Monday, December 05, 2005

The Origin



When i was young, my sister and me liked to go to the mangrove behind of our house to catch thunder crab and catfish. At that time, horseshoe crab and mud lobster were abundant too (although i didn't know the name of these creatures until 2 years ago).
Just these few years, the residents beside of the river had chopped down all the mangrove trees in order to extend their housing compound. It is sad to see no more mangrove trees beside of the river. Without telling, you can guess that the river is going to become shallower as erosion becomes worst. The lose of mangrove also means the lost of fishes or prawn nursery. This can be a disaster to the fishermen.
A lot of development is undergoing in Sungai Rengit , my hometown, and other villages in Pengerang. With these development, we are losing our natural heritage.
Since i graduated from University of Science Malaysia in 2002, i started to work in Singapore. At the same time, i joined the volunteer group to become a shore walk guide at Check Jawa Pulau Ubin and the landfill Pulau Semakau (still under OJT). The efforts put by my fellow volunteer friends in conservation of intertidal in Singapore has really inspired me to do something to the shore in my hometown. So i decided to setup this blog to record the marine lives at the shore in Pengerang. i probably not able to do much to stop our shore from been destroyed or to reduce the lost of habitat of our marine life, but i do hope to make this small record of what we 'used' to have.
i am not a marine life sciencetist, in fact an engineer by profession. I myself is very interested with the scientific facts about these marine creatures. However i think most lay person will be more interested to know about facts that related to them. eg: "Can eat or not?" So i will try to give more interesting facts about my 'finding' instead of the scientific facts (you can actually log on the website of wild singapore for facts). Do you find any errors in my posting, do inform me.
Please help me to spread this blog to your friends either the residents of Sungai Rengit or Pengerang or any other areas, so that people do know what we have in Pengerang.
Should you want to join my effort in recording, do contact me. I will feel happy to conduct a guided walk for you (obviously if you are not a local) if i happend to be in Sungai Rengit at that time.
p/s: From the picture attached, you can see that, no more mangrove... The water used to be greenish and now it is very murky and sedimented.
"We do not inherit this land from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children."

11 comments:

CH / SONNENBLUME said...

Hi Kah Chine,

good to see that you are putting an effort to document/introduce the natural shores for your hometown.

Perhaps you can give me a guided walk one day? :O)

Cheers,
Chay Hoon

Anonymous said...

Reading your blog reminds me of what u shared during d guided CJ walk. Without dedicated volunteers like yrself, we wldn't have learnt so much. Heii..u just gav us another online guided walk @ Pengerang!! Thks ;-)

shenjiaqing said...

Hi! Melody. Thank you for being so encouraging. Every volunteer guide hopes the visitors to have fun during the trip and feel something to the shore after the trip. :)

Anonymous said...

I am currently researching the WW2 site at Pengerang and was happy to see it mentioned on this blog.

Here is my site documenting this Coastal Battery.


Pengerang Battery

Anonymous said...

Hi Jiaqing

I am planning a trip to Sungai Rengit with a few freinds this coming Saturday, 29th April. While researching for the trip, I was very impressed with your effort to record the nature around your home town. I wonder, if you will be in town this weekend and will we be fortunate enough to get a gudied tour from you.

By the way, could you suggest a clean and inexpensive accommodation for the night.

Regards

CT

shenjiaqing said...

Hi! CT,
Glad to know that you are visiting my hometown. :)
Unfortunately i have a diving trp during this Labour Day long weekend, so won't be back to Pengerang.:( Next time, hopefully.

Normally the small town is crowded with Singaporean tourists during weekend. So i am not sure whether accommodation is available for the coming long weekend. There is a hotel (or motel) above the only bakery shop in the town, named Hawaii at the cross junction near to the taxi/bus station. i couldn't remember the name of the hotel as we just called it by the name of the owner. The reception of the hotel is the old and tiny shop right beside of Haiwai Bakery. This is where my family normally book for our visiting friends. If you couldn't get this hotel, actually the rest of the hotels around the town costs similar and provides pretty much the same 'facility'.

Additional information as somebody else asked me before:
The restaurant that our local will visit are either Si4 Wan4 Dao4 Seafood Restaurant or Fei3 Cui4 Seafood restaurant. Fei3 Cui4 is Singapore Channel U award winning restaurant. (But don't expect dirt cheap price. However still cheaper than in Singapore)
You can visit to Ostrich Farm, visit to temples, beach, seafood, orchard...
Currently is the rose apple season. You can request to buy from any household (provided they are willing to sell) and pluck it from the tree yourself!
As for night, basically no much things can do.
You can try the local famous fried kuay teow (open only at night) or enjoy the breeze and seaview at the hawker centre by the beach.
However, although this is a small town, you still have to take care of safety especially during night.
Nowsaday, there are many foreign workers in the town and cases of robbery have been heard.

Hope this helps. i think i am going to come out with a accommodation list when i go back next time. :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Jiaqing

Thanks so much for your prompt response. It is a pity that you will not be at home. However, with your helpful tips, we are sure will enjoy the town. Hope we may meet with you someday.

Have a great diving trip.

Regards and many thanks again.

CT

Anonymous said...

My parents used to bring the whole family to visit our relatives in Pengerang every year. There was many years back. We always stayed at our aunt's place at Si-Wan (I suppose this means the 4th Turn or something).

Back then, there was no electricity and my aunt (being considered wealthy at that time) had a generator. The house was well lit but the street was pitch dark at night.

One thing which I had fond memory was the abundant fire flies (which I took for granted then). We used to catch them and put in a plastic bag.

In the early morning, we would walk to the jetty to watch the fishing boats offloading their catch. One sight which was strongly etched in my mind was the baskets of jelly fish. It was amazing.

My aunt's family also has a few fishing boats and I remembered my cousin cycling to-and-fro with baskets full of small fishes, shrimps and crabs. My aunt used these to make animal feeds, and these were fed to the many pigs and ducks her family kept.

I have my own family now but I don't visit Pengerang so much (although my cousins still leve there; my aunt has already passed away last year).

shenjiaqing said...

Si-wan does mean something like 4th turn, based on the geographic conditions.
When i was in secondary school, there was one mango tree beside of my house full with fireflies at night. But eventually, they just gone. Nowsaday, firefly is rare to spot.
Pengerang, especially Si-wan is fast changing. The highlight of the changes is including a multi-storey glass house by the street. My friends and me are pretty much amazed by the owner because we won't want to make our residential house to be transparent to every passerby!

Anonymous said...

Hi - good read on this small town. I will be driving up fr Sgp this Dec and will be doing the usual tourist stuffs - seafood, fruit farm, ostrich farm, beach. Do u know anything abt the firefly river cruise? It will be great for us city dweller to get close to experience kampong darkness during the night. Thx in adv.
Judy

shenjiaqing said...

Hi Judy

Sorry, i have no idea of firefly river cruise.
It is at Kota Tinggi, not the district of Pengerang.
But i heard my friends said, you can ask at the restaurants near Johor River at Kota Tinggi town.
Enjoy!