In 2006 Francine and I broke the winter monotony with a most enjoyable cultural trip to Thailand. Towards the end of it we visited Kanchanaburi, notorious site of The Bridge on the River Kwai, part of the Thailand-Burma railway, the so-called Death Railway, constructed by allied prisoners of war under the brutal conditions imposed by their Japanese captors. Seeing the sites of a railway that cost so many needlessly lost lives, and the pristine memorial graveyards of those who didn’t survive was, of course, a deeply emotional experience. Taking photographs when you can’t see through the viewfinder for tears is very difficult.

Today we were off, I suspected, to repeat the emotional experience at the Singaporean east coast village of Changi. Now, Changi is known for being the home of Singapore’s international, spotless, well decorated and delightfully modern airport. During WW II, Changi was known for the prisoner of war camp following the Japanese invasion of Singapore. The British defenders expected a Japanese attack only from the sea thinking that the forests of Malaya would stop any land-based attack from the north. Wrong! I recall a similar error featuring the French, the Maginot Line, the  (supposedly impenetrable) Ardennes forest and Hitler. When will we ever learn?

Changi still has a prison today but now for Singapore’s criminals. Given the penalties meted out in Singapore for offences, you probably don’t want to be in this one, either. Some years ago, an American diplomat’s youth was beaten for “keying” someone’s car, despite American diplomatic protestations that, “you can’t do that”. “Good for Singapore”, say I – no wonder crime is very low here.

Changi Village is now a seaside resort for Singaporeans wanting a weekend break. It is also a boat quay where so-called bumboats take passengers over to the nearby island of Pulau Ubin. [It’s on our Bukit List 🙂 ] We began with a wander along the shore which netted us our first sight of a 1m/3ft Monitor Lizard lurking in some shady waterside tree roots, though this poor individual had a mangled tail so a head shot had to suffice.

There’s was something for the botanists here, too, with a definite white and yellow theme emerging. Along the shore were several Frangipani trees with their intriguingly propeller-shaped petals – we’d seen these in Thailand, also – and a flowering Ginger plant, which was new to us.

It was time to get the tissues out when we dropped in to the Changi Chapel and Museum. Here there were old photographs and story boards together with a series of five religious murals painted by one of the prisoners of war to offer comfort to the inmates. Most emotional for me, however, was a reproduction of the simple wooden chapels constructed by the prisoners, the altar of which was surrounded by scribbled eulogizing notes of relatives of many of those interned. [Photography not allowed, even if you can see through your tears, so you’ll have to be content with the official shots. They’d be better anyway – Mr Emotional couldn’t see!]

After an excellent spot of lunch with our genial host, David, he drove us to see the so-called Monster Gun at the old Johor Battery. These monster guns (there were three) fired 15in/38cm shells but, as intimated above, were pointing out to sea away from the Japanese who sneakily attacked from behind down the Malay peninsular through all that impenetrable jungle. Fat lot of good they were, then! (One only partially accurate replica gun is behind the green building on the right.)

Beneath the battery underground was a labyrinth of tunnels connecting to the ammunition bunker. The tunnels are now mapped on the surface by the low-level concrete troughs you can see in the photo above. Delight of delights, these troughs get frequently soaked by Singapore’s regular downpours and their low points accumulate water. Guess who had taken up residence. We spent a happy half hour or so, baking under the unusually clear sky, stalking six species of Odos. The most interesting and photographically cooperative was this curiously shaped Trumpet Tail (Acisoma panorpoides).

I’ve already mentioned that the Singaporeans are wedded to TLAs – Three Letter Acronyms. The first sign of this obsession that a visitor might typically get is when they have arrived at Changi airport and they get whisked downtown on the PIE (Pan Island Expressway) or the ECP (East Coast Parkway). So far, so logical.

Venturing a little further, a visitor might bump into the CTE and enquire what that stands for. The response would be “Central Expressway”. Whilst CE might seem more logical, that doesn’t meet the TLA criteria so a third letter has to be shoe-horned in, presumably as in CenTral Expressway. The logic continues to crumble as you meet the AYE (AYer Rajah Expressway – why not ARE?) and the BKE (BuKit Timah Expressway – not BTE?). Some have too many letters: the Kallang Paya Lebar Expressway has to get cut short into KPE. Just shrug and accept it.

Before setting sail for SE Asia, we managed to secure a copy of Dragonflies of Our Parks and Gardens, published by the Singapore National Parks Board. Using that, I came up with a hit list of places I’d like to go dragon hunting. Since a couple of those targets go by the names Bukit Timah and Bukit Batok, it inevitably became my Bukit List. 😀 My book has a handy-dandy list of six of the parks sporting the highest species counts so, with limited time, it seemed most sensible to start with some of those. Having already hit the Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG – 32 species listed), today, on our first full day back in Singapore after a fascinating Cambodian adventure, we decided to head for BiShan Park (a little more TLA-forcing required to BSP – 33 species listed). Our helpful hosts dropped us off and left us to hunt.

There’s a lot or work being done in Singapore and, although sometimes the sounds of construction can get a little wearying, for a jaded Brit it’s nice to see a buoyant economy investing and making advances. Whilst our initial impression at BSP went along the lines of, “what dragonflies?”, it impressed greatly in the way it has been transformed. In addition to two main bodies of water, BSP had what can only be described as an unsightly, featureless concrete canal running along the length of its north-eastern edge. The canal was clearly constructed also to act as a storm drain. Not the sort of feature to attract wildlife or offer a relaxing stroll. Outside the park, it continues in this original fashion.

Within the park, in a complete masterstroke, this unsightly concrete monstrosity has been transformed into an attractive meandering stream with grassy banks, islets and waterside plants. Though the watercourse meanders, the banks are still architected to cope with a 3m/10ft rise in water level and it still acts as a protective storm drain. Now, however, the wildlife likes and is beginning to colonize it. After our initial disappointment, we spotted not only some early dragonfly colonizers but also, a purple heron (Ardea purpurea), an as yet unidentified kingfisher and egrets. How brilliant is that?

The much revered lotus pond proved particularly disappointing but we did eventually find eight species of dragonfly, most of which seemed to prefer the larger pond, falling way short of the supposed 33 residents. (I think this character is an immature Crimson Dropwing.) However, though Singapore has dragonflies all year round, I have been unable to find out whether individual species have seasons within the year. Possible, I suppose.

We walked our way out to the nearest MRT station but, since there’d be either a 30-minute walk at the other end or a short taxi ride, we bottled out, simplified matters, and went all the way in a taxi anyway. Though many things in Singapore are ferociously expensive, taxis are quite reasonable by our standards. With weary feet and water running low, it was well worth the S$15/£14 (ish). We can hardly get across a provincial town in England for that price.

Being just a few minutes walk away from the so-called old market area in Siem Reap, where there are many choices of restaurants at reasonable prices, we’d wandered down there to eat on two of our three evenings here. Just across the river from the old market region is an actual night market. This night market is a tourist trap with trinkets, massages and the like, fun for a brief wander to walk off dinner but little else, which is exactly what we’d done last night.

This morning we were off to see a real Cambodian market, the daily market where local individuals and businesses do their shopping. I expected this to be much more interesting and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. We arrived at 10:00 AM and the frenetic hustle and bustle, featuring the ubiquitous mopeds, was well under way.

We love spending time in the classic French markets but this took markets to another level. As we attempted to dodge the constant flow of two-wheeled trucks (i.e. small motorbikes that carry anything and everything), we were first confronted by displays of colourful fresh vegetables and fruit. There was the occasional meat stall out here, too, which I’m not entirely sure I’d have been comfortable buying from, as a delicate westerner. Shame on me!

Continuing to dodge small motorbikes, we moved in off the streets to the massive indoor area. Here we found more meat and several very dark and therefore difficult to photograph fish sellers. Selin told us the fish came from yesterday’s immense lake and so, all were fresh water species. Whilst the meat was most probably perfectly fresh, the fish were demonstrating their freshness by occasionally making a bid for freedom, squirming across the floor. I have an uncomfortable feeling that these fish would end up dying of their wounds during preparation, rather than being despatched first but don’t quote me.

Avoiding the desperately squirming, doomed fish, we moved on into the clothing section where bolts of material could be purchased, or a glittering array of traditional embroidered dresses, more suited to more mature ladies – they apparently are not considered modern enough to appeal to the younger Cambodian ladies. To decorate oneself further, there was gold jewellery on offer cleverly displayed under intense yellow lighting. Even along these dark, narrow alleyways inside the market hall itself, the occasional moped would zip past. Weird!

Photographing the Cambodian people is great experience. We’ve travelled to countries where one is expected to pay for the privilege of snapping someone but here, the locals actively enjoyed having their pictures taken and posed willingly and without their hands extended for payment. The children are absolutely terrific, too, and coming from me, that’s one hell of a compliment. How refreshing it is to be able to photograph cute children without suspicions or accusations being made. We have truly lost it in our country. Here’s a collection of smiling models spanning a few generations.

We burned up our remaining two hours chasing dragonflies beside the Siem Reap river and very productive our hunting was, too. Finally, it was time to return to the hotel for our farewell ride back to the airport. Whereas I felt tired by the surfeit of temples on our first full day in Cambodia, I now felt that I had experienced something of the real Cambodia of today. Very worthwhile.

Back to Singapore.

Technorati Tags: travel,Cambodia,Siem Reap,photography,food

As if eight temples yesterday weren’t enough to more than satisfy my RYA [Recommended Yearly Allowance] for 2013 of piles of old stones, today we were timetabled to see three more. The icing on the temple was a 4:15 AM alarm in order to be ready for a 5:00 AM departure to join the crowds of other tourists intent on waiting for sunrise over the star Cambodian tourist attraction, the majestic temple of Angkor Wat.

Selin, our guide, told us that Angkor Wat is visited by 10K tourists per day in peak season. In low season, the number drops to about 4K. We are here towards the later stages of peak season and the daily count now would be about 8K a day. They aren’t all mad enough to pitch up before the sun has risen but a good amount of them do. Torches, tripods and cameras in hand, we had our $40-a-head 3-day passes checked by officials and were shepherded in at 5:30AM to the prime Angkor Wat sunrise viewing spot across one of the reflecting pools – the one that still has some water in it. Mercifully we were early enough to be in the vanguard and got good pole positions. As Francine began setting up her tripod, we settled down patiently for our 1-hour wait for Mr Apollo.

The sky behind the towers of the Angkor Wat temple looked disturbingly clouded, to me, and, to cut a long wait short, Mr Apollo pulled a nifty disappearing trick when he should have been appearing; sunrise never really did happen. Poor Mr Apollo was covered by the cloud. Certainly the sky lightened and some silhouette-type shots were possible but a more orange backdrop would have been much more photogenic. As the light did build I noticed another little gotcha: there were a couple of very large areas of Angkor Wat roofline adorned by ugly green tarpaulins covering restoration work. Too much daylight and the full frontal shot would be ruined. Quelle domage!

Remembering something of yesterday’s Temples 101 lesson, Angkor Wat was a Hindu-built temple. I was vaguely amused, however when, after full daylight had begun, I saw a small group of Buddhist monks taking pictures of themselves before the Angkor Wat backdrop and studying the result on their digital camera.

With our temple count now standing at nine, we went off to another two to bring our grand total to 11. I stayed outside the final temple studying dragonflies on the moat while Francine dutifully went inside with our culture guide.

Now was when we started seeing the real Cambodia, to my mind. Cambodia has the largest fresh water lake in south-east Asia where many fishing communities scratch out a living. Some are floating villages but we were bound for one, Kompong Pluk, built on 7mtr/24ft stilts. The stilts are necessary to cope with the change in water level between dry season (now) and wet season. We were heading for a picnic lunch aboard what loosely falls into the category of a boat. As the water level drops in the lake’s tributary rivers, so the boats move down closer to the lake.

Our ride down the river felt like a mixture of floating and sliding over silt/mud, so low was the water. The boat controls were rudimentary but the young crew of two seemed to understand it inherently. With the elder one of the pair driving and what I can only describe as a small school child fending off and assisting by punting using a pole much larger in diameter than his tiny hands, we completed a very interesting ride down stream past stilted-house fishing communities. It was a truly fascinating and sobering education.

Having successfully reached the large lake itself, our engine was cut (I prayed that it would restart) and we drifted while our boxed lunch was served:

• fried crispy spring rolls
• mango salad with ocean shrimp and Khmer herbs
• chicken with cashew nuts
• steamed jasmine rice
• seasonal fresh fruits

all presented in a delightful woven basket and very good it was, too.

For lunchtime entertainment, we were treated to a display of the local fishing technique: two guys were dropped off from a boat with a large net suspended between poles and with this deployed, they proceed to walk along. Clearly, in dry season even the lake is not very deep.

Our way home took us back past the stilted accommodations of the fishing folk and into a land-based Cambodian village. Here we stopped to walk along the local street and learned that the houses do not have electric city (I loved that – no mocking, I don’t speak a single word of Cambodian, after all) but the people used car batteries to power electric light. Not having electric city, the batteries run flat but someone in the village has a generator and acts as a recharging station. Here are a number of batteries being recharged.

To me, this last half of the day meant so much more than countless temples of yesteryear. This was an education. This is how 80% of Cambodians live. This is what most people in Cambodia are all about.

Technorati Tags: travel,Cambodia,Angkor Wat,photography

Pardon the Americanism in the title; for those unfamiliar with yet another slip into Americanization, 101 refers to a starter class rather than being a count of the temples which are here. I knew we were coming to Cambodia mainly to see one of the seven wonders of the world, the temple of Angkor Wat (that would be tomorrow) but what I was not prepared for, nor did I know they existed in such quantity, was today’s culture fest of eight ancient temples. So, if we can get round eight temples in one day, it may be that there are 101 temples in the vicinity. Who knows? Well, our guide Selin probably does. It seems that there is a mountain close by providing natural stone for temple building, or so Selin informed us, hence the superfluity of temples. I asked her if the mountain still existed. 😀

Eight temples in one day gets a tad tedious. Actually there are a few minor temple variations: one or two temples are actually built of red brick rather than stone( maybe the mountain had already been used up?); some temples are Buddhist, some are Hindu and some have been both as the Cambodia’s religion changed with that of the head honcho; some temples, including Ta Phrom where Lara Croft did a bit of well-publicized tomb-raiding, are covered in tree roots as the forest regains control whilst other temples remain forest free. Essentially, though, all these temples are similar piles of old stone to a heathen such as myself.

There is another notable distinguishing factor between temples: some are swamped by tourists while others remain relatively tourist free. Being famous for Tomb Raider, Ta Phrom is sinking under the weight of thousands upon thousands of tourist feet. One carved head at Bayon features in the Lonely Planet guide so all the bozo tourists simply have to have their picture taken standing before it. Personally I’ve never understood this behaviour but it takes all sorts.

The favoured mode of transport to get the majority of tourists to this plethora of temples is the remork-moto, a chariot pulled by a small motorbike and almost always referred to(incorrectly) as a tuk tuk after the similar mode of transport popular in Thailand.

After a long day in the heat trekking through in and around eight temples made them pretty much merged together and I can’t remember all the names but a post such as this would be incomplete without a smattering of photos depicting some of them, so here’s a couple of the more picturesque ones with as many tourists as possible omitted.

The area is not all piles of old stone, however, there is interesting life here also. At the temple above right we watched a local man fishing in a modestly sized pond. He would stand still watching for fish, then skilfully cast his circular net which had been draped over his arm in folds. There was also something for us Odo-nutters as we found a beautiful new (to us) dragonfly living in what had been an old swimming pool. Don’t quote me but I believe this guy is a so-called Pied Percher (Neurothemis tullia).

Boy did the first beer go down well … and fast. The second one didn’t last a lot longer. To replace the calories we’d used up doing templeville, in the evening we wandered downtown and shared a meal for two billed as a “Khmer Curry Set”, which consisted a mixture of four curries with rice all served in banana leaves (stapled together). That went down very well, too.

More temples tomorrow, including the biggie, Angkor Wat. 😯

Technorati Tags: travel,Cambodia,Siem Reap,temples,nature,dragonflies,wildlife,odonata,photography

It was a leap of faith for us to book Jetstar flights to and from Cambodia while we were still in the UK. Let’s face it, it was an act of faith to pick Cambodia as a destination, anyway. In these days of ticketless travel, an email and a reference number have to suffice as a ticket but they don’t quite give you the warm, fuzzy feeling that you are actually booked on the flights, especially those that emanate from a city 8000 miles away. There is something reassuring about an old-fashioned physical ticket. Nonetheless, we pitched up at the appointed time in Changi airport where we were, apparently, expected, and got checked in to Jetstar flight 3K599 to Siem Reap in Cambodia. So far so good.

Jetstar is like an Australian (it’s operated by Qantas) version of easyJet and has a south-east Asia hub in Singapore. Two hours later we landed in Siem Reap and used our Cambodian e-visas, also arranged over the Internet from the UK, successfully to enter the country. Leaving the terminal, my initial impression of Cambodia versus Singapore was a little hotter (32°C) and somewhat less humid. Singapore is, I’d say, not as humid as New Orleans but, then, neither is a bath full of hot water. Singapore is getting there, though. Outside the Siem Reap terminal we were met by our delightful tour guide, Selin, also booked online in yet another leap of faith in the UK. Our plans were e-working – great stuff!

Given all the temples – and I do mean ALL the temples – Siem Reap is the tourist capital of Cambodia. Siem Reap, incidentally, means victory over Thailand [Siem = Siam, Reap = defeated, or some such]. We clambered into our personal MPV with our personal driver and personal guide and were whisked off to a very comfortable, pleasantly small hotel called Viroth near to downtown Siem Reap itself. Our room was on the ground floor complete with a private patio by the pool. Nice! (The right picture is the street outside Viroth.)

We’re in Cambodia for 2 full and 2 half days. After a quick freshen up, our guide, driver and small bus returned to take us off to begin our first half day with a sunset “gondola” ride on the moat of one of the many temples, in this case Angkor Thom, for a G&T or three. I was expecting some cheap gin-like liquid but, no, Silen (our guide) produced a bottle of Bombay Sapphire and used it to very good effect. Excellent!

We were the last gondola out for the evening and past several others returning, all of whom seemed as content as we were. As you can see from the background of our rather serious looking gondolier, the theme of white-grey tropical skies continued.

Game on!

Technorati Tags: travel,Cambodia,Siem Reap,photography

Day 2 in Singapore started in much the same way as Day 1 in Singapore, at about 3:00 AM when my body clock, adjusted by an 8-hour time shift, decided it was morning and I should jolly well be awake. I spent the next four hours lying on top of the bed under that most tropical of housing icons, a ceiling fan, wondering how long the next half hour would feel. Such are the joys of long-distance travel.

Finally, when everyone else was awake and sorted out, our host, David, decided to take us for one of his initiation tours of downtown Singapore; he’s qualified tourist guide here so is a great person to have around. Unfortunately, it seemed that at least half the entire tourist population of South-east Asia had begun their mornings with the same thought. First of all, we were forced to make three circuits of the Padang before finding a parking spot, where David has never before had trouble. Pedestrian walkways across bridges were blocked by hoards of (largely Japanese) tourists pointing their (largely Japanese) cameras at various Singaporean landmarks. We’d headed for the now well known Merlion which was also frequently obscured by people who think an iPad makes a suitable American replacement to Japanese cameras. All iPads, of course, must be held higher, away from the face, for large amounts of time while Mr. Bozo squints at it’s highly reflective screen wondering if the correct tourist attraction is actually in view. Added to all this, the sky was in one of its completely white moods and all such photographs are crap, anyway, whatever they are taken on. Above right is a shot of the aforementioned Merlion, a strange blend of fish and lion, with a slightly stranger building topped by a bent boat in the distance, to show what I mean. Curious! (There are some advantages of height – you can get above heads and iPads.

