squelch Squirch Squelch Squirch

9 Feb

Another school excursion - this time to Sungei Buloh Nature Reserve Park. Unsurprisingly, S.P. was more excited about taking the bus than the visit itself:

Notice those yellow Wellingtons the boy in the background wore? Remind me of the ones I used to have when I was attending kindie. They were kinda popular back then together with the school bags which resembled suit cases (the hard case kind). Now I'm tempted to replicate that look for my 2 sons. Well, nostalgia strikes the old more often.

The park hasn't changed much since the last I visited decades ago. I suppose that means the park has been successful in achieving its goal of preservation. Wish I could show you a photo .. a gentle reminder to my girlfriend who owes me the digital copies of those old photos of years passed. Same covered and well maintained walkways built unobtrusively over swampy grounds, allowing visitors to be close to the natural state of the swamps, without getting any mud on them. Well, almost, for most except one visitor. This was me before I climbed over the fence and jumped onto (or rather sink my feet into) swampy soft mud to retrieve S.P's water bottle which fell from the side pocket of his bag - surely, they could have made the side pockets tighter to secure the bottle.

Y-U-C-K-S!!

This is a photo to capture the mud skippers and not exactly the place where I landed (which thankfully, did not have any water) but just to give you an idea ...

Nice and clean ...

And safely hanging over his neck .. just can't trust mummy anymore ..sigh

Nearly forgot to mention how his classmate, Tyra repeatedly told everyone, "S.P's mummy fell into the mud". That for me, was THE highlight of the trip! "Pray God, please let her forget before we returned to the school," I silently prayed. And the biggest challenge was not the climb up the high platform from the swampy mud. I assure you that the walkway did not look as high above the ground before I made the decision to "rescue the bottle". That was how Tyra's teacher so kindly explained to her that I did not fall into the mud. I really liked the way she put it - gives it a ring of debonair like a gentleman to the rescue of a damsel in distress. The biggest challenge was - NOT to spout any expletives!!!

For the rest of the group whose experience was less eventful, this was the highlight - a monitor lizard in our path at the exit of the park as we were walking towards the carpark: