I went with some committee members of SOWM (Society of Wilderness Malaysia, http://www.sowm.com.my/joomla/ ) for a short recce of Kuala Gula on 30 August 13.

HEADING NORTH

We started early in the morning from KL, travelled North via. the North-South Highway, exiting at Taiping Utara (Kamunting)and continued north via the Federal Route 1. Drove for a further distance of about 1km passing the hump bridge over Sungai Sepetang at Kg Dew.

The original hump bridge was a narrow two-lane bridge which was constructed during colonial times (?). Sometimes in the year 2004/05, my company built a wider 2-lane bridge parallel to the existing bridge for the South bound traffic.

KAMPONG DEW - watching dew drops in the morning and fire flies at night.

Kg. Dew used to be an important trading post for bakau (mangrove tree trunks). Bakau from the coastal areas were brought upstream by boat to Kg Dew for processing and then transported to other parts of the country. The bakau were also used to feed the charcoal kilns in existence then for making charcoal. People also used to go there to catch Udang Galah which strive in Sg. Sepetang. However, marine lives in Sg Sepetang have since dwindled due to pollution from the Kamunting industrial estate upstream.

Kg Dew has of late regained some of its lost luster as it has become the staging point for tourists going to see fire flies along the banks of Sg Sepetang.

About 7km further down the road is Simpang Ampat town. Turn left at the cross road junction into Jalan Gula. Jalan Gula is a coastal road which leads to Kuala Gula and Kuala Kurau, the largest coastal town in Kerian district. This coastal road is wide, with very few traffic. It is a pleasant change from driving on KL’s roads. It appeared to be recently widened and newly paved with a layer of premix (one of the pre-election bonus for the locals ?). The road is bounded on both sides by canals and rice fields/oil palm estates beyond the canals.

Wild lotus and hyacinths growing in the canals alongside Jalan Gula

KUALA GULA

Kuala Gula is a one street small fishing village located on the bank of a river, just a few km from the Straits of Malacca. As the name implies, this village was established circa 1920s by the people working in the sugarcane plantation and the sugar factory in this area. There are no longer any signs of sugarcane around the village.

The 600 odd families living in this village now rely mainly on fishing, cockle, prawn and fish rearing and small scale marine product processing industries.

Cultured cockles harvested from the mudflats

Harvested cockles, worth RM 120 per bag.

Takes about 1 year plus to cultivate them on mudflats from seeds to maturity.

Harvested Cockles are fed into this spinning stainless steel cage for washing and separating the live and dead cockles

Fish cultured in cages in mid-river

Kuala Gula fishing boats are licensed for near shore fishing, thus they are not allowed to use trawler nets

Hermit crabs living in other people's home

Qin Feng 老师, trying to whistle using a cockle shell

A Taoist temple

Most Malaysian Chinese fishermen are Taoists, they normally pray to their guardian God before going out to the sea.

The jetty where visitors board boats to go out the mudflats to view the migratory birds

Eco-tourism gaining in popularity

In recent years eco-tourism has become a thriving industry as more people are becoming interested in bird watching and understand the marine lifes in the area. The Kuala Gula bird sanctuary was established in 1970 but only gained prominence in recent years as more and more people are interested in watching migratory birds and understanding the importance of mangrove swamp eco-system. Some villagers has since become nature tour guides while others provide lodging and food for visitors (at a price of course).

We were met by Mr Tan who gave us a guided tour and running commentary of the village; explaining to us the facilities available, the things to do and see and problems facing the villagers.

Mr Tan, the local point man, knowledgeable in local history, eco-systems and the birds

Where to stay : for small group, preferable to stay in private lodging houses, while larger group would have to opt for staying in the state operated dormitory and chalets.

What to see: top on the list is of course watching and photographing migratory birds. There are about 50 foreign species from China, Russia, Mongolia, Japan and central Asia. There are also about 100 to 200 species of local birds. Other activities of interest are following the fishermen out to sea, to watch cockle harvesting and cage fish culture and helping the fishermen pull in the fishing net. The fishing boats in Kuala Gula are licensed for near shore fishing which means they are not allowed to use trawler nets.

What to do: Stalking the birds (the only winged variety, ok !), walking the mangrove trails, participating in the activities of the fishermen at work.

What to eat: Seafood of course

What to buy and take-home: Seafood, lots of pictures and sweet memories.

When to visit: Best time to visit is on the 1^st and 2^nd or 14 to 16^th of the Chinese calendar. The majority of migratory birds come in from October to December

Contact person: Mr. Tan Eng Chong

23, Jalan Muhibbah Satu, Kampung Tersusun,

Taman Muhibbah, 34350, Kuala Gula Perak.

Telephone no. : 605-8905282, Fax no. : 605-8902188

Email: kgceta@yahoo.com

Mr Tan comes across as a helpful, sincere and a knowledgeable guide who is familiar with the local conditions, sensitive to the local environment and knows the migratory and local feathered visitors quite well. Mr Tan revealed that the locals live quite comfortably with good income from harvesting the marine resources. However, the rising sea levels (attributed to global warming) over the recent years pose a big challenge to the villagers who have homes by the river bank.

Their houses are quite often flooded during the spring tides. Some have spent a sum of money to raise the floor level of their houses, but the majority have not done so and are thus subjected to high tide inundations a few times a year.

Mr Tan said that it is unfortunate that there are very few student visitors to the bird sanctuary, whereas the bulk of the visitors are old folks or retirees. It is a failure of our education system which places too much emphasis on book knowledge and examination. School children are not exposed enough to real life problems and issues in the society. We also visited the hostel constructed and operated by the state government. The dormitory can accommodate 60 persons at RM 15 per pax. Individual chalets can accommodate 4 to 6 person per unit.

As it was just a recce trip, we did NOT go out on a boat to see the birds on the mudflats. In any case, the best time to see the birds are in the mornings, thus it would be good to plan for an overnite trip to maximize the chance of seeing lots of birds. Morning is also the best time for photography. But of course, evening time has sunset views and thus a good time for appreciating the beauty of mother nature.

At the hostel we saw some large birds. There was a Milky Stork perch on top of the roof and a mother bird caring for 3 young ones in a nest on top of a tree next to the waterbird interpretation center.

The Milky Stork on the roof appeared to be the father bird who after having his time out, flew back to the nest to give some hard knock lessons to the baby birds before flying off to enjoy playing in the winds again.

We also saw eagles riding the afternoon thermals.

A Milky Stork sun bathing on the roof top.

Milky Storks are local birds and are listed as vulnerable (to extinction).

Who ? You referring to me going extinct ?

We have a brood of children to show leh ! We are NOT about to go extinct anytime soon !

There are actually 2 nests on this tree. The eggs in one of the nest did not hatch, whereas the baby birds in the other nest is already 2 weeks only.

Nevertheless, the mother bird still goes back to the nest everyday, hoping to hatch the eggs in her nest (such is the dedication and patience of a mother).

This above pic shows the parents of the nest with unhatched eggs looking forlornly at the "happy" family with 3 baby birds (with dark feathers)

Notice the CCTV camera? It was set up so visitors can view the activities in the nest from the comfort of an air conditioned room in water bird interpretation complex next to the tree

Mr Long leg and long beak

Various Poses

Mr Loud speaker

The Milky Stork suddenly took off and I scrambled for my camera to point and shoot into the sky. I was lucky to capture a fuzzy shot of the big bird in flight before it disappeared from sight. You can see the elegance of this big bird in flight from this blurry image.

This other big bird, a Brahminy kite was having a whale of a time riding the thermals !

MANGROVE SWAMP RESERVE

Mr Tan also brought us to visit the nearby mangrove swamp reserve. The main mangrove reserve is on the opposite bank which is part of the well managed Matang Mangrove swamp reserve. We observed that a large area of the mangrove wetland have been converted to ponds for shrimps/prawn farming. We wonder how is it possible for the State government to allow conversion of mangrove swamps reserve to prawn farms ?

This pair of dogs at the mangrove swamp were initially quite shy..

But they soon warmed up to Jia Hui's coaxing..

From flower to fruit to seed. The mother plant will ensure that each seed has sufficient nutrients before they dropped from the tree. The sharp end will be embedded directly into the soft mud below and start growing immediately, initially relying on the stored food in the seed.

The present of such snails indicate that the swamp is fairly pollution free. (Right) Tracings on the mud made by the trails of the snails.

Flower of a "false petai' tree

A pair of twin "Mud Skippers"

A need for more trees..

I noticed that there are quite a few new houses and shop lots in K Gula. However, there are very few trees planted to replace those original trees that were fell for the construction of the new housing estate. The authority should embark on a tree growing campaign. There are plenty of space on the wide road shoulders of Jalan Gula which can be planted with trees, 2 to 3 rows deep. The trees will serve as nesting grounds for the birds and enhance the beauty of the fishing village.

The trees that the Milky Stork built their nest on are wild trees that grew on its own. Out of the 2 nests of eggs, only the eggs in one of the nests hatched to produce 3 baby birds.

DETOUR TO TAIPING for a whirlwind tour

On the way back to KL, we detoured into Taiping town to taste the famous Bismillah Cendol and then a made a quick drive pass tour of Taiping famous landmarks; KE VII School, St Georges, Taiping Buddhist Association, the prison, the museum, war memorials, the New Club, the Larut Matang Administration Building, the Kwangtung Association.

KE VII Secondary School has probably the best playing field in Larut Matang district. Notice the rugby posts, the football posts and the hockey posts. I spent many hours playing in this field and the adjacent basketball and volleyball courts during my secondary school days.

We also drove pass the various “ruins” of Taiping; the rest houses in town and in the Lake garden and various abandoned government buildings littered along Jalan Swettenham (Ong Siak) and Jalan Padang Tembak.

A remnant of the home of former British resident, one of the ruins of Taiping.

At one time a popular Rest house, but has since been run down after the building was handed over to BN crony operator. Now, left to rot in the sun and rain, like most assets managed by BN cronies.

Road up to the "ruin"

We even managed to hike a short distance up Maxwell hill and took a stroll in the Lake Garden. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to see the Burmese pools, which are natural rapids and pools in the streams from the Bintang range.

Heading down from the hill after a short hike up the paved road.

At the foot of Maxwell hill, we saw some Dusky leaf monkeys crossing the road on the overhead cable

At the Lake Garden, we saw Egrets homing in to roost on the trees outside the Zoo and later enjoyed the delightful view of giant rain trees silhouettes against the setting sun over the Straits of Malacca.

with Qin Feng 老师 and 妙赞法师

The famous rain trees of Taiping Lake Garden

Rain tree flower

Qin Feng 老师 with her courageous young daughter , Tiong Jia Hui who is studying medicine in Cuba !

More views of the flora in Taiping Lake Garden

Coral like Frangipani

The sun was setting when we ventured into the Lake Garden, thus the photos taken are a bit blur due to insufficient lighting.

We had vegetarian dinner at Padang Durian hawker center before heading home to KL. Enroute to the highway, we passed through Pokok Assam and I took the opportunity to show my passengers; my primary school (Methodist Boys School), my former residences, the village market, the Chinese Primary school and the village padang next to the school where we used to watch western movies projected on white cloth screen mounted on Milo van.

It was drizzling as we make our way back to KL on the highway. Traffic was quite heavy in the opposite direction as many were heading home to enjoy the extended Merdeka weekend holidays. We were slowed down by a small accident involving 4 cars with damaged bumpers on the uphill stretch near to the tunnel. A more serious accident happened on the opposite side of the highway at the down hill slope near to Gua Tempurung. We saw a Kancil ended up on top of a four-wheel drive vehicle. We said a silent prayer that all are well.

Luckily we arrived home with our carriage intact just before the Cinderella hour, otherwise we may end up having pumpkin soup for breakfast.

Musella

Monday 9 September 2013

SPRING TIME AT KEPONG BOTANICAL GARDEN

POLYALTHIA STENOPETALA - sweet fragrance of the puny flowers

FEATHERED VISITORS TO THE GARDEN

White belly Eagle

Thursday 5 September 2013

KUALA GULA (A Birds' Haven) - A short recce trip