To get anything half-way reasonable on pixels in this light, it’s necessary to cut the sky out and capture more low-level subjects. Here’s a couple, both to do with the Singapore River. One shows a couple of so-called bumboats doing what bumboats do before a colourful old River frontage now composed of bars and restaurants. The other is a charming statue – I don’t usually appreciate “art” – depicting five children using the river as a playground (or should that be playwater?).

After a disappointing lunch of over-cooked tuna in a tuna burger (the tuna was thick enough, how did they manage that?) at one of the restaurants above, we zoomed off to leave the crowds for the peace and serenity of one of Singapore’s many parks and garden, in this case Kent Ridge Park or KRP, as it is inevitably known by the TLA-loving Singaporeans. Things looked bad to begin with, the park appearing to be closed off by building barricades, but there was still pedestrian access so all was well. There are two good dragonfly ponds here, both being much more natural habitats than the manicured ponds of the SBG (Singapore Botanic Gardens). Life was much more peaceful and harmonious; instead of the seething hoards downtown, here we spotted only a handful of other humans. There were more dragonflies, I’m pleased to say. The most intriguing was the tiniest damselfly we’ve ever encountered, called (we think) a Variable Wisp (Agriocnemis femina). This delightful little critter is a mere 20-ish millimetres long, less than one inch. The poor thing appears to be infested by a couple of even smaller flies, too.

To get home, we were to get to grips with another of Singapore’s favourite TLAs, the MRT [Mass Rapid Transit] system. After a steamy walk to the station we tried to buy two tickets to Kembangan only to have our S$10 note rejected by the machine. After much head-scratching we finally figured out that S$5 was the largest it would accept. Duh! Having changed our note, we also had to change trains once and made it back safely.

Technorati Tags: travel,Singapore,wildlife,nature,dragonflies,odonata,photography

Close encounters of the Odonata kind began today. We are at the back end of the so-called north-east monsoon and the weather is, shall we say, interesting. The sky today was very overcast but it wasn’t actually raining so our very gracious host offered to kick our Odo tour off by driving us the famed Singapore Botanic Garden, the SBG.

[Sidenote: Singapore is besotted with TLAs – Three Letter Acronyms. Major roads all have TLAs –  there’s the ECP: the East Coast Parkway, for instance. Thus, my Singapore Dragonflies of our Parks and Gardens book refers to the botanic garden as the SBG; KRP = Kent Ridge Park, and so on.]

The SBG focuses primarily on plants, as the name suggest, but with water plants involved, there is fresh water that attracts some 33 species of Odos. It is quite well known for it’s dragonflies. Since our host, David, knows the we saved some time not only by being driven there but also by being led straight to the main pond where David confidently announced, “welcome to your first Singapore dragonflies.”

It takes a while for me to get my eye back in after a winter break from spotting. It also takes a while to get to know how to drive the camera effectively with Odos as the subject. Nonetheless, both Francine and I were soon in the groove and beginning to fill our memory cards with shots of completely unfamiliar prey. Our most spectacular, because it is so different to anything in our neighbourhood, was this Common Parasol (Neurothemis fluctuans).

I was particularly thrilled to find one colourful damselfly that I was particularly keen on snapping. The photo isn’t the best but I think you can see what a stunning little critter this Ornate Coraltail (Ceriagrion cerinorubellum) is.

I think there are three ponds at the gardens but, with everything so new and with jet lag kicking in, we investigated just two before returning home to try and find out what we’d got. The most interesting find, assuming my id. is correct, was this Scarlet Grenadier (Lathrecista asiatica). It’s most interesting because it does not feature in our literature (2010) as being present in the SBG. Lucky find or mistaken id? I’m fairly confident, for a stranger.

The SBG has three main ponds, I think. We looked at just two on this first visit. This one is the small pond near the Ginger Garden and features the Amazonian water lilies. It’s a big place and Francine needs her tripod if she’s to capture some of the flora. With that and another pond to visit, clearly we’ll have to go back.

We snagged nine winged suspects in our first modest attempt – good start and already worth the trip